NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice sessions and the Camping
World Truck Series race Aug. 17 from Michigan International Speedway will be
among the live telecasts on the first day Fox Sports 1 goes on air in place of
the Speed cable network.
And that could be a problem, according to The Sporting News.
Among those still negotiating carriage fees with Fox Sports
1 are DirecTV, Dish and Time Warner Cable. Spokesmen for DirecTV and TWC said
Thursday that discussions are ongoing and Dish also has not signed a deal,
according to the SportsBusiness Daily.
DirecTV has 20 million subscribers, Time Warner Cable serves
14.6 million customers and Dish has 14 million subscribers. Not all of those
subscribers pay for packages that include Speed (and would include Fox Sports
1), but those are three of the largest television providers in the country.
According to the SportsBusiness Journal, Speed costs about
23 cents each month per subscriber, and Fox is looking to increase that to 80
cents per month.
It’s not surprising that these negotiations go down to the
wire, but it’s enough to make NASCAR fans nervous as the channel they know as
Speed will cease to exist when Fox Sports 1 is launched in its place in about a
week.
I will let my wallet talk. I and i allow that most speed channel watchers would gladly spend a couple bucks more to keep the only dedicated racing, gearhead programing alive. I updated to a premium package to have my Speed channel fix.there are plenty of venues for other sports.
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