- Joined
- Aug 21, 2009
- Messages
- 8,146
- Location
- Austin
- Car(s)
- '10 Lulzcer GTS, '84 Porschelump 944, '71 VW 411
Speed has been moaning "I'm not dead yet...I'm getting better......!" for a while. Finally getting that last "thud" was expected.
I can't tell you how many times it's been on in the afternoon only to have a repeat of a cheap reality/clip-based show instead of, oh, racing?! Anything remotely interesting? Old Speedvision was great, but it died long ago. Add to that the overly heavy emphasis on NASCAR and it simply wasn't a good fit. Did we really need a freakin' NASCAR cooking competition greenlit as a show when actual racing at times of the day I'm awake would be more appropriate for that timeslot?! No. Absolutely not. Yes, they covered a lot of series, but they always made me feel as if they were second-class events that needed to be scheduled around NASCAR and clips of rednecks doing dumb things (repeated for the 87th time). Deciding NOT to send the F1 broadcast team to Austin--OUR first GP in years!--is thoroughly indefensible, regardless of timing. Yet more evidence that they don't take the F1 contract seriously.
To be honest, what Discovery is doing with their Velocity network reminds me more of the old Speed we actually knew, loved, and missed than Speed lately. I'd love to see them pick up some of the other series if they can. Speed's coverage of Grand Am (and by "coverage," I mean "lots of emphasis on the boring prototypes with a tiny shred of airtime for the regular sportscars") is darn near unwatchable, IMHO. Srsly, when we know [blank] who scored a seat in a Mazda/BMW/whatever, cut to the freakin' Mazda/BMW/whatever racing every now and then. Arrgh. If someone doesn't pick up Le Mans, though, I will have to shank a foo'. I can watch LMS races all day.
As for NBC picking up F1--eh, we'll wait and see. For all the wonky scheduling and horrible ads cutting through races that F1 often gets now, I will say that SPEED's F1 team was phenomenal. Fun to listen to and usually informative. I will be sad if a few of them don't move over. I don't trust NBC much after the Olympics, but if they at least pick up a few competent talking heads from the current team, they'll have a good start. Using split-screen ads and coverage on some events is also promising. The fact that they've already said that they'll broadcast practice and qualifying somewhere (IIRC), plus airing the Austin and Canadian GPs (home + close enough) on NBC proper are good signs as well. I will question their sanity if they pick Abu Dhabi over Monaco to air on NBC itself, though--eww, WTF.
I can't tell you how many times it's been on in the afternoon only to have a repeat of a cheap reality/clip-based show instead of, oh, racing?! Anything remotely interesting? Old Speedvision was great, but it died long ago. Add to that the overly heavy emphasis on NASCAR and it simply wasn't a good fit. Did we really need a freakin' NASCAR cooking competition greenlit as a show when actual racing at times of the day I'm awake would be more appropriate for that timeslot?! No. Absolutely not. Yes, they covered a lot of series, but they always made me feel as if they were second-class events that needed to be scheduled around NASCAR and clips of rednecks doing dumb things (repeated for the 87th time). Deciding NOT to send the F1 broadcast team to Austin--OUR first GP in years!--is thoroughly indefensible, regardless of timing. Yet more evidence that they don't take the F1 contract seriously.
To be honest, what Discovery is doing with their Velocity network reminds me more of the old Speed we actually knew, loved, and missed than Speed lately. I'd love to see them pick up some of the other series if they can. Speed's coverage of Grand Am (and by "coverage," I mean "lots of emphasis on the boring prototypes with a tiny shred of airtime for the regular sportscars") is darn near unwatchable, IMHO. Srsly, when we know [blank] who scored a seat in a Mazda/BMW/whatever, cut to the freakin' Mazda/BMW/whatever racing every now and then. Arrgh. If someone doesn't pick up Le Mans, though, I will have to shank a foo'. I can watch LMS races all day.
As for NBC picking up F1--eh, we'll wait and see. For all the wonky scheduling and horrible ads cutting through races that F1 often gets now, I will say that SPEED's F1 team was phenomenal. Fun to listen to and usually informative. I will be sad if a few of them don't move over. I don't trust NBC much after the Olympics, but if they at least pick up a few competent talking heads from the current team, they'll have a good start. Using split-screen ads and coverage on some events is also promising. The fact that they've already said that they'll broadcast practice and qualifying somewhere (IIRC), plus airing the Austin and Canadian GPs (home + close enough) on NBC proper are good signs as well. I will question their sanity if they pick Abu Dhabi over Monaco to air on NBC itself, though--eww, WTF.
