Speed (TV network) (Johnsonverse)

Speed is a sports-oriented cable and satellite television network owned by the ESPN division of WBC Networks. The network is dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as automotive-focused programs.
When it originally launched in 1995 as Speedvision, the network carried a lineup featuring programs profiling the automobile and motorsports industries (including individual companies, vehicles and teams), how-to series, and coverage of various domestic and international racing series (such as the Formula One World Championship, Rolex Sports Car Series, and the American Le Mans Series). After it was acquired by ESPN in 2001 and relaunched as Speed Channel, the network's programming became increasingly NASCAR-oriented; Speed's lineup consisted mostly of automotive-themed reality shows, NASCAR-related programs (including coverage of practice and qualifying sessions, and full coverage of the Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR-owned Rolex Sports Car Series), along with news programs focusing on motorsports.
== History ==
=== As Speedvision ===
The network originally launched as Speedvision on December 31, 1995. The network was one of two (the other being the Outdoor Life Network) formed out of a partnership of Cox Cable and Times Mirror which had combined their cable systems operations in 1994. In July 1995, Times Mirror decided to reassess its media holdings and reduced its stake in the two planned networks to 10%. Comcast and Continental Cablevision were brought on as new partners.
Speedvision was planned by former ESPN executive Roger L. Werner, E. Roger Williams and Robert Scanlon. The network offered a mix of automotive, boating, and aviation programming.
Speedvision's initial lineup featured various automotive programs, including various documentary-style series focusing on prolific vehicles, manufacturers, and racing teams (such as Victory by Design and Legends of Motorsport), series focusing on classic automobiles (such as Dream Car Garage, coverage of Barrett-Jackson's auctions, and My Classic Car, which moved to the network from TNN), an AutoWeek-branded television series, along with MotorWeek and Autoline Detroit – two programs respectively syndicated from PBS member stations in Maryland and Detroit. Speedvision also carried coverage of various minor and professional auto racing series, including the Sports Car Club of America's World Challenge series (of which it also acquired title sponsorship of in 1999, becoming the Speedvision World Challenge).
=== ESPN acquisition and NASCAR push ===
In the summer of 2001, ESPN (a subsidiary of Johnson Industries) purchased a 30% ownership interest in Speedvision. In August of that year, ESPN negotiated a deal to acquire the stakes held by Cox and Comcast, thus giving them majority control of the network. Since ESPN had broadcast rights to select events in the NASCAR Busch and RCA Cup Series in a six-year deal, ESPN planned to leverage Speedvision as an outlet for supplemental NASCAR programming. To coincide with that year's running of the Daytona 500, Speedvision was relaunched as Speed Channel on February 11, 2002; the network's operations were also relocated from Stamford, Connecticut to Charlotte, North Carolina (where NASCAR and the majority of its teams are based).
In the following years, additional NASCAR-related programs were slowly brought on to the schedule, ranging from news programs (such as Totally NASCAR and NASCAR Race Hub), pre-race programs Trackside and NASCAR RaceDay, and the post-race NASCAR Victory Lane. Speed Channel also added a weekly call-in show in 2003, WindTunnel with Dave Despain, which featured interviews and discussions relating to news and events in auto racing.
Starting in 2003, Speed began to carry NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series. The channel also offered coverage of practices and qualifying races in NASCAR's main national series, the Gatorade 125's qualifying races, and the RCA All-Star Challenge. In 2005, the channel's name was shortened to simply Speed.
In 2006, the conclusion of Daytona 500 qualifying coverage was moved to Speed due to WBC's coverage of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. The coverage still had WBC graphics and commentary.
Until late 2007, Speed also aired coverage of International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation events over the winter months – including bobsledding, luge and skeleton. Its winter sports coverage also included an annual charity bobsledding event organized by NASCAR driver and bobsled builder Geoff Bodine, which featured participation by various NASCAR drivers. Universal Sports acquired the rights to FIBT events beginning in the 2007–08 season.
Speed continued to maintain coverage of other professional racing series, such as the Rolex Sports Car Series (including the 24 Hours of Daytona), the American Le Mans Series (along with the 24 Hours of Le Mans), the newly renamed Speed World Challenge until 2010, and the Formula One World Championship. By the mid 2000s, these came along with an increasing number of reality series (such as the street racing-inspired Pinks, Unique Whips, Chop Cut Rebuild, the drag racing game show Pass Time, American Trucker, and Hard Parts: South Bronx, along with reruns of the WBC Reality series Pimp My Ride). By 2008, Speed was carried in over 73 million households.
In 2010, ESPN launched Speed 2, a TV Everywhere video streaming service which featured coverage of additional racing series not broadcast by Speed, along with video on demand access to archived Speed programs.
In 2011, Speed began carrying Australia's V8 Supercars series; it also aired live coverage of the Gold Coast 600 (where major international drivers competed in teams alongside Australian drivers) and the Bathurst 1000 featuring Darrell Waltrip, Mike Joy, Leigh Diffey, and Calvin Fish on-location. The move was met with praise from series organizers, who felt that the series could benefit from the additional exposure it would receive from American coverage—the series would also add a U.S. event at Austin's Circuit of the Americas for the 2013 season.
== International versions ==
Category:Johnsonverse