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.
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