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SX Going to Speed Channel

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Posted by: Okiewan

By Scott Warfield (Sports Business Journal)
Aug. 1

AMA Pro Racing, the national sanctioning body for professional motorcycle racing, is set to announce early this week that its Supercross Series is leaving ESPN2 and will join Speed Channel for the 2006 season. This will be the second AMA series to leave the ESPN network in the last year.


AMA Pro Racing’s Supercross Series features 16 races in major markets.
Motocross, one of four series that AMA manages, left ESPN2 after the 2004 season and had its first full year on Outdoor Life Network in 2005. John Farris, vice president of commercial development for AMA, said ESPN2 was pushing for a time-buy for the series instead of the current arrangement that requires the series to pay only for production costs.

Farris would not discuss terms of the Speed Channel deal but did confirm that an announcement should come early this week.

ESPN, which has been rumored to be in negotiations with NASCAR for Nextel Cup Series rights, said in a statement: “Despite ratings underperformance, we were interested in retaining the property if it made good business sense for our company. Apparently it didn’t and we’ve elected to walk away.”

Clear Channel, which manages the Supercross television rights for AMA, would not comment for this story. Clear Channel’s barter deal with ESPN2 was arranged so that Clear Channel paid for production in exchange for free air time and half of all commercial inventory.

Under the OLN-Motocross deal, AMA covers production costs and manages international rights and home video and wireless inventory, while the network sells the commercial time, Farris said.

Eric Arneson, director of public relations for Speed Channel, said the network was in “active negotiations” with Clear Channel. Industry insiders confirmed that the deal was not a time-buy and that it was a multiyear agreement that could last as long as five years.

Farris said in an e-mail that Supercross and Motocross began airing on ESPN in 1990 and 1994, respectively, and that “the terms have evolved over time, putting more risk/cost on the side of the rights holder.”

Arneson did not speculate why the series was leaving the ESPN network but did say that a deal with Speed Channel, if completed, would be a “huge deal” for the network that would be “comparable to landing the [Craftsman] Truck Series.”

The 2006 Supercross Series schedule, which runs from early January through early May, features 16 races in major markets, including Phoenix, San Francisco, St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Dallas and Las Vegas. Next season actually begins with two international, non-AMA series events later this year in Toronto on Dec. 3 and Vancouver on Dec. 10.

The AMA series begins in Anaheim on Jan. 7.

In addition to Supercross and Motocross, AMA also manages the rights to AMA Superbike and AMA Flat Track. AMA Pro Racing, which is headquartered in the Columbus suburb of Pickerington, Ohio, will be televised in more than 100 million households worldwide this year.


Posted by: QuickSilver

OHHHHHHH MAN!! Speed Channel Supercross coverage sucks!!! And what about Jamie Little! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO TO GET MY JAMIE LITTLE FIX!!!??? HUH! CRAP!


Posted by: moore_716

I don't know they used to have some pretty cool camera angles. Maybe they can get David Bailey to follow also. All I really care about is good racing coverage. It would be nice if they showed some action from back in the pack and from the qualifiers. That way I could see some of my friends and the people that make the sport what it really is. Besides, I don't think speed channel shows lumberjack competitions, college lacrosse and all that other crap that always spilled over into our airtime (spellingbee too). I only hope the coverage doesn't come on at odd times and that it's no more than a week behind.


Posted by: MX-727

The only SX coverage I remember on Speed is Daytona, and that is great. Three hours of racing and same day coverage. Plus, as moore_716 points out, very little chance of being bumped by an inane (IMHO) psuedo-sport.


Posted by: txkawboy

...even tho i agree, the but bot line is that E2 has far greater subscribers than Sc, ie, way more opp's to capture new viewers / get some MONEY sponsors and GROW our sport...course those new affordable / 'throwaway' MX'ers from CHINA that are almost here will help that, too, i reckon...


Posted by: lilikkimx711

Quote:
Originally Posted by moore_716
I don't know they used to have some pretty cool camera angles. Maybe they can get David Bailey to follow also. All I really care about is good racing coverage. It would be nice if they showed some action from back in the pack and from the qualifiers. That way I could see some of my friends and the people that make the sport what it really is. Besides, I don't think speed channel shows lumberjack competitions, college lacrosse and all that other crap that always spilled over into our airtime (spellingbee too). I only hope the coverage doesn't come on at odd times and that it's no more than a week behind.


There for awhile E2 was really making everyone mad around the sport...I hope that the speed channel doesnt cut our airtime with stupid crap like moore was saying....this could be a good thing but also could be worse...lets hope for the best and see what happens...


Posted by: R007GHST

SC sucks last year when they did one of the races there was more commercial time than race


Posted by: mayjr

ESPN2 Says SX was under performing? The channel that brings you such "sports" as Poker and Pool. Can you say yawn.


Posted by: killerkx327

just shows where ESPN is going. it's making it's way to all the one ball sports, motocross takes two balls!!!


Posted by: DC10

Well, it can only get better because ESPN's coverage royally stinks. At least with Speed, we'll actually get to see the races.


Posted by: Sandjunky

I don't think I get the speed channel or OLN. I have Direct TV.


Posted by: Sandjunky

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandjunky
I don't think I get the speed channel or OLN. I have Direct TV.

Scratch that... I have both!!!


Posted by: Quantumcanuck

I was going to say anything is better then ESPN2's coverage of (I should say lack of) supercross, I mean really, it was seriously lame and only served to piss alot of people off. Do more people actually watch things like college lacross and spelling bees like they say? I thought motocross was a fast growing sport over the last ten years. Every stadium race I see is a full house practically. What am I missing here??? what does ESPN know that we don't for them to proclaim it wasn't being watched?

Let's hope SPEED does it better because the fact is, as lousy as ESPN was (and they were beyond lousy), it can always be made worse. Plus, here in Canada we can't get ESPN2 which was a major bummer for people like me. Now that OLN and SPEED have the ball in their court, I can atleast get to watch the races now. I just hope they do a decent job because they are not big money channels like ESPN is, as far as I know.

Here's to hoping.


Posted by: WaltCMoto

Ive got OLN for outdoors, but I need to upgrade my cable package to get speed. Not sure its worth $180 a year for it.I wish we had a la cart for channels.


Posted by: nikki

Walt - do you have Comcast? I was upset, we just got Comcast's Digital cable... hundreds of channels, and no Speed channel


Posted by: Can't Ride Fast

Quote:
Originally Posted by nikki
Walt - do you have Comcast? I was upset, we just got Comcast's Digital cable... hundreds of channels, and no Speed channel

I do, I'm in Naperville It's channel 72 here


Posted by: TrackBuilder28

great try were the souths best



Posted by: TrackBuilder28

try the the of making your track its great way to break the boredom


Posted by: TrackBuilder28

Quote:
Originally Posted by nikki
Walt - do you have Comcast? I was upset, we just got Comcast's Digital cable... hundreds of channels, and no Speed channel
work harder



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