TORONTO – Unable to come to a new wholesale carriage agreement, Rogers Cable dropped Speed from its channel lineup March 1st.
The channel originally came to Canada in 1997 as Speedvision as a part of the third tier of analog specialty channels launched that fall and has been a cars-and-motorsports channel ever since – a place where gearheads and race junkies could watch shows on how to fix cars and race cars – as well as to see a huge number of live car, truck and motorbike races. It was acquired by Fox in 2001 and renamed Speed Channel, and eventually just Speed.
However, in August of 2013, Fox killed Speed in the U.S. market, replacing it with brand new general interest sports brand Fox Sports 1, in which it has sunk tens of millions of dollars. The company has, however, maintained Speed in Canada and certain Caribbean markets such as Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.
However, when it came time to talk about a new distribution deal, Rogers wanted a better deal for a channel its executives believe is diminished. The MSO wants a lower rate and the ability to package Speed on smaller, sports-themed, tiers. So far, Fox has resisted.
“Our belief is that the service is a niche service, particularly now that it is being produced for the Canadian marketplace and the Island of Puerto Rico… and as such, more niche distribution would make more sense,” David Purdy, Rogers’ SVP video content told Cartt.ca. “We would be happy to carry the channel on a more discretionary basis, making it available to those subscribers who really value it, and making it available at a much lower rate… We’ve been unable to come to an agreement on what’s fair value for our customers.”
A Fox spokesperson, however, said the channel has much quality content and deserves the rate it was asking for in negotiations – the same one it had prior. It didn’t ask for an increase (neither side would discuss financial details). "Speed's distribution agreement with Rogers Cable has expired, and we regret that Rogers Cable has elected not to continue carrying Speed,” said the Fox official statement. “The proposals we have offered Rogers Cable are fair and in line with the tremendous value our network provides. Fans are encouraged to reach out to alternate video providers in their area to find a provider that carries Speed."
That may be difficult, however, as Bell has told its customers it is also dropping Speed as of May 1. Bell TV’s contract with the channel expires at the end of April and our sources say the company has informed Fox that if Rogers has not renewed by then, neither will Bell.
These flare ups happen every once in a while between carriers and broadcasters, and often see the channels return to the fold. For example, in 2013 Telus removed Viacom channels Spike and BET from Optik TV lineups, but shortly returned them to customers after negotiating new deals. Rogers and AMC also did battle over rates in 2013 but the cableco couldn’t chance pulling the channel that featured Mad Men and Walking Dead and the two came to an agreement in 2013 without the signal going dark.
Rogers is currently apologizing to its Speed fans via the web, saying: “We recognize supporters of this channel will be disappointed with this decision and hope you’ll understand these decisions are not taken lightly. As we said above, if the channel provider will come to an agreement that allows us to offer the channel to a more 
specialized audience at a reasonable rate, we’d be happy to make it available.”
Purdy added that the company is accommodating Speed fans as best it can in the meantime.
“There are a few people who are upset and we have tried to do everything in our power to make them happy,” he said. “We’ve pointed out there is a lot of NASCAR racing available on a number of other channels we carry… The response has been very modest… There hasn’t been a large call volume and there hasn’t been a lot of correspondence to our sales and service channels.
“We recognize that some customers did enjoy watching the channel and we want to find them lots of strong racing and car enthusiast programming on our other channels. We want to make them happy.”
On the other hand, Speed’s spokesperson noted that it has heard from many Rogers customers upset with the decision to dump Speed, such as this Toronto Star Wheels writer.
The channel does have exclusive content such as the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series races, qualifying sessions from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, and Truck Series, weekday news magazine Race Hub, the Tudor United SportsCar Championship and the Monster Energy Supercross Series.
