I'm responding to several posts from the week-end.
1) Crash Video.
We air this spot to the death. At least you can mute it.
I gotta watch/listen. I've been airing it since I started
in that network (1/96).
2) The Forman Grill.
This doesn't air on our network. I have aired it on
The Outdoor Life Network (sister net to Speed).
3) Legends of Motorsport.
It does have GREAT archival
footage. I (almost) don't tire of it. Gentleman's Racing
Diary (which may be out of rotation, but was airing at
5 pm eastern Saturdays) is also good (not very wordy,
either).
4) Available subscribers.
Speed is near or at 20 million.
That doesn't mean 20 million watching. As an example,
A&E has 70 million available subs. On a Monday night
this summer, only 700,000 people were watching. The
on air networks have over 14 million viewers for a top
rated show. I guess Speed's numbers do head north
when the Formula One airs. :^)
5)16 hours of infomercials.
Almost, but not really. AND, we gotta watch that crap too.
They air from 3 am to 7 am, 9 am to 9:30, 4:30 pm to 5 pm.
Then there is Speedshop, Speedvision's own infomercial. :^Þ
6) Politics of getting Speedvision.
Fox owns 33 percent of
Speedvision and Outdoor Life (hence all those Fox Sports
Net ads). Believe it or not, some people do not like
Rupert Murdock. :^) And for that reason, refuse to every put
anything from him on air. Plus there is a money issue.
Some nets pay to go on a system. Guess who gets the
channel allocation. FWIW, TCI signed an agreement
a while ago saying that their systems can carry Speed.
Obviously, demand, system capacity, and other real
variables come into play. So keep bothering the
system GM,saying "I want my Speedvision". How
did MTV get carried in the beginning? ......
7) Autocross on Speedvision?
Not often. Matter of fact
almost never. I can count on one hand segments that
had actual autocrossing on. Usually, a quick example
of a marque club running. Believe me, I'd know when
we air it. "Heyyy, they used the "A" word!!!!"
8) Off axis reception. DBS has its limits. If it is raining
cats and dogs, signal quality goes down (just like the
10 meter dishes, but we just turn up the power). If it gets too
bad, it while flip to a black screen with a message saying
the signal has failed. Snow will do the same thing. Those
in the southern tier of the US can ignore this, but the
tornado tossed mobile home trailer can also cause
interference. :^)
Matt Murray
mailto:mattm@optonline.net
mailto:mdmurray@gwns.com
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