By David Swarts

Fox Sports, already a shareholder in Speedvision, is in the process of buying out other partners in the network to obtain a controlling interest. There has been wide speculation as to what will then happen to the motorcycle portion of the network’s programming. Some say that Speedvision will become the NASCAR Network, others hope that Speedvision, and its motorcycle programming, will remain untouched.

The July 2, 2001 issue of Autoweek magazine reported on the purchase as follows, and referred to Fox Sports Chairman David Hill:

“As for Hill, he said he will be working on the ‘evolution of Speedvision into a NASCAR channel.’ Fox recently agreed to purchase Speedvision in a deal that closes in August.

“We’re looking at various program grids with more NASCAR materials,’ Hill said. ‘We’d like to get all the changes done by February, but that may be a bit optimistic.’ Hill would not rule out a name change for the network, although he noted Speedvision has a strong brand equity.”

Roadracing World called Dan Murphy, President of Speedvision Productions, to get his take on Hill’s comments. Speaking from his Denver, Colorado office, Murphy said, “I’m not completely sure that Mr. Hill was quoted correctly, but I don’t think that Fox would have let us sign off on the deal to air the 2002 Daytona 200 live if they planned on completely shutting motorcycle programming off and turning it into a NASCAR-only channel.”

When asked if he felt that the amount of motorcycle programming on Speedvision would change, Murphy said, “It’s too early to tell. The sale of the network isn’t even finished yet.”

Murphy said that once the sale is complete, Hill will be the man who sits down and makes programming decisions. Asked if he would be one of the people able to provide input to the decision-making process for the new programming schedule, Murphy said, “I’d like to think I would, but Hill will be making the decisions.”

Roadracingworld.com readers who would like to comment on the situation can send an e-mail to David Hill, c/o [email protected]. A petition opposing the elimination of other programming in favor of making Speedvision a NASCAR channel appears on the internet at www.petitiononline.com/svsn/