Fox Sports 1 is launching in the United States today, replacing Speed on the dial on most US cable and satellite providers. This has caused confusion among Canadians wondering if we will receive Fox Sports 1 instead of Speed as well. So, I’ve pulled together a list of questions people have asked me over the past few weeks into this post. I hope it clears everything up a bit. I have received official word from media relations at Fox Sports/Speed on this, so these are not just guesses. If you have any other questions, ask away in the comments and I’ll update this post to include them.
First here is a rundown of the official word I’ve heard from Fox Sports/Speed on the situation.
Canada, among other countries, will continue to get Speed after Fox Sports 1 launches in the United States. It will still be called Speed and carry the same live programming. This live programming will come from Fox Sports 1 in the States.
Oh, and please don’t ask a question without reading this first. Mostly everything should be covered.
Q: Will Fox Sports 1 be available in Canada?
A: No. Fox Sports 1 is not regulated for carriage in Canada, similar to other general interest sports channels such as ESPN and NBC Sports Network.
Q: Will Speed still be available in Canada?
A: Yes. Speed will continue relatively unchanged in Canada. In the US most of Speed’s live NASCAR, Moto GP, Rolex Sports Car Series, Whelen Modified Tour, V8 Supercars and Barrett-Jackson Auctions. This coverage will continue to air in Canada on Speed. NASCAR Race Hub, which continues on Fox Sports 1, will also continue to air on Speed (nightly at 6pm ET). As will NASCAR Raceday and Victory Lane. Some other studio programming including Wind Tunnel and Speed Center are no longer produced, so they won’t air on Speed.
Q: Why isn’t Fox Sports 1 available?
A: There are a few reasons. It isn’t licensed for Canadian carriage. Speed’s license specifically states that it is a motorsports channel. It cannot air other sports because then it would no longer be a niche channel and it would compete with TSN and Sportsnet. This goes against CRTC regulation which prohibit a US-owned specialty channel from directly competing with a Canadian-owned specialty channel.
Q: But when The Nashville Network re-branded as Spike it was still available?
This is a common question, and a good one. TNN completely changed its style of programming when it rebranded as Spike, and almost was removed from the CRTC’s list of approved channels because of this. The difference here is Fox Sports 1 is NOT a rebrand of Speed, but a completely new channel. Speed is shutting down, Fox Sports 1 is replacing it. Any American providers who want to carry Fox Sports 1 have to negotiate a new contract, even if they already have an existing contract for Speed. The same applies for Canada, where in order for Fox Sports 1 to be carried here, a Canadian provider would have to apply to the CRTC asking for it.
Q: I want to see Fox Sports 1 programming, why is the CRTC denying me this right?
Most of FS1’s programming is available in Canada. In fact more of FS1’s programming will be available in Canada than ESPN. All of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches will air on Sportsnet. Every UFC fight, as well as other UFC programs and The Ultimate Fighter will air on Sportsnet 360. As previously mentioned motorsports programming will still air on Speed. Some college football coverage (featuring Pac-12 and Big 12) will air on Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet ONE.
Those are the generic commonly asked questions I’ve thrown together. Here are some specific ones from readers.
Q: Seems Rogers or Bell would be smart enough to include FS1 in some package, given the obvious demand?
No because it is not approved for carriage here. I’m not even sure the demand would be that great if fans realised that FS1 programming would mostly be blacked out due to Canadian broadcasters (usually Sportsnet) owning exclusive rights here (similar to Thursday Night Football on NFL Network or F1 on Speed). Except for Fox Sports Live (Jay & Dan’s new show), which there is demand for in Canada, FS1 isn’t providing a lot of programming that isn’t otherwise available in Canada.
Q: How much college football that would be on FS1 will end up on SN360?
I don’t have an exact answer on this yet, but Sportsnet will probably have a schedule available sometime in the next couple weeks, so check back then.
Q: When can I see Jay and Dan on Canadian TV again?
No Canadian network has released any plans to show Fox Sports Live (Jay and Dan’s new show). However, the pair have released a new (video) podcast that is available in Canada. You can watch it here. In the podcast Dan offered that he heard “it might happen”, referring to the new show airing here. However, a bunch of their clips will get uploaded to YouTube and FoxSportsLive.com.
Q: My cable/satellite on-screen guide says something different than you?
On-screen guides are done by a independent third party (neither Speed nor the cable companies). There are often mistakes, especially in a situation such as this.
A Rouge Point 
Will AMA Supercross still be available on speed in Canada? TV listings on supercrossonline.com say the majority of races are on FS1.
I just heard that we are losing the speed cha nel soon. (This is now feb.22\2014! ) Is this another rumour? Or if it’s true and we cant get FS1 directly here how will we see Nascar?
I know Rogers Cable is dropping Speed. I don’t think all providers are though, so if you have Rogers you would have to switch to another provider.
We have Bell satellite so hopefully we are okay! Thanks!
Bell is dropping Speed too. The channel will be available till May 1st, 2014.
Wow! Surely some channel in Canada is going to show the Nascar races or there will be a LOT of unhappy people! Thx for the update!
ShawDirect has no plans of dropping Speed
I ant believe that we can’t see any more truck races. I have two years left on my Telus contract before I can go back to Shaw
The races proper were generally elsewhere. We are losing panel stuff and other goodies…
False. Only the NSCS Sprint Unlimited, Budweiser Duel and All-Star Race are available elsewhere in Canada (TSN). Everything else is not (NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, NSCS/NNS practices/qualifyings, NASCAR K&N Pro Series, ARCA Racing Series, TUDOR Championship, 24 Hours of Le Mans, the new Formula E championship, AMA Supercross, Monster Jam, Barrett-Jackson auctions)
So now that rogers has officially canceled the speed network. Where is. What is. My motor sports network?
Speed channel is being discontinued, what happens now? How can I watch nascar events that were previously available on speed channel???
That’s what I was wondering too although on Sunday the Sprints were not on Speed but were on Tsn. I Wonder if Tsn will continue them? (Although I don’t think theu showed the trucks or nationwides :(
NASCAR Sprint Cup (races live), Nationwide (races live) & Canadian Tire (races tape delayed) Series is on TSN/TSN2. NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was only available on SPEED, except the race from Bowmanville, ON on Labour Day’s weekend witch was on both SPEED and TSN.
Thanks! :)
this mean we will never see the Barrett Jackson Auction in Canada
What the hell is going on here!!!!! They have the first NASCAR Camping World series race in Canada, with great success, then stop showing that series on TV completely. With all the board meetings that must of went on to merge Speed TV to Fox Sports 1, no one thought of this. Great strategy, morons!!!!
The success of the Truck Series in Canada really has no bearing on what Fox decides to do in America. They don’t make money off the Truck Series here. And the channel still is available here. I get it on Shaw Direct. It was only Rogers and Bell that decided to remove it.
Rogers just canceled speed Chanel . There is no other Canadian Chanel’s that carry NASCAR like speed. We no longer get the truck races, qualifying , practice, or race day to name a few. Have complained twice. They tell me nothing they can do. Is that true?
Total disregard for paying customers, in this case NASCAR fans. We need NASCAR news, races and commentary in this fine Country and no reason not to have it. CRTC needs to be in tune with what customers want, not reacting to big money. TSN is the NASCAR outlet in Canada so step up to the plate here TSN as this is much more enjoyable than Aussie Rules Football.
How do we pressure our cable companies to get us access to the events like AMA Supercross? Surely we can protest their idiotic decision somehow. I have Compton Cable which was bought out by Rogers. I plan to see if Shaw is available in my area if they do carry Fox 1 or whatever the channel is. Maybe loss of customers will prompt them to reconsider. Seems very strange to just cancel access without a back up plan.
far as I know fox satellite is avail anywhere in ont.
So…the Bristol Nascar race is airing right now on the new Fox Sports 1 channel…which I believe is supposed to be Speed channel…so why is it not on right now????
We were watching it on Fox before the rain delay and afterwards they changed it to Fox Sports 1 which we don’t get. Soooo pissed off! We have Bell satellite.
I’m sorry but if you were smart enough, you would have looked on the TSN website and found a live feed. They broadcast the race in Canada. So it their duty to bring us Sprint Cup racing one way or another.
It’s like Chicago last year. That streamed on TSN.ca
For the future, check the site. They may have it.
Excuse me? “Smart enough?” I just checked with my b/f who said he went through the channels and when he was on Tsn it was commercial however the channel info was showing something else so he didn’t go back to it. Pff……
It never aired when the channels switched over, I went through every sports channel including the TSN and TSN2 they finally showed the last 40 mins of the race! The only way Canadian fans could see it was via a link shared by NASCAR International through the Twitter account. So if you didn’t know someone who could share that link you didn’t get to see the remainder of the race just the tail end of it.
Just reading through these!: Lol! Thanks! There’s so many changes going on!
So, with Rogers and Bell both dropping Speed, any chances Fox Sports 1 will be coming to Canada? It probably won’t, but now what do we watch?
Bell Cable is running a notice now that Speed will no longer available after May 1/14. So apparently we won’t get Speed in Canada.
I have Bell satelite, as of may 1st speed channel will no longer be available. Will there be another channel that plays the same shows?
are we going to be able to watch the truck race in canada tonight after the sprint cup?
anybody?
Now is Telus drops Speed on 30th May. It’s a disgrace to Canadian customers.
so im looking at a screen telling me Speed is gone.. great job Bell.. don’t resolve the issue or anything. Iv been looking for an excuse to stop paying for this poor programming anyways
Is there any Motogp or w S k coverage available at all?
Both series offer a VideoPass on their respective website. With that, you can watch all the races of all the categories (Moto2 & Moto3 with MotoGP / SuperSport & SuperStock with World SBK) live and on demand. It is an HD video (720p).
With the MotoGP VideoPass, you also have access to all the races from 2002 and a 52-minute highlights show for the races between 1992 and 2001.
If the VideoPass is too expensive for you, you can watch all the MotoGP races, with few week delay, on RDS2 (I know, it’s in french). The World SBK is on beIN Sport.
Canada is as bad as Russia and China in what THEY DECIDE what T/V we get to watch heaven forbid if it interferes with any of their Canadian programs they just wont allow it !! you would be better off living in the USA where they dont do that not to mention if the UK wants to put a t/V show in Canada it is approved without so much as a hiccup this country is so outdated and prices for T/V internet.cell phone and so on are higher then most 3rd world countries this country really needs to get with the changing times and quit telling us what we can and cant have on out T/V’s that we pay good money for !!!
We are on Bell.
This does not solve the problem but it is a way of sending a message. We are in the process of cancelling our movie channels from Bell and going to Netflix.
Time to start looking for alternatives to Bell and Rogers.
:-(
I have notice something. The Blancpain Sprint Series (former FIA GT Series) and DTM is now on CBS Sports Network.
Called Shaw and the tech talked to the next level support and said they haven’t heard anything about cancelling speed? I don’t believe them as Telus/Rogers/Bell have all shut it down after the Telus rep said the contract ran out?
I just got a notice in my email that Cogeco is also dropping speed as of July 2014. Can anybody out there tell me if and how we will be able to watch Supercross in the New Year
Might depend if Speed is still available on other providers, like Shaw Direct. Still too early to tell, I’d say.
So again I believe the helper at Telus was speaking the truth as I wondered about Cogeco (I work with a few guys from the east) and was thinking if they had been givien notice but you just clarified that. Shaw is going to go into the same tank. Funny shit is the fella told me I might want to got just month to month as they can’t ensure I will get the programing I want!
This is absurd. Sports car racing has simply vanished off Canadian TV. What I can’t believe is that there is no way of portioning the CRTC or cable providers to bring it back, or that nobody here knows how
I exchanged email with Shaw and they tell me they carry Speed on their shawdirect satellite service – will have to think about as have $800 invested in Bell PVRs – this is what Shaw sent me
“We most certainly carry Speed channel in our TV Channel line up! As far as we know, there are no plans to discontinue it at this time. We offer Shaw Cable to some areas in Ontario, however you may need to get our Shaw Direct services which is satellite by contacting our sister company, Shaw Direct http://www.shawdirect.ca/contactus. “
Basically we have nowhere to go to watch the motorsports we want. Why do broadcasters continue to serve up hockey only in Canada – hey I like hockey but I also want to see Le Mans and Super V8s etc
My son has gone renegade and is registered over the border and signs with direct tv – all they do is turn us into criminals!!