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from https://jalopnik.com/all-24-hours-of-le-mans-will-be-on-only-one-channel-aga-1825368567

RACING
All 24 Hours Of Le Mans Will Be On Only One Channel Again [Updated]

Stef Schrader
4/18/18 8:00pmFiled to: WEC

Photo: Ker Robertson (Getty Images)
Following endurance racing on American television became a tedious chore
in recent years, riddled with odd channel changes and unplanned
interruptions. Fox was especially heinous about preempting their
scheduled race coverage for seemingly anything else. So, the World
Endurance Championship left this year for Velocity, reports Racer, and I can’t say I blame them at all. [Update: But we can blame them for
geoblocking ad-free stream in the United States as part of this deal.
See note below.]


Velocity, in case you haven’t fallen asleep to auction coverage lately,
is Discovery’s car-centric channel. While it’s more known for
winga-dinga build shows than motorsports, that’s about to change. The
entire World Endurance Championship will be broadcast on Velocity and MotorTrend.com. Notably, the entire 24 Hours of Le Mans and the new 1000
Miles of Sebring will be broadcast on a single television channel:
Velocity. Practice and qualifying for Le Mans will be on MotorTrend.com
or the Motor Trend app.

Velocity will rebrand itself as the Motor Trend Network this fall,
according to Deadline Hollywood, which makes MotorTrend.com streaming
service sort of like Velocity’s new version of ESPN3 or Fox Sports Go. However, currently MotorTrend.com is a separate $4.99/month subscription
that isn’t included with your cable package, per a network
representative who spoke with Jalopnik.

Velocity’s name change was announced shortly after Motor Trend moved all
of its new full-length videos from Motor Trend and its related sites to
their in-house MotorTrend.com streaming service and off of free to watch platforms like YouTube.

Unfortunately for fans of the American-market broadcast team, Velocity
and MotorTrend.com won’t have their own dedicated staff of pit lane
reporters and commentators, Racer notes. Instead, they’re rebroadcasting
the feed from Eurosport, including Eurosport’s full commentary.

Perhaps the best part of this news, however, is the soon-to-be Motor
Trend channels are focused on cars, just as the much-missed Speed
network used to be. Therefore, there’s a far smaller chance that a car channel would push Le Mans off TV to run prerecorded studio shows and
golf highlights in its spot.

Velocity/Trend announced the entire broadcast schedule for the “superseason” today, which is this odd one and a half year season coming
up as the WEC transitions into a calendar that ends with Le Mans and
starts in the summer. Here it is, via Racer:

TOTAL 6 HOURS OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS
May 3-5
*Full live coverage on MotorTrend.com and the Motor Trend app with first
and last hour live on Velocity

24 HOURS OF LE MANS
June 16-17
*Live coverage on Velocity plus live qualifying and practice sessions on MotorTrend.com and the Motor Trend app

6 HOURS OF SILVERSTONE
August 17-19
*Full live coverage on MotorTrend.com and the Motor Trend app with first
and last hour live on Velocity

6 HOURS OF FUJI
October 12-14
*Full live coverage on MotorTrend.com and the Motor Trend app with first
and last hour live on Velocity

6 HOURS OF SHANGHAI
November 16-18
*Full live coverage on MotorTrend.com and the Motor Trend app with first
and last hour live on Velocity

1000 MILES OF SEBRING
March 13-15, 2019
*Live coverage on Velocity

TOTAL 6 HOURS OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS
May 2-4, 2019
*Full live coverage on MotorTrend.com and the Motor Trend app with first
and last hour live on Velocity

24 HOURS OF LE MANS
June 15-16, 2019
*Live coverage on Velocity plus live qualifying and practice sessions on MotorTrend.com and the Motor Trend app

Just as with Formula One on ESPN’s networks, you’ll have to do some streaming to watch every hour of every WEC session, but even the
non-Sebring and Le Mans races have the first and last hours on TV.

While the WEC already offers their own commercial-free streaming package directly to viewers that’s really good, this new TV deal certainly makes
the idea of paying for new episodes of Roadkill on MotorTrend.com sting
a bit less.

UPDATE [4/19]: Unfortunately, this isn’t as much of an upgrade as
initially thought for those of us used to streaming races through the
WEC’s own web page and app. A WEC representative confirmed that live
sessions on the WEC’s own live streaming service would be geoblocked in
the United States as part of this new television and streaming package.

So, in order to watch the whole season, fans in the United States will
need to have cable—as Le Mans is only shown on Velocity—as well as the Motor Trend app. This is a massive downgrade from being able to just go
to one website and stream the entire season, and quite frankly,
inexcusable in light of F1 being able to develop their own in-house
stream without geoblocking the U.S. when ESPN is broadcasting the same sessions.

UPDATE [4/24]: The WEC confirmed today that the geoblock will extend to
Canada (exception: Québec), as they are also served by Velocity.



If you already paid for the season through the app and live in the areas
in which they’re geoblocking their own app next year, you can submit for
a refund either through Apple or at web@fiawec.com.

If the idea of needing to pay more to have both cable and MotorTrend.com
access just to watch one season isn’t frustrating enough, some fans are reporting that they don’t even get Velocity but will be in the geoblock anyway.

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