[Steve Cassani]

I cancelled the cable package that included Speed channel a couple of years ago. I became weary of the commercial interruptions, especially those that replaced coverage of events the commenters were emphasizing as being especially informative or telling to the outcome of the event. To see whether I was justified in my impatience with the coverage or just getting crotchety, I timed three one-hour sequences. Here are the averages:

In any one hour period, expect to see:

34 minutes of the event, in segments ranging from 4 to 8 minutes.
26 minutes of advertisements. The 26 minutes will average 15 minutes of ads for other programs on Speed channel. Watching another Speed program only repeats the ad frequency, with the same ratio of self-promotion to independent, commercial time. The sef-promotion segments repeat with enough regularity to suggest that they are produced as a block and aired again and again and ...

I'm already paying for cable, including a significant premium for the package that includes the Speed channel. To actually watch an event on Speed channel, I am obliged to give up, on average, one-quarter of every hour to information related to other opportunites to watch the channel I am watching.

I enjoy televised coverage of racing and car-related subjects but the price the Speed channel imposes on it's viewers is greater than I am willing to give away.