Back in December 2011 we were given our first taste of the YouTube channel /DRIVE. Since then it’s given the world countless hours of quality content. And all for free. Zero dollars. Nada. Just free.
Here at AUSmotive we’ve not been too proud to feature pretty much anything published by Chris Harris. He’s one of the best at putting you in the car with him as he tells us why a car is so good, or bad, not just that it is. He was doing this long before /DRIVE came to be, but his latest venture has broadened his exposure greatly and that’s about to increase again.
/DRIVE will soon feature on pay TV station NBC Sports in the States. It’ll be a slow start with the first episode airing this weekend, but then nothing more until July. The full detail was explained yesterday by Spinelli on Jalopnik:
We’re announcing today—right here, in fact—that /DRIVE is bringing its car-enthusiast programming to cable television, on the NBCSN, which will televise 10 episodes of a new show, called /DRIVE on NBC Sports, through the remainder of the 2014 calendar year.
The first episode sounds like a Top Gear rip off, although Spinelli promises, “we’ll stay true to the kind of programming /DRIVE’s audience expects”. Which means there should be a broader gamut of material focusing on motoring as entertainment, rather than entertainment as motoring.
Further, the /DRIVE–NBCSN partnership will produce a new F1 show called Off the grid, to be hosted by Will Buxton and Jason Swales.
Well done to the /DRIVE team, we wish them all the success they so richly deserve.
The guys have promised that their YouTube content will continue, but as Chris Harris hinted at via twitter yesterday it could become user pays.
In response to such a suggestion there has been many whingers criticising Harris and his mates for taking the pay TV route. Thankfully, there’s also been plenty of support and encouragement.
To the freeloaders out there, get a bloody grip, these guys owe you exactly what you’ve been paying to watch their content until now. Nothing.
Now, let’s all enjoy the show (there’s a preview after the break).
5 replies on “/DRIVE shifting to pay TV”
How dare they feel the right to earn an income to pay their mortgages!
Just along as I can still watch Chris Harris for free then I’m cool with that. I don’t give a crap about the other seppo hosts, in particular that arrogant douche Matt Farrah and his crap reviews
I’d pay for their content. Just not a whole channel full of other garbage.
Matt Farrah isnt a douche at all! Leo Parente is difficult to watch, though.
Remember people, you did pay for their content previously – by agreeing to watch ads and give Google (and therefore the NSA) unlimited permission to cavity search your computer.
Like commercial TV but worse.
[…] Chris Harris and his buddies from /DRIVE have just launched their paid YouTube channel /DRIVE+. It will run alongside the free channel we’ve come to know and love, as well as airing the program on NBC. […]