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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | International |
| Headquarters | Brownsburg, Indiana |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Racer Media & Marketing |
| History | |
| Launched | October 1, 2004 |
| Former names | MAVTV (2004–2025) |
| Links | |
| Website | Racer.com |
Racer Network (formerly known asMAVTV) is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by the motorsports media companyRacer, which mainly airs programming focused around motorsports and programming for automotive enthusiasts. CJ Olivares serves as the network's president.
MavTV (short forMaverick Television) launched on October 1, 2004, based out ofAtlanta with distribution limited to select cable companies. The network was privately held and founded by four former executives fromShowtime Networks—Steve Severn, Steve Smith, Doug Jost and Rob Stevens. It had no connections to the NBA'sDallas Mavericks orMark Cuban, their owner, nor toMaverick Television, a Britishreality television production company owned byAll3Media.[citation needed]
In October 2011, longtime partner lubricants companyLucas Oil purchased MavTV; the company had provided and sponsored most of the network's motorsports rights even before their purchase, and the network was likely to go dark without the purchase as programming rights had deteriorated towards barter programming and heavy repeats of library content. The network was quickly reformatted away by the new management from a completely male focus towards a general family programming direction.
On July 4, 2012, Lucas rebranded the network, making MavTV's name all capitalized, but with the MAV initials standing for "Movies, Action, and Variety" with the addition of films and more concert programming to the schedule, and a gradual drawdown of racing-related programming to a smaller, yet important part of the schedule to maintain its cable carriage mainly among digital sports tiers, including the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series and the Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League. The network is also advertised on the containers of many Lucas Oil products.
Until 2015, MAVTV also aired classic programming such asThe Lone Ranger,Starsky & Hutch, andBonanza, along with films. However, the recovery of the network's revenues under Lucas Oil, along with heavy competition in the classic television rights race from digital over-the-air networks such asMeTV,Antenna TV and movie networks likeMovies! andgetTV meant that the network began to draw down non-motorsports programming by the start of 2016. The conversion of Fox'sSpeed to the general-interestFox Sports 1 also left a plethora of motorsports rights for other networks to pick up, which MAVTV took advantage of. The network also carries motorboat racing and various events from theFederation of International Motorcycling, includingice speedway andmotorcycle speedway events.
The network's1080ihigh definition feed was launched during the fall of 2008. The standard definition version of the network is downscaled from the HD master feed at the cable operator's headend level.
Before Lucas Oil took over full management of the network, MAVTV carried programming such as the second season ofRad Girls,SpeedFreaks,Women's Flat Track Roller Derby,American Tailgater,AMA Motorcycle Racing,Wrestlicious TakeDown,Ultimate Combat Experience,Bikini AllStars andBest of the Best. In addition, MAVTV presented the male-specificdocumentary seriesManumentaries. Except for existing Lucas Oil programming and the AMA, none of this programming currently remains on the network's schedule. Overnights had been filled bymusic video/interactiveSMS programming fromNOYZ via atime brokerage agreement before that company went bankrupt in early 2008.
In 2007, MAVTV struck a deal with theWomen's Flat Track Derby Association to broadcast two of the threeroller derby finals: theEastern Regional Tournament (Heartland Havoc, which was broadcast as a series of one-hour weekly episodes)[1] and theNational Championships (Texas Shootout).[2]
MAVTV contracted with theAutomobile Racing Club of America, the auto racing sanctioning body, to air at least 6 races in 2008, including both 100-mile dirt races at theIllinois State Fairgrounds inSpringfield, and theSouthern Illinois State Fairgrounds inDuQuoin.[3] SpeedFreaks hosts Kenny Sargent and Crash Gladys also appeared on episodes of the Lucas Motorsports hour.
MAVTV sponsored theMAVTV 500, the final race in the2012 season of theIndyCar Series, which took place at theAuto Club Speedway inFontana, California.
MAVTV is partnered withKing of the Cage, broadcasting their live and past Martial Arts events, as well asChampionship Wrestling From Hollywood.
MAVTV did their 1st live motorsports event, the Lucas Oil Challenge Cup featuring the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series on October 27, 2013, from Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park. They will also do live coverage of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals, one of the biggest midget car races every year. The East Bay Winter Nationals from the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and all Moto1 rounds of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motorcross championship in 2014. They will also cover several King of the Cage MMA events live in 2014.[4]
In 2014, MAVTV partnered with professional road racing series Pirelli World Challenge to air the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car Championship.
In 2017, MAVTV signed a multi-year deal withARCA Racing to bring almost all their races live or broadcast at later time/date. Outside the races broadcast fromFox Sports.
In 2018, Signed a deal to show highlights ofTony StewartAll Star Circuit of Champions[5] Also MAVTV expanded its coverage ofARCA Racing with 11 of its 12 races broadcasting live[6]
In 2019, MAVTV is showing all of itsARCA races its broadcast live for the first time[7]
In 2024, the European racing seriesDTM switched from Motortrend to the Racer Network. Since then, the races have been broadcast live or as highlights.
On April 27, 2010, MAVTV signed a deal withSony Pictures giving them access to select titles from Sony's film library. The deal was part of MAVTV's programming strategy to expand its schedule and abandon their former all-male programming direction.[8] The network added films from the Warner Bros. library in July 2012. These deals eventually expired though as mentioned above, and MAVTV eventually went to an all-motorsports schedule by the start of 2016.
On March 27, 2025, MAVTV was acquired by motorsports media companyRacer, which quickly made its mark by rebranding the channel asRacer Network the same date, with a new imaging campaign to come to reinforce the brand.[9]
Key people at Racer Network include:[10][11]
Racer Network can be found in the US onCablevision,Spectrum,GCI in Alaska, select cable systems within the CaribbeanCo-op,Xfinity,RCN Corporation,AT&T U-verse andDirecTV.
As per an email sent to its subscribers, Verizon FiOS removed the channel from its TV service along withYoutoo TV, Blue Highways TV, and Black Belt TV as of December 31, 2012, making it available as an "On Demand" service. However, the channel returned to Verizon FiOS on June 10, 2014.
DirecTV added MAVTV on June 10, 2013. The channel is carried in high definition.[12]
MAVTV Canada was launched in January, 2017 in a partnership with the Neon Star Sports & Entertainment Inc, which producesCanadian content.[13] It rebranded asREV TV Canada in 2020.
Dish Network previously carried MAVTV in high definition from May 8, 2009 to May 12, 2015. Dish dropped the channel as MAVTV and its parent company Lucas Oil failed to reach a new agreement to continue carrying the channel.[14]
FuboTV was added in March 2018 withSportsman Channel,Outdoor Channel,World Fishing Network,Outside TV and till late Octobermotorsports.tv to the Adventure Plus Package.[15]
A free version of the channel, branded "Racer Select" (formerly "MAVTV Select"), provides a selection of network programming through advertising-supportedover-the-top media servicesPluto TV,Stirr,The Roku Channel andPlex, among others.[16]
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