Two original series from AOL's leading automotive research and news sites, AOL Autos and Autoblog, will be broadcast on Speed channel starting Tuesday (Feb. 5), the programmer and the online service said.
AOL Autos' TRANSLOGICand Autoblog’s The Listwill air Tuesdays at 10 and 10:30 p.m. (EST and PT), respectively, then again at 1 and 1:30 a.m., the companies said. It's said to be AOL's first deal to produce TV versions of the service's premium original content. A Speed official described the partnership as a revenue-sharing arrangement.
"Speed was the first dedicated auto channel and it has a history of great programming, so when they approached the team and asked to be a partner, we were excited to be recognized for all of the hard work that goes into these original and engaging properties,” Chris Eschenburg, VP & general manager of AOL Autos, said in a release.
TRANSLOGIC is hosted by Bradley Hasemeyer (pictured left), who navigates the latest transportation technology and explores where mass transit, concept cars, electric vehicles and new transportation are headed. It's is the top-viewed video series on AOL Autos. Over the past two years the series has been honored by the Webby Awards and received four Telly Awards for excellence in the automotive category, cinematography and video editing.
Autoblog’s The List is hosted by Jessi Combs and Patrick McIntyre (pictured above), who tackle the “1,001 Car Things To Do Before You Die,” including challenges like lapping Germany’s Nürburgring, driving faster than 200 miles per hour and learning to drift. Through the hosts, viewers live out their automotive bucket-list fantasies, the channels said.
“This partnership between AOL Autos and Speed is a natural fit that makes perfect sense,” Robert Ecker, Speed’s VP of programming and executive producer. “Each brand has carved a distinct yet complementary space in the automotive world. Expanding TRANSLOGIC and The List into long-form programs for cable television has been a shared goal of both companies for quite some time. We are thrilled to be collaborating with Team AOL on bringing both of these projects to fruition.”
