For close to a decade, the Fast Lane Daily YouTube channel has provided automotive updates, demos of new sportscars, and other vehicular videos to its base of passionate fans. Now, however, the channel is going into the garage for the foreseeable future. Its parent company, Time Inc., has decided to put it on indefinite hiatus.
FLD host Derek D announced the sad news in a video he shared with the channel’s 312,000 subscribers. He said Time Inc. dropped its bombshell “without much warning at all.” “As time went on, no pun intended there, we never really, to be quite honest, felt at home here,” he said of the channel’s relationship with Time. “People just didn’t seem to care and it sucked. A loyal fanbase doesn’t really matter to the bottom line.”
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The FLD hiatus comes just five months after the channel was acquired by Time Inc. in a deal that also saw the media conglomerate pick up fellow automotive YouTube channel /DRIVE. The two channels merged with Time’s own automotive brand, The Drive, and began to produce videos as a united team under that umbrella. The /DRIVE YouTube channel has not uploaded a new video in two months, with Time preferred to upload its car content on The Drive’s website.
It’s not clear what will happen to the member of the FLD team, but some of them are still active on YouTube. Derek D, for example, has a personal channel of his own, where his fans can subscribe to view his future updates.
