Channel 4 to replace BBC as F1 broadcaster

leywso · Post by **leywso** » 20 Mar 2016, 10:39

What has dawned on me over this weekend is how much I will miss the videos on the BBC website, which generally is my go-to for sports news. In particular, their 2-minute summaries of free practice sessions and their 10-minute race highlights were most useful for those times where you couldn't watch everything in full.

It doesn't seem like Channel 4 have that kind of provision- yet- so here's hoping. I went to the Sky Sports website on Friday to see if I could watch a video of Rosberg's practice crash, and had to sit through a 30-second advert for a pregnancy test kit in order to watch a 29-second clip!

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 20 Mar 2016, 14:49

The channel 4 coverage seems decent enough, the graphics they use are nothing special, they have a good commentary team and some good pundits. However if not a fan of all the Twitter hashtags on each advertisement break.

Post by **mario** » 20 Mar 2016, 16:33

leywso wrote:What has dawned on me over this weekend is how much I will miss the videos on the BBC website, which generally is my go-to for sports news. In particular, their 2-minute summaries of free practice sessions and their 10-minute race highlights were most useful for those times where you couldn't watch everything in full.

It doesn't seem like Channel 4 have that kind of provision- yet- so here's hoping. I went to the Sky Sports website on Friday to see if I could watch a video of Rosberg's practice crash, and had to sit through a 30-second advert for a pregnancy test kit in order to watch a 29-second clip!

Part of that is probably down to the structure of Channel 4, as it has to commission external parties to produce content on its behalf. Furthermore, the BBC's sports team has traditionally had greater resources to produce and publish content than Channel 4, given that Channel 4 is mainly limited to the production of television programs whilst the BBC has a far wider news and publishing arm that it can draw upon.

I don't rule out the possibility that Channel 4 could, in the future, produce short clips that it could then upload onto its own online portal (the 4 On Demand service): however, I think it is more likely that they won't given that they probably want to focus their resources on the main event.

andrew wrote:The channel 4 coverage seems decent enough, the graphics they use are nothing special, they have a good commentary team and some good pundits. However if not a fan of all the Twitter hashtags on each advertisement break.

Considering that the team haven't had a great amount of time to put everything together, they do seem to have a solid enough platform to work with for now. The Twitter hashtags do feel clumsy, but given it forms part of their efforts to establish a stronger online presence, I can see why they are pushing it (and it does feel rare for somebody within the sport to be trying to engage with social media in a more active way, so perhaps there are some positives to take from this).

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 20 Mar 2016, 16:56

I'm not sure, the coverage certainly wasn't bad, it just seemed to be missing something that BBC and Sky have, it just feels wired having f1 on channel 4

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 21 Mar 2016, 07:13

The coverage seemed fine enough. Not earth shatteringly different but, meh, what hasnt already been done?

Steve Jones was very much like he was in everything else I've seen him in and at times I wondered if his interest in F1 begins and ends with the contract he signed but he didn't annoy me so, yes, he can stay.

watka · Post by **watka** » 21 Mar 2016, 14:02

If the worst we can come up with as criticism is hashtags and dubstep ad breaks, I'd say they did a great job.

What's more, they seem to have everything up on All4 faster than BBC got theirs on to iPlayer.

One thing that I hope doesn't develop is over-praise of Jolyon Palmer ala Max Chilton - i.e. congratulating him for every little positive thing he does just because he's a British rookie.

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 21 Mar 2016, 15:22

I think all broadcasters are guilty of this, the worst offender in my opinion seemed to be the Eurosport commentators when they had Moto3.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 21 Mar 2016, 16:27

watka wrote:One thing that I hope doesn't develop is over-praise of Jolyon Palmer ala Max Chilton - i.e. congratulating him for every little positive thing he does just because he's a British rookie.

There's no such thing as over-praise as far as Max Chilton is concerned

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 22 Mar 2016, 08:05

Incidentally, I don't think anybody told Jennie Gow and Tom Clarkson that C4 has the coverage now as they were still filming pieces on a beach in Australia on Saturday.

Pure BBC that. Spend money sending a film crew all that way to film conversations for the website. I understand F1 is still on BBC radio but even with that in mind does anybody actually need to go there to do it? They used to provide perfectly serviceable TV commentary from White City for years fercrissakes.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 22 Mar 2016, 09:48

CoopsII wrote:Incidentally, I don't think anybody told Jennie Gow and Tom Clarkson that C4 has the coverage now as they were still filming pieces on a beach in Australia on Saturday.

Pure BBC that. Spend money sending a film crew all that way to film conversations for the website. I understand F1 is still on BBC radio but even with that in mind does anybody actually need to go there to do it? They used to provide perfectly serviceable TV commentary from White City for years fercrissakes.

Yep, barmy isn't it? They probably spent more sending that lot out there than they did sending Murray and James and pitlane reporter Palmer out there in the early 90s!

Spectoremg · Post by **Spectoremg** » 22 Mar 2016, 18:15

CoopsII wrote:Incidentally, I don't think anybody told Jennie Gow and Tom Clarkson that C4 has the coverage now as they were still filming pieces on a beach in Australia on Saturday.

Pure BBC that. Spend money sending a film crew all that way to film conversations for the website. I understand F1 is still on BBC radio but even with that in mind does anybody actually need to go there to do it? They used to provide perfectly serviceable TV commentary from White City for years fercrissakes.

The BBC love jollies.

WeirdKerr · Post by **WeirdKerr** » 23 Mar 2016, 19:41

And from 2019 no more terrestrial TV coverage for F1 in the UK

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 23 Mar 2016, 19:49

Ah well, we always knew it was going to happen but even I'm surprised its this quickly. Still, whatchagonnado? Buy SKY? Hah! Stop watching F1? Looks like.

I'll miss this place too.

As it sinks in I kinda can't be bothered with F1 at all now. Weird, you'd think I'd be desperate to watch as much as I can whilst I still can but I really don't.

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 23 Mar 2016, 21:06

I think part of the problem may be that Ecclestone and / or the others in charge have seen at the huge sums football can gain from Sky and BT in the UK, and wanted to be a part of that club, but either haven't appreciated or just haven't understood the differences between football and F1.

Football can easily survive being behind a paywall most of the time because it is widely-played, widely-loved, part of the psyche of UK culture. F1, while not exactly a minority sport, doesn't have anything near that reach or impact. You can't play it in the park, there are no "local teams"... Hidden behind a paywall, it can much more easily slip away out of view.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 23 Mar 2016, 21:25

WeirdKerr wrote:And from 2019 no more terrestrial TV coverage for F1 in the UK

Oh sod off Bernie. Just go home, will ya?

rachel1990 · Post by **rachel1990** » 23 Mar 2016, 21:52

Well this has been coming to be honest. Bernie has probably wanted this for years.

I Will NOT be buying a sky package for this. And to be honest I work every Sunday anyway so I rarely get time to watch the races live.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 23 Mar 2016, 22:07

Down went the Royal George, with all her crew complete.

Post by **Ataxia** » 23 Mar 2016, 22:30

I already have the Sky package so I don't expect I'll be at a disadvantage, although I'm hoping by then I won't need it...if you catch my drift.

Regardless, it's worrying where F1's going to get its future fans from in the UK. I stumbled across it when I was about three years old, and I think the bright, fast cars were the aspect which originally got me hooked. With F1 now hidden in a reasonably specialist channel within a subsection of the Sky TV listings, when's that realistically going to happen now?

Perhaps F1 plans to address its online coverage in order to fill the aforementioned void; the TV ownership figures are reducing as internet access across the UK increases, and it's not inconceivable that the twain shall meet in a couple of decades time, if not sooner. There are plenty of things that F1 can do; since the highlights will remain free-to-air, FOM could theoretically use a platform like Youtube to promote them, or perhaps even Netflix; on both, you'd start to recover the audience who came across the sport by accident again. Whilst the process would be different, the net result might be the same.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 23 Mar 2016, 23:22

I'm absolutely gutted by the news. The deal gives exclusivity to Sky - no Sky subscription, no F1, live races or highlights. It's likely they'll package the highlights up for a FTA broadcaster like MotoGP did for ITV4, but that's just a backhanded compliment.

Not everyone can afford a Sky subscription. Those things aren't cheap. I can't justify that sort of expenditure on TV - I hardly watch it outside of sport anyway. Thus I'm made to feel like a second class citizen. I love F1, I always have done, and I've spent, and continue to spend, large parts of my life reading, watching, listening and doing stuff related to it.

I'm really upset about this. Yes, there was always a sense of inevitability once Sky got in on the action that they would eventually end up with the whole cake but even so, it's a real kick in the teeth.

Ataxia is right though. TV is on the slide, audiences are completely fragmented, so perhaps there will be an online option. Again though, this is going to come at a cost. It makes me wonder whether FOM have realised the days of big sponsorship deals are over, and so to replace it and sustain the sport they're trying to maximise the TV revenue. Aside from Martini, when was the last big sponsorship deal in F1? Vodafone to McLaren?

The terrible irony of the GPDA's statement, released a few hours earlier and explicitly mentioning F1's move to pay TV as a bad thing on the same day Sky announce this exclusive deal. You couldn't make this f***ing shite up.

So it's back to 1977 for me. Perhaps the odd highlights show, and if I can be bothered, maybe I'll stream it. I want to be there when the music stops, because a deal like this for a sport like F1 is only going to end one way.

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 24 Mar 2016, 03:39

I am tempted to stop watching the whole sport in protest but it won't do any good so three seasons left then. I'll enjoy it whilst it lasts. For the record Bernie I have watched every season since 1986 when I cheered Senna as a four year old, well done, a fan of 30 years lost

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 24 Mar 2016, 07:48

dinizintheoven wrote:Down went the Boaty McBoatface, with all her crew complete.

Fixed.

F1 seems very much like an addict at this point in that they know getting money from the loan-shark will ultimately be a bad thing in the long run but at least it means getting cash NOW. When you consider the implications this move will have on viewing figures in the UK, assuming it decimates them as in every other country a pay wall has been erected, and then look again at that load of waffle the drivers published yesterday you just have to laugh.

Although I'm sure he'd have a laconic response preprepared, I'd quite like to ask the likes of Martin Brundle, who also gobbed off recently about the state of F1, just how the company he works for doing this is in the greater interests of F1?

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 24 Mar 2016, 10:10

CoopsII wrote:
dinizintheoven wrote:Down went the Boaty McBoatface, with all her crew complete.

Fixed.

F1 seems very much like an addict at this point in that they know getting money from the loan-shark will ultimately be a bad thing in the long run but at least it means getting cash NOW. When you consider the implications this move will have on viewing figures in the UK, assuming it decimates them as in every other country a pay wall has been erected, and then look again at that load of waffle the drivers published yesterday you just have to laugh.

Although I'm sure he'd have a laconic response preprepared, I'd quite like to ask the likes of Martin Brundle, who also gobbed off recently about the state of F1, just how the company he works for doing this is in the greater interests of F1?

The problem is not in Brundle's company but in who runs the commercial side of the sport. It is them who must look beyond tomorrow's paycheck and see that the deals they are making and promoting will only hurt the sport in the long run. Sky only wants to take advantage of Hamilton and Britain's interest which is perfectly okay as they are trying to make a profit out of it.

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 24 Mar 2016, 10:38

This won't make me buy Sky. It'll just make me illegally download their coverage more often.

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 24 Mar 2016, 11:14

DanielPT wrote:The problem is not in Brundle's company but in who runs the commercial side of the sport. It is them who must look beyond tomorrow's paycheck and see that the deals they are making and promoting will only hurt the sport in the long run. Sky only wants to take advantage of Hamilton and Britain's interest which is perfectly okay as they are trying to make a profit out of it.

You're missing my point. SKY are perfectly entitled to run their business as they see fit and generate as big a return on their investments as they can just like F1 can. However, it's a bit farcical to be decrying the decline of something whilst simultaneously collecting a wage from one of the proponents of that decline.

Having done some reading I must admit Brundle is slightly less vociferous in his criticism of F1 then some of his peers, leaning more towards a sense of 'there are some problems but things aren't that bad really'. But now the cynic in me wonders if his opinion is affected by that big fat cheque he gets signed by Rupert.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 24 Mar 2016, 15:07

If McLaren leaves F1 and goes to IndyCar with a Honda engine and body kit, and takes Button and Alonso with them, and terrestrial TV pick up the contract to show that live, maybe that could easily be bigger than F1 here by 2020? Particularly if Button does as well as Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Dan Wheldon in the Indy 500...

Sorry, I forgot, we already have British talent over there to bring the British viewers in - Max Talent Talent Talent Chilton.

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 24 Mar 2016, 20:43

dr-baker wrote:If McLaren leaves F1 and goes to IndyCar with a Honda engine and body kit, and takes Button and Alonso with them, and terrestrial TV pick up the contract to show that live, maybe that could easily be bigger than F1 here by 2020? Particularly if Button does as well as Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Dan Wheldon in the Indy 500...

Sorry, I forgot, we already have British talent over there to bring the British viewers in - Max Talent Talent Talent Chilton.

Is there any reason to believe any of this would happen?

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 24 Mar 2016, 22:27

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:
dr-baker wrote:If McLaren leaves F1 and goes to IndyCar with a Honda engine and body kit, and takes Button and Alonso with them, and terrestrial TV pick up the contract to show that live, maybe that could easily be bigger than F1 here by 2020? Particularly if Button does as well as Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Dan Wheldon in the Indy 500...

Sorry, I forgot, we already have British talent over there to bring the British viewers in - Max Talent Talent Talent Chilton.

Is there any reason to believe any of this would happen?

No. Pure speculation. But I wonder if IndyCar could get a foothold in Britain if a British team/driver was doing well there and it was being shown on free-to-air. After all, there was a small spike of interest in the series here in 1993 for some reason...

Post by **Ataxia** » 24 Mar 2016, 22:39

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:
dr-baker wrote:If McLaren leaves F1 and goes to IndyCar with a Honda engine and body kit, and takes Button and Alonso with them, and terrestrial TV pick up the contract to show that live, maybe that could easily be bigger than F1 here by 2020? Particularly if Button does as well as Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Dan Wheldon in the Indy 500...

Sorry, I forgot, we already have British talent over there to bring the British viewers in - Max Talent Talent Talent Chilton.

Is there any reason to believe any of this would happen?

I think Baker's been sniffing the Pritt Sticks again...

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 24 Mar 2016, 23:28

Ataxia wrote:
I think Baker's been sniffing the Pritt Sticks again...

I wondered what that smell was...

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 25 Mar 2016, 11:31

dr-baker wrote: But I wonder if IndyCar could get a foothold in Britain if a British team/driver was doing well there and it was being shown on free-to-air. After all, there was a small spike of interest in the series here in 1993 for some reason...

And in the late 90s too. C5 used to show full races late at night and although Mega Blundell was competing I don't think he was the impetus behind it.

N.B a cyber kick in the shin to anybody who points out that was Champ Cars not Indycars.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 25 Mar 2016, 14:03

CoopsII wrote:
dr-baker wrote: But I wonder if IndyCar could get a foothold in Britain if a British team/driver was doing well there and it was being shown on free-to-air. After all, there was a small spike of interest in the series here in 1993 for some reason...

And in the late 90s too. C5 used to show full races late at night and although Mega Blundell was competing I don't think he was the impetus behind it.

N.B a cyber kick in the shin to anybody who points out that was Champ Cars not Indycars.

I seem to recall now that the Rockingham 500 got prime-time Grandstand coverage in 2000, only for the race to be delayed due to water seeping up through the newly-laid tarmac...

So could IndyCar bring a new audience to single-seater motorsport in the UK? I don't know how much of a household name JPM still is?

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 25 Mar 2016, 17:20

CoopsII wrote:And in the late 90s too. C5 used to show full races late at night and although Mega Blundell was competing I don't think he was the impetus behind it.
N.B a cyber kick in the shin to anybody who points out that was Champ Cars not Indycars.

I used to watch the C5 broadcasts, and I enjoyed those races too. I'm not sure if I'd watch the series again now all the cars look pretty much the same (and pretty stupid too, if you ask me) but it would be nice to see it on terrestrial TV again.

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 25 Mar 2016, 21:54

You cannot really blame sky for just picking up coverage as overs fall out, you can blame sky for their package being so expensive, although I did get sky sports f1 for free

MorbidelliObese · Post by **MorbidelliObese** » 26 Mar 2016, 01:21

I do have Sky, mainly because it's good value for me in terms of also showing the classic F1 stuff plus for my sins I also follow football, likewise my BT Sport package covers off the other half of the football plus IndyCar, and the Sky+ feature is generally good for my life in general, including recording stuff on Motors TV and Eurosport to watch at my leisure.

All that aside, I can't see how this is anything other than a bad move, I became a fan from flicking through terrestrial TV one day aged 8 and stumbling across a Grand Prix in progress on BBC and liking what I saw, going out of my way to watch the next one, and my interest just kind of grew exponentially from there.

On the IndyCar thing, I don't see it catching on in the mainstream to be honest, Mansell was a one-off, the modern day equivalent would be Hamilton jacking in the F1 thing and heading over there. I'm thinking that way because there's hardly been a drought of British success since Mansell left. Dario Franchitti's achievements there dwarf Mansell's two seasons yet he's barely known over here outside of hardcore motor racing fans, Dan Wheldon got more mainstream publicity here in his home country for dying than he did for winning the Indy 500 (twice!) and the championship

similar story with Justin Wilson really. In fact while I'm not going to look up the numbers I'd be surprised if any country as a whole outside of the US itself and Brazil has had more success by whatever measure in US single seater racing in that period. Maybe FTA would help there but I'm not so sure.

Post by **mario** » 26 Mar 2016, 07:26

MorbidelliObese wrote:I do have Sky, mainly because it's good value for me in terms of also showing the classic F1 stuff plus for my sins I also follow football, likewise my BT Sport package covers off the other half of the football plus IndyCar, and the Sky+ feature is generally good for my life in general, including recording stuff on Motors TV and Eurosport to watch at my leisure.

All that aside, I can't see how this is anything other than a bad move, I became a fan from flicking through terrestrial TV one day aged 8 and stumbling across a Grand Prix in progress on BBC and liking what I saw, going out of my way to watch the next one, and my interest just kind of grew exponentially from there.

On the IndyCar thing, I don't see it catching on in the mainstream to be honest, Mansell was a one-off, the modern day equivalent would be Hamilton jacking in the F1 thing and heading over there. I'm thinking that way because there's hardly been a drought of British success since Mansell left. Dario Franchitti's achievements there dwarf Mansell's two seasons yet he's barely known over here outside of hardcore motor racing fans, Dan Wheldon got more mainstream publicity here in his home country for dying than he did for winning the Indy 500 (twice!) and the championship similar story with Justin Wilson really. In fact while I'm not going to look up the numbers I'd be surprised if any country as a whole outside of the US itself and Brazil has had more success by whatever measure in US single seater racing in that period. Maybe FTA would help there but I'm not so sure.

You are right about the success of British drivers - drivers from the UK have racked up the third highest total of wins in IndyCar (80) - although most of those wins have come from just two drivers (Franchitti and Wheldon, whom between them racked up 47 victories).

As you say, although those drivers were very successful - Franchitti is the 9th most successful driver in the history of the IndyCar series - neither one of them really managed to establish themselves as a presence back in the UK.

I think that it would only really work if an established, high profile driver whose fame spreads beyond Formula 1 was to switch to the IndyCar series - as you suggest, it would probably only really catch on if you had somebody like Hamilton or perhaps Button switching to that series, and even then it would be contingent on them being successful in that series as well.

Moving to free to air coverage would also be pretty much essential to making the sport much more well known in the UK. The viewing figures for MotoGP in the UK, which is on the same network as IndyCar (BT Sport) highlight how difficult it makes it to attract widespread attention with a subscription based service - they were averaging around 150,000 during the season, compared to the BBC's average audience of 1 million in 2013, and in 2015 BT's figures peaked at 433,000 in the final race (compared to a peak of just under 1.5 million for the 2013 title decider on the BBC).

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 26 Mar 2016, 11:32

dr-baker wrote:So could IndyCar bring a new audience to single-seater motorsport in the UK? I don't know how much of a household name JPM still is?

Beyond motorsport households I doubt JPM was ever much of a household name in the UK anyway. We rarely remember Johnny Foreigners unless they actually win the title no matter how good a driver they were. Ask Joe Public who Jean Alesi is and they more than likely won't have a clue.

As far as Indycar goes I believe there's some deep seated awareness of it in the UK which originates mostly from Mansell Mania and more recently, sadly, the deaths of the British drivers. But, again, it would have to be free to watch on TV. I believe even NASCAR would take off if it was available to all as I think the huge ratings the BBC used to get for both F1 and BTTC proves there is an audience over here that likes watching brum brums.

We just don't think it's worth forking out for.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 26 Mar 2016, 12:32

CoopsII wrote: I think the huge ratings the BBC used to get for both F1 and BTTC proves there is an audience over here that likes watching Brum Brums.

Mansell is the only driver I can think of that competed in both series from Brummie...

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 26 Mar 2016, 12:47

dr-baker wrote:
CoopsII wrote: I think the huge ratings the BBC used to get for both F1 and BTTC proves there is an audience over here that likes watching Brum Brums.

Mansell is the only driver I can think of that competed in both series from Brummie...

Brum Brums. Cars. Not people from Birmingham. You doofus

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 26 Mar 2016, 16:42

CoopsII wrote:
dr-baker wrote:
CoopsII wrote: I think the huge ratings the BBC used to get for both F1 and BTTC proves there is an audience over here that likes watching Brum Brums.

Mansell is the only driver I can think of that competed in both series from Brummie...

Brum Brums. Cars. Not people from Birmingham. You doofus

I knew that! :lol:

Spectoremg · Post by **Spectoremg** » 26 Mar 2016, 17:56

Dinner party comment of the future:
'Formula 1, oh I used to watch that. Is it still around?'