So a lot of the details about the 2012 F1 TV coverage for UK viewers have now been released. Here’s my take on it all. First the nitty gritty:
The BBC will cover live the following 10 races:
China, 15 April
Spain, 13 May
Monaco, 27 May
Europe, 24 June
Britain, 8 July
Belgium, 2 Sept
Singapore, 23 Sept
Korea, 14 Oct
Abu Dhabi, 4 Nov
Brazil, 25 Nov
For the above live races, full practice (on the red button) and qualifying coverage will continue to be shown on TV and the BBC website as well as their interactive service. The post race F1 Forum will also continue for these 10 races, lasting for around one hour on the red button. They will be still sending their presentation team to all 20 races and BBC Radio 5 live will continue to broadcast all races live.
For all the other races there will be a sunday race highlights package which will consist of a 90 minute show for European races (starting from 5.30pm). For races in the Far East, there will be a 2 hour show starting at 2pm. There will also be qualifying highlights (75 mins) on saturdays. All available in HD as well.
Sky will have a dedicated sports channel for F1 starting March 2012 and will show every race live with no adverts during the races. Practice and qualifying sessions will also be shown live. Sky also promises “brand new analysis and highlights shows…and extra coverage through the red button interactive service”. All available in HD also.
Commentary teams
So far, we now know that Martin Brundle is moving to Sky as is David Croft from BBC 5Live. Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and Lee McKenzie staying with BBC.
Cost
If you already have Sky and subscribe to Sky Sports then you will be very happy. Sky are adding the F1 channel to your package for no additional payment
If you have Sky but do not have the sports channels then it will cost you an extra £20 per month. However, it appears if you have the basic package (£20 per month) plus the HD package (£10.25 per month) then you will also have access to the Sky f1 HD channel. Thus it will be a minimum of £363 for effectively 10 extra races (or less depending on what happens to Austin and Bahrain and Sky must be sweating a little on this)
Coverage
To give you a flavour of what to expect from Sky, their cricket coverage is excellent. They cover a LOT more matches than any terrestrial broadcaster could ever hope to show and the commentary teams are first rate. They have introduced a number of technical features which enhance the viewer’s enjoyment and understanding of what is happening. I have no doubt that the same quality and depth of coverage will be maintained and probably enhanced for F1.
Given that they will have a lot of time to fill, I really hope they show the support races - particularly GP2 when they are racing.
My thoughts
Sky will be acutely aware that people will be forking out £363 for just 10 races maximum so they will need to focus on quality coverage and lots of innovations. It will be interesting to see how they fill the time in between the race weekends.
I can see lots of people unsubscribing to Sky at the end of the Brazil 2012 and then resubscribe just before the first F1 race in 2013 which should be Australia in mid March so this reduces the payment by say £60 to around £300.
If you cannot afford the extra or will not pay it then the alternatives are the pub (competing with football) or a (wealthier) mate’s house or wait for the highlights show.
Waiting for the BBC highlights show is going to be a real pain. It will be extremely difficult to avoid all the news about the races so that you don’t know the result beforehand.
The winners
Bernie - still gets his money
BBC - costs reduced
Sky - access to a global premier sport and they will no doubt make it pay very well.
F1 fans who already subscribe to the Sky sports channels or HD package
The Losers
The fans (majority) who don’t have Sky. Ain’t it always the way? The ones that make everything viable get the worst deal? Without the fans, there would no F1.
Companies with an interest in the UK that sponsor F1 - they are going to lose a substantial amount of their live UK audience for half the season.
The future
The deal with F1 and Sky is from 2012 to 2018. We know what is happening in 2012. 2013 or 2014 perhaps the BBC will move to just showing highlights of all races to save more money?
-
boiled-sweet-apple liked this
-
Len Hutton submitted this to intentsgp
