‘Tooned’ gets a DVD release

The animation series ‘Tooned’ will be coming out on DVD on December 3rd, it has been announced. The series, which has aired on Sky Sports F1 since the British Grand Prix, is available to buy on DVD exclusively from the McLaren Store for £9.95. Included in the DVD is:

– 12 x 3 minute episodes
– Behind the Scenes features
– ‘The Making Of’
– Ron Dennis interview

Bringing the total length to approximately an hour. The animations are a joint venture between McLaren Animations and Oscar award winning animation studio Framestore. As of writing, there is no news on whether a second season will air on Sky Sports F1 next year, with Jenson Button and Sergio Perez the stars.

Book releases

As you may or may not be aware, there are two F1 broadcasting book releases coming out, one that has already come out. They are:

– “My Chequered Career: Thirty-five years of televising motorsport” by Steve Rider – released on October 4th, 2012
– “The Inside Track: Paddocks, Pit Stops and Tales of My Life in the Fast Lane” by Jake Humphrey – releases on November 8th, 2012

Whilst I am more than likely going to buying both of their books, or probably having them as Christmas presents, I’ve made the decision not to review them. The reason being is that I don’t want to rush through the book for the sake of reviewing it. Instead, what I think I will end up doing is creating blogs on discussion points in the book, say if I see something in Rider’s book that raises an interesting point, then I will create a blog on it and ask for your opinions, as I have done with other blogs on this site.

Although I do have a lot of Formula 1 books, I don’t tend to finish them in a short time period and tend to spend a few months reading that book rather than rushing it to a deadline. I would also consider myself a writer rather than a reader (probably why I’m typing this right now!). The thing with reviewing books as well is that I am basically telling the reader whether to buy it or not. I would prefer the people reading the blog to make their mind up for themselves by buying the books rather than me blogging whether I like or dislike the book. It’s not often we get F1 broadcasting books out, so it would be counter-productive of me to slate both books in a blog, when it would be more useful to create a series of blog posts and viewpoints.

The thing about book reviews is that they don’t affect “the future”. I could say I dislike it, but it has no meaning, no bearing on the future. It is not like me reviewing a television product and saying my thoughts on that which, in theory although unlikely could be read, taken on board and have a bearing on the future. Humphrey is moving onto pastures new and Rider is coming to the end of his motor sport broadcasting tenure in the next five to ten years probably so my thoughts on either books will not be relevant in any way.

So for those wondering, the above is why I will not be reviewing either book, but instead I probably will be creating specific discussion point blogs on each book to better convey a particular point if there is anything I disagree or agree on.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 21st October, 2012)

From BARB:

1 – 51k – The F1 Show (Friday, 20:00)
2 – 10k – Malaysian Grand Prix Highlights (Saturday, 12:31)
3 – 10k – The F1 Show (Sunday, 09:58)
4 – 10k – The F1 Show (Sunday, 17:00)
5 – 8k – Korean Grand Prix Highlights (Thursday, 22:00)
6 – 8k – 2005 Season Review: Part 3 (Sunday, 18:00)
7 – 7k – 2005 Season Review: Part 2 (Saturday, 18:01)
8 – 6k – Korean Grand Prix Highlights (Monday, 16:30)
9 – 6k – Legends (Thursday, 19:00)
10 – 5k – The F1 Show (Saturday, 17:00)

The tenth entry in there is the lowest ever for the table, not once before has the top 10 for Sky Sports F1 gone as low as five thousand viewers.

Elsewhere, on ITV4, the final race day for the British Touring Car Championship averaged 318,000 viewers from 10:30 to 19:00 on Sunday 21st October, a very good number for the championship considering the long run-time. On two wheels, highlights of the British Superbike Championship had 215,000 on the previous Wednesday at 20:00.

Over on Motors TV, all of their entries ranged from ten thousand viewers to 20,000 with things such as highlights of the World Rally Championship, British F1 Sidecars and even Tractor Pulling (whatever the latter may be). The channel even reached more people than Sky Sports F1 through the week, 445,000 viewers for Sky F1 versus 450,000 viewers for Motors TV.

Indian Grand Prix viewing figures drop significantly year-on-year

The Indian Grand Prix coverage on BBC One and Sky Sports F1 peaked with 4.45 million viewers, overnight viewing figures show. The race, screened live on Sky Sports F1 peaked with 1.16 million at 11:00, whilst the BBC One repeat peaked with 3.29 million viewers at 15:10. Whilst that looks okay, year-on-year it is a steep drop, as last years inaugural peaked with a mammoth 7.34 million viewers – 5.55 million at 09:35 and 1.79 million at 15:55 on BBC One.

Last year, BBC One averaged 4.14 million for its live broadcast from 08:30 to 12:00, with a further 1.41 million for the re-run to bring an average of 5.55 million viewers. BBC One’s highlights programme this year brought to 2.78 million the sofa from 14:05 to 15:45. Sky Sports F1’s live broadcast averaged 561,000 viewers from 08:00 to 12:45. If we were to use the average from 08:30 to 12:00 (ie – the same slot as BBC One last year), the average would increase to a healthier 705,000 viewers. Nevertheless, combining that figure and the BBC One highlights figure brings you out with 3.48 million viewers, another low figure in a season that will probably record the lowest average since 2008.

Can we blame Vettel then? Well, not really. After all, last year’s figure was so high, yet the title was already decided! In fact, last year’s Indian Grand Prix figure was unusually high as it is very rare to see an Asian based race over 5 million viewers. So I’m not sure Vettel’s dominance is the cause when last year’s figures were quite frankly, astonishing for Formula 1. One thing that interests me from the breakdowns is that Sky Sports F1’s coverage at 08:00 began with 140,000 viewers. After the race between 11:30 and 12:00 it hovered in the mid-200,000 mark, but then at 12:00 the figures nearly by half to under 140,000 viewers. I can imagine why fans would tune out, after all it was not the most exciting of races, but the BBC F1 Forum still does well for BBC after live races, and it has been running for now four years so it must be somewhat successful. The sudden drop at 12:00 just seemed to confuse me. Maybe four hours constantly is the saturation point for people watching Formula 1?

In any case, the figures are a drop year-on-year and continues a run of mediocre viewing figures.

Thanks to gslam2 for kindly sending me the 2012 breakdown on Digital Spy Forums.

Sky Sports F1 schedule times for GP2 and GP3 season repeats starting this week

Following on from the announcement that Sky Sports F1 are to extend their schedule times for November, below is a list of all of the GP2 and GP3 season repeat times that start this Wednesday.

GP2 Series
23:00 – Wednesday 31st October – Malaysia, Race 1
00:25 – Thursday 1st November – Malaysia, Race 2
12:40 – Thursday 1st November – Bahrain, Race 1 (Round 1)
14:05 – Thursday 1st November – Bahrain, Race 2 (Round 1)
16:40 – Thursday 1st November – Bahrain, Race 1 (Round 2)
18:05 – Thursday 1st November – Bahrain, Race 2 (Round 2)
16:30 – Tuesday 6th November – Spain, Race 1
18:25 – Tuesday 6th November – Spain, Race 2
20:00 – Wednesday 7th November – Monaco, Race 1
22:55 – Wednesday 7th November – Monaco, Race 2
18:35 – Friday 9th November – Europe, Race 1
23:30 – Friday 9th November – Europe, Race 2
12:45 – Saturday 10th November – Britain, Race 1
14:10 – Saturday 10th November – Britain, Race 2
12:45 – Sunday 11th November – Germany, Race 1
14:10 – Sunday 11th November – Germany, Race 2
23:00 – Monday 12th November – Hungary, Race 1
00:25 – Tuesday 13th November – Hungary, Race 2
23:00 – Tuesday 13th November – Belgium, Race 1
00:25 – Wednesday 14th November – Belgium, Race 2
23:00 – Wednesday 14th November – Italy, Race 1
00:25 – Thursday 15th November – Italy, Race 2
15:20 – Thursday 15th November – Singapore, Race 1
16:50 – Thursday 15th November – Singapore, Race 2

GP3 Series
14:50 – Tuesday 6th November – Spain, Race 1
15:40 – Tuesday 6th November – Spain, Race 2
16:15 – Wednesday 7th November – Monaco, Race 1
17:05 – Wednesday 7th November – Monaco, Race 2
16:20 – Friday 9th November – Europe, Race 1
17:10 – Friday 9th November – Europe, Race 2
09:00 – Saturday 10th November – Britain, Race 1
09:55 – Saturday 10th November – Britain, Race 2
09:00 – Sunday 11th November – Germany, Race 1
09:55 – Sunday 11th November – Germany, Race 2
16:20 – Monday 12th November – Hungary, Race 1
17:10 – Monday 12th November – Hungary, Race 2
16:20 – Tuesday 13th November – Belgium, Race 1
17:10 – Tuesday 13th November – Belgium, Race 2
16:20 – Wednesday 14th November – Italy, Race 1
17:10 – Wednesday 14th November – Italy, Race 2

So if you want to relieve GP2 and GP3 again, or alternatively record all of them to watch over the Winter, then above are all the times you need to do so.