Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 4th November, 2012)

From BARB:

1 – 541k – Live Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Sunday, 11:30)
2 – 315k – Live Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Qualifying (Saturday, 12:00)
3 – 117k – Live Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Practice 3 (Saturday, 09:45)
4 – 88k – Live Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Practice 1 (Friday, 08:45)
5 – 76k – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Qualifying Replay (Saturday, 15:45)
6 – 67k – Live Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Practice 2 (Friday, 12:45)
7 – 66k – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Qualifying Replay (Sunday, 08:45)
8 – 46k – Britain’s Next F1 Star (Sunday, 16:17)
9 – 45k – Inside Track: Sebastian Vettel (Saturday, 11:45)
10 – 40k – Legends (Saturday, 11:15)

A good set of ratings here considering it was a BBC live weekend. The live race day programmes compares favourably to other rounds where BBC are also live:

– Spain: 523k
– Monaco: 565k
– Europe: 531k
– Singapore: 475k

Furthermore, Britain’s Next F1 Star makes its first appearance in the top 10, interestingly for its Sunday repeat and not the Thursday première airing, which shows that the Sunday post-race slot is more attractive than a stable Thursday slot at 19:30 as the Formula 1 audience is already there.

The Inside Track show with Sebastian Vettel was an extended interview he did with Ted Kravitz recorded during the Indian Grand Prix weekend. Like above, this wasn’t a première airing, although it was worth a watch as it was the raw version rather than a trimmed down version. It was nice seeing Vettel mess around a bit in the extended version, which did not make the cut down version. Of course, only those that were lucky enough to spot the late addition to the schedule were able to watch it.

No F1 Show in the top ten either, I do wonder whether they will change the Friday scheduling of that next year because the editions on race weekend seem to vary wildly ratings wise.

F1 2012 DVD season review to be released in 2013

Bad news for those including myself who were hoping for the 2012 Formula One season review DVD/Blu-Ray to be released before Christmas. Amazon.co.uk have a release date currently of January 7th, 2013, two weeks after Christmas.

Considering the 2011 season review was released on December 26th last year, I’m slightly confused as to why the 2012 date has been pushed back into 2013. Going by last year’s date, I was anticipating a release of Christmas Eve this year, but it appears that won’t happen. The late date may be due to a change of distributors, last year was released by Universal Pictures UK, whereas this year according to Amazon is being distributed by Metrodome Group.

I don’t know how well the DVD sales are worldwide, but I imagine it will sell a lot less than normal with the release date after Christmas.

The DVD as usual will be voiced by Will Buxton and Ben Edwards. Luckily, if you prefer your season reviews in book form, then AUTOCOURSE comes out on December 1st, whilst The Official Formula 1 Season Review is released on December 13th.

Update on January 4th – Bad news for those wanting the Blu-Ray copy, it has been pushed back to January 14th according to Amazon.

200 and upwards

On Thursday, The F1 Broadcasting Blog passed 200 posts, which is for me a fantastic achievement. Arguably the latter one hundred is more difficult than the first hundred because you risk regurgitating yourself which is something I have tried not to do so far, although that in itself can be difficult!

In any case, I am thankful for those that are continuing to read, as of writing the blog has recorded over 34,000 views, which has simply staggered me – it seems strange writing that when back in July at post 100 it was just over 5,000 views. Okay, it may not be as high as some Formula 1 sites out there, but to my knowledge there is not another Formula 1 and motor sport broadcasting site out there, so it is in many different ways unknown territory.

It has, for the most part though been successful, I still enjoy writing about it which is the main thing alongside juggling my University commitments. Inevitably though, there will always be room for improvement, whether it is what the blog covers, or, to be more succinct, what the blog does not cover that it probably should or could. Whether I spread my wings in terms of content in 2013, time will tell depending on what happens with other commitments and time.

As I did back in July, for those just starting to read, I shall link below to the ten posts that have received the most views since I started the blog:

– 10. The BBC F1 Team: The Verdict so Far, August 16th
– 9. Predicting the 2013 calendar pick order, September 21st*
– 8. Ecclestone suggests the end is near for BBC F1… or is it?, June 7th [8th when I reached 100 posts]
– 7. McLaren launch animation unit with new animation series ‘Tooned’ on Sky Sports F1, July 6th [2nd when I reached 100 posts]
– 6. The Sky Sports F1 Team: The Verdict so Far, August 14th
– 5. Live Blog: The 2012 Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying session, September 22nd
– 4. Eddie Jordan’s credibility, September 5th
– 3. Tom Clarkson doing Lee McKenzie’s job this weekend, June 9th [1st when I reached 100 posts]
– 2. A few thoughts on Jake Humphrey leaving the BBC, September 18th
– 1. Italian Grand Prix records highest rating since 1998, September 10th**

* may still be modified depending on calendar changes
** thanks to this share by Jake Humphrey

I’ll end this post by saying thank you to everyone who has read the site so far, and I hope you enjoy the site more as we head towards and into 2013.

Cheers,
Dave
Owner of The F1 Broadcasting Blog

Scheduling: The United States Grand Prix

Two races. Two drivers. One championship. But who will crowned the 2012 Formula One Drivers’ Champion? The story could end in Austin, Texas for the first ever Formula 1 race to be held at the Circuit of the Americas’ as Formula 1 attempts to break into USA once more.

Due to Match of the Day on BBC One, Qualifying highlights on Saturday will air on BBC Two. With it being a fly-away, I don’t know whether there will be a forum, however, if the title does end up being resolved, I do hope a forum is put on the BBC website on Monday morning.

John Watson will be alongside James Allen this weekend for 5 Live, and as with Abu Dhabi, Ben Edwards will be joining Watson for practice 1. As noted earlier this week, if you have Virgin Media and their Sports pack, you can now watch Sky Sports F1 online, which may be handy during this weekend’s coverage. More on that story here.

The fifth episode of Britain’s Next F1 Star features Dean Smith, with the final episode before the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend featuring Alex Brundle.

Thursday 15th November
17:00 to 17:30 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
19:30 to 20:00 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (5/6) (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 16th November
14:45 to 16:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
15:10 to 16:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
18:45 to 21:00 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
21:00 to 21:40 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
23:00 to 00:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)

Saturday 17th November
14:45 to 16:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 19:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
17:55 to 19:20 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
21:00 to 22:15 – F1: Qualifying Highlights (BBC Two/HD)

Sunday 18th November
17:30 to 22:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
18:55 to 21:00 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
22:25 to 00:25 – F1: Race Highlights (BBC One excluding Wales)
22:55 to 00:55 – F1: Race Highlights (BBC One Wales)

As always, I shall update this blog if there are any small adjustments to be made.

Sky Sports F1 to remain on air over the Winter

Sky Sports F1 will remain on air over the Winter period, I can today confirm. The schedule for Christmas Day includes Britain’s Next F1 Star, and is as follows:

Sky Sports F1 – Christmas Day
11:00 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (1/6)
11:30 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (2/6)
12:00 – TBC (likely 2012 review)
14:00 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (3/6)
14:30 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (4/6)
15:00 – TBC (likely 2012 review)
17:00 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (5/6)
17:30 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (6/6)

It has always been that Sky Sports F1 will go off-air on Friday 30th November that was the most likely option, on the basis of the information released in the now familiar Sky Media document before the start of the season. So the above information, which I believe is the confirmed schedule, contradicts that.

Now, if Sky Sports F1 is remaining on-air over the Winter then well, Sky, you know what the F1 fans out there including myself want… substitute August for December and you get my drift.

Update at 17:45 – Okay, the above has been rewritten heavily. The schedules for the first week in December have been released, and there are shows on Sky Sports F1. What I should note that it is the usual repeats, so Legends, Fast Track, Weekend in Stills and Weekend in Words and the such like up until Friday 7th December at least. So whilst it is surprising to see this (given the Sky Media document), the schedule content is unsurprising in terms of repeats.