The contractual battle

The news today that the BBC have won the rights to screen The FA Cup from the 2014-15 football season alongside BT Sport means that it is another contract battle that has been resolved. It is very good news for both, but from differing perspectives.

For BBC, it means that they have secured a contract which lasts a significant duration. The contract signed between them and The FA will last until the end of the 2017-18 season. It is the latest in a long line of contracts which is now secure for the next three years or more on the BBC:

– Premier League – expires 2016 (source)
– The Open Golf – expires 2016 (source)
– Wimbledon – expires 2017 (source)
– Six Nations Rugby – expires 2017 (source)
– The FA Cup – expires 2018 (source)
– Formula 1 – expires 2018 (source)
– Olympic Games – expires 2020 (source)

For BT Sport it means that they retain the cup having inherited ESPN UK’s contract for this upcoming season. For the moment on the contractual front, there is a breather before the next round of negotiations start concerning the first few of those contracts – rumours are already beginning concerning the Open Golf and Wimbledon, for example. I don’t expect any of the contracts, including Formula 1, to be broken half way through. I’d be incredibly surprised if that happened.

As for what happens with those contracts, attention now turns to the launch of BT Sport. It is not necessarily the first few weeks what are vital, but the first six months – from August to Christmas. Yes, the first few weeks are important, but it is not all of a sudden game over if the viewing figures and reaction are not what they hoped for. BT in their channel analysis won’t be looking at just one rating or just one figure, but they will be analysing trends over the upcoming months.

If things do not go to plan, then unfortunately for them, Sky Sports will have the cards to potentially deliver a knock out blow later in the game and BT Sport will have to go back to the drawing board. If that does happen, BT Sport could end up the next ITV Digital or Setanta Sports. At this stage, it is impossible to say what will happen, but like I say above, we will be in a much clearer position come Christmas. On the other hand, if things do go to plan, and the uptake for the channel is better then expected, then in their words this could well be a ‘game changer’. Better than expected results mean that they can put more money in and also try and push the boundaries in what they can offer.

And that’s where the above contracts come in. BT will be in a position to say “we can bring audiences to the channel” which will lead to potentially many battles between them, Sky, BBC and ITV. With some spare funds, ITV a few years down the line could bid for any of them, although it has been noted previously that ITV overbid for The FA Cup (as did Setanta) so they may very well be glad to see the back of that deal. I know that some will probably disagree with me here, but it was in a way lucky that the BBC and Sky Formula 1 rights deal happened when it did. Had BBC seen out its contract (which originally would have expired at the end of 2013), right now in a parallel world, we could be seeing both BT and Sky both fighting for the Formula 1 contract from 2014 with BBC left out in the cold with highlights! Yes, two years ago no one, including myself, wanted to see Formula 1 on Sky. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and in hindsight things could have ended up a lot worse than what they did. As for the next round of rights, if BT Sport is still running, it could be all for play for. And that’s not just for F1. That’s for any of those contracts.

Is that good for the consumer, you may ask? I don’t know. With the amount of money broadcasters are paying for lucrative contracts, it means that inevitably price hikes happen every so often. Whether BT Sport will continue to offer BT Sport free to all people with BT Broadband for example this time next year remains to be seen. From the outside, it will be fascinating to see what happens with BT Sport and whether they can walk the walk as well as talk the talk…

Motor sport ratings (week ending 30th June, 2013)

Another week with no Sky Sports F1 ratings on BARB, however, good news is that there are Sky F1 ratings on there for week ending July 7th, so some good news at last on that front! I’ll update the site with those numbers later in the week.

Live coverage of the British Grand Prix from 12:10 to 15:30 on BBC One officially averaged 3.80 million viewers, which placed it only 23rd on the channel’s top 30 chart for the week. The highlight over on ITV4 was the beginning of the Tour de France. Highlights of the first two days averaged 422,000 and 521,000 viewers respectively, with live coverage of the Sunday averaging 282,000 viewers.

Outside of that, it was a quiet week, Motors TV’s highest rating was Tractor Pulling on 26th June which averaged 11,000 viewers, whilst NASCAR highlights had 8,000 viewers on ESPN UK.

BBC receive complaints about German Grand Prix Qualifying spoiler

The BBC have received complaints about the German Grand Prix qualifying result being revealed during their Wimbledon broadcast. The qualifying programme was broadcast from 17:55 to 19:10, but the result was revealed by Sue Barker at about 17:25 during the preceding Wimbledon programme.

The statement read: “We received complaints from viewers who were unhappy that the result of the Formula One German Grand Prix Qualifying was revealed. The reference to Lewis Hamilton having secured pole position in the Formula One German Grand Prix Qualifying earlier that day was an unfortunate error made by the Wimbledon production team. The intention was to promote BBC One’s coverage of the German Grand Prix Final the following day, but in doing so the team failed to realise that at that point BBC One’s highlights of the Qualifying had yet to be broadcast. We apologise for this error and that it affected some viewers’ enjoyment of our Qualifying highlights programme. BBC Sport have reminded their teams of the importance of checking transmission schedules before such promotions.”

At that point in the broadcast, you would not have expected the result to have been revealed on air, so you can see why complaints were made. Normally, with Match of the Day for example, results are revealed with a disclaimer on the BBC News beforehand, but this was during a prior sporting programme where no disclaimer was given on air.

TV cameramen and the pit lane

The German Grand Prix this past Sunday seen a freak accident occur in the pit lane. Thanks to problems in his pit stop, the right rear tyre of Mark Webber’s Red Bull car became unattached, with the tyre rolling down pit lane and hitting an Formula One Management (FOM) cameraman. In response to that, the FIA fined Red Bull €30,000 as well as making a few pit lane changes. FOM made the move to remove cameramen from the pit lane itself and for them instead to be position on the pit stands.

Does the punishment fit the crime? Not really. It is one thing time and time again with the FIA where teams are given an arbitrary financial punishment, which in reality is not a punishment. For a team who’s budget runs into the millions, a €30,000 fine is not a punishment in the slightest. Why not set a precedent? Dock them points? Make both drivers’ do stop and go penalties? I’m not saying that just because it is Red Bull, but because with every passing decision, FIA appears to be slowly losing its grip on the championship. Similar applies with the Mercedes decision, really. Do a test and the penalty in comparison, is rather weak (this being before Britain, things have changed since).

Onto the topic in hand, and I’m going to be honest here, but for me, it makes absolutely zero difference as to who the tyre hit. Yes, it did hit a cameraman. But that cameraman could have easily been a mechanic who had just finished a pit stop, or another team personnel member. Who it hit should make little difference here. Unfortunately it appears from the FIA and FOM’s perspective, it does. FOM and Bernie Ecclestone have decided that from the next round that their cameraman are banned from pit lane and will instead be based on the pit walls. The move does reduce the risk that cameramen face. But how does it remove the overall risk? It doesn’t. It feels like a knee-jerk reaction. Tyres will still roll, and they could, although we hope it doesn’t happen again, hit mechanics. I don’t understand it. If the wheel had hit a mechanic, would FIA decide to ban mechanics from pit lane? Don’t be stupid.

The problem is with the pit stops itself, which the FIA doesn’t appear to understand. Yes, they can change A, B or C, but they seem to be running around the centre point without actually hitting it. None of the changes hit the centre point. Amusingly their changes mean that the speed limit during the entire weekend is now 80km/h, so the speed has been increased during practice sessions. If FIA were really safety conscious, why not do what we see regularly in endurance racing? Four mechanics out in pit lane controlling four tyres. That’s it. None of this 2.5 second stops where the risk factor is multiplied dramatically as errors can be made more frequently due to the fast speed of the stops. Instead, a more controlled, but just as enticing stop for viewers where skill is still required for the car to get out of the pit lane before his rival. Such a move would require six mechanics around the car instead of the fifteen or so at the moment.

Finally, as I noted earlier, the changes don’t affect any TV crew in the slightest. FIA’s announcement makes it seem like some revolutionary change has just occurred. Not really. What went down at the last race in the pit lane will repeat itself in the future. The FIA’s changes do not reduce the risk. Although FIA really want you to think otherwise, the reality is that nothing in the pit lane has changed. – see the update I have made here.

Sky release statement following FIA pit lane changes [UPDATED]

Sky Sports have this morning released a statement following the changes FOM and FIA have made as a result of the incident involving Mark Webber’s Red Bull Racing car this past Sunday.

The statement says: “Following the serious incident which occurred in the pitlane during the German GP last weekend, Sky Sports F1 HD will be working to all new guidelines as specified by FOM. Safety remains a prime concern and we are sure that, whilst the new regulations will mean certain changes to pitlane protocols, we are confident that our coverage will not be affected.”

This should not be seen as much of a surprise. Reporters and non-FOM cameras are banned from the designated pit lane area during qualifying and the race, so from their perspective nothing will change. Some people will wonder what Ted Kravitz and Gary Anderson for BBC will be doing as a result. During qualifying and the race, they do not walk up and down pit lane, instead the pit lane reporters go to the front of each team’s garage by walking through the back of the garage and around the paddock area to whichever team is being reported on.

It appears that this does not stretch as far as practice meaning, again, nothing will change for them so Kravitz, Natalie Pinkham and the other broadcasting teams will still be able to report from pit lane. Which seems slightly bizarre considering the FIA have actually increased the pit lane speed limit to 80km/h and things can be more busier during practice.

Update at 17:56 on July 10th – Will Buxton has tweeted “sad news… TV crews now banned from pitlane for ALL sessions. Going to make our job very tough. Hungary will be interesting.” – this basically means that no cameras from any broadcaster will be allowed in pit lane. It also means that no broadcaster will be able to conduct any interviews from the actual designated pit lane area as well during practice. Sky say that their coverage will not be affected, if Buxton’s tweet does turn out to be the case, it will significantly effect their practice coverage which makes use of their cameras down in pit lane a lot when getting car shots and also interviews with Kravitz and Natalie Pinkham.