Highlights of AUTOSPORT Awards 2013 to be shown on Sky Sports F1

Sky Sports F1 are to screen highlights of this year’s AUTOSPORT Awards, it has been confirmed today.

As noted by the channel’s assistant producer, Neil Wooding on Twitter: “There will be a programme from the Awards on the #SkyF1 channel soon. Timings and details to follow.”

From AUTOSPORT’s perspective, I assume the reason they choose to not stream it live, unlike in 2011, is a cost issue. Why the two parties cannot come to an agreement and bang their heads together, thus allowing the Awards to be shown live on Sky Sports F1 and streamed online, I don’t know. It is madness, and the fans lose out, again. Either that, or someone high up in the Sky Sports F1 chain just does not think the Awards are important to show live.

Fans vote in these awards, so they should be able to watch it live via the internet or on TV. It is 2013, after all. As always, I’ll update the blog with schedule times.

Update on December 18th – The highlights are 60 minutes long, and will première on Christmas Day at 18:00.

Update on December 23rd – The first few air-times over the festive period are as follows:

– Wednesday 25th December, 18:00
– Wednesday 25th December, 23:30
– Friday 27th December, 19:00
– Friday 27th December, 23:40
– Tuesday 31st December, 19:00
– Thursday 2nd January, 18:00

Note that it is also on Sky+’s On Demand service for those with access to that.

US Grand Prix hits six year F1 ratings low

The United States Grand Prix recorded the lowest viewership for a Formula 1 Grand Prix in the United Kingdom in six years, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.

Coverage of the race, screened in highlights form on BBC One from 22:25, averaged 1.71m (15.4%). Sky Sports F1’s live coverage of the race itself, from 18:00 to 21:15, averaged a further 761k (3.0%). Both figures are down, BBC’s highlights show was down 510k on 2012, whilst Sky was down at least 55k on 2012, although the 2012 comparison is based on the 17:30 to 22:15 time slot, the channel having split their race day programme into three parts since.

The combined overnight viewership is therefore in the 2.5 million viewer region, the lowest for the race since at least 2006. The figure itself unofficially is the lowest for a Formula 1 race since the 2007 Bahrain Grand Prix, which was screened live on ITV to an audience of 2.54m (34.1%). Officially, the race is expected to the lowest rated Formula 1 race since at least 2008.

The 2012 United States Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

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BBC F1 vs Sky Sports F1: Your 2013 Verdict Revealed

Last Sunday, at the conclusion of the Brazilian Grand Prix, I asked for your opinion on the BBC and Sky Sports Formula 1 programming this season. Once again, the response from readers has been fantastic, with 21 comments on that post.

It should not be a surprise that the main topic of conversation was Suzi Perry’s role as BBC F1 presenter. In the comments that were made, it was difficult for me to find a positive, to be honest, with the main consensus that she is the weak link in the BBC team.

I have become increasingly tired of Suzi Perry tripping over her words when speaking live. I know that she has to do the tricky bit of listening to instructions in her ear and talking but even this last race was littered with minor errors that really grate after a while or is just me? Prime example: referred to the V8 engines in the build up show as being the “start of an era” or “the end of a new era”. – b1uenose

Suzi clearly is not a fan of F1 and it would certainly be best for all concerned if BT came calling for her for MotoGP. If that were to happen, I would hope that Lee McKenzie would get the job. – Sean

James Rowe makes a point that Perry’s presenting has meant that the standard of the forum has decreased compared with the high quality of 2012, however velvet argues that Perry has done well in 2013, when considering other previous efforts:

She was better than I thought, wish she’d stop tripping over her words but she was way more comfortable in this arena than Simon [Lazenby] was at first.

Whilst Perry has been criticised above, it appears the jury is still out on Lazenby, with several readers believing Sky are better off looking elsewhere:

Don’t get me started on Lazenby, no idea why Sky haven’t replaced him yet. – marc

For Sky, get rid of Lazenby for anybody else, along with Herbert, he seems far too smug and in your face, shall we say. – James Rowe

Connor McDonagh is more positive about Lazenby, but is not as impressed with Herbert’s contributions:

I disliked Lazenby but have started to like him a bit more, his presenting has improved and making it better for the viewers. Some of Herbert’s comments are ridiculous and offer no insight whatsoever such as ”You need a car which drives well”, however I like Johnny, can be quite funny alongside [Damon] Hill.

Another key subject was the commentary, with readers on the whole leaning towards the Ben Edwards and David Coulthard combination on the BBC:

I can’t put my finger on it but [Martin] Brundle seems to have lost his shine and Coulthard has overtaken him. It could be down to Coulthard being experienced with modern cars or just that he’s fresher to commentary than Brundle. Also, I can’t stand [David] Croft, his voice grates on me and his excitement sounds forced. – marc

In terms of commentary, BBC wins this. Ben Edwards is one of, if not the best commentator around and with Coulthard alongside him, they create an almost unbeatable duo. Gary Anderson’s snippets during commentary is also very useful, especially when he makes the strategies easy to understand. David Croft for Sky is far too shouty. The emotion which he tries to portray sounds forced and ruins it for me, although Brundle is still a vital asset to Sky. – James Rowe

While the BBC commentary is a highlight with readers, it appears the BBC highlight shows themselves are not winning readers over, JackiJam was particularly damming:

The coverage of the Austin, Texas race was abysmally poor, and the so called ‘replays’ of live coverage were nothing more than highlights, often less than 1.5 hours.

The point that Sky only have drivers’ as pundits was raised by velvet, however others say that Sky’s coverage has improved versus 2012:

Fantastic coverage, loads of insights, Ted Kravitz, Martin [Brundle] and Anthony [Davidson] really make the coverage of races and practices amazing. Testing coverage has made the channel come alive this year and is great to see a channel do so. – Chris Robey

I’ll finish this piece with one comment, which is some food for thought:

Ultimately though I don’t think either side is near the level of BBC from 2009 to 2011. – Sean

There are a lot more comments on the original blog post, some of which are really worth reading, but the above is just a little taster on what blog readers are talking about.