In 2014, The F1 Broadcasting Blog has been viewed over 370,000 times, with 2015 set to be another fascinating year. Melanie Sykes, Gary Anderson, BBC F1, Formula E are just some of the talking points of this past year. The most viewed blog posts of 2014 feature two main strands: Melanie Sykes’s BT Sport departure and Gary Anderson’s BBC F1 departure.
10. Statement from BBC’s Head of F1 following Gary Anderson’s departure – February 11th
As the top ten posts show, Gary Anderson parting company with BBC Sport was a big story in the early part of the year. This post shows what Ben Gallop, BBC’s Head of Formula 1, had to say about Anderson leaving the team. This was published one day after…
9. Anderson: BBC believe that viewers not interested in technical analysis – February 10th
…Anderson claimed that, according to the BBC, viewers were not interested in the technical side of Formula 1. Suffice to say that Anderson has never been properly replaced, with Tom Clarkson voicing over some technical features here and there.
8. BT Sport announces Melanie Sykes’s MotoGP departure – May 30th
After a few weeks where things were unclear (see #2), this was not a surprise. The announcement that Melanie Sykes was going to be BT’s MotoGP presenter was met with quiet disapproval. She lasted three months and did one race on location before leaving the role.
7. What today’s announcement means for Sky Sports F1 across Europe – July 25th
Steven in the comments put this one correctly by stating that “we will notice no difference at all.” Six months after that post, what we do know is that BSkyB will be rebranded as Sky. Nothing noticeable has happened on screen, and is unlikely to for some time yet, if at all.
6. BBC announces F1 team for 2014 season – January 27th
The BBC announced their 2014 team, minus Anderson, at the end of January. Their announcement made no reference to Anderson’s departure, with the remainder of the team staying the same.
5. New FOM graphics for 2014 and Coulthard gets a tablet – March 7th
It has to be said that Formula One Management did not give their graphics a complete overhaul, but they did tweak what they had slightly in time for the 2014 season. As for the BBC’s new tablet, it was not used too much on screen and didn’t really make a difference to the end product.
4. Scheduling: The 2014 Jerez test on Sky Sports F1 – January 8th
The first test of any Grand Prix season is hotly anticipated, and this proved to be the case again in 2014 with the new V6 power units. Sky’s 2015 schedule already goes up to January 30th, which means that provisional scheduling details for the first 2015 test will be on the blog in the next week or two…. eek. That’s come around quickly!
3. Melanie Sykes’s BT Sport MotoGP status – May 18th
As discussed above, Sykes at the beginning of May went AWOL from BT Sport’s MotoGP programming. The reason given at the time was “personal circumstances”. Nevertheless, she soon left their coverage, closing a chapter that BT Sport probably want to forget.
2. ITV4 wins rights to screen MotoGP highlights – March 8th
With BT Sport claiming exclusive live rights to MotoGP, the question was whether anyone was going to screen highlights to a wider audience. Thankfully, ITV filled the void, screening a one hour programme on ITV4. What we don’t know is whether that programme will still be around in 2015…
1. Gary Anderson to leave BBC’s Formula 1 team – January 13th
The news revealed not long after the New Year that Gary Anderson was not going to be part of BBC’s team for the 2014 Formula One season. A whopping 95 percent of you said that Anderson leaving was bad for the BBC’s product overall.
2015 will bring with it a new Formula 1 website, when exactly that will be, we don’t know, but that will be a main story during 2015.
Motorsport Broadcasting 