Month: June 2015

Scheduling: The 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans

The greatest endurance race on earth takes place next weekend with the 24 Hours of Le Mans! British Eurosport have their usual extensive coverage which begins on Monday 8th June, covering practice, qualifying and the race itself. This is the only race in the World Endurance Championship season that Motors TV do not cover, with Eurosport screening the race exclusively live. Saying that, Quest TV, which like Eurosport is owned by Discovery Networks, will be covering the start and the end of the race live on their channel.

There is a half hour portion which Eurosport will not be covering live from 20:00 to 20:30 on the Saturday due to cycling highlights. As in previous years, Martin Haven leads Eurosport’s coverage, with a range of voices including Mark Shaw, Jeremy Shaw, Tom Gaymor and Liz Halliday also involved in their coverage. For those of you that watch overnight, you’ll be happy to hear that you are guaranteed a full service with the news that TV cameras will be active for the entire 24 hours.

Monday 8th June
20:00 to 20:30 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

Tuesday 9th June
21:55 to 22:30 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

Wednesday 10th June
15:00 to 19:00 – Live Practice (Eurosport 2)
20:30 to 21:00 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
21:00 to 23:00 – Live Qualifying 1 (Eurosport)

Thursday 11th June
18:00 to 20:15 – Live Qualifying 2 (Eurosport)
20:15 to 20:45 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
20:45 to 23:00 – Live Qualifying 3 (Eurosport)

Friday 12th June
21:15 to 21:45 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport 2)

Saturday 13th June
07:45 to 08:45 – Live Warm Up (Eurosport)
08:45 to 09:45 – Live Legends Race (Eurosport)
13:15 to 13:45 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
20:00 to 20:30 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
– for details of the race itself, see below

Sunday 14th June
07:30 to 08:00 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
14:15 to 14:45 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

The race itself beginning on the Saturday…
13:30 to 15:30 – Quest TV
13:45 to 20:00 – Eurosport
20:30 to 07:30 – Eurosport
21:00 to 22:00 – Quest TV [Highlights]
07:00 to 08:00 – Quest TV [Highlights]
07:30 to 08:00 – Eurosport 2
08:00 to 14:15 – Eurosport
13:00 to 14:30 – Quest TV

As always, if anything changes, I will update the schedule.

London ePrix to be shown live on ITV’s main channel

The season-ending London ePrix from Battersea Park will be broadcast on ITV’s main channel in the United Kingdom, it has been confirmed.

The news was made official by ITV’s Formula E presenter Jennie Gow. Writing on her blog, Gow said: “We will bring you all the action LIVE on ITV4 on Saturday 27th June with qualifying from 11.30am and then the season will draw to a close in spectacular style as we bring you the title decider LIVE on ITV’s main channel. We’ll be in Battersea Park for the weekend so it will be great to meet as many of you as possible!”

Reading Gow’s post, it looks like the Saturday action will air on ITV4, with Sunday’s action airing on ITV(1). The reason for the move is because the British Touring Car Championship will be occupying ITV4 on Sunday 28th June with action from Croft, meaning that something had to move to either ITV or ITV.com, as I noted a few weeks back. I’m glad that ITV chose to move Formula E to their main channel, furthermore, it will be the first time since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix that a single-seater event has aired live on the channel.

Gow’s post also confirms that the ITV team will be on-location during the weekend, and that qualifying will have a 30-minute build-up, similar to ITV’s F1 coverage from 1997 to 2008. The move will help Formula E reach a bigger, and hopefully wider audience. There is no major sporting opposition during that weekend, as Wimbledon is starting later this year.

It is too early to read anything conclusive into this regarding any coverage plans for season two. Whether ITV will continue to broadcast Formula E for the 2015-16 season remains to be seen.