The Singapore Grand Prix is the first of Formula 1’s traditional fly-away season which takes us to the end of the year. The championship after Singapore heads through Japan, Russia, USA, Mexico, Brazil and lastly Abu Dhabi. Singapore is now the second night race of the year with Bahrain being converted to a night race last season.
Sky Sports again have exclusive live rights to this race, with BBC screening highlights on the fringes of prime time. The main point this weekend is that the action clashes with the Rugby World Cup on ITV, which I would expect to affect both BBC’s and Sky’s ratings. BBC’s highlights programming clashes with South Africa vs Japan and New Zealand vs Argentina. I don’t think either game will rate highly, but enough to dent the F1’s numbers.
BBC Radio’s coverage of the Rugby World Cup means that only practice one and the race itself will be aired live on radio, with the remaining sessions consigned to online only listening. In terms of personnel, one change to report, former Jordan and Red Bull man Mark Gallagher is in the 5 Live commentary booth in place of Allan McNish. Also, there is no GP2 and GP3 this weekend, both series’ return in Russia. The full details as usual can be found below…
BBC F1
BBC One
19/09 – 17:10 to 18:35 – Qualifying Highlights
20/09 – 17:00 to 18:35 – Race Highlights
BBC News Channel
18/09 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1
19/09 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1
BBC Radio
18/09 – 10:55 to 12:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
19/09 – 10:55 to 12:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
20/09 – 13:00 to 15:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
Sky Sports F1
Sessions
18/09 – 10:45 to 12:50 – Practice 1
18/09 – 14:15 to 16:15 – Practice 2
19/09 – 10:45 to 12:15 – Practice 3
19/09 – 13:00 to 15:45 – Qualifying
20/09 – 11:30 to 16:15 – Race
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 12:30 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live
Supplementary Programming
17/09 – 11:00 to 11:30 – Driver Press Conference
17/09 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Singapore
18/09 – 16:15 to 17:00 – Team Press Conference
18/09 – 18:30 to 19:30 – The F1 Show
23/09 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report
As always, if anything changes, I will update the schedule.
Motorsport Broadcasting 
It’s so nice of the BBC to provide us with an extra 5 minutes of talking during the highlights show. As per usual, Sky will take their approach of boring the viewer before the race has begun.
Sky has had two very strong build ups in a row. Nothing boring about the recent ones, especially with the rowing race they had.
My point entirely, 2 strong build ups in 4 years of F1 coverage. Money grabber Ecclestone is not bothered about the BBC or the fans, just his own pockets.
My point entirely, 2 strong build ups in 4 years of F1 coverage. Money grabber Ecclestone is not bothered about the BBC or the fans, just his own pockets.
No. I didn’t say 2 strong buildups in four years. I just made a general point their buildups have been thoroughly entertaining the last two races. You are clearly misinformed about this whole situation. Bernie Ecclestone was a big fan of keeping F1 free-to-air and on the BBC. The BBC are the ones responsible for this Sky split, because they refused to pay the standard price for the live rights, due to budget cuts. Ecclestone is very much on the side of the fans.
I am over exaggerating my point, whuch is slightly valid. Ecclestone is the fakest man alive and if you want to believe he’s on our side, that’s up to you. Yes, the BBC agreed the partnership but FOM get the final decision – and they never said no. I have to agree with the point that Sky would get less viewers than the BBC, but under the current situation, if all races were live on the BBC, they’d pull in around 8 million people, thus providing the Beeb a larger prifit and give Ecclestone more money than Sky Sports will ever provide him with.
Jordan: BE is on the side of making himself more money. He’s managed to get a lot of free-to-air coverage in the UK and get more money from the split deal. If Sky offered more than the current combined total he’d take it. BE will talk about it being for the fans when it suits him. He constantly changes his tune depending on he thinks benefits him the most at that time.
Caine: I don’t know where you are from but you clearly do not understand the BBC and it’s position. It is not a commercial network. It’s funding comes from a licence fee paid by everyone in the UK with a TV. There is no profit. More viewers does not mean more money. They have had to make big budget cuts because the licence fee has not been increased with inflation and the F1 coverage was the first to suffer. They saved a lot of money by doing the split deal with Sky. It was either that or lose the coverage completely. No Sky coverage would not increase the BBC’s viewing figures by much, as evidenced by the comparatively small numbers Sky gets, even when they have a race exclusively live. Keep in mind that everyone with Sky has access to the BBC channels through that system too, so a lot of BBC F1 viewers will be doing so via their Sky set-top box.
Rich: I know the BBC don’t gain extra money but FOM will, my comment was badly written, I mean’t FOM will gain more viewers through one platform than two. On the flip side, you do talk sense.
Yes Bernie is mainly about the money, but he is still very pro-BBC in terms of keeping this deal and keeping F1 on free-to-air. He knows where the balance is between loosing too much publicity and damaging the sport and lining his pockets.
The F1 show is usually repeated on Sky1 the next day; for anyone like me who has basic Sky & no Sports.
Practice 3 is live on 5 Live Sports Extra from 10.55 – 12.05.
Added, thanks