Month: October 2015

Scheduling: The 2015 Russian Grand Prix

The motor sport calendar is a weird thing. You have weekends where there is not much occurring, and then you have other times when the timetable is full of motor sport. Next weekend is jam-packed: Formula 1, MotoGP, BTCC and a lot more filling the spotlight.

Formula 1 heads to Russia where it feels like the majority of action will take place off the track rather than on it, but we shall see what happens before next Sunday’s race begins. BBC’s schedule is back to usual with the Forum on the Red Button, whilst Sky have a split qualifying show for the second year running due to Russia’s unique schedule which sees the first GP3 race placed in the gap between practice three and qualifying.

While F1 is in Russia, both MotoGP and the World Endurance Championship are in Japan, at Motegi and Fuji respectively. British Eurosport will be covering the latter exclusively live as Motors TV are showing the Bathurst 1000 at the same time. A note on the MotoGP, because of the Rugby World Cup and the timezone difference, BT’s coverage will be mostly studio based for Japan, Australia and Malaysia. Elsewhere, the British Touring Car Championship and the Blancpain Sprint Series come to their conclusion next weekend.

All the scheduling details you need can be found below…

BBC F1
BBC TV – Sessions
09/10 – 07:55 to 09:45 – Practice 1 (BBC Two)
09/10 – 11:55 to 13:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Red Button)
10/10 – 09:55 to 11:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Two)
10/10 – 12:10 to 14:25 – Qualifying (BBC One)
11/10 – 11:00 to 14:15 – Race (BBC One)
11/10 – 14:15 to 15:15 – Forum (BBC Red Button)

BBC Radio – Sessions
09/10 – 07:55 to 09:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
09/10 – 11:55 to 13:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
10/10 – 09:55 to 11:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
10/10 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
11/10 – 11:00 to 14:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Supplementary Programming
08/10 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
09/10 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
10/10 – 14:30 to 15:30 – F1 Rewind (BBC Two)
10/10 – 19:45 to 20:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
09/10 – 07:45 to 10:00 – Practice 1
09/10 – 11:45 to 13:55 – Practice 2
10/10 – 09:45 to 11:25
=> 09:45 – Practice 3
=> 11:15 – Qualifying – Part 1
10/10 – 12:15 to 14:35 – Qualifying – Part 2
11/10 – 10:30 to 15:15 – Race
=> 10:30 – Track Parade
=> 11:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 11:30 – Race
=> 14:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
08/10 – 13:00 to 13:30 – Driver Press Conference
08/10 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Russia
09/10 – 15:00 to 15:45 – Team Press Conference
09/10 – 16:00 to 17:00 – The F1 Show
14/10 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

GP2 Series – Russia (Sky Sports F1)
09/10 – 10:00 to 10:50 – Practice
09/10 – 13:55 to 14:35 – Qualifying
10/10 – 14:35 to 16:05 – Race 1
11/10 – 08:00 to 09:15 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Russia (Sky Sports F1)
10/10 – 07:30 to 08:05 – Qualifying
11/10 – 06:55 to 07:55 – Race 1
11/10 – 09:25 to 10:25 – Race 2

MotoGP – Japan (BT Sport 2)
09/10 – 01:00 to 03:45 – Practice 1
09/10 – 05:00 to 08:00 – Practice 2
10/10 – 01:00 to 08:15
=> 01:00 – Practice 3
=> 04:00 – Qualifying
11/10 – 00:30 to 02:15 – Warm Up
11/10 – 02:45 to 07:15 – Races

MotoGP – Japan (ITV4)
12/10 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

Blancpain Sprint Series – Zandvoort (BT Sport 2)
10/10 – 13:00 to 14:30 – Qualifying
11/10 – 12:30 to 14:30 – Race

British Touring Car Championship – Brands Hatch (ITV4)
11/10 – 10:30 to 18:15 – Races

V8 Supercars – Bathurst 1000
11/10 – 23:30 to 07:30 – Race (Motors TV)
11/10 – 00:00 to 07:45 – Race (BT Sport Europe)

World Endurance Championship – Fuji
11/10 – 03:00 to 09:15 – Race (British Eurosport)
13/10 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Highlights (Quest)

If anything changes, I will update the schedule above.

Update on October 10th at 14:30 – The heavy crash of Carlos Sainz in practice three meant that the first GP3 race has been pushed back to tomorrow. I’ve updated the schedule above to take that into account.

Sky to merge F1 production teams for 2016?

Just over a year ago, it was announced that BSkyB had acquired a stake in Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, with the two alongside Sky’s UK arm forming “Sky Europe”. At the time, I noted that it was pretty clear that Sky were looking towards the possibility of having a centralised production facility for Formula 1.

Since then, we have not heard anything on the subject with relation to Formula 1… until now. On Wednesday’s Midweek Motorsport podcast (located here), it was reported that Sky will indeed be merging their three Formula 1 production teams (UK, Germany and Italy) into “a single production house” in time for the 2016 Formula One season. In response to a question about the BBC’s lack of money, John Hindhaugh said “Sky have got no money because they overspent on the English Premier League and now they don’t have the money for Formula 1 either. They are having to bring in Sky Italy, Sky UK and Sky Germany into a single production house and I think that’s going to be really interesting next year.” Nick Daman followed up by saying that there is “arm waving” going on.

One key element in any change process is that the customer watching Sky’s programming should not notice that change, irrespective of country, it should be a seamless transition. For that reason, I do not expect a sudden clear-out of anyone who is working in front of the cameras. To remind readers, Andrew Griffith, who is Sky’s Chief Financial Officer said the following in July 2014: “The enlarged group will be able to share programming, channel brands and creative across territories, as well as to be more effective in the production of live cross-border events. An example is Formula 1, where all three broadcasters each currently send their own separate production capability.”

In my opinion, we can expect a more unified Sky Sports F1 channel across UK, Germany and Italy from 2016. Readers may have noticed some linkage already this season, earlier in the season, Sky Italia’s pit lane reporter conducted an interview with Ferrari’s drivers which aired in the UK, whilst Sky Deutschland’s Tanja Bauer appeared on the UK version of The F1 Show. Reading into the comments made by Hindhaugh, combined with what Griffith said last July, it looks like there will be more shared elements to proceedings, covering things such as opening titles, break bumpers and idents.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see The F1 Show changed so that the same programme airs across the three countries. Fox Sports in Australia already pick up The F1 Show it is worth remembering. There’s little benefit to Sky airing three separate F1 Show’s to a minuscule audience as it currently stands, from a cost perspective it looks like an easy saving to me. Furthermore, I think that the majority of the features that are produced will air in all three territories. The only difference being that three distinctive teams will link in and out, as is the case now, but can one production team do three live broadcasts at once? There are a lot of questions, none of which necessarily have answers here and now (in the public domain, at least).

Sky have not yet commented on this subject, and a request for comment concerning the future of the F1 channel in the UK went unanswered back in July. I have put another request for comment in to Sky, and will post further if I hear anything on the subject.

Update on October 3rd – Thanks to mlt11 on Digital Spy for this tip. Sky’s results presentation from July claims that they are already making £8 million worth of savings as a result of this, noting that the new production model was “rapid implementation in time for 2015 season”, with a “single production team, sharing facilities, back-up feeds and logistics”. I would expect them to make further savings for 2016, which I suspect that was what Hindhaugh was referring to.