The 2015 MotoGP season has come to a nail-biting conclusion in Valencia with Jorge Lorenzo winning the championship at the last opportunity! Controversial, tense, thrilling, many superlatives can describe this year. It also brings to an end BT Sport’s second season of covering MotoGP, having taken over the rights from the BBC. Viewing figures have increased significantly year-on-year, and whilst they are still down on BBC’s numbers by some margin, more people have been following BT’s coverage.
This year has not been a roller-coaster for the team like 2014, instead we have had the same stable line-up throughout the year fronted by Abi Griffiths and Craig Doyle, with Keith Huewen and Julian Ryder commentating on each and every lap. 2015 also saw the first MotoGP race broadcast in Ultra HD, the British MotoGP back in August.
Now, it is your chance to have your say: what did BT Sport do better this year than 2014, and what aspects of the coverage do they need to improve on further? How well have BT covered the drama in your eyes, or have you been reliant on ITV4’s highlights on Monday evenings? How can BT Sport build on 2015’s numbers heading into 2016?
The best thoughts from this blog post will be trimmed and sliced into a new article in a couple of weeks time.
Motorsport Broadcasting 
Replace Neil Hodgson and James Toseland. They are awful, especially Hodgson.
The TV direction by Dorma was fantastic this year, it’s so much better that the F1 TV Direction. They have always been there to show the big battles and spectacular incidents, they have also debuted some cool graphics which looks so cool.
As for BT great coverage as always with a fantastic commentary team but the highlight of the year was the UHD debut at Silverstone, bet that was amazing to see racing in 4K!
As a suggestion for next year I feel like some races should move to BT Sport 1 to boost ratings, I know some will have to be on BT Sport 2 because of Football but when it’s the off-season/early races it really should be on BT Sport 1 because it would help ratings for those who only have the BT Sport Lite pack, it’s lucky that it’s getting heavily promoted during many live programs which does help the ratings a bit. Additionally I hope more races are shown on the Ultra HD channel and maybe we should have some races shown on the FTA channel BT Sport Showcase!
Any way well done BT again, keep up with the good coverage!
I would love to see more technical features about the bikes, ideally drafting in Neil Spalding for next season.What he doesn’t know about a motogp bike isn’t worth knowing.I’m not a fan of Toesland and Thomas but that’s just my personal opinion.Loving the coverage of all the sessions live and Dorna’s camerawork is second to none.Great to see live testing in the next few days on BT as well.Overall I’m happy with BtSports coverage.
I realise this might not be specific to the coverage itself, but BT changed their offering during the year, which meant many people had to pay extra or lose MotoGP mid-season, including to people still in a minimum contract period with BT.
I signed up to a 12 month contract extension on the understanding it included MotoGP and then had it taken away mid-season and mid-contract. I will no longer recommend BT / BT Sport to anybody, because that’s just not an ethical business practice. I managed to watch the final race fortunately.
As for the coverage, to be honest all I watch is the race. I’m not bothered about the buildup or analysis compared to, say, F1. The race commentators do the job required, but I do find it amusing how often they’ll say one thing and then something completely the opposite soon after.
Overall, compared to 2014, much better coverage. Still biased as ****, but they’ve done rather well this year. They finally went to the races this year! shame the didn’t go to the Asian rounds, but still at least they bothered to go, instead of presenting it from the studio all the time. There are still things that need to be improve. BT aren’t exactly focusing that much of their channels on the MotoGP, they still have clipboard and paper, whiteboards and pens. It’s like they’re using school stuff. But ive gotta say their prices are insane, and its better off getting the Dorna pass thingy. I’d like to see them get more involved with their ITV deal however, maybe even show Qatar, Silverstone and Valencia live. But the team was good this year, Huwen and Ryder i am starting to like now, Toseland im still not a fan of, but i do like the BT team, and it wasnt ruined by Mel Sykes this year. Iwan Thomas was a great addition as well.
Overall, not a bad year from BT Sport, but still could do some work. 7/10
great coverage marred by opinionated and patronising commentary, J Ryder just seems to speak for the sake of reaction, J Toseland is more interested in how big his arm looks on tv and is frankly and embarrassment to look at as he preens alongside the other members of the team. A lot of talk which goes on is irrelevant to the actual race itself at the time, Yes a lot of the team have a history in the sport but to be honest who remembers them??
Hodgson at least seems to echo the views of the fans instead of trying to cow to the hierachy.
There are times when the action on screen can speak for itself, the team need to just shut up at times.
Please make more use of Neil Hodgson. He is an excellent and amusing commentator.
I hate to be negative, but I can’t stand the commentary team. They sound more like 2 blokes down the pub chatting about the race rather than adding anything to it, with limited knowledge and always behind the events, not on top of them.
sadly f1 has had its day.fact.as a teenager in the early 80’s f1 was full of danger bravery and skill.seeing/hearing cars/drivers wheel to wheel is a distant memory the btcc which is now the best motor racing on tv will grow thanks to greedy cluless dinosaurs at the helm of f1.bernie ecclestone and co have squeezed every penny for their own taking from f1 and will be best remembered for asset stripping.and short changing everyone.i hope the bbc cancel f1 and put a sport in place thats exciting.
well said paul above f1 is so boring i forget to record it now its like sending a boxer in the ring with a fucking crash helmet on piss of bernie and get a fukin life fia stop all the stupid rules and get back to the way it was dangerous and exciting SELL SELL SELL BERNIE YOUR CRAP.