Scheduling: The 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix

Both titles may have been won, but there are two more races still to go as the Formula 1 paddock heads to Interlagos for the Brazilian Grand Prix. All the action for this round and Abu Dhabi will be live on both BBC and Sky Sports.

I have listed Inside F1 instead of F1 Focus because the latter is not currently scheduled on the Red Button for this upcoming week. As mentioned before, I don’t know if F1 Focus is a replacement for Inside F1 but time will tell, I’ll update the below if F1 Focus appears anywhere. With it being a BBC live weekend, expect Eddie Jordan to be back with the team. Given the way things went in USA, BBC probably wish they had Jordan with them for Austin, but that is the luck of the draw.

Over on Sky, Natalie Pinkham has not travelled to a Grand Prix since Singapore, although she has presented The F1 Show recently and has been part of a few features here and there (notably Fogglebox, filmed during the US Grand Prix). I would be surprised to see her in Brazil, but she should be back with the team in Abu Dhabi, I imagine. This also explains why Rachel Brookes and Craig Slater have been more involved recently. The edition of Architects of F1 with Flavio Briatore is back in the schedule, scheduled for straight after the Grand Prix on Sunday. It was originally scheduled for post-Mexico, but was moved to the Brazil schedule instead.

Elsewhere, BT Sport are covering MotoGP testing live this week, with Dorna’s World Feed crew staying in Valencia to film the post-season test from Valencia on Tuesday and Wednesday. The channel is also running a ‘Motorsport Weekend’ with reviews of the series that they cover, such as the aforementioned MotoGP along with IndyCar and Blancpain GT. Guests will appear throughout both live programmes, including Nick Tandy and Moto3 champion Danny Kent.

BBC F1
BBC TV – Sessions
13/11 – 11:55 to 13:45 – Practice 1 (BBC Two)
13/11 – 15:45 to 17:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Two)
14/11 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Two)
14/11 – 15:10 to 17:20 – Qualifying (BBC One)
15/11 – 15:20 to 18:00 – Race (BBC One)
15/11 – 18:00 to 19:00 – Forum (BBC Red Button)

BBC Radio – Sessions
14/11 – 16:00 to 17:15 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
15/11 – 16:00 to 18:06 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Supplementary Programming
12/11 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
13/11 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
14/11 – 11:55 to 12:55 – F1 Rewind: Great Results (BBC Two)
14/11 – 19:45 to 20:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
13/11 – 11:45 to 13:50 – Practice 1
13/11 – 15:45 to 18:00 – Practice 2
14/11 – 12:45 to 14:15 – Practice 3
14/11 – 15:00 to 17:45 – Qualifying
15/11 – 14:30 to 19:15 – Race
=> 14:30 – Track Parade
=> 15:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 15:30 – Race
=> 18:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
12/11 – 13:00 to 13:30 – Driver Press Conference
12/11 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Brazil
13/11 – 18:00 to 18:45 – Team Press Conference
13/11 – 20:00 to 21:00 – The F1 Show
15/11 – 19:15 to 20:15 – Architects of F1: Flavio Briatore
18/11 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

MotoGP – Testing (BT Sport 1)
10/11 – 09:00 to 12:00 – Day 1: Morning
10/11 – 13:00 to 16:00 – Day 1: Afternoon
11/11 – 09:00 to 12:00 – Day 2: Morning
11/11 – 13:00 to 16:00 – Day 2: Afternoon

Motorsport Weekender (BT Sport 1)
14/11 – 16:30 to 20:00 – Part 1
15/11 – 11:30 to 14:30 – World Rally Championship
15/11 – 14:30 to 18:30 – Part 2

As always, I will update the schedule if any amendments need to be made.

Update on November 14th – BBC Radio’s Qualifying coverage will be on 5 Live Sports Extra now due to the events over the past twelve hours in Paris.

BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage: Your 2015 Verdict

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.

Sky Sports Darts to replace the F1 channel during Christmas

Sky Sports Darts in, Sky Sports F1 out. For Christmas, at least. To coincide with the William Hill Darts Championship, Sky Sports Darts will be returning from Monday 14th December. Instead of replacing one of the main five Sky Sports channels, the Darts channel will be replacing the F1 channel from 14th December through to Tuesday 5th January 2016.

It is the first time that the F1 channel has gone off air for multiple weeks since it launched on Friday 9th March 2012. It appears therefore that there will be no new F1 programming over the Christmas period on Sky Sports. A cynic might be tempted to suggest that this could be a move to quietly kill the F1 channel in the off-season – although I doubt that very much and would be incredibly surprised (even if Sky’s press office has refused multiple times to comment on the subject). Sky’s 2016 schedules should be out before Christmas, so we will no doubt see the schedule for Sky Sports F1’s early weeks in 2016 soon.

Scheduling: The 2015 Valencian MotoGP / Putrajaya ePrix

The 2015 MotoGP season, which has seen some fantastic racing and amazing battles, comes to a controversial conclusion this upcoming weekend in Valencia. It is Valentino Rossi versus Jorge Lorenzo for the MotoGP championship. Following the events in Sepang, Rossi starts Valencia from the back of the grid for his collision with Marc Marquez. I wouldn’t want to predict what will happen in Valencia given that the situation is extremely volatile.

What I do know is that anyone broadcasting MotoGP next weekend will be in line for some bumper viewing figures, including BT Sport who I would expect to smash their current MotoGP record high peak figure of 330k (4.4%) from Le Mans.

Elsewhere, it is the second round of the 2015-16 Formula E season, taking place in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Action will air live on ITV4 on Saturday morning with highlights on Sunday on ITV.

MotoGP – Valencia (BT Sport 2)
06/11 – 08:00 to 15:00
=> 08:00 – Practice 1
=> 10:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 12:00 – Practice 2
07/11 – 08:00 to 15:15
=> 08:00 – Practice 3
=> 11:00 – Qualifying
08/11 – 07:30 to 09:15 – Warm Up
08/11 – 09:30 to 15:00
=> 09:30 – Moto3 race
=> 11:15 – Moto2 race
=> 12:45 – MotoGP race
=> 14:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Valencia (ITV4)
09/11 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

Formula E – Putrajaya (online via FIAFormulaE.com)
This assumes the UK does have access to the live streaming service, after confusion in Beijing.
07/11 – 23:45 (Friday) to 01:10 – Practice 1
07/11 – 01:45 to 03:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Putrajaya
07/11 – 05:00 to 07:30 – Race (ITV4)
08/11 – 09:25 to 10:20 – Highlights (ITV)

As always I will update the schedule if anything changes.

2.8 million watch Mexican Grand Prix

An average audience of 2.8 million watched Nico Rosberg win the the Mexican Grand Prix in the UK yesterday, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Live coverage of the race, broadcast on Sky Sports F1 from 18:00 to 21:30, averaged 690k (3.1%), with Sky Sports 1’s simulcast from 18:30 averaging a further 227k (1.0%), bringing a combined weighted Sky Sports average of 885k (3.9%). Highlights, which aired on BBC One from 22:30 to 00:00, averaged 1.96m (20.1%).

Being a new race in the modern era, we have no historical comparisons, and you cannot compare a viewing figure from 1991 to one in 2015. The combined average across BBC and Sky of 2.85 million is unsurprising when you consider that the championship has been resolved, but low nevertheless. The best comparison I can think of is with the 2013 United States Grand Prix which was held under similar circumstances with Sebastian Vettel having claimed the championship two rounds earlier in India. That race averaged 2.42 million, which remains Formula 1’s lowest figure in many years. Mexico yesterday was at least higher than that, and higher than Japan last month.

It does mean that a Grand Prix has not recorded an overnight viewing figure average of above 3.5 million since the Italian Grand Prix in September. As always, these figures exclude viewing from BBC iPlayer, Sky Go and Now TV. How much of a difference other forms of viewing actually makes is up for debate.

Qualifying
Highlights of qualifying, broadcast on BBC Two from 22:45 to 00:00, averaged 920k (8.3%). Sky Sports F1’s live coverage, airing from 18:00 to 20:45, averaged 344k (1.7%). The number does not take into account various BBC Two opt-outs yesterday evening. With a combined average of around 1.26 million viewers, it is below the average number for qualifying of 2 million viewers. I have not looked into the qualifying numbers recently, but 1.26 million is a throwback to the ITV days in the mid 2000s, when qualifying would struggle over the one million barrier.