Scheduling: The 2015 Singapore Grand Prix

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.

Mercedes inquiry boosts Sky’s post-race show

The 2015 Italian Grand Prix may not go down as the greatest race ever, but what happened after the race helped boost Sky Sports F1’s post-race show, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Live coverage of the race, broadcast on Sky Sports F1 from 12:00 to 15:30, averaged 657k (8.5%) with a peak audience of 1.09m (13.5%) coming at 14:15 as Lewis Hamilton claimed victory. Sky’s exclusive numbers are only up 7.5 percent versus 2014’s shared average of 611k (6.0%). Italy is one race where you expect lower numbers, simply because the race is not as long as the likes of Singapore and Monaco, meaning that there is more post-race analysis to fill.

Typically on a day like yesterday you would expect the audience to drift away to below 150k. However, the Mercedes enquiry meant that a specially extended Paddock Live from 15:30 to 17:05 averaged 256k (2.7%), one of the biggest post-race numbers of the season so far. The audience never dropped below 230k until the end of the programme, which clearly shows that there was demand for Sky to stay on air and capture the verdict live. There was very little drop off, 255k (2.4%) were watching Sky’s post-race show when the stewards decision came in at 16:45. I made the point on Twitter that this is exactly what Sky Sports F1 should be doing, and it is fantastic to see the viewing figures support that assertion. You almost need events like that to happen to justify the existence of the F1 channel, if the F1 was on another Sky Sports channel, they would have no doubt gone off air to cover the next sporting event in the schedules.

As for the race itself, I don’t like saying a race is “made for highlights”, but from the BBC’s perspective, Italy is exactly that (although they have, to my surprise, covered 2013 and 2014 live). BBC’s highlights programme averaged 3.23m (23.7%), in-line with their other highlights programming this year, so no surprises there. To prove the “made for highlights” point, the combined average of 3.88m is the highest for Italy since 2012 which averaged 4.37m, albeit the highlights were in a later slot. The viewing figures continue a run of good or solid numbers for Formula 1, however tricky waters lie ahead with the Rugby World Cup on ITV. BBC’s highlights from Singapore will clash with matches in two weeks time, but apart from that the F1 should escape relatively unscathed.

BTCC hurt by F1
Clashing with the F1 hurt the British Touring Car Championship on ITV4. On air from 10:45 to 17:45, the programme averaged 134k (1.6%). The programme average over seven hours may not tell too much, but the peak of 290k (2.8%) at 16:45 is lower than you would expect from a championship which regularly peaks with over 400k. With the World Series by Renault (BT Sport 2), ELMS (Motors TV), Blancpain GT (BT Sport Europe) and British Superbikes (British Eurosport) also airing live yesterday, it is easy to see how small the audience gets fragmented when the F1 is being broadcast.

The 2014 Italian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

The best of the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix

Across an entire Grand Prix weekend, the BBC F1 and Sky Sports F1 teams produce around eleven hours of extra content, in addition to the Formula One Management (FOM) World Feed that they, along with all the other broadcasters, have access to. There’s a fair bit of content that probably will not get watched by fans outside of that particular race weekend, probably because the segment is no longer relevant or the VT is just… bad.

However, there are also features that the broadcasters produce each race weekend that do deserve a second watch. The purpose of this piece is to talk about those features for readers who may have missed them first time around. A VT takes a significant amount of time to put together. From getting the perfect shot, to getting the filming location correct for the feature and onto making sure the sound levels are all correct. It takes a lot to put a good feature together. It takes even more to put together something that goes above and beyond those levels.

BBC F1
Interviewer: Lee McKenzie
Personnel: Jos Verstappen; Max Verstappen
Dates: July 14th and 15th, 2015 (1, 2)
Link: BBC website

Lee McKenzie's feature with Jos and Max Verstappen was easily the highlight of BBC's Belgian Grand Prix coverage... — Lee McKenzie’s feature with Jos and Max Verstappen was easily the highlight of BBC’s Belgian Grand Prix coverage…

Max Verstappen has been one of the revelations of the 2015 Formula One season so far. The BBC piece on him felt like it could have been produced by the Top Gear team it was that impressive. The length of the VT allowed the subject, in this case both Max and Jos, to be explored in detail. For me, this was probably one of the best pieces that the BBC have produced in a long time. There was something special and enjoyable about it that is rarely replicated in F1 broadcasting. The piece was split into three distinctive sections. First, a look at Max’s racing career growing up. Second, a more personal look at Max’s life so far, with more of an input from Jos, and lastly Max racing around in go-karts. It was a fabulously produced piece, and one that clearly had a lot of planning – from the initial concept to final execution on screen.

An honourable mention also to the piece that Lee McKenzie did with Fernando Alonso, which is also worth a watch. Note that the Alonso piece is geo-blocked because it contains FOM footage, whereas the piece with the Verstappen’s is not geo-blocked as no FOM footage is present.

Sky Sports F1
Interviewer: Martin Brundle
Personnel: Stoffel Vandoorne
Link: Sky Sports website

...whilst Martin Brundle gave us a great insight into what lies in Stoffel Vandoorne's future — …whilst Martin Brundle gave us a great insight into what lies in Stoffel Vandoorne’s future.

Staying in the same vein as the BBC’s Verstappen piece, Sky Sports used the Belgian Grand Prix as an opportunity to interview Stoffel Vandoorne. As with the BBC piece, we were treated to beautiful shots this time in the August sunshine. There were some big talent in the other Sky pieces, notably the team did a feature with Idris Elba in the snow at Spa. The casual viewer may remember that Elba piece better than the Vandoorne segment from an enjoyment perspective, but the Vandoorne feature is more important in the long run.

On occasion, broadcasters focus too much on the past and present, but fail to look ahead to the future. Barring any mishaps, Stoffel Vandoorne will be a major name in Formula 1 in a few years time. It is important that viewers are introduced to future characters early in their career, so that viewers can build a relationship with them, and see the young man turn into a champion one day (hopefully, they say). The piece between Vandoorne and Brundle sets the tone for the future. It builds a storyboard, and that storyboard with Vandoorne has only just begun.

Whilst BBC and Sky produced some great television during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, you cannot overlook the fact that FOM’s Digital Media team are producing more content that will no doubt make the end of season DVD review. I won’t go into as much detail as above, but one piece I’d strongly recommend watching is a piece with Fernando Alonso talking about the challenges of Eau Rouge. Yes, a piece of that nature has been done multiple times over the years. But cleverly, I felt that FOM managed to put a different spin on things here. With some great graphics and archive footage, this stood out to me as one of the best Eau Rouge pieces that I’ve seen in a long time.

A big day for MotoGP

Today is a significant day for those involved in the running of the MotoGP World Championship. It, with the British Grand Prix, marks the first time that a MotoGP race has been broadcast live in Ultra HD. The race action today, along with yesterday’s qualifying sessions are being broadcast live on BT Sport’s new Ultra HD channel.

Ultra HD is four times the resolution of normal HD, hence the name ‘4K resolution’. It means that there are two separate teams controlling and directing the action this weekend, in turn meaning that BT Sport have two commentary teams. Keith Huewen and Julian Ryder have been commentating as usual on the normal World Feed, with Toby Moody and James Haydon commentating on the 4K Ultra HD feed. It is the first time that Moody has been brought into the BT fold since they started their coverage last season.

Dorna say that the operation consists of 19 Ultra HD cameras, “including a High Speed, Super Slow Motion Camera and the world´s first live wireless 4K cameras”, which compares to 141 HD cameras that Dorna normally take to each round. The addition of Ultra HD means that MotoGP will have 160 cameras focussed on the action this weekend, a record number for the series. It is the world’s largest 4K outside broadcast to date.

It is too early to say whether 4K will be the next big thing, or whether it will turn into 3D and become a gimmick. I suspect it has a better chance of taking off than 3D. Readers may remember that Sky Sports showed F1 testing live in 3D in 2013, an experiment never to be repeated. Where 4K is concerned, BT Sport seem to be pushing it a lot at the moment, whereas Sky are not, hence why the MotoGP from Silverstone is being covered in 4K. Saying that, SkyQ is believed to be coming which will offer Ultra HD capability, but Sky have not officially confirmed this yet.

My lasting thought, however is that HD is not the norm yet, because providers are insistent on charging extra for customers to access content in HD. In my opinion, until HD becomes the norm, I’m afraid Ultra HD will not get off the starting grid, in this country at least. But, you have to start somewhere…

Scheduling: The 2015 Italian Grand Prix

The last race of the European season comes from Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. It marks the first BBC highlights race since Austria, nearly three months ago thanks to the absence of the German Grand Prix.

As in Belgium, Sky are not simulcasting their shows on any other Sky Sports channel. I think it is fair to assume, for the moment, that the simulcasts we saw in June and July was just a Summer thing rather than anything more, but we will see if anything more turns up in the schedules as we head into the Asian and American races.

The usual schedule details are below. I’ve not included Sky’s classic races, as there are no new races to the channel in the schedule, whilst I think we are safe in saying that the F1 Legends strand of programming is not returning to the channel this year sadly. I have, however, included the World Series by Renault from Silverstone which BT Sport are giving extensive live coverage to this weekend. Abi Griffiths and Gemma Scott will be presenting the coverage, with Keith Collantine, Johnny Mowlem and Oliver Webb alongside them.

BBC F1
BBC One
05/09 – 17:00 to 18:10 – Qualifying Highlights
06/09 – 17:05 to 18:35 – Race Highlights

BBC News Channel
04/09 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1
05/09 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1

BBC Radio
04/09 – 08:55 to 10:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
04/09 – 12:55 to 14:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
05/09 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live)
06/09 – 12:30 to 15:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
04/09 – 08:45 to 11:00 – Practice 1
04/09 – 12:45 to 15:00 – Practice 2
05/09 – 09:45 to 11:15 – Practice 3
05/09 – 12:00 to 14:35 – Qualifying
06/09 – 11:30 to 16:15 – Race
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 12:30 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
03/09 – 14:00 to 14:30 – Driver Press Conference
03/09 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Italy
04/09 – 16:00 to 16:45 – Team Press Conference
04/09 – 17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show
09/09 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

GP2 Series – Italy (Sky Sports F1)
04/09 – 11:00 to 11:50 – Practice
04/09 – 14:50 to 15:30 – Qualifying
05/09 – 14:35 to 16:05 – Race 1
06/09 – 09:30 to 10:45 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Italy (Sky Sports F1)
05/09 – 08:45 to 09:20 – Qualifying
05/09 – 16:10 to 17:10 – Race 1
06/09 – 08:20 to 09:20 – Race 2

British Touring Car Championship – Rockingham (ITV4)
06/09 – 10:45 to 17:45 – Races

World Series by Renault – Silverstone
05/09 – 11:00 to 18:15 – Races (BT Sport 2)
06/09 – 11:00 to 16:15 – Races (BT Sport 1)

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