I’m going to apologise in advance as this will be largely a data driven post with some analysis on it. As readers will have already spotted, one position on the Channel 4 team has already been taken up, with David Coulthard announced on Monday morning (11th January).

For those of you that followed the survey and my posts over the Christmas period, the survey was based upon the assumption that there will be eight roles in Channel 4’s setup. They are:

– 1 x Presenter (on-site)
– 2 x Analyst
– 1 x Lead Commentator
– 1 x Co-Commentator
– 1 x Technical Expert
– 1 x Pit Lane Reporter
– 1 x Magazine (studio)

As a pre-note, the survey brings out some interesting thoughts. Of course some aspect of it is X is more well-known therefore gets more votes. But it is not only that which interests me, but also the order lower down (this will become obvious as the piece unfolds). To address a few points before the analysis:

1. Some of the choices were “bizarre” – The choices were based upon my own predictions over the Christmas along with comments made by readers below each article. Admittedly, there were some choices readers may have not heard of, but that is to be expected. I did not want to limit the survey by only included an arbitrary number of candidates.

2. Candidates were not included – This was a conscious decision not to include people who are not realistically going to be part of Channel 4’s team. Including people such as David Croft, Martin Brundle and Will Buxton, who are understood to be tied down with other broadcasters’ did not make much sense in my opinion.

3. Descriptions should have been included – I agree on this point and perhaps something I should have done so that it was clearer for some of the obscure names what they have done in the past.

Unfortunately, the survey was subject to a case of vote stacking from multiple IP addresses, only for the Presenter questions. On Friday (8th January), the vote for Andy Jaye tripled from 2.8% to 7.7%, going from eight votes to 28 votes in the space of a few hours. A smaller scale vote stack, again involving people voting for Jaye was evident a few hours before the survey closed. So, clearly the Andy Jaye fan club is alive and kicking!

The results show the #1 choice, the rank and then the end outcome. I am planning to publish a PDF document with a more detailed breakdown in due course – these are the headline figures. I will alert you early: there are no major surprises in the results. The numbers are largely what I expected, but as always the devil is in the detail, in particular who is ahead of who further down the order.

Presenter – Jake Humphrey
Based on #1 choice = Jake Humphrey
Based on rank = Jake Humphrey
During the predictions over the Christmas period, along with your thoughts, there were twelve possible choices for who could lead Channel 4’s Formula 1 coverage. However, one name that 4.5 percent of you chose for number one choice was Lee McKenzie, who I made a conscious decision not to include given that it appears she will be staying at the BBC. As it turns out, it is very clear that fans want McKenzie to remain in Formula 1 in some form (see the Pit Lane Reporter role below). In all measures, former BBC F1 presenter Jake Humphrey led a largely two horse race between himself and Suzi Perry. Humphrey recorded an overall percentage (combination of rank and #1 choice) of 22.8 percent, with Perry in second on 19.1 percent.

We’ve discussed previously whether Humphrey would recommit himself to Formula 1 on a full-time basis. His current BT Sport commitments mean that is highly unlikely, however I really do think a part time gig of some sort is plausible, and it is clear that blog readers want to see him back involved. The graph above shows the aforementioned Andy Jaye in third based on number one choice (although whether that is a real ‘third’ place is debatable).

When the rank is taken into account, Jennie Gow slots into third, with Steve Rider in fourth. Their relative positions in comparison to the trend line implies that either would be a good choice to lead Channel 4’s coverage if Humphrey or Perry could not fulfil the role going forward. In my opinion, the major surprise was Chris Evans, who fared up in ninth overall, behind the likes of Craig Doyle and Charlie Webster. Despite his obvious links, it appears readers’ are not too keen on Evans having involvement in the coverage going forward. Channel 4’s own talent Rick Edwards and Clare Balding rounded off the pecking order.

Lead Commentator – Ben Edwards
Based on #1 choice = Ben Edwards
Based on rank = Ben Edwards
There were five contenders identified for the role of lead commentator. A whopping 57.5 percent of you chose Ben Edwards as your number one choice to lead Channel 4’s commentary team. Alongside a rank of 2.03, it meant that Edwards’ percentage overall was 41.8 percent, the highest recorded across the survey. It was a comfortable victory for Edwards and is a clear mandate that readers of this blog at least want to see Edwards part of Channel 4’s commentary team.

In second place was former ITV commentator and current BBC Radio 5 Live commentator James Allen, who recorded an overall percentage of 20.6 percent. Jack Nicholls, the current Formula E commentator, was close behind in third. The remaining three candidates were clustered together to round off the chart, Toby Moody leading the pack in 4th overall. Seeing Allen ahead of Nicholls in all three measures may surprise some given the major criticism of Allen whilst with ITV, however it should be remembered that Nicholls has not had much exposure yet.

I’ve spoken about the low Formula E viewing figures on this blog before, and in some way the numbers here corroborate that. If you have not heard of Nicholls before, you are unlikely to place him above someone who’s name you do recognise. However, Nicholls falls a fair bit below the trend line, showing that the readers’ that have heard of him do like the work that he has done so far.

Co-Commentator – David Coulthard
Based on #1 choice = David Coulthard
Based on rank = David Coulthard
We have had confirmation that David Coulthard will be part of the Channel 4 team. What was not specified in Channel 4’s release is whether he will be part of the commentary line-up. If he is, then based on the evidence blog readers believe is the right choice, and him and Edwards would rekindle the BBC commentary line-up from the past four seasons.  52.9 percent of you labelled Coulthard as your number one choice. In second was someone who has certainly never commentated to a British speaking audience in the UK. Enter Mark Webber.

Not only is Webber a popular choice, but he, along with Allan McNish and Anthony Davidson in third and fourth, fall far below the trend line. What that means is, although a lot of people picked Coulthard as their number one choice, the other respondents kept the other three in contention overall in the ranking part of the survey. I’m not as convinced that Webber would be a great co-commentator, but that is just my opinion. If you look back five years, who thought Coulthard would have been as good as he is in the commentary box?

Further down, Karun Chandhok and John Watson were a few readers’ number one choice, but never made enough of an impression to trouble the four candidates in front of them. Barring anyone appearing out of nowhere, the co-commentator position is a two horse race between Coulthard and Webber.

Analysts – Eddie Jordan, David Coulthard and Mark Webber
Based on #1 choice = Eddie Jordan, David Coulthard and Mark Webber
Based on rank = David Coulthard, Mark Webber and Allan McNish
This is where things not only get complicated, but they also get messy. There are broadly three main groups to focus on. The first is Eddie Jordan, on his own. As a number one choice, Jordan won with 19.4 percent of the vote, a number which is low but you should bear in mind that there were 16 candidates identified. However, his rank (which in this instance can be between one and 16) was 6.97, which placed him fifth in the ranking list. Because of the gap between him and other contenders for the number one choice, it means he is still the overall favourite with blog readers. Jordan does fall above the trend line in the graph below, which shows how audiences either love him or loathe him, depending on where you fall. Analysing the rank results, 8.1 percent of you labelled Jordan as choice number 16 in the list, the highest possible position! Ouch…

Despite the polarising opinions though, Jordan was top of the table with readers. David Coulthard is in second, ahead of Mark Webber and Allan McNish, who I would class as group number two. All three are familiar faces to viewers, Webber more so for driving than analysing. It should not be too much surprise to see them near the top. But then (ignoring Anthony Davidson for a second) we have three names who have not been part of the F1 broadcasting picture before from sixth to eighth: Graeme Lowdon, Martin Whitmarsh and Susie Wolff. Lowdon beat Davidson from a number one choice perspective, but understandably fell behind from a ranking point of view.

It is interesting to see the three ahead of the likes of Karun Chandhok and Rubens Barrichello, both of who have raced in Formula 1 before. Wolff divided opinion with blog readers. Like Jordan above, 10.2 percent of you rated Wolff as your least favourite in the rank, but enough of you gave Wolff high enough scores, meaning that she favoured well compared with the likes of Chandhok and Barrichello. So, if Whisper Films are looking for a new analyst, Lowdon, Whitmarsh and Wolff are the ‘go to’ people. There is one other person…

Technical Expert – Gary Anderson
Based on #1 choice = Gary Anderson
Based on rank = Ross Brawn
… and his name is Ross Brawn. The battle of who should become technical expert was a lot closer than I anticipated and leaves Whisper with some thinking to do. Firstly, 4.8 percent of you do not believe the role should exist, which is reassuringly low in the context of what I talked about in the last of my prediction posts over Christmas.

In terms of candidates, this was a two horse battle between Gary Anderson and Ross Brawn. The number one choice was split 30.2 percent to 28.0 percent in Anderson’s favour, but Brawn edged it in the rank by a margin of just 0.03! In the eyes of readers, there is very little to separate the two. You could take it as a net win for Brawn given that Anderson has had TV exposure with covering Formula 1 with the BBC and Brawn has not.

In a very clear and respectable third place was Craig Scarborough. It is not a done deal that Channel 4 will be able to get either Anderson or Brawn on board, so Scarborough could end up in the pound seats with the team. Scarborough amassed nearly 100 votes, or 20.2 percent of the number one vote. Marc Priestley and Tom Clarkson rounded off the order, but it has to be said that neither threatened the top four positions in either the rank or the number one choice questions.

Pit Lane Reporter – Lee McKenzie
Based on #1 choice = Lee McKenzie
Based on rank = Lee McKenzie
There were ten candidates for the role of pit lane reporter. As early evidence for the presenter role suggested, there was only going to be one winner here, with Lee McKenzie leading the way comfortably. Again, Tom Clarkson and Jennie Gow are behind in second and third, the latter falling below the trend line again which shows that viewers like the work that she does.

I was disappointed that no one stood out below the top three to be honest. As the graph above shows, the remaining candidates are clustered together, with Natalie Pinkham and Louise Goodman leading the way. If McKenzie is indeed not doing anything Formula 1 related going forward, then their best bet appears to either Clarkson or Gow. In conclusion, it looks like you want a combination of the following to be your Channel 4 Formula 1 team:

– Presenter: Jake Humphrey / Suzi Perry
– Analyst: Eddie Jordan / David Coulthard / Mark Webber / Allan McNish
– Lead Commentator: Ben Edwards
– Co-Commentator: David Coulthard
– Technical Expert: Gary Anderson / Ross Brawn
– Pit Lane Reporter: Lee McKenzie

I will adjust this post with more information as the week goes on (and to remove any grammatical errors etc), but I wanted to get the results out there as soon as possible.

The tables with the raw data can be found here. 

Whisper Films are to produce Channel 4’s coverage of Formula 1, it has been confirmed.

The indie, founded by Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and Sunil Patel in 2010, will produce their coverage through to the end of their contract in 2018. The company won a closed tender process that, according to Broadcast, was against North One Television. However, North One will produce supplementary programme for Channel 4’s coverage. As part of the announcement, Coulthard is the first name to be announced as part of Channel 4’s team.

To give a comparison between the two organisations. North One Television was set up in 1990 under the Chrysalis name, most notably producing ITV’s Formula 1 coverage from 1997 to 2008. More recently, they have been responsible for BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage from 2014 onwards. North One would have brought with them a massive amount of experience having covered Formula 1 for twelve years.

However, ‘experience’ can be found in many different lights. Although Whisper Films was founded twenty years after North One Television, the likes of Humphrey, Coulthard and Patel have recent experience of making Formula 1 television and are in a prime position to know what makes audiences click. In the background, Whisper have been grabbing staff from both BBC’s and Sky’s Formula 1 portfolio including producer Andrew Willis, who originally was part of Sky’s team.

Today’s announcement confirms that Whisper have also grabbed the former BBC F1 programme editor Mark Wilkin. Whisper have also been producing films for Formula 1 teams such as the Red Bull Racing Story, covering the story of the team from inception to the end of 2012. The reaction from those in industry outside of the immediate circles and Formula 1 fans could not be more different. Whilst fans will be happy with the news today, the commenters on Broadcast have a different opinion, one saying the deal is in “no way dodgy.”

Ed Havard, Channel 4’s Head of TV Events and Sport said: “Whisper Films outlined an extremely impressive and exciting vision for their F1 coverage, with outstanding on and off screen talent as an integral part of their pitch. We are delighted that David Coulthard will be at the heart of Channel 4’s coverage and look forward to announcing the full presenting team in the coming weeks.”

Sunil Patel, Executive Producer for Whisper Films said: “Whisper Films has an unrivalled production team with over 20 years’ experience in Formula One and unique contacts throughout the sport. Channel 4 and the sport have talked about a new approach and we believe we are ideally placed to deliver this.”

David Coulthard said: “This is an exciting time for the sport and an exciting time for Whisper Films. The F1 World has been incredibly impressed with what Whisper has delivered over the last five years and Channel 4’s decision is testament to that. I’m looking forward to being part of an exciting new era for Formula One, with Whisper Films and our proven level of creativity and innovation very much at the heart of that.”

Formula 1 broadcasting in the United Kingdom in recent years has enjoyed a rich offering, with both the BBC and Sky Sports throwing hours of air-time at the sport. For a live weekend, the BBC would dedicate ten and a half hours of air-time, with Sky Sports adding a further thirteen hours (excluding GP2 and GP3). But things have not always been that way, and a lot has happened to get to where we are now.

1995 was the first season that the BBC showed every race live, with qualifying being covered in a post-session update during BBC’s Saturday Grandstand on BBC One. It was only when BBC lost the coverage in December 1995 did they up the ante, to lay down the marker as it were, for ITV. The following year, the BBC showed 15 out of the 16 qualifying sessions live (Japan the exception) as well as sending Steve Rider out on location for the majority of the European races, setting down a marker for ITV. The average programme length for the race was 2 hours and 20 minutes, but there was limited post-race analysis, the BBC choosing to move to the next sport in the afternoon immediately after the press conference.

ITV’s coverage in 1997 resembled something closer to what we recognise now, with a proper presence at the circuit in the form of an on-site studio and an expansive pre and post-race session analysis. The studio element was dropped for the start of 2004, with ITV now allowed to broadcast live from the paddock. Over the course of their coverage, ITV’s pre-race build-up expanded from 30 minutes to an hour in length, with a greater quality of features being produced by North One Television (previously known as Chrysalis). However, ITV never fully exploited the post-race analysis block, too often quickly getting off air without exploring the race that happened before it, this was a common problem with the American-zone races.

In 2008, ITV added Friday practice to their online portfolio, which the BBC followed up on in 2009 by airing all three practice sessions behind the Red Button as well as online. BBC learnt from previous mistakes, creating an interactive Red Button forum, which aired for an hour after their main BBC One race day coverage. The forum became a fixture of BBC’s offering and was well received from the get-go. Although the forum dipped in quality in BBC’s later years, it still showed a commitment to the sport that was not there beforehand.

Last year for a live race, the BBC would be on air for around four hours: From 12:10 to 15:15 on BBC One and then 15:15 to 16:00 on the Red Button with qualifying on air from 12:10 to 14:15 give or take. So, where do Channel 4 go from here? Readers may remember I talked about possible scheduling options for Channel 4 back in 2012, but that was when looking at an alternative scenario where the corporation had full Formula 1 rights. Obviously a lot of ideas in that post are no longer relevant: Channel 4 will not have the rights to GP2 or GP3 besides the fact that they will only be airing half the Formula 1 season. With that in mind, based on the current circumstances, The F1 Broadcasting Blog examines the elements below, day by day, session by session…

Practice Live
Channel 4 on Friday mornings typically airs repeats such as The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier. Aside from the News Summary at 12:00, there is no new programming on the network until Deal or No Deal at 14:10. Although the slate of programming does deliver solid numbers for the network, I think Channel 4 would want to showcase Formula 1 as much as possible. Given that Channel 4 have been happy to displace the likes of Deal or No Deal and Countdown for horse racing coverage over the years, I don’t think there will be any issues in displacing repeats for Formula 1 practice. If live practice clashes with horse racing, I would expect the latter to be given priority, however it is the latter’s last year on Channel 4 so they may want to give F1 priority, with horse racing being bumped to More4.

The more interesting question for me is whether we will see any colour wrapped around practice. Sky Sports since the beginning of their coverage have added a short introduction and post-session analysis with a presenter and pundit talking for five to ten minutes, the BBC have followed on in recent years. Is there any value to be added by adding colour to practice coverage? Not really. I would be happy if Channel 4 went for the ‘World Feed only’ approach to Friday practice. There may be one time out of ten where there was a key incident which could do with extra analysis, but not enough to justify anything more. Channel 4 need to use their resources wisely. Saturday practice should be the session with all the ‘bells and whistles’ around it, the timeslot two hours before qualifying begins means that it brings in a higher audience than the previous day’s action.

Magazine Show
Instead of pouring resource into practice, the resource should be allocated towards a magazine show, to attract the casual fan. If we look at The F1 Show on Sky Sports outside of race weekends, it originally started a chat show discussing the latest stories, with no audience in attendance. To some degree it still is, except there is now a studio audience. The problem is that the show has failed over the past four years to get any high-quality guests in – presumably Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are above the budget that the show has. The F1 Show may attract some hard-core aficionados, but it does little to attract anyone beyond that. Of course, The F1 Show has not been the only magazine show. In the late 1990s, ITV aired Murray and Martin’s F1 Special on Saturday evenings (although that was filmed on location). At 20 to 25 minutes in length, the show reviewed qualifying and aired some features to attract a non-F1 audience.

Is it possible to design an F1 magazine show to attract a casual fan with a passing interest in the sport? I’d like to think it is, whether it is on Channel 4 or their sister channel E4. This part is dependent on whether Whisper Films win the production contract, but someone such as Jake Humphrey would be the perfect person to front a magazine show. Guests such as Hamilton and Button, alongside celebrity Formula 1 fans would make it a worthwhile watch. The problem we have had with The F1 Show is the same opinions week in, week out, it looks and feels like a ‘paint by numbers’ show. On a Friday evening, I do not want to watch what feels like a ‘heavy’ magazine show in The F1 Show. Any new magazine shows that air outside of the race weekend does not need to be live. If Channel 4 can get better quality guests in a recorded show, so be it. Sky have constrained themselves with the live studio shows, in my opinion. Recording the show also gives you flexibility with scheduling.

On the basis that weekday evenings from 18:30 to 20:00 are a no go (due to Hollyoaks and the Channel 4 News), either 17:30 to 18:30 or 20:00 to 21:00 on Fridays could be feasible, although the latter would directly clash with The F1 Show. Alternatively, a Sunday afternoon could attract the motor sport audience. I think there are several options during the weekend, but the scheduling aspect is tricky. Which slot would appeal most to a motor sport audience? One thought I did have aside from the above is that Channel 4 may want to replicate the success of The Morning Line (horse racing) and The Cricket Show by airing a magazine show on Sunday mornings live from the circuit. I’m not fully convinced because Channel 4 currently air Sunday Brunch in that slot, but I have incorporated it into the schedule further down this post…

Qualifying and Race Highlights
A first point to make. Looking at Channel 4’s website, a 30-minute programme slot has 23 minutes of content. Bear that in mind below…

This season, Channel 4 will be screening 22 highlights shows where they do not have the rights to screen live coverage. As a general rule, BBC’s qualifying highlights show have been 75 minutes in length, which would equate to 57 minutes excluding adverts. BBC’s race highlights have been 90 minutes in length, which equates to around 66 minutes excluding adverts. For the moment, let’s say both of those stay the same for 2016, with around 12 minutes of build-up and 12 minutes of reaction. That means viewers would see around 33 minutes of qualifying action and 42 minutes of race action. If you want an extensive highlights programme that is to match the quality of its predecessor, I think you would struggle to justify not extending the lengths of both shows on Channel 4.

I expect the qualifying highlights show on Channel 4 to be 90 minutes and the race highlights show to be two hours long. That gives you approximately nine minutes extra of qualifying action and around twenty minutes more of race action. It also gives Channel 4 a longer window to build an audience during the transmission slot and to time their ad-breaks strategically. I don’t anticipate the style of the highlights programmes to change significantly. One option is to keep some of the presentation team in London to keep costs down, especially for the fly-away races. I would not be opposed to this, as long as there is a benefit to it. If it brought something new to the coverage, such as getting a few new faces and opinions involved, or using the latest gadgets, I would be all for it. Would it be considered a reduction in coverage? I think it would be only considered a reduction if they presented live races fully from the studio, like ITV did on numerous occasions with the Malaysian and Japanese Grands Prix.

The timeslots I imagine will be similar to the BBC’s slots. Highlights for the fly-away races will probably air at 12:00 as there s no Channel 4 News lunchtime summary at weekends, the European races at 17:00 with the American races at 22:00. It would be interesting to know what the contract stipulates with regards the latter, Channel 4 may wish to air those shows earlier as the audience at 22:00 drops off significantly. If BBC One’s highlights around that time averaged just over two million viewers, you fear that Channel 4 may struggle to hit 1.5 million with a much lower lead-in before it compared to the BBC but time will tell.

Qualifying and Race Live
As referenced above, the BBC were typically live for 125 minutes for qualifying and live for just shy of four hours for the race when you include the Red Button forum. Unquestionably, both qualifying and the race will be live on Channel 4, irrespective of any clashes. Moving a race to E4 or More4 would not go down well with either the fans or Bernie Ecclestone. And given the amount of money Channel 4 have paid for the rights to broadcast Formula 1, it is probably not in their interests.

Before we talk about the content, again the subject of adverts should be touched upon. We already know that the actual race itself is ad-free. What we do not know is how late before a race Channel 4 can insert an ad-break or how soon after a race. I would assume the two answers are “before the 5-minute sting” and “on the slowing down lap”. That would be a similar arrangement to BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage, BT opt to go to a break virtually as soon as the race is over. The risk you run is that you lose your audience instantly which, in Channel 4’s case will equate to many thousands. A better strategy would be to place the first ad-break after the podium ceremony to keep the audience for longer, but at the same time Channel 4 will want the first ad-break post-race to be as profitable as possible. A difference of five minutes after the race can mean the difference of a million viewers watching the ad-break.

Like with the highlights programming, commercial breaks have to be placed sensibly so not to annoy the audience. Watching Sky’s current coverage, you can specifically tell when they are about to take a break. What frustrates me is that the channel feels the need to tell audiences constantly what is “coming up”, which is problematical when the channel should be using the available airtime wisely. I felt in 2015 that Sky chose to hype up features far too much by wrapping VT’s around ad-breaks for little reason whatsoever. The audience should be naturally building towards the race as it is without the need to hype the next item.

As David Elstein points out, a former executive with Sky and Channel 5, there are opportunities for Channel 4 to average out advertising across the whole event. Looking at Channel 4’s current Sunday schedule, the channel has a live chat show called Sunday Brunch which airs from 09:30 to 12:30. The programme averaged around 600k (8%) last year, a very high share by Channel 4’s standards. I certainly don’t see anything Formula 1 related displacing it. I think, for the European races, we will see this kind of schedule:

09:00 – F1: The Inside Line
09:30 – Sunday Brunch
12:00 – F1: Spanish Grand Prix
15:15 to 16:15 – F1: The Inside Line

I can’t see Channel 4 providing a 90-minute build-up, but there is scope and opportunity to entice the current Sunday Brunch audience by linking to the paddock once or twice through the course of the programme to get an update on the action and grab a live interview with a key F1 star in the hours before the race. That is a good way of providing the best of both worlds, in my opinion. In terms of the Formula 1 build-up, I would expect to largely be on-location with a similar style to BBC and Sky, although again studio coverage should be considered if it enhances the quality of the programme. If you wanted to sustain the Sunday Brunch audience preceding it (for European races), you could do a seamless transition with ad-breaks taken at 11:50 to 12:10 respectively, and opening titles at midday so that the audience does not jump ship.  The Inside Line is a magazine show referenced earlier in the piece if Channel 4 wanted to do something similar to their historical cricket and horse racing coverage. In theory, The Inside Line and live updates during Sunday Brunch can be done irrespective of whether Channel 4 are broadcasting that race live. You only irritate the Sunday Brunch audience if you overdo the Formula 1 links. But two x five-minute links within a 150-minute programme is not excessive, in my opinion.

Following the race, I would expect Channel 4 to stay on air until around 16:15, so that they can re-coup on ad-breaks, a split programme like the above schedule is therefore likely. An idea would be for Channel 4’s post-race action to “slip behind live”. In other words, when we see four minutes of adverts, the team on-location only stop for around 30 seconds. So, whilst the Channel 4 programme finishes at 16:15, they have finished filming at 15:55 UK time. The Inside Line for your post-race segment could be studio content mixed with on-site content. If you can good quality guests in the studio that are unwilling to be on-site, I would again be all for it. Furthermore, you could use said guests earlier in the coverage, such as giving opinions throughout the race itself.

One thing Channel 4 may want to do is air highlights shortly after the live race at around 17:30. In my opinion, doing so would be playing is a dangerous game, simply because the audience could start drifting towards the highlights package rather than the live race itself. Highlights for the live races should be played out on More4 in the evening, and then again in a late night slot on Channel 4. The same applies to repeats of practice and qualifying.

No ‘Red Button’ hideaways
Quoting directly from Channel 4’s ten-point plan in 2011, the extra on-board cameras and Pit Lane feed would no longer be Red Button hideaways. Instead, the feeds would be ‘road blocked’ across Channel 4’s portfolio of channels: E4, More4 and 4seven as well as online. I can imagine it now: “If you want to watch the race from the view of Lewis Hamilton, head to E4, and if you want to watch the race from Sebastian Vettel’s car, jump to More4 for the duration of the race.” You could even make the process interactive by getting viewers to vote for the content that they want to see on the three other Channel 4 channels. That sounds a lot better than telling viewers to go through to the Red Button whereas all you need to press is three buttons.

Lastly, remember that if you miss any of Channel 4’s coverage, there is always the +1 options which (it is assumed) will be available for all of their Formula 1 coverage.

Conclusions
Okay, I’ve rambled a fair bit here, but here are some conclusions on what I would like to see:

– A Formula 1 magazine show done correctly
– A Sunday morning show from inside the paddock
– Practice with World Feed only
– Scheduling similar to BBC and Sky
– Less generic “coming up” VT’s in and out of ad-breaks
– Studio coverage is not discouraged, as long as there is a net gain

I’ve over-egged and under-egged some points above, and probably missed a few bits out, but the above is just some thoughts on how I would like Formula 1 to be scheduled on Channel 4’s portfolio of networks.