Channel 4 have today confirmed their plans for commercial breaks within their ten live race programmes. As revealed back in December, the channel will be airing their live ten races uninterrupted.

The channel has announced today that the last advert break before the race will occur “just moments before the formation lap”. In what they are calling the Pole Position break, the break will last 30 seconds, with Mercedes-Benz Cars UK the only company that will advertise in the junction following a competitive process. The remaining Podium Packages that Channel 4 are offering to advertisers will see a further 30 second ad break “just after the winner takes the chequered flag.”

The last full length commercial break will take place before the national anthem (so from around 12:42 to 12:45, or equivalent), with the first full break after the race taking place when cars are in parc fermé. That doesn’t mean that an ad break will take place when cars are in parc ferme, but the provision is there. The deal between Channel 4 and Mercedes-Benz Cars UK was brokered between Channel 4 and Fuel@VivaKi.

Although there will be people who think that going to a 30″ advertising break moments before the formation lap will break the tension before the start of the race, it is not a surprise. Unlike Sky, Channel 4’s primary income is advertising, they are not a subscription based service. It was inevitable that they would look for innovative ways to deliver advertising around the coverage. Sky do the same with their football coverage, a bet365 or SkyBet advert airs seconds before kick-off. The good news, based on the wording in the press release, is that there will not be any advertising during Safety Car periods.

Working on the assumption that Channel 4’s build-up will be on hour long and will use up their full 12 minutes of advertising in that clock hour (and no break can have more than 3 minutes 30 seconds of adverts), we are looking at something along the lines of the following:

12:00:00 to 12:10:00 – Part 1
12:10:00 to 12:13:00 – Commercial 1
=> 5 x 30″ adverts
=> 2 x 5″ sponsor
=> 1 x 20″ promo
12:13:00 to 12:20:00 – Part 2
12:20:00 to 12:23:30 – Commercial 2
=> 6 x 30″ adverts
=> 2 x 5″ sponsor
=> 1 x 20″ promo
12:23:30 to 12:30:00 – Part 3
12:30:00 to 12:33:30 – Commercial 3
=> 6 x 30″ adverts
=> 2 x 5″ sponsor
=> 1 x 20″ promo
12:33:30 to 12:42:20 – Part 4
12:42:20 to 12:45:50 – Commercial 4
=> 6 x 30″ adverts
=> 2 x 5″ sponsor
=> 1 x 20″ promo
12:45:50 to 12:59:15 – Part 5
12:59:15 to 12:59:45 – Commercial 5
=> 1 x 30″ advert
13:00:00 – Formation Lap begins

I would be surprised if Channel 4 did not use up all of its 12 minutes that it is allowed in the build-up given that there are no adverts within the race itself. An alternative is that they have one less advertising break, but make the commercial length last four minutes (including bumpers), this would mean only 11 minutes of adverts in the clock hour as opposed to 12.  We don’t know what Sky’s strategy will be this season either. Previously, when the BBC was live, they went uninterrupted without adverts but they may not be as enticed to do so this year with Channel 4 running their own commercials.