A round-up show, along with a special edition of Ted Kravitz’s Notebook, will air on the channel before the end of January. As readers who have been watching the AUTOSPORT show live stream may have spotted, Sky been filming ‘mini’ F1 Show’s during the course of the weekend for those in attendance with a rotation of Simon Lazenby, Natalie Pinkham, Rachel Brookes, David Croft and Kravitz, so the highlights will be an amalgamation of these I imagine.
There are no signs of the programmes yet on Sky’s EPG or online, but I will update this post as and when scheduling details are confirmed.
Update on January 26th – Neil Wooding, one of Sky F1’s assistant producers, says that a highlights programme will air this Friday at 20:00. Sky’s own schedules have not updated with this yet, but I will update this post further as and when they do so.
Update on January 27th – It is an hour long highlights programme. The description reads “News and interviews from The Autosport International Show at the NEC, the traditional curtain raiser to the motorsport season.” No sign of the aforementioned Ted’s Notebook, I suspect that may be online only.
According to Charles Sale, Ben Edwards and Eddie Jordan are set to become members two and three of Channel 4’s Formula 1 on-air team. The Edwards and David Coulthard duo therefore looks set to continue on Channel 4. Edwards shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but it is great news to hear. As David Croft discussed at the AUTOSPORT show, there are not many other lead commentators out there. Jack Nicholls is presumably locked in with Formula E which means the only other option is James Allen. In previous broadcasting changes (BBC to ITV, ITV to BBC and then BBC to Sky), there has always been a commentary change.
But based on early indications, Channel 4 and Whisper Films want to keep a winning and successful formula. Jordan continuing might disappoint some readers, opinions on him were split during the recent survey. In my opinion, this was always a case of whether Jordan wanted to continue, and based on the comments from Sale, it looks like we will see Jordan for the live races only. However, an interesting subplot that Sale referenced is that Jordan’s son Kyle currently works for Whisper Films. His LinkedIn profile says he is “Commercial Director at Whisper Films”, although he is not listed as one of the key personnel on Whisper’s website.
One face that is unlikely to be involved, according to those that this blog has spoken to, is Suzi Perry. Perry, who presented BBC’s Formula 1 television coverage from 2013 to 2015, is not likely to make the jump to Channel 4. Assuming Jake Humphrey and Lee McKenzie are not candidates due to their relevant roles with BT Sport (football) and BBC Sport (Six Nations, Wimbledon and the Olympics), it means that Whisper Films’ choices for lead presenter are not immediately obvious.
Based on the choices readers of this site made, Jennie Gow and Andy Jaye are next down on the potential list for those likely to become lead presenter. Aside from Jaye stepping in for Gow for ITV’s Formula E coverage, I have not watched any of Jaye’s work, so I am not in a position to say which of the two I prefer. There was an argument that Coulthard could lead the coverage, at least for the highlight races, but I’m not convinced myself. Whilst I am a fan of Coulthard, I don’t think having the same person present and commentate is necessarily a good idea, although Murray Walker did so back in the 1990s with BBC’s old highlights package, when there was nowhere near as much analysis as we see today.
During the AUTOSPORT show today, Allan McNish made a brief comment about his BBC Radio 5 Live F1 role. McNish noted that he is “in the middle of discussions of what and how that all sits right now” with regards the current arrangement, as McNish used to appear on both BBC television and radio. Charles Sale’s piece says that “C4 do not want all the BBC team involved in their GP production,” which lends further credence to the theory that Perry will not be involved in Channel 4’s on-air team. As always, plans can change (and journalists can be wrong), but there are only nine weeks until Melbourne as we speak.
Behind the scenes, Coulthard tweeted out an interesting picture on Wednesday evening (see above). Aside from himself, there are three interesting faces in the picture. The first, sitting to the right of Coulthard is Sunil Patel, who formed Whisper Films alongside Coulthard and Humphrey. The second person to mention is Steve Aldous (second left). Aldous has been involved in Formula 1 television now for two decades, dating back to ITV’s first year on-air in 1997. He joined the BBC in 2009, remaining in the role of Assistant Editor. The third person is Richard Carr (to the left of Coulthard). Carr has worked with two wheels and four wheels, directing most of BBC’s Formula 1 programming in recent years.
In other words, three of the biggest five names on the production side of BBC F1 will be involved in Channel 4’s coverage. They are Aldous, Carr and Mark Wilkin. The two names missing are Ben Gallop (currently BBC’s Head of Interactive and was Head of F1) and Andrew Benson (BBC’s chief F1 writer).
David Croft, the lead commentator for Sky Sports’ F1 coverage, has given his full backing for Ben Edwards to lead Channel 4’s commentary team this season, whilst also stating that Sky’s own line-up will remain unchanged for the 2016 Formula One season.
Speaking about the lead commentator role at the AUTOSPORT Show with Henry Hope-Frost on Thursday afternoon, Croft backed Edwards for the role at Channel 4, noting that “I sent Ben Edwards a text message before Christmas saying ‘Look I hope the only thing that changes next year is that you have got a different logo on your shirt mate and that you’re still in the commentary box next to me,’ because Ben’s a top bloke and a terrific commentator. I’d love to be commentating on Sky F1 with Ben commentating on Channel 4 and then when we put the mike down we’ll stand and have a chat about what we’ve just seen which is what we do all the time.” In a survey on this site, a clear majority of you backed Edwards for the lead commentator position with the broadcaster.
While on the AUTOSPORT stage, Croft commented on BBC’s television demise from Formula 1, looking back at his time with the BBC “As a man who came into Formula 1 working for BBC Radio 5 Live and who worked for the BBC for many, many years, I think it’s a real shame that the BBC couldn’t afford to keep Formula 1. It was much loved Formula 1 on the BBC. It was much watched as well and it pushed and challenged us at Sky. It challenged us to hopefully not only be as good as the BBC coverage but be better.”
Croft referenced the fact that Whisper Films’ personnel, such as former BBC producer Mark Wilkin have been producing Formula 1 television for many years. “I think Channel 4 will be fab for the sport and they will be great for us at Sky F1 as well. They’ll push us, we’ll push them and the net result hopefully for you guys watching here will be that you get the best F1 coverage in the world. As far as I’m concerned, bring on Channel 4 and whoever joins David Coulthard in front of the camera, and whoever is there behind the scenes as well. When the cameras stop rolling, we’re all very good mates in the paddock, there is no rivalry to that extent,” Croft said.
One piece of news that came from Croft is that it looks like the Sky Sports F1’s team will remain unchanged for the 2016 season. Croft commented “As far as I know the Sky team will be unchanged. Natalie Pinkham will be taking another little break mid-season when she goes and has child number two.”
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.
Your Channel 4 F1 team – Presenter role. A two-way battle between Jake Humphrey and Suzi Perry that the former wins.
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.
Your Channel 4 F1 team – Lead Commentator role. A clear win for Ben Edwards.
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.
Your Channel 4 F1 team – Co-Commentator. David Coulthard leads the way by a country mile, but Mark Webber surprises
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…
Your Channel 4 team – Analyst. One picture tells many stories…
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.
Your Channel 4 F1 team – Technical Expert. A very close two horse contest.
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.
Your Channel 4 F1 team – Pit Lane Reporter. No major surprises here.
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.
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.”
Motorsport Broadcasting 