Scheduling: The 2015 Austrian Grand Prix

The Formula 1 paddock heads back to Europe from Montreal to the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix! Unless, of course, your name is Nico Hulkenberg, in which case you head from a race-winning victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans back to the Grand Prix paddock.

Sky Sports F1 will be screening the weekend’s action live, although both qualifying and the race will be simulcast live on Sky Sports 1. The move is presumably an attempt to reach a wider audience in the off-season for football, although whether it actually works or not is another matter altogether. BBC have their usual highlights programming, the race highlights are on BBC One this year with no Summer sporting clashes to contend with.

I know it isn’t related to F1, but I hope both broadcasters give Porsche’s Le Mans victory, of which Hulkenberg was a part of, adequate coverage next weekend. In my opinion, winning the biggest endurance race in the world is a more significant achievement than the latest Mercedes victory in F1, and should be recognised as such. I’m not just saying that because F1 is being criticised at the moment, historically I’m sure many F1 drivers would happily trade an F1 victory for winning Le Mans. Plus, there are several related stories hanging off that about other drivers who wish to do Le Mans in the future. As noted a few days ago, next weekend also marks the terrestrial television première of Rush, which will be shown on Channel 4.

Below are all the scheduling details you need…

BBC F1
BBC One
20/06 – 17:30 to 18:45 – Qualifying Highlights
21/06 – 17:05 to 18:35 – Race Highlights

BBC News Channel
19/06 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1
20/06 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1

BBC Radio
19/06 – 08:55 to 10:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
19/06 – 12:55 to 14:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
19/06 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
20/06 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live)
21/06 – 12:55 to 15:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
19/06 – 08:45 to 11:00 – Practice 1
19/06 – 12:45 to 15:00 – Practice 2
20/06 – 09:45 to 11:15 – Practice 3
20/06 – 12:00 to 14:35 – Qualifying (also Sky Sports 1)
21/06 – 11:30 to 16:15 – Race (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 12:30 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
18/06 – 14:00 to 14:30 – Driver Press Conference
18/06 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Austria
19/06 – 16:00 to 16:45 – Team Press Conference
19/06 – 17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show
21/06 – 16:15 to 17:15 – Tales from the Vault: Family Dynasties
24/06 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

GP2 Series – Austria (Sky Sports F1)
19/06 – 11:00 to 11:50 – Practice
19/06 – 14:50 to 15:40 – Qualifying
20/06 – 14:35 to 16:05 – Race 1
21/06 – 09:30 to 10:45 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Austria (Sky Sports F1)
20/06 – 08:45 to 09:25 – Qualifying
20/06 – 16:15 to 17:15 – Race 1
21/06 – 08:20 to 09:20 – Race 2

FILM: Rush
20/06 – 21:00 to 23:25 (Channel 4)
22/06 – 21:00 to 23:25 (4seven)

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

‘Rush’ to première on Channel 4 later this month

The award winning film Rush, based around the 1976 Formula One season, will make its terrestrial television première on Channel 4 later this month, it has been confirmed.

The film, starring Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt and Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda, will air on Channel 4 on Saturday 20th June at 21:00.

Hamilton’s Canadian win peaks with 6.4 million

Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Canadian Grand Prix peaked with 6.4 million viewers in the UK, according to overnight viewing figures.

Race
The race, broadcast live on BBC One from 18:25 to 21:00, averaged 4.62m (25.0%). The number is near identical to the past two years. 2013’s race averaged 4.61m (23.6%) from 18:15 to 21:10, whilst coverage in 2014 averaged 4.59m (23.3%) from 18:20 to 21:00. To have three different years separated by just 30k shows how consistent the numbers have been for BBC’s coverage in Canada. BBC’s peak audience of 5.48m (26.0%) came as Lewis Hamilton crossed the line, marginally down on 2013’s peak of 5.55m. In the grand scheme of things, the numbers are good, perhaps they would have liked it to be slightly higher but it’s not a disappointing result by any stretch of the imagination.

Over on Sky Sports F1, their coverage averaged 619k (3.4%) from 18:00 to 21:30. Last year’s coverage across the equivalent slot averaged 818k (4.2%), which is a fairly hefty drop of 24 percent year-on-year. However, including the Sky Sports 1 simulcast, which averaged around 117k (0.6%), brings the percentage drop down to 10 percent. Which is still bad, but not as bad, although I question whether you should bundle Sky Sports 1 and F1 together and then make a comparison with the Sky Sports F1 only figure from last year. Either way, it is again not a pretty picture for Sky. Why have Sky’s ratings dropped compared to 2014, and more interestingly, will the trend continue? It was a similar story for Sky’s peaks: 1.13m last year compared with 952k this year (including Sky Sports 1), a 16 percent drop.

The combined audience of 5.35m is down on both 2013 and 2014 marginally. 2014 averaged 5.40m, whilst 2013 averaged 5.36m. It is the third race in a row which has seen viewership drop year-on-year. The Austrian Grand Prix is guaranteed to reverse that trend, with highlights being screened on BBC One this year as opposed to BBC Two last year.

Formula E drops further
The inaugural Formula E season continued to stumble towards the finishing line, hitting a near low for the Moscow ePrix. Live coverage of the race, airing on ITV4 from 13:00 to 15:30 on Saturday, averaged just 77k (1.0%). If it wasn’t for the Putrajaya ePrix, which averaged 66k (5.1%) in the early hours of the morning last November, that number would have been a series low.

The race, won by Nelson Piquet Jr, peaked with 128k (1.7%), compared with 137k (7.2%) for Putrajaya, so from a peak perspective, Moscow was a series low. The series low’s should stop now, with the London ePrix up next, but it is impossible to tell how much the numbers will increase with the series being on home turf.

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

Scheduling: The 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans

The greatest endurance race on earth takes place next weekend with the 24 Hours of Le Mans! British Eurosport have their usual extensive coverage which begins on Monday 8th June, covering practice, qualifying and the race itself. This is the only race in the World Endurance Championship season that Motors TV do not cover, with Eurosport screening the race exclusively live. Saying that, Quest TV, which like Eurosport is owned by Discovery Networks, will be covering the start and the end of the race live on their channel.

There is a half hour portion which Eurosport will not be covering live from 20:00 to 20:30 on the Saturday due to cycling highlights. As in previous years, Martin Haven leads Eurosport’s coverage, with a range of voices including Mark Shaw, Jeremy Shaw, Tom Gaymor and Liz Halliday also involved in their coverage. For those of you that watch overnight, you’ll be happy to hear that you are guaranteed a full service with the news that TV cameras will be active for the entire 24 hours.

Monday 8th June
20:00 to 20:30 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

Tuesday 9th June
21:55 to 22:30 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

Wednesday 10th June
15:00 to 19:00 – Live Practice (Eurosport 2)
20:30 to 21:00 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
21:00 to 23:00 – Live Qualifying 1 (Eurosport)

Thursday 11th June
18:00 to 20:15 – Live Qualifying 2 (Eurosport)
20:15 to 20:45 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
20:45 to 23:00 – Live Qualifying 3 (Eurosport)

Friday 12th June
21:15 to 21:45 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport 2)

Saturday 13th June
07:45 to 08:45 – Live Warm Up (Eurosport)
08:45 to 09:45 – Live Legends Race (Eurosport)
13:15 to 13:45 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
20:00 to 20:30 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
– for details of the race itself, see below

Sunday 14th June
07:30 to 08:00 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
14:15 to 14:45 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

The race itself beginning on the Saturday…
13:30 to 15:30 – Quest TV
13:45 to 20:00 – Eurosport
20:30 to 07:30 – Eurosport
21:00 to 22:00 – Quest TV [Highlights]
07:00 to 08:00 – Quest TV [Highlights]
07:30 to 08:00 – Eurosport 2
08:00 to 14:15 – Eurosport
13:00 to 14:30 – Quest TV

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

London ePrix to be shown live on ITV’s main channel

The season-ending London ePrix from Battersea Park will be broadcast on ITV’s main channel in the United Kingdom, it has been confirmed.

The news was made official by ITV’s Formula E presenter Jennie Gow. Writing on her blog, Gow said: “We will bring you all the action LIVE on ITV4 on Saturday 27th June with qualifying from 11.30am and then the season will draw to a close in spectacular style as we bring you the title decider LIVE on ITV’s main channel. We’ll be in Battersea Park for the weekend so it will be great to meet as many of you as possible!”

Reading Gow’s post, it looks like the Saturday action will air on ITV4, with Sunday’s action airing on ITV(1). The reason for the move is because the British Touring Car Championship will be occupying ITV4 on Sunday 28th June with action from Croft, meaning that something had to move to either ITV or ITV.com, as I noted a few weeks back. I’m glad that ITV chose to move Formula E to their main channel, furthermore, it will be the first time since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix that a single-seater event has aired live on the channel.

Gow’s post also confirms that the ITV team will be on-location during the weekend, and that qualifying will have a 30-minute build-up, similar to ITV’s F1 coverage from 1997 to 2008. The move will help Formula E reach a bigger, and hopefully wider audience. There is no major sporting opposition during that weekend, as Wimbledon is starting later this year.

It is too early to read anything conclusive into this regarding any coverage plans for season two. Whether ITV will continue to broadcast Formula E for the 2015-16 season remains to be seen.