News round-up: A Question of F1; Sky looking for new sponsor

Alongside the big Premier League news from earlier this week, there are a few bits of other news worth reporting on this blog, including Sky Sports looking for a new sponsor for 2015.

Sky Sports F1 looking for new sponsor
Thanks to Jon Wilde over on Twitter for the tip here, alerting me to the news that Sky Sports F1 are looking for a new sponsor for 2015. Santander and BlackCircles.com were their sponsors for 2012, with Rolex and Shell taking over for 2013 and 2014. No idea at this stage who will be sponsoring their programming this season.

There’s a few statistics over on the Sky Media PDF for anyone interested, including a few viewing figure predictions for 2015. The headline one is that they predict a Individual 4+ TVR of 0.98 for their race day programme, equivalent to around 572,000 viewers, which looks incredibly low to me, although it presumably includes Paddock Live and the Track Parade.

Pre-Australia schedule takes shape
Sky Sports F1’s schedule, up to and including Friday practice for the Australian Grand Prix, has been revealed. It is not much different to last year, so isn’t a worth a piece on its own, until the finalised version is released. Either way, The F1 Show is definitely back from Friday 6th March, Classic F1 races are back and everything else is as you would expect.

If you were hoping for a completely new batch of Classic F1 races, you’ll be disappointed to learn that three of the first six races being broadcast are from 2014 (Bahrain, Hungary and Britain). Out of the other three, two have been broadcast before (1990 US and 1996 Australia), which leaves only the 1995 Pacific Grand Prix as a new classic race to the channel.

Over on the BBC, a special Formula 1 themed episode of A Question of Sport was filmed today, presumably for transmission in the lead-up to the Australian Grand Prix. The guests were David Coulthard, Suzi Perry, Kevin Magnussen and Christian Horner.

British Eurosport announce Superbike commentary team
Tom Gaymor will be stepping up to lead World Superbikes commentator on British Eurosport for 2015. Gaymor will be commentating alongside Steve Parrish for the rounds that clash with the British Superbike Championship. Jack Burnicle and James Whitham will commentate on the World Superbikes when it does not clash with the British Superbikes. The channel will also be broadcasting the FIM Endurance World Championship live in 2015.

Over on BT Sport, no official confirmation on their MotoGP line-up, but it doesn’t appear that there will be any changes. I did ask Abi Griffiths about their coverage this season, and the response was that “all will be revealed soon.” So, we shall see.

Putting £5 billion into context – and what it means for F1

I find that it’s incredibly difficult trying to quantify how much £5 million really is. So, what happens when a figure of over £5 billion comes along? You’re left thinking “woah”. And quite rightly so. Over three seasons, from the 2016-17 season through to the 2018-19 season, BT Sport and Sky Sports will be paying the Premier League £5,136,000,000.00 (or £5.136 billion), a frankly ridiculous amount of money.

Across each season, that works out to £1.712 billion. It’s difficult to comprehend just how big that number is. But, eventually you can break it down.

– £5.136 billion across three seasons
– £1.712 billion across one season
– £10.19 million per game

In comparison, the Formula 1 numbers pale into comparison. Numbers have never been officially released into the public domain, but the best guesstimates for BBC and Sky combined put the number around £55 million.

– £55.0 million approx across one season
– £2.75 million approx per race weekend

Formula 1 is pocket money compared to the Premier League, which may be seen as somewhat surprising considering the Premier League does not bring Sky Sports four times the audience of Formula 1. However, the reach for the Premier League is significantly greater than your typical Formula 1 season on Sky. Whether we like it or not, the Premier League is such a subscription driver for both BT and Sky that both parties are willing to break the bank to get what they want to ridiculous proportions. Sadly, that means that customers suffer as a result, with higher costs, and not necessarily better quality.

Comparing the Premier League live TV rights (2016-17 to 2018-19) to the current Formula 1 rights (2012-18).

It will be another two years before either Sky and BT Sport even begin thinking about the Formula 1 rights. Given that they mention it in every press release, it is pretty clear to me that the BBC are going to fulfil their contract until the end of 2018. I do wonder how much have money Formula One Management have lost as a result of the seven year deal between BBC and Sky. We say that Bernie Ecclestone is good at making deals, but if you’re looking at it from a money perspective, then he lost a massive amount of money by giving in to BBC’s and Sky’s demands in 2011. Seven year contracts are very unusual, the Premier League rights run on three year cycles, for example. Since the middle of 2011, we’ve had BT Sport enter the scene.

I am convinced that, if the Formula 1 rights had been on the market on the past twelve months, then live coverage would have disappeared from free-to-air television, and the value of the rights would have soared. How high would the rights have gone, I don’t know, but you can guarantee that there would have been a tug of war between Sky and BT to get live Formula 1 rights. Assuming that there are no fundamental changes to Formula 1, as we know it before 2018, then I think the next set of Formula 1 rights will be north of £100 million per year.

The main thing though, beyond anything else, is that the money generated goes back into the sport. It cannot go to those outside the sport. If it does stay inside the sport, with a more equal prize structure, then the sport should flourish.

Scheduling: The 2015 Barcelona test 2 on Sky Sports F1

The final test of the 2015 Formula One pre-season occurs with just two weeks to go until the season opener down under in Melbourne. The coverage level on Sky Sports F1 in the UK is the same as the first two tests, except Ted’s Notebook is replaced by #AskCrofty.

Below are all the details you need…

Thursday 26th February
21:00 to 21:30 – Day 1 Highlights
– round-up at 21:00
– #AskCrofty at 21:15

Friday 27th February
20:30 to 21:00 – Day 1 Highlights (R)
21:00 to 21:30 – Day 2 Highlights
– round-up at 21:00
– #AskCrofty at 21:15

Saturday 28th February
20:30 to 21:00 – Day 2 Highlights (R)
21:00 to 21:30 – Day 3 Highlights
– round-up at 21:00
– #AskCrofty at 21:15

Sunday 1st March
20:30 to 21:00 – Day 3 Highlights (R)
21:00 to 21:30 – Day 4 Highlights
– round-up at 21:00
– #AskCrofty at 21:15

If anything changes, I will update the schedule above.

Sky’s coverage of Jerez testing drops

Sky Sports F1’s coverage of the first test of the 2015 Formula One season dropped on 2014, and was also down versus 2013, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.

The four days, excluding repeats, averaged 15k, which is down on the 2014 average of 29k and 19k from 2013. It is worth noting that the numbers exclude anyone who has watched online. Unlike last year, there were no overruns, apart from day one when there were technical difficulties with Ted’s Notebook. Interest was lower for the first 2015 test than in previous years, which does not surprise me personally, from the outside, it feels like that there is not as much interest this year as there has been previously, for whatever reason.

Day 4 did jump above 2014 levels, with an average of 26k (0.1%), compared with 18k (0.1%) last year. Below is a summary of the ratings:

– 01/02 – 18k (0.1%), peak: 25k (0.1%) – 21:00 to 21:15 and 21:30 to 21:45
– 02/02 – 7k (n/a), peak: 10k (0.1%) – 21:00 to 21:30
– 03/02 – 7k (n/a), peak: 14k (n/a) – 21:00 to 21:30
– 04/02 – 26k (0.1%), peak: 36k (0.2%) – 21:00 to 21:30

The next two tests are being held in Barcelona, which should see an improvement in numbers as we head towards round one in Australia.

The F1 Show and Classic F1 races return to Sky F1 on March 6th

The F1 Show will return on Friday 6th March, it has been confirmed. The show, now in its fourth year, returns to Sky Sports F1 airing as usual from 20:00 to 21:00. As of writing, there is no sign of the première show being longer than an hour, but that could change.

We also don’t know the presenters, or whether the live studio audience will make a return. The presentation team will likely be a combination of Ted Kravitz, David Croft, Rachel Brookes and Natalie Pinkham, and if I’m a betting man, then the studio audience will return.

Elsewhere, Classic F1 makes its return straight after The F1 Show on 6th March, beginning with the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix.