BBC dump next weekend’s MotoGP to Red Button

The BBC are to screen MotoGP next weekend behind the Red Button, schedules reveal. I will be honest and say that I’m incredibly unimpressed with this one, especially in their last season of coverage before handing to BT Sport next season. They normally move the Assen race around a bit, but that in my view is fair game as that does clash with Wimbledon and tends to clash with Qualifying for the British Grand Prix in Formula 1. The Saturday schedules are as follows:

Saturday 14th September 2013
BBC One
13:00 – Live Athletics: Great City Games
14:30 to 16:30 – Triathlon: World Championship Series

BBC Two
12:45 – Caribbean Food Made Easy (R)
13:15 – University Challenge (R)
13:45 to 15:40 – EastEnders Omnibus (R)

On BBC Two, repeats take priority over MotoGP. Whether this is a case of they don’t want sport on two BBC channels at the same time, I don’t know. The Sunday schedule is as follows:

Sunday 15th September 2013
BBC One
09:30 – Live Athletics: Great North Run
13:30 – Sunday Politics
14:45 – Bargain Hunt (R)
15:30 to 16:15 – Flog It! (R)

BBC Two
12:15 – Sailing: America’s Cup Highlights
13:00 – Live Triathlon: World Series Final
15:45 – EastEnders Omnibus (R)
16:45 – Athletics: Great North Run Highlights
17:30 to 18:30 – Rugby League: Super League Play Offs

If you drawn a list of sporting priorities at the BBC, you can see from the above where MotoGP falls. Now, of course, they may have took the MotoGP decision based on the fact that they are not screening it live next year. Of course, they did bid for MotoGP next year, but BT Sport out bid them considerably. But it is a thoroughly disappointing decision, especially considering the level of coverage from Silverstone. It is difficult to see what else they could have done, unfortunately something had to give. Sunday Politics I believe has to be on BBC One because of the regional opt-outs which cannot be served on BBC Two.

Furthermore, looking at the schedules, I cannot see any repeat airing for the MotoGP on BBC One or BBC Two, or BBC Three for that matter later on Sunday or Monday. As with Qatar earlier this year, don’t expect British Eurosport to screen it live, either.

Update on September 12th – It turns out that BBC are repeating it on on BBC Two, in the early hours of Monday morning at 00:15 (England/NI), 00:30 (Wales) and 00:45 (Scotland). Thanks to @scott_gamer for the tip.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 18th August, 2013)

The Summer break may have continued for Formula 1, but MotoGP was back in action and is therefore the pick in this week’s BARB weekly official ratings.

The championship remained in America, heading to the Indianapolis circuit. An average of 1.26 million viewers watched the coverage on BBC Two from 18:30 to 20:00 on Sunday (18th August). It is the first time the race has made BBC Two’s top thirty in the past five years, so a positive sign there. Over on ITV4, highlights of the Silverstone Classic were shown on Thursday (15th August), with an audience of 264,000 viewers tuning in.

Sky Sports F1 was in ‘Summer shut down’ mode with the channel’s main offering being The F1 Show’s Season so Far programme, in which 33,000 viewers watched. Unsurprisingly it was one of the lower rated of the season, but that should not be seen as particularly season. What is disappointing is that highlights of the 1985 Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday (17th August) only averaged 6,000 viewers. Thankfully, the 1998 Grand Prix averaged 19,000 viewers a day later. Bear in mind that all the figures account for any one who watched within seven days. It seems that the classic races either do not appeal to many people, or many people just are not watching their recording within that time period.

Finishing off with Motors TV, six programmes averaged over 10,000 viewers. Bike World 2013 on Thursday was their highlight, bringing 22,000 viewers to the channel.

Radio 5 Live unveils British MotoGP schedule

BBC Radio 5 Live have announced their scheduling plans for the British round of the MotoGP World Championship. The station, which normally does not cover the championship, will be covering the weekend’s events.

As revealed in May, Jennie Gow will be presenting the coverage alongside Tommy Hill, whilst Harry Stafford will be alongside Gow on the Friday. On the TV side of things, there will be an extra half an hour of build-up and an extra half an hour of reaction on race day. Disappointingly though, only qualifying will be live on BBC One (as it has been for the majority of the year), the race coverage is still on BBC Two. It would have been nice to have given it the BBC One Sunday slot, in my view.

Here are their coverage plans:

Thursday 29th August
20:30 to 21:30 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Friday 30th August
09:00 to 12:15 – Practice (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)

Sunday 1st September
13:00 to 14:00 – MotoGP Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

I don’t know if BBC Radio covering it is a precursor to potentially covering the series next year when TV coverage moves to BT Sport next year, but time will tell.

Scheduling: The 2013 Belgian Grand Prix

After a four week Summer break, F1 is back! The drivers and teams head to the Ardennes forest in Belgium for the Belgian Grand Prix from Spa. The race starts the second half of the Formula 1 season with nine races in 13 weeks. Before you know it, it will all be over. Both BBC and Sky are live this weekend, so expect the usual full line-ups from both sides.

Alongside their usual Classic races, Sky are also broadcasting a three-part Lost Generation series, which I have outlined below. Also, in a moment of brilliance, MotoGP clashes with the F1 again, it is not a direct clash as the MotoGP race is in the F1 build-up, but still frustrating if you want to keep track of everything. The day is rounded off with the IndyCar Series from Sonoma, with coverage on ESPN UK.

Saturday 17th August
20:00 to 20:40 – F1: 1985 Belgian Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and James Hunt
– repeated on Friday 23rd August at 12:05

Sunday 18th August
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 1998 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 25th August at 06:05

Monday 19th August
19:30 to 20:00 – The Lost Generation (1/3) (Sky Sports F1)
– focussing on Roger Williamson
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2000 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 23rd August at 18:00

Tuesday 20th August
19:30 to 20:00 – The Lost Generation (2/3) (Sky Sports F1)
– focussing on Tony Brise
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2008 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 24th August at 17:15

Wednesday 21st August
19:30 to 20:00 – The Lost Generation (3/3) (Sky Sports F1)
– focussing on Tom Pryce
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2010 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 25th August at 20:15

Thursday 22nd August
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
19:45 to 20:00 – Gear Up for Belgium (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 23rd August
08:45 to 11:00 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
11:00 to 11:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
12:50 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Two)
14:50 to 15:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:00 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
21:00 to 21:45 – F1: 1955 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– repeated on Saturday 24th August at 11:15

Saturday 24th August
08:45 to 09:20 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
09:55 to 11:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 14:15 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
14:35 to 16:00 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:05 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 25th August
08:20 to 09:05 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:35 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
11:30 to 13:00 – MotoGP: Brno (BBC Two)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 15:15 – F1: Race (BBC One)
15:15 to 16:15 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
16:15 to 17:00 – GP Uncovered: 1958 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
21:00 to 00:00 – IndyCars: Sonoma (ESPN)

Wednesday 28th August
19:30 to 20:00 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

As always, if anything changes I shall update this blog if necessary.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 21st July, 2013)

The second and final week of the first Formula 1 mid-season break meant that MotoGP shined again on BBC Two. This time, the series was in primetime on BBC Two, airing from 22:00 to 23:00 live on Laguna Seca. The programme averaged 1.30 million viewers, which is a 28 percent increase from the Sachensring rating on July 14th. Although up on 2012, it is down on 2009 and 2011.

MotoGP – Laguna Seca ratings
2009 – 1.53 million
2010 – 1.45 million or below
2011 – 1.49 million
2012 – 1.13 million
2013 – 1.30 million

Over on ITV4, the Tour de France came to a conclusion in primetime also on the Sunday. The final stage recorded an average of 1.17 million viewers and peaked with over 2 million viewers as Chris Froome won the tour. The peak was higher than the MotoGP peak. Highlights through the week averaged between 561,000 and 751,000 viewers. The F1 Show Special on Sky Sports F1 failed to bring in any extra viewers than usual with an average of 74,000 viewers. As always, promotion is the issue here – it was never destined to do better than usual because the promotion was level outside of the ‘Sky F1 Twitter bubble’. Nevertheless, 63 percent of those polled on this blog want to see it again, although there are several comments which are definitely worth food for thought should this be done again.

Several repeats of the Goodwood Festival of Speed also made Sky Sports 4 and F1’s top ten ranging from 12,000 to 27,000 viewers. Across four airings, the total was 81,000 viewers. Lastly for the channel, the 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix highlights made the top ten with 12,000 viewers on Saturday evening. ESPN’s motor sport contribution to this post comes via Indy Lights highlights which averaged 17,000 viewers on Wednesday 17th July at 21:45. DTM, in the preceding hour, brought 13,000 viewers to the channel.