Technical issues plight F1 TV, but platform shows signs of improvement

As we welcome in a new decade, F1 TV and FOM aficionado FOMWatch (@FOMWatch) has been looking at how F1’s in-house streaming service F1 TV has been faring from its 2018 launch to the present day.

At the start of 2018, F1 announced that it would launch an in-house streaming service in time for the 2018 season, entitled F1 TV. Developed in collaboration with third-party companies (including NBC Sports’ Playmaker Media, iStreamPlanet, CSG, Ostmodern and Tata), the platform ultimately launched just in time for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Offering all that years’ F1 sessions live and on-demand, showing the World Feed and all 20 drivers onboards with exclusive live team radio, the service also allowed viewers access to an ever-increasing selection of historic full races and highlights, dating back to 1981, the year in which FOM (or FOCA as it was known back then) first gained a slice of Formula 1’s commercial rights.

Lastly, F1 TV includes access to the live timing features on formula1.com and the F1 App, originally part of the ‘F1 Access’ live timing subscription offered since 2015.

Users in certain countries can sign up to a premium tier, called F1 TV Pro. Restricted due to broadcasting rights currently in place, the tier has both the live action and their respective replays, archive races and live timing features.

A cheaper tier, branded as F1 TV Access, has everything aside from the live streaming and replays of live streams is available in significantly more countries, including the UK.

In 2019, F1 brought three additional content feeds to F1 TV:

The Pit Lane Channel (introduced in 2012, and for 2019 featuring exclusive F1 TV commentary from support race commentator Alex Jacques)
the Driver Tracker channel (introduced in 2010)
the Data Channel (introduced in 2016)

In addition, F1 streamed F2, F3 and the Porsche Supercup sessions live in full via the platform for the first time (with World Feed commentary from Alex Jacques). In 2018, only highlights of the support races were available to watch after the race.

Technical issues plight service
Despite improvements for 2019, F1 TV has not been without its problems, some of which remain. A common complaint from users over on Twitter and Reddit surrounds the reliability of the service, with the service falling to handle high demand during live races, resulting in F1 issuing refunds to subscribers, and F1 CEO Chase Carey admitting that 2018 was a “beta” year for the service.

The quality of the streams itself is below that of othher streaming platforms. While F1 streams live sessions at full HD resolution (1080p), the frame rate on F1 TV is only 25 frames per second (fps). In the Ultra HD era, F1 shoots and broadcasts in 50fps (and prior to that, at the equivalent 25i – both of which equate to 50fps after de-interlacing), and that is what F1 airs on television.

Because of the reduced frame rate, the F1 TV stream looks jerky and less smooth, reducing the sense of speed in comparison to its television counterpart. F1 TV was hoping to have 50fps playback introduced in time for the 2019 season, but this has still yet to be introduced.

Considering other sports streaming services such as BBC online, Eurosport Player, Tennis TV, and Now TV (from Sky), and F1 themselves on their YouTube channel have all introduced 50fps support on their own streaming services, it is a shame that F1 TV is lagging behind in this respect, especially as F1 is a fast-paced sport that would benefit from these changes.

2019 Brazilian GP - F1 TV.png — The F1 angles that fans have access to via F1 TV’s premium tier service. Here, the Pit Lane channel shows two alternative angles of Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Note the list of drivers down the right hand side: clicking on their three-letter abbreviation takes you straight to their on-board camera.

Finally, another criticism is the way F1 TV mixes together the World Feed and the commentary of its broadcast partners. Some broadcasters, such as Sky, frequently cut away from the World Feed during practice to show their own content from reporters down in pit lane.

In contrast, F1 TV shows a single ‘vanilla’ World Feed channel, which does not include the bespoke broadcaster content. When this happens, fans watching via F1 TV will hear the commentary team talking about another topic that the broadcaster is airing exclusively for their audience.

A solution to this would be to either use cutaway-friendly commentators (such as BBC Radio’s commentary team for example), or to instead stream different versions of the World Feed specifically tailored to each broadcaster, to show their cutaways in-vision.

Content improving with more distinctive material
Despite these criticisms, F1 TV has slowly been improving if only at least in terms of its actual content.

The exclusive commentary on the Pit Lane channel provided by Alex Jacques is very informative, making full use of the multi-screen layout of the feed to show alternate angles, replays, and onboard footage, all which Jacques can commentate on.

Fans and pundits alike have criticised F1’s main feed output in recent years for showing too many replays, or not showing enough midfield action, whereas this is ultimately often shown first on one of the picture-in-picture windows on the Pit Lane channel.

In addition, while there have been regular on-demand videos such as session highlights and Paddock Pass posted since the 2018 launch, the amount of exclusive and in-depth on-demand content available to subscribers (most via F1 TV’s lower-level tier) has increased from just one in 2018 to much more in 2019.

A 50-minute documentary on Michael Schumacher and exclusive long-form interviews with Charles Leclerc and Jody Scheckter were some of 2019’s highlights, whilst Formula Two documentary series ‘Chasing the Dream’ starts 2020 on a high-note for the over-the-top platform.

Subscribers to F1 TV Pro also have access to the Weekend Debrief series (produced by FOM and aired on Sky Sports F1 in the UK), as well as Tech Talk feature show for each race in 2019.

F1 has greatly improved the archive content available to all F1 TV subscribers, with all from 1981 to 2017 having at least a ten-minute highlights reel, if not a full race, extended highlights, or season review clip. Now, F1 appears to be going in reverse chronological order, uploading full season’s worth of races from 2017 and earlier, having reached 2009 at the time of writing.

In conclusion, while F1 TV has matured in terms of what is available on the service, it still has a long way to go in terms of reliability, stability, and availability, particularly in terms of its mobile apps. Hopefully FOM will allocate more resources and personnel to ensure that the platform can continue to grow moving forward.

How have you found the performance of F1’s over-the-top service? What would you change to the platform, if anything? Have your say in the comments below.

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Looking ahead to 2020

“Pioneers pushed the boundaries.
Technology gave us speed.
Rivalries gave us drama.
Television brought us closer.
And we gave it home.”

Opening this post with the lines from Sky Sports F1’s fantastic 2019 pre-season trailer feels quite apt as we leave the 2010’s and say hello to the 2020’s. The trailer was quite brilliant, showing how F1 – and motor racing – has transformed over the decades, including broadcasting.

The 2010’s will be remembered on the broadcasting side for high definition, pay television, interactivity through social media, over-the-top, multi-stream and multi-platform. Where motor sport broadcasting will be in ten years is anyone’s guess in an ever changing, ever connected world.

For everything that has changed, many things have stayed the same, and some of the F1 personalities that greeted fans for the BBC’s coverage of the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix stayed right through to Sky’s coverage of the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

2020 promises to be another interesting year on the over-the-top front. F1 continues to try to grow their platform, but is their subscriber base rising at a fast-enough rate? Will UK fans finally get their hands on F1 TV Pro, as unlikely as that sounds?

More interestingly for me, could we see motor racing’s over-the-top platforms converge? Digital sports consultancy 7 League believes we have hit peak subscription and that “some sports will realise that others are best placed to syndicate their content.”

Will any motor racing series’ wanting to break out roll the dice and live stream their content via Amazon, Netflix, or even turn to F1 themselves?

For UK F1 fans, expect 2020 to bring a sense of stability after 2019’s raft of changes, with Sky Sports locked in until 2024 and Channel 4 until 2022. Nevertheless, there are always talking points in the F1 world, and Motorsport Broadcasting will again be covering those as the year unfolds.

Fans have the second series of Netflix’s Drive to Survive to look forward to, expected to land prior to the season opening Australian Grand Prix. As well as covering McLaren’s return to the podium, Motorsport Broadcasting can confirm that the series will also be featuring Mercedes’ German Grand Prix calamity in full, giving F1 fans plenty to chew over.

There is the outside possibility that Dorna may announce a UK MotoGP contract extension earlier than in previous cycles at the latter end of 2020. BT Sport signed a three-year contract covering 2019, 2020 and 2021, and it is possible that they may seek to extend their deal earlier than anticipated if they feel Sky could come in to swoop the rights.

The start of 2020 should be quieter than what we saw twelve months ago, but there are bound to be plenty of twists and turns off-track as 2020 revs up for another year of motor racing.

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News round-up: F2 documentary release date announced; UK Christmas scheduling details

In the latest Motorsport Broadcasting round-up, news on when fans can get their hands on the new Formula Two documentary, whilst fans of the Formula One season review will be getting double the action in this year’s offering…

The round-up gives a bite sized view of the latest news making the waves, as well as interesting snippets that I have picked up along the way.

ICYMI: Round-Up #7 (November 3rd): F1 to remain on ESPN in US; Eurosport UK to air British Speedway

ICYMI: Round-Up #6 (October 15th): New Brabham film released; MotoGP moves towards HDR resolution

ICYMI: Round-Up #5 (September 12th): Bratches set to exit F1 role; Eurosport executive joins Formula E

ICYMI: Round-Up #4 (July 23rd): New Formula Two documentary coming soon; Facebook touts MotoGP success

The round-up covers from the start of November onwards, so I have mentioned a few points retrospectively for completeness.

Note from Dave – This is the eighth and last round-up of 2019. As we head into 2020, I would be interested to know if you have found the round-ups interesting and informative this year. The point of the round-ups is to cover news snippets that I would not usually mention in a standalone piece.

It is impossible to mention every little detail, otherwise the round-up turns into a long and unwieldy list, which I want to avoid. If you have found these interesting and valuable, a quick comment underneath or over on the social channels would be much appreciated.

Formula 1

There are plenty of Christmas specials coming up to keep the pulse racing.
- Sky Sports’ 60-minute review is already available to watch via Sky’s on demand service.
- BBC’s 5 Live special premieres on Christmas Eve at 20:00, with a very special presenter. Steve Rider presides over the festivities as Claire Cottingham, Jack Nicholls, Alex Jacques, Andrew Benson, Jennie Gow and Jolyon Palmer take part in an F1 themed quiz.
- Over on F1 TV Pro, there is a 45-minute special of the Weekend Debrief, aptly titled Season Debrief. UK fans can watch the special on Sky Sports F1 over the festive period.
- Further afield, Sky aired highlights of the annual Autosport Awards earlier this month. The same 90-minute package can also be found on Autosport’s YouTube channel.
2020 starts with the new Formula Two documentary series landing on F1 TV. As first revealed by Motorsport Broadcasting in July, the series focuses on the stars of tomorrow in a 5 x 25 minute series. Fans worldwide, including the UK, will be able to watch F2: Chasing the Dream from Thursday 2nd January.
Series 2 of Drive to Survive is complete from an editorial perspective. Writing on Twitter on Friday, producer Paul Martin noted that Friday was the “last night in the edit.” Box to Box Films or Netflix have yet to confirm a release date for the much-anticipated sequel.
The FIA has amended the 2020 Formula One Sporting Regulations to “prevent teams from covering their cars during winter testing, in order to make these events more appealing to the media and fans.”
- Not only is this good news for fans attending the tests, but it is good news for fans worldwide, as testing airs live across F1 TV and Sky Sports F1 for the second year running.
The official 2019 Formula One Season Review will return to a four-hour format when it is released by Duke later this month, after heavy criticism of the 2018 review.
- The 2018 review was slimmer compared to previous years, and contained live commentary from Sky’s David Croft and Martin Brundle instead of a bespoke voiceover from Ben Edwards. Whilst the running length returns to the 2017 format, fans will continue to hear Sky’s commentary in the 2019 review.
2019 champion Lewis Hamilton appeared on The Graham Norton Show last month following his championship victory in Austin. The episode, which aired on BBC One, is available to watch on BBC iPlayer until the early hours of Boxing Day.
An audience of 5.8 million viewers watched the 2019 F1 Esports Series online, according to figures released by Formula 1, surpassing the 5.5 million viewers that watched across online and television last year.
- In addition, F1 says that 79 percent of all viewers were below 34 years old. “We are really excited about the progress we have made this year with a 65% increase in interest in the series compared to 2018, our highest ever online audience of 5.8 million and 169 million social media impressions,” said Julian Tan, F1’s Head of Digital Business Initiatives and Esports.
- “The massive growth in viewership and engagement is testament to the strength of our esports proposition. I am confident that Formula 1 Esports will continue to grow and broaden the opportunities for the next generation of motorsport fans and brands to engage and invest in this burgeoning space as we continue to break down borders into our sport through esports and gaming – the growth in viewership and engagement this year is a prime indicator of this,” added Tan.
The annual Formula Three race from Macau aired live on Formula 1’s YouTube channel last month. For anyone who needs their motor sport fix over Christmas, the race remains on the channel over here.

Elsewhere…

The German touring car championship DTM has announced that they are to launch an over-the-top platform ready for the 2020 season. The platform launched in beta mode during last month’s special DTM cross-over event with Super GT.
The EV racing site e-racing365 has announced that it is to reduce its Formula E offering from January onwards, citing the current economic environment in the media landscape. e-racing365 has seen record growth, “with a 74 percent increase in unique viewers and a 54 percent increase in page views compared to 2018,” led by editor Sam Smith.
- Writing on the site, founder John Dagys said “While our editorial coverage has been second-to-none, we’ve fought very hard the last two-and-a-half-years to make it economically viable. It takes significant resources to cover a defacto world championship and without the necessary financial support, we’re unfortunately unable to continue at this level. The motorsports media landscape has continued to change over the last few months and we stand by our principle of being one of the few remaining independent media outlets covering the sport we all love.”
- “There are a number of exciting all-electric series in the pipeline that we feel will have the necessary interest and support for the site to continue to grow. We’re excited for those opportunities and look forward to helping share the story of the sport’s transition to electrification in the years to come,” Dagys added.
The American bike series MotoAmerica is touting record numbers for the 2019 season. The series says that their broadcast audience increased by 134 percent on 2018, largely thanks to a new broadcast relationship with NBC Sports Network and Fox Sports 2 instead of beIN Sports. In addition, their social media accounts grew by 33 percent, with impressions up by 229 percent.

If you have spotted anything else making the rounds that is worth a mention, drop a line in the comments section below.

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Motorsport Broadcasting: Your 2019 Verdict

The chequered flag has fallen on another year of Formula 1, and with it the end of the 2019 motor racing season.

Despite both MotoGP and F1 having a relatively predictable outcome, the journey to the destination has been enticing throughout. From the thrilling German Grand Prix on four wheels, to Alex Rins beating Marc Marquez at Silverstone by milometers on two wheels, there was something for everyone this year.

Off track, 2019 has been a year of change for fans of F1 in the UK. Live coverage of the sport aired exclusively on Sky Sports for the first time ever, following in the footsteps of MotoGP which moved to BT in 2014. Only the British Grand Prix aired live on free-to-air television.

In the social media space, F1 continues to make excellent strides in an ever-changing world, whilst others have had to rethink their strategy to work out how best to engage with their audience.

Now, Motorsport Broadcasting wants your opinion on the past twelve months. Which personality has shone in 2019 and deserves a bigger presence in 2020? What was the low-light from a broadcasting perspective for you this season? And, if there was one thing you could change next season, what would it be?

As always, the best thoughts will form an article on this site over the festive period.

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Live coverage of F1 testing to return in 2020

Live coverage of Formula 1 pre-season testing will return in 2020, broadcaster Sky Sports has confirmed after a successful outing earlier this year.

Although Formula 1 themselves have yet to officially confirm the news, both Simon Lazenby and Ted Kravitz announced details to viewers watching Sky’s coverage of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The two confirmed that in-depth testing coverage will air live on Sky Sports F1, with Kravitz also referring to the post-session wrap-up show.

Earlier this year, testing aired live across F1 TV’s premium tier service and Sky Sports, to positive reviews, which has influenced the decision making process for 2020.

If 2019 is anything to go by, live coverage of the first Barcelona test from Wednesday 19th February to Friday 21st February is a certainty.

The question mark hangs over the second test a week later, which F1 opted not to cover live this year, and it remains unclear if F1 will extend their offering in 2020, or stick with the tried and tested 2019 approach.

Coverage performed solidly on Sky Sports back in February, peaking with 96,000 viewers according to overnight viewing figures in a slot that would have otherwise got zero on a normal weekday.

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