News round-up: Formula E exposes good and bad of social media; BT reduce Indy 500 output

In the first of three round-up posts catching up on the stories of the past month, this blog looks at Formula E amongst other topics that have caught the spotlight.

Formula E – the good, bad and dodgy
The inaugural season of the Formula E series is coming to a conclusion, with four races remaining. In the past month alone, there has been evidence of the good, bad and perhaps dodgy things that have been occurring across its output.

The announcement that the 2016 Formula One season is provisionally set to start in April should be seen as good news within Formula E circles. Assuming that the second season it scheduled well, and initial indications suggests that will be the case, then Formula E should be able to gain momentum through January, February and March 2016 before the Formula One season begins and inevitably takes away a portion of its reach. Starting off with the good news, and that is that Formula E is using new technologies effectively and to their advantage, for example live video streaming app Periscope. Using Periscope allows fans to get closer to the action, giving them a virtual behind the scenes pass, meaning that they can interact with teams’ and drivers’ instantly.

Another app that the electric racing series has been using is Grabyo, which allows rights holders such as Formula E to post short video snippets straight to Twitter instantly, which is exactly what they did with the turn two crash at the Monaco ePrix. The key word with both Periscope and Grabyo is ‘instant’. Because instant communication is what social media thrives on, and it is fantastic to see Formula E exploiting these new apps to their advantage. Planned or not, it always helps when someone with nearly eight million Twitter followers shares one of these clips, as footballer Cesc Fàbregas did a few hours after last Saturday’s race. I’d be fascinated to see just how many people Formula E managed to reach with the Grabyo clips, and how many people then went and watched a few more of their clips.

There were a few negatives coming out of the Monaco ePrix weekend. The first surrounded the direction, which, as expected for Monaco was controlled by the local host. The camera angles that viewers saw were typical of Monaco, they were the same as the angles used during the F1, and given Formula E’s lack of speed, it didn’t paint the series in the best of ways. However, it did make me appreciate the fantastic work that Westbury Gillett and team have done so far this season in bringing out the best of Formula E with brilliant direction that gets the cameras as close to the cars as humanely possible.

Accounts related to Destination Luxury 'mass retweeting' content related to Formula E. — Accounts related to Destination Luxury ‘mass retweeting’ content related to Formula E.

There are two personnel changes to keep an eye on next Saturday. Mike Conway replaced Dario Franchitti as colour commentator for Monaco due to Franchitti’s Indianapolis 500 commitments, which presumably means that Franchitti will not be commentating on next Saturday’s Berlin ePrix either. Elsewhere, Andy Jaye is replacing Jennie Gow as ITV presenter for Berlin and the Moscow ePrix in early June, as Gow is covering the Monaco and Canadian Formula 1 events for BBC Radio 5 Live. Jaye covers speedway for British Eurosport, so is a good choice to replace Gow. As of writing, ITV have not confirmed coverage plans for the London ePrix on June 27th and 28th, however, the Sunday action clashes with British Touring Car Championship, so one of them will need to be moved to ITV.com, or hopefully moved to ITV’s main channel.

The last Formula E note is frankly bizarre. I tweeted about Formula E at the end of April and was slightly surprised to see that 108 ‘people’ had retweeted the tweet. After closer investigation, including looking at some of the other Formula E tweets, it was clear that it wasn’t actually 108 unique people. At least 50 of those accounts originate from a group called Destination Luxury (DLX). I’m not sure whether this falls under the category of Formula E buying Twitter followers in order to boost the retweet numbers, but it looks a bit strange to me in any case.

Two steps forward, three steps back?
2015 started off brilliantly for Formula One Management (FOM). A slick-looking graphics set. A new-look website. Advances in the social media department. Unfortunately, the appalling direction is a continuing frustration with the bi-weekly Formula 1 product. The direction came to the forefront of this blog’s attention during last year’s Canadian Grand Prix, where it has remained ever since.

Is this an appropriate shot for the start sequence?

Decisions made by the directors (or whoever controls the pictures that viewers worldwide see) are left to be desired. For me, there are two major issues at the moment. The first surrounds the start sequence. Recently, FOM have been experimenting with shots such as the above for the race start. The problem that I have is that the shot is inappropriate for the race start, irrespective of how many seconds the shot remains on the World Feed for after the green light. By all means use it half way through when there is not as much action, but don’t use it at the start. The direction was further exasperated in Spain when FOM went to a helicopter shots during the first lap. On lap 1, I want to identify cars as easily as possible, and track the running order. In essence, the shots need to be stable for this to happen. I don’t like FOM’s direction as of late, and unfortunately it is part of a downward trend that has been taking place for many years now.

Now that we’re five races in, I maintain the view that FOM’s 2015 graphics are better than their predecessors. However, are they at the standard of Dorna’s MotoGP graphics? No. Dorna themselves have taken the MotoGP graphics forward another set this year. Innovative, awesome and creative are three words that I’ve used on Twitter to describe Dorna’s graphics set in the last month alone. The problem FOM now have is that they need to exploit the current graphics set to their best potential, which is what Dorna are doing. The latest move from Dorna is movable graphics, which have been used in NASCAR for a while. But over in Europe at least, the move is a new step. FOM’s production and direction side seems reluctant to positive change that will benefit the product that the viewer at home sees. Instead, they seem to be moving the product to suit other agendas. Mind you, I suspect the direction is the least of F1’s worries right now…

BT reign in IndyCar coverage
With BT Sport focussing all of its efforts on MotoGP, it appears next weekend’s coverage of the Indianapolis 500 on ESPN will be a copy of the US feed rather than BT adding any of their own colour to it like last year. Coverage starts at 16:00 next week, with no Motorsport Tonight segment like last year in the schedules. Last year, BT Sport 2 went on air at 15:30, with an hour of studio talk before handing over to their American colleagues. It shouldn’t be too much surprise if BT have decided to just take the American feed, because the approach they took last year was derided a fair amount on social media, with the negative comments outweighing the positive comments. In fact, it looks like both Motorsport Tonight and its MotoGP Tonight counterpart have been permanently axed from BT’s schedules in exchange for The Chequered Flag and BT presenting every MotoGP race on site.

This week has been a reminder that series such as IndyCar only get coverage in the UK whenever a bad crash happens. Multiple media outlets covered the heavy crashes of Helio Castroneves and Josef Newgarden during practice for the Indianapolis 500 including the BBC and The Times. Let’s hope that the next eight days pass without any other major crashes occurring during the build-up to the Indianapolis 500.

News round-up: Australia gets 50/50 split; F1 website roll-out coming

Before I get into the round-up, a quick update on the status of this blog. As regular readers may be aware, I am currently in the final year of my undergraduate degree. This means that, especially in the last few months, I have been spending less time maintaining the blog, which is why the news round-up’s have turned up sporadically, so I can bundle what would be three or four separate articles into one succinct post.

On some days, time is limited to just University work (or relaxing!), meaning that writing new content for the blog is an afterthought. The reduction in content will continue for at least the next month, but should pick back up as we head into April. In the mean time, this is what has been dominating the agenda during the past week.

Australia gets a BBC/Sky style deal
It was rumoured late last year that Australia would be heading towards a shared coverage deal from 2016. Critically, the structure of the deal would be different to that of BBC and Sky, with Network Ten and Fox Sports sharing coverage every race, but Fox Sports would broadcast every practice and qualifying session exclusively live.

The shared deal between Fox and cash-strapped Network Ten has now been confirmed. Unfortunately for Australian readers, there were two big surprises. The first is that the deal between Fox Sports and Network Ten will be structured in exactly the same way as the BBC and Sky deal in the United Kingdom. Secondly, the deal comes into effect from this season. Yes, that is the season that is less than a month away!

Reading around, it looks like Fox Sports will be taking Sky Sports F1’s UK commentary. Some people have interpreted this as meaning that Australian viewers will also have access to content such as Ted’s Notebook and Sky’s pre and post-race coverage. I don’t believe that is the case. Australian television has taken the UK commentary for years, going back to the late 1990’s, perhaps even earlier, and never was it accompanied by the extras that UK viewers get.

The new F1 website gets closer
A teaser banner promoting the new Formula 1 website has been posted on the current Formula 1 website, with the tag-line “All the action, anytime, anywhere.” The images in the banner clearly show that the new website is mobile ready and configured for different types of devices. It looks like the new website will arrive before Australia, although no date has been confirmed. Presumably it will be the same date as the new 2015 Formula One app, but nothing has been made official.

You would have to squint to decipher anything else from the four screens, but a member button is clearly visible in the top right of each screenshot, which supports previous comments made by Marissa Pace, Formula One Management’s Digital Media Manager. In an article (£) this week, Jonathan Noble, AUTOSPORT’s Group F1 Editor, said that Formula 1 needs YouTube, a thought I completely agree with, as it would help immensely in introducing F1 to the next generation. Pace mentioned that YouTube will happen with regards to F1, but when? Well, that’s the million dollar question. Beyond the membership area, there is nothing else to say about the screenshots, but good luck to anyone who wishes to try…

Changes elsewhere
Speaking of AUTOSPORT, there is a fair bit of movement happening over there, almost like the F1 media has its own transfer window! Pablo Elizalde left AUTOSPORT to join Motorsport.com as of February 1st. Elizalde was not the only journalist heading out of AUTOSPORT’s doors, earlier this week, it was announced that Jonathan Noble will be joining Motorsport.com from May. Both of them are huge gains to Motorsport.com’s portfolio, as it becomes increasingly clear that they are looking to become a major player in the digital world. With Charles Bradley leading the ship, it will be fascinating to see where things head from here.

With exits, there are arrivals. Lawrence Barretto jumps ship from BBC’s F1 online team to AUTOSPORT as their new F1 reporter. That in itself is a big move, not only do AUTOSPORT gain a talented writer, but BBC’s F1 online output is once again sliced. At this point, Andrew Benson must be the only permanent F1 writer that BBC have.

More pre-Australia scheduling news
The special Formula 1 edition of A Question of Sport will air next Friday (27th February) at 19:30 on BBC One, it has been confirmed. I’m a bit surprised that this wasn’t held back until the Friday before Melbourne if at all possible to help build-up to the new season. The edition features McLaren test driver Kevin Magnussen and Red Bull boss Christian Horner alongside BBC F1 team members Suzi Perry and David Coulthard.

Elsewhere, the Australian Grand Prix Qualifying programme will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 as usual, but also Sky Sports 1 and Sky1, which is an unusual occurrence! The benefit of it being on Sky1 is that Sky1 has a +1 service, for anyone who wishes to have an extra hour in bed. The race will still be exclusively live on Sky’s F1 channel.

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.

News round-up: Hamilton visits BBC; Perry staying with BBC

In this round-up, the first piece of the 2015 Formula One broadcasting jigsaw has moved into place, and the 2014 Formula One champion has been doing a few bits of a media…

Hamilton visits BBC, on multiple occasions
It has been a very busy week for Lewis Hamilton, following his title victory at last Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Monday started bright and early with media interviews from the likes of BBC Radio, NBC Sports and Sky Sports. 24 hours later, and Hamilton was up in Salford. Hamilton was live on BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 5 Live, in the latter piece, he surprised a nine year old go-karting champion, which was a nice bit of radio to listen to!

On Thursday, Hamilton was on Nick Grimshaw’s Breakfast show on Radio 1, transforming the live lounge into a Scalextric track! He later dropped by ITV’s This Morning programme. Currently, he’s in Stuttgart for a Mercedes publicity event. So a very busy week for the world champion. One programme he was not on was The F1 Show last night due to the Stuttgart event, but I was happy to see Daniel Ricciardo as guest on the show, although admittedly this fact was not promoted too much. Nevertheless, it is nice to see F1 get a lot of publicity with Hamilton doing the media rounds.

Perry staying with BBC F1 for 2015
The first Formula 1 broadcasting announcement of the off-season is that Suzi Perry is definitely staying with the BBC F1 team for 2015, as announced on her Twitter account in response to a fan question. In terms of timescale, expect the 2015 BBC and Sky scheduling details to be confirmed just before Christmas, probably Friday 19th December based on previous years. If there are any major changes, I’d also expect that to be confirmed before Christmas as well, although its worth noting that Gary Anderson’s departure from BBC F1 was not publicly known until after the festive period.

Any broadcasting changes are likely to surround whether Jenson Button is in fact retiring, and if so, whether he wishes to stay in the paddock, but as a broadcaster. If the answer to both of those two questions is yes, then we could see some movement depending on whether Button wishes to join BBC or Sky. One suggestion that I have read is that David Coulthard could join Sky. That would free up a space on BBC’s team for Button to fit into. That would benefit both broadcasters in my eyes. We should get some idea of where things are heading in the next week or so, assuming McLaren do not hold off their driver announcement much longer.

Movement in World Superbikes
Over on two wheels, Steve Day and Gregory Haines have been confirmed as Dorna’s World Feed commentators for the World Superbike Championship. Day moves across from covering bikes for Eurosport since 2011, whilst Haines switches from the MotoGP paddock, where he was World Feed commentator this year alongside Nick Harris.

News round-up: Buxton ending GP2 and GP3 commitments; MotoGP numbers

In between the lull of the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix, there have been some interesting bits of news worth reporting in one post.

Buxton says “a very warm goodbye”
The biggest piece of news is that the Abu Dhabi weekend will be the last for Will Buxton as lead commentator of the GP2 and GP3 Series. Writing on his blog, Buxton said “My work in America has increased over the years to the point where I feel I am no longer able to divide my time effectively between three championships. By concentrating solely on Formula 1, I hope that I will be able to improve the quality of the content I bring to the burgeoning American audience, and help to grow the sport Stateside”. I’ve sampled a bit of ‘Off the Grid’ (a 30-minute show for NBC Sports) with Buxton and Jason Swales, and it is safe to say that the American audience is incredibly lucky to have two talented and dedicated people producing content for them.

I will miss hearing Will commentate on GP2. Not many people come across as passionate and articulate on the microphone, but he is always willing to give his opinion, which I think viewers appreciate. As for his replacement, Jack Nicholls and Ben Evans are surely two contenders high on the list. Nicholls is currently lead commentator on the Formula E World Feed, whilst Evans has been commentating on a lot of things for BT Sport alongside Keith Collantine. I guess we could always see someone like David Croft or Ben Edwards hoisted into the seat, but it depends whether FOM want to breed new talent or rely on a veteran figure such as those mentioned.

I’m a former MotoGP presenter
…Get Me Out of Here? Apparently so. Former MotoGP presenter for BT Sport, Melanie Sykes, is heading into the jungle. Sykes is not the only motor cycling alumni heading down under though, as Carl Fogarty is joining her on the ITV show. I didn’t mention this at the time, but Sykes did very briefly mention leaving BT’s MotoGP coverage on her Twitter feed at the end of August, albeit did not go into any further detail. Let’s see if her time in the jungle lasts longer than her time as MotoGP presenter…

MotoGP season ends with 669k
The 2014 MotoGP season ended with a combined peak audience of 669k, unofficial overnight viewing figures reveal. It was a tale of two halves however, as ITV4 figures were up compared to usual, and BT Sport ended the season on a low. The respective peaks were 518k (2.3%) for ITV4’s highlights programme and 151k (1.5%) at 13:45 for BT Sport’s live coverage from Sunday afternoon. ITV4’s highlights on Monday evening seen a boost compared to recent numbers, averaging 407k (1.8%).

No such boost for BT Sport’s coverage, which averaged 71k (0.7%) to 09:30 to 14:30. From 12:30 to 14:00, the channel averaged 110k (1.1%). Both of those numbers are poor, and I believe that is actually their lowest overnight figures for a European round of the entire season. BT’s audiences have not grown throughout the year, although they haven’t been helped by having a championship that was decided many months ago. Last year’s championship finale averaged 1.21m (11.9%) over on BBC Two. Unusually, the MotoGP finale was held on the same weekend as an F1 race, which could well have had a side-effect even though there was no direct clash.

ITV were non-committal when this blog asked about MotoGP highlights for next season. When the highlights deal was announced earlier this year, no details were released about how long the contract was for. I hope it will be multiple seasons, but we shall see. Personally, it would be a catastrophic mistake from Dorna to ignore its free to air audience. I don’t see any evidence that axing ITV4’s highlights programme would increase BT Sport’s MotoGP audience, either.