Those of you who have visited The F1 Broadcasting Blog may have noticed that things are a little different around here. Out goes ‘Blogum‘ and in comes ‘Mystique‘. With The F1 Broadcasting Blog continuing to grow, and about to hit 200,000 hits since launch, I felt the time was right to make the switch. The new theme integrates social media better than previously, with both Facebook and Twitter now firmly integrated into the blog layout.

It has been a quiet time recently with not many motor sport broadcasting stories making the rounds after the frenzied start to the season, but The F1 Broadcasting Blog will continue in full swing heading into August. ‘The Verdict so Far‘ series will be returning in August as I analyse both the BBC and Sky Sports F1 teams at the half way stage of the 2013 season, and look at ways both sides could improve the output as we move forward.

The next few months also promises more news concerning, BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage plans and the talent that may, or may not, be involved with the broadcasts. Whilst the blog is motor sport orientated, you can be assured that the blog will have one eye focussed on BT Sport’s entry into the market. Alongside that, the blog will have the usual viewing numbers and all the Formula 1 scheduling details for upcoming races.

An exciting period loom on the horizon in the broadcasting world. For the moment, I would like to thank you for continuing to read The F1 Broadcasting Blog as we head towards the Summer break.

Thanks,
Dave,
Owner of The F1 Broadcasting Blog

One year ago, I launched The F1 Broadcasting Blog. The first blog was your standard ‘Welcome‘ piece. From there, the site grew. Bigger and better than I ever could have imaged. 345 posts later and today marks the first birthday for The F1 Broadcasting Blog. I couldn’t be more proud of how far the site has come. Here are a few statistics on how far the site has come:

– Total of 155,000 hits
– Over 1,500 followers on Twitter
– Amassed over 800 comments since inception
– Average of 500 views per day
– Visitors from 134 countries
– Connections with members of the BBC and Sky F1 team

To all of those that have visited, praised, criticised, commented and liked, thank you for making it the success that it has been. And as a milestone has been passed, here is the regular review of the most read articles since the site began:

10. Doing the sums: the cost of viewing Sky Sports F1 this year – January 31st, 2013
Unsurprisingly, a popular article so far in 2013 has been people looking for the cheapest way to view Sky Sports F1 legally this season.

9. BBC axe 2012 opening titles – March 1st, 2013
Formula 1 opening titles tend to last three years, or at least they did throughout the ITV era. BBC had other ideas though and decided to dump their 2012 titles after only one season.

8. Tom Clarkson doing Lee McKenzie’s job this weekend – June 9th, 2012
With Jake Humphrey elsewhere, Lee McKenzie was promoted to the presenter role for the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix. In her place was Tom Clarkson, which led to the birth of the above blog article. For me, this was the first time I noticed that the blog was going to properly take off.

7. Dissecting Georgie Thompson’s decision to leave Sky F1 – February 25th, 2013
I attempt to look at the decision by Georgie Thompson to leave the Sky Sports F1 team. Two months on, and neither has made an official comment on the matter.

6. Tom Clarkson added to BBC F1 TV team – March 6th, 2013
The news in early March that Tom Clarkson had been added as a permanent member of the BBC F1 team, featuring in their coverage of every race.

5. The status of the IndyCar’s UK broadcasting rights – January 8th, 2013
The confusion surrounding the IndyCar rights concerned fans on the back-drop of a great year of racing in 2012. Unfortunately, it would turn out that Sky Sports opted to not renew the rights, with the series moving to ESPN. What happens from August 1st onwards though, is anyone’s guess.

4. Predicting the 2013 calendar pick order – September 21st, 2012
As the 2013 calendar was announced, I took a gamble, stepped into the BBC’s and Sky’s shoes and predicted what actions they would take in determining which races would be live on BBC, and which would be exclusively live on Sky. Whilst I was right some of the time, I was not right all of the time as we found out on December 21st.

3. A few thoughts on Jake Humphrey leaving the BBC – September 18th, 2012
As a follow on to number nine, later in the day on September 18th, I published my reaction to Jake Humphrey’s BBC F1 departure and speculated about who would replace him. In all cases though, I was wide of the mark.

2. Italian Grand Prix records highest rating since 1998 – September 10th, 2012
Before Jake Humphrey announced his BBC F1 departure, all was going swimmingly well. Until on the Monday after Monza it turned out that there were a few famous faces reading this blog. Cue a influx of hits sending the web traffic up many notches!

1. Georgie Thompson leaves Sky’s F1 team – February 15th, 2013
The story that I exclusively broke earlier back in February, that Georgie Thompson had left the Sky Sports F1 team after only a year in the role, with Natalie Pinkham taking over her duties.

As always, thanks for reading!
Dave,
Owner of The F1 Broadcasting Blog

In April 2012, I decided to launch The F1 Broadcasting Blog. Just over ten months on, and I am extremely pleased and overwhelmed to announce that today the blog has reached the six digit mark: this blog has now been viewed over 100,000 times. Furthermore, February seen a record amount of traffic to the blog, whilst the Twitter account has recently passed 1,000 followers. To those that have read and commented on the site, thank you for your continued support. Given that the Formula One season has yet to begin, I expect the site statistics to increase throughout the season. Here are the most read blogs that have contributed to the blog reaching the 100,000 milestone:

10. BBC F1 versus Sky Sports F1: Your Verdict – November 25th, 2012
Following the conclusion of the Brazilian Grand Prix, I asked for your verdict on the 2012 Formula One broadcasting scene. The response was fantastic with many detailed responses, which led me to publish a follow-up blog picking out the best comments.

9. Jake Humphrey to join BT Vision, leaving BBC at the end of 2012 – September 18th, 2012
The initial story I published last September as it was announced that Jake Humphrey would be leaving BBC’s Formula 1 team and heading to BT Vision’s football coverage.

8. Sky Sports F1’s pre-season coverage: What’s going on? – January 19th, 2013
In the middle of January, schedules did not show much pre-season coverage on the Sky Sports F1 channel, leading me to publish the above blog. Coincidentally (or not), following this post, the schedules started to come together with content being added to the EPG regularly. The culmination of this is Sky’s live coverage of testing, which looked an unlikely scenario just six weeks ago.

7. Racing Legends, a two part series, on BBC Two – December 27th, 2012
One of the Christmas television highlights for motor sport fanatics was the Racing Legends series on BBC Two. The series, which paired a celebrity with a racing legend, was well received by racing fans.

6. The status of the IndyCar’s UK broadcasting rights – January 8th, 2013
The confusion surrounding the IndyCar rights concerned fans on the back-drop of a great year of racing in 2012. Unfortunately, it would turn out that Sky Sports opted to not renew the rights, with the series moving to ESPN. What happens from August 1st onwards though, is anyone’s guess.

5. F1 2012 DVD season review to be released in 2013 – November 10th, 2012
The news that the 2012 Formula One DVD season review would not be released until 2013 was unsurprisingly read a lot during the run up to Christmas and in the immediate aftermath.

4. Predicting the 2013 calendar pick order – September 21st, 2012
As the 2013 calendar was announced, I took a gamble, stepped into the BBC’s and Sky’s shoes and predicted what actions they would take in determining which races would be live on BBC, and which would be exclusively live on Sky. Whilst I was right some of the time, I was not right all of the time as we found out on December 21st.

3. A few thoughts on Jake Humphrey leaving the BBC – September 18th, 2012
As a follow on to number nine, later in the day on September 18th, I published my reaction to Jake Humphrey’s BBC F1 departure and speculated about who would replace him. In all cases though, I was wide of the mark.

2. Georgie Thompson leaves Sky’s F1 team – February 15th, 2013
The story that I exclusively broke earlier this month, that Georgie Thompson had left the Sky Sports F1 team after only a year in the role, with Natalie Pinkham taking over her duties.

1. Italian Grand Prix records highest rating since 1998 – September 10th, 2012
Before Jake Humphrey announced his BBC F1 departure, all was going swimmingly well. Until on the Monday after Monza it turned out that there were a few famous faces reading this blog. Cue a influx of hits sending the web traffic up many notches!

So, what happens next? At the moment, I envisage the blog content through the season to be the same as in 2012. Scheduling, ratings, social media, analysis and opinion. For those that have not seen, I recently added a contracts page, with details of some of the 2013 motor sport broadcasting contracts that are currently in place for the year. It is by no means exhaustive, but covers all of the main series’. I hope to expand the content a bit more as the racing season progresses, maybe looking at other countries’ coverage a bit more, if time allows.

Thanks for reading!
Dave
Owner of The F1 Broadcasting Blog

Since setting up The F1 Broadcasting Blog in April, I have written 251 blogs. The growth of the website since April has been phenomenal, surpassing the 60,000 views mark on Christmas Day. The website continues to grow, evidence of that can be seen clearly as this month has averaged more views than any month before September despite no racing taking place. Unsurprisingly, some blogs have proved, for one reason or another, to be more popular than others and here is a look back at those more popular blogs from 2012.

10. Chris Evans rules himself out of BBC F1 presenter – November 4th
The main broadcasting story undoubtedly this year was the rumours swirling the BBC F1’s presenter position and who would replace Jake Humphrey. Chris Evans was a contender, but ruled himself out in his Daily Mail blog.

9. Eddie Jordan’s credibility – September 5th
Whilst the BBC F1 presenting change was the main broadcasting story, Lewis Hamilton’s move to Mercedes was definitely the main saga of 2012, which began with Eddie Jordan’s bombshell. The revelation led me to evaluate his credibility in revealing such a story.

8. BBC F1 versus Sky Sports F1: Your Verdict – November 25th
Following the conclusion of the Brazilian Grand Prix, I asked for your verdict on the 2012 Formula One broadcasting scene. The response was fantastic with many detailed responses, which led me to publish a follow-up blog picking out the best comments.

7. F1 2012 DVD season review to be released in 2013 – November 10th
The news that the 2012 Formula One DVD season review would not be released until 2013 was unsurprisingly read a lot during the run up to Christmas and in the immediate aftermath. Not too long now, though, until the DVD hits the shelves.

6. Tom Clarkson doing Lee McKenzie’s job this weekend – June 9th
With Jake Humphrey elsewhere, Lee McKenzie was promoted to the presenter role for the Canadian Grand Prix. In her place was Tom Clarkson, which led to the birth of the above blog article. For me, this was the first time I noticed that the blog was going to properly take off.

5. Mark Pougatch emerges as contender for BBC F1 presenter position – November 15th
Alongside Lee McKenzie and Chris Evans, The Times journalist Kevin Eason labelled Mark Pougatch as a contender for the BBC F1 presenter seat. All three would turn out to be wide of the booth as Suzi Perry was announced as BBC F1 presenter.

4. Jake Humphrey to join BT Vision, leaving BBC at the end of 2012 – September 18th
The initial story I published on September 18th, as it was announced that Jake Humphrey would be leaving BBC’s Formula 1 team and heading to BT Vision’s football coverage.

3. Predicting the 2013 calendar pick order – September 21st
As the 2013 calendar was announced, I took a gamble, stepped into the BBC’s and Sky’s shoes and predicted what actions they would take in determining which races would be live on BBC, and which would be exclusively live on Sky. Whilst I was right some of the time, I was not right all of the time…

2. A few thoughts on Jake Humphrey leaving the BBC – September 18th
As a follow on to number four, later in the day on September 18th, I published my reaction to Jake Humphrey’s BBC F1 departure and speculated about who would replace him. In all cases though, I was wide of the mark.

1. Italian Grand Prix records highest rating since 1998 – September 10th
Before Jake Humphrey announced his BBC F1 departure, all was going swimmingly well. Until on the Monday after Monza it turned out that there were a few famous faces reading this blog. Cue a influx of hits sending the web traffic up many notches!

It has been a fascinating eight months since I began the blog. I have, and still do, enjoy writing content for this blog. Hopefully the success that has been 2012 will continue into 2013.

Today is the one day of the year where I do not plan to write any content on this blog. Instead, I will simply say Merry Christmas! I hope you and your families and friends have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. More importantly, the weather has been dicey to say the least as of late here in the UK with some flooding in parts of England and Wales so I hope everyone reading stays safe.

Also, from me, a personal thank you for reading and commenting on the blog since April, it is much appreciated. Since April, the blog has amassed 60,000 hits and I hope that number grows ever further into 2013. More content will be coming up before the New Year as I finish the ‘2012 Verdict’ series.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Dave
Owner of The F1 Broadcasting Blog