Getting the ‘exclusive’

With a lot of rumours in the Formula 1 paddock at this time of the year, inevitably when things are concerned we get to see which journalists are right, which ones were wrong and who broke what exclusives, and crucially got the details correct. Now, you may be wondering “does it matter”? To the fans, who are reading the news, probably not. But to the journalists themselves, I would say that it does matter. Journalists, in their nature, exist to get a big story, to get that story that the rest of the fleet have been looking for. After all, getting exclusives drives internet traffic, it drives social media, it can, if you are a relatively small company drive the entire business.

Those that can remember back to Monaco will remember both Jonathan Noble and Andrew Benson, for AUTOSPORT and BBC respectively breaking the Mercedes “tyre gate” exclusive. It means a lot to journalists to get the story. So, imagine if you had a reporter or a journalist who has broken that exclusive, to look and find another website actually claiming to have an exclusive that is not theirs. In the case of Sky Sports F1, they have done that twice in the recent weeks. I know that I have been critical of them in the past, but unfortunately this past week, it is evident that they have been shouting from the rooftops about their own team bringing viewers ‘exclusives’ that were broken by another paddock journalist beforehand.

The first is Natalie Pinkham claiming David Croft “got the scoop” on Rob Smedley, Felipe Massa and Ross Brawn going to Williams. 96 people retweeted that, possibly for the detail, it is just a pity the bit about getting the scoop is far from the mark. If that actually turns out to be true then Ted Kravitz and also Autosprint deserve the credit. Kravitz noted Brawn going to Williams as early as last Sunday, whilst Autosprint on Thursday put the linked article online. So again, I am unsure Sky got the exclusive. It is not just Sky who do this though. Not necessarily with exclusives but ripping off other website’s articles. On the morning of September 5th, AUTOSPORT published a 2014 draft calendar. This then appeared on just about every other Formula 1 website imaginable. Many credited or linked the original source which is fine, but there are websites which just took the calendar and passed it off as their own, original journalism.

Finally, Kimi Raikkonen’s return to Ferrari. On August 1st, Pekka Franck (a Finnish journalist) broke the story on the SuomiF1 website. So Franck had the scoop, many weeks before the British journalists who swarm the paddock. This did not stop Johnny Herbert, David Croft and Pete Gill in this article claiming that their own Mark Hughes that the exclusive! Hughes, as well as his Sky duties works for AUTOSPORT, but thankfully AUTOSPORT employees on Twitter did not post about Hughes supposedly getting an exclusive. You could claim that Sky did not know about Franck breaking the story given that he is not a British based journalist. By that measure, I’m still not sure Hughes was the first.

I go back to the question I posed at the start of this post: “does it matter”? It is all about journalistic standards. If you are getting news from another website and basically doing a Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V job then in the very least you should be accrediting them and saying “yeah, I took X from Y, but am adding my Z bit of analysis and thoughts to it”. In Sky’s case, it is ripping off another journalists work and claiming it as their own – albeit not as an article, but in tweet form. Bad standards, in my view. And in the first attempt, it feels like an attempt to fuel someone’s ego. Deliberately? Who knows. But I don’t think, in the past year and a half I have seen Sky genuinely get an earth shattering Formula 1 exclusive on the scale of the Mercedes tyre fiasco or the Raikkonen contract or do an Eddie Jordan. In the words of Marc Priestley: “Finding it hilarious how many people seem to claim to have ‘broken’ the news first. It’s brilliant.”

Maybe “Sky sources” just don’t exist in the Formula 1 paddock meaning that they have to take other journalists exclusives and claim them as their own…

Update on April 5th, 2014 – It looks like I have a good reason to update this today. Sky Sports during their practice coverage AND also The F1 Show last night were hyping a ‘Mercedes exclusive’ with Martin Brundle and Mark Hughes. The feature played out during the Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying show. Whilst there was no problem with the feature itself, in fact it was informative, and definitely did a great job at explaining the advantages of the split turbo, it actually wasn’t an exclusive!

Craig Scarborough did a feature on it with Peter Windsor for The Racer’s Edge before Melbourne, whilst Racecar Engineering mentioned it after the first test in Jerez! So, in other words, Sky’s exclusive has already been in the public domain for two months (worryingly, Scarborough says its not even accurate). As we can see from the original article before the update, Sky have history in claiming exclusives that are not always there. If Sky want an exclusive early, why don’t they actually get Scarborough, or someone from Racecar Engineering onto their coverage to explain it? Hopefully I’m not adding to this before the end of 2014…

Scheduling: The 2013 Singapore Grand Prix

The Formula 1 season continues in full force with the first of the Asian fly away races – which takes the paddock from Singapore to Korea onto Japan and finally India and Abu Dhabi. The weekend’s action is exclusively live on Sky Sports F1, with BBC One showing highlights later in the evening. Unfortunately for BBC viewers, even with no Singapore Sling, the race is still likely to border the two hours, meaning that they will only just get over half of the race.

I haven’t mentioned the BBC Radio practice three times below as they are actually wrong so I’ll update the below once the schedule is amended (Update on 19th Sept – its disappeared completely now…). Allan McNish’s last race with the team was in Italy so I don’t expect to see him in their coverage again this year. Over on Sky, F1 Legends this week features Eddie Irvine. Some people I noticed were unimpressed with the words ‘Irvine’ and ‘Legend’ in the same sentence, but even so, I’m looking forward to this one and may end up being one of the more interesting editions.

In terms of personnel, Natalie Pinkham will not be with the Sky team meaning Rachel Brookes will be presenting alongside Ted Kravitz. Anthony Davidson is also not in Singapore, so Karun Chandhok is on Sky Pad duties. It also seems that Mika Hakkinen and Alain Prost will be appearing in some on-air capacity over the weekend.

Sunday 15th September
20:00 to 22:45 – F1: 2008 Singapore Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 20th September at 07:00

Monday 16th September
20:00 to 22:45 – F1: 2009 Singapore Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 21st September at 15:45

Tuesday 17th September
20:00 to 22:45 – F1: 2010 Singapore Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 21st September at 22:30

Wednesday 18th September
20:00 to 22:45 – F1: 2011 Singapore Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Martin Brundle and David Coulthard
– repeated on Sunday 22nd September at 20:15

Thursday 19th September
11:00 to 11:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
21:00 to 22:00 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
21:30 to 21:45 – Gear Up for Singapore (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 20th September
09:45 to 10:20 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
10:45 to 12:55 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
10:55 to 12:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
12:55 to 13:40 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
14:15 to 16:15 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
14:25 to 16:05 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16:15 to 17:00 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
18:30 to 19:30 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 21st September
09:00 to 10:25 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
10:45 to 12:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
13:00 to 15:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
14:15 to 15:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
14:50 to 15:02 – F1: Qualifying 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live)
17:15 to 18:30 – F1: Qualifying Highlights (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 22nd September
09:05 to 10:10 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
13:00 to 15:00 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
16:15 to 17:15 – Legends: Eddie Irvine (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:30 – F1: Race Highlights (BBC One)

Wednesday 25th September
19:00 to 19:30 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

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

Sky Sports to repeat F1 programming on other Sky Sports channels

Sky Sports are to repeat some of the Sky Sports F1 programming on their other channels, schedules today reveal. Over the forthcoming weeks, Sky Sports will be repeating recent editions of:

– The F1 Show
– Midweek Report
– Fast Track

On Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4 at various times. This appears to be starting tonight with The F1 Show being repeated at 22:00 on Sky Sports 4. Further down the road, for example, the Singapore edition of Fast Track is being repeated on Friday 27th September at 17:30 on Sky Sports 3.

This appears to be a change of stance for whatever reason. In the past I don’t think Fast Track or Midweek Report have ever been repeated on the other Sky Sports channels, whilst The F1 Show has only ever had a run out on there at Christmas for their Season Review. I’ll keep an eye out to see if any other F1 related shows pop up on the other Sky Sports channels.

Italian Grand Prix hits six year ratings low

The Italian Grand Prix hit a six year ratings low yesterday, overnight ratings figure suggest. Whilst Sky Sports F1 figures are unavailable, the BBC’s figures give a clear indication of the overall figures. Live coverage on BBC One, from 12:10 to 15:15 averaged 2.85 million viewers, a 26 percent share according to ITV Media. The figure is nearly identical to their Belgian Grand Prix viewership figure. The BBC’s race programme recorded a 15-minute peak figure of 3.90 million viewers at 14:00.

Despite BBC’s figures being identical to Belgium, Sky Sports F1’s figures increased by 36 percent. Whilst the channel averaged 336,000 for their Belgium programme, their Italian programme from 11:30 to 16:15 averaged 457,400 viewers. The lack of rise makes me wonder if Sky F1 was dented significantly more for BBC during the Belgian race day when the race went against two big Premier League games. After all, it is unusual to see Sky increase, but BBC stable. This is how things turn out…

Italian Grand Prix – Official Ratings
2002 – 2.85 million
2003 – 2.96 million
2004 – 2.63 million
2005 – 2.21 million
2006 – 1.89 million
2007 – 2.61 million
2008 – 3.55 million
2009 – 3.69 million
2010 – 3.51 million
2011 – 4.23 million
2012 – 4.39 million / 4.64 million (using ‘35 percent theory‘)
– overnight figures were 4.22 million / 4.46 million
2013 – 3.31 million / 3.47 million (overnight rating)

The official figures may push 2013’s rating above 2010, but it will be very tight. Apart from 2011 and 2012, it has to be said that the Italian race has historically rated low, the shorter race duration does not play in its favour. To quote something someone said last year, I have to say that yesterday’s race was probably one that was also “made for highlights“. Nevertheless, I do think yesterday’s figure is quite disappointing, there was no Premier League football on Sky to dent the F1, so I would have hoped for it to have been considerably above the Belgian figures from two weeks ago.

From here we move to Singapore, which has traditionally done very well, last year’s low was still 700,000 above yesterday’s rating. The fly-aways can vary, and this year it will depend too on which way the championship swings as to whether more lows are recorded, or whether Formula 1 does bounce back as the season marches towards the finale.

The 2012 Italian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

Update on September 13th – Broadcast magazine have reported the Italian Grand Prix ratings for Sky Sports F1, as thus I have amended the report above.

Predicting the 2014 calendar pick order

The provisional 2014 Formula One calendar has been updated, with the main change being that India is no longer there, which is not a surprise as it is taking a year off in 2014. Korea has also been dropped, with Russia coming in. New Jersey and Mexico were also meant to be coming in, but alas, that is no longer the case. The calendar, provisionally, is therefore as follows:

March 16th – Australia (Melbourne)
March 30th – Malaysia (Sepang)
April 6th – Bahrain (Sakhir)
April 20th – China (Shanghai)
May 11th – Spain (Barcelona)
May 25th – Monaco (Monaco)
June 8th – Canada (Montreal)
June 22nd – Austria (Red Bull Ring)
July 6th – Britain (Silverstone)
July 20th – Germany (Hockenheim)
July 27th – Hungary (Budapest)
August 24th – Belgium (Spa)
September 7th – Italy (Monza)
September 21st – Singapore (Marina Bay)
October 5th – Japan (Suzuka)
October 12th – Russia (Sochi)
October 26th – USA (Circuit of the Americas)
November 2nd – Brazil (Interlagos)
November 16th – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)

Because of the way the BBC and Sky deal works, both sides have to ‘pick’ races. The races that BBC pick will be shown live on BBC One and Sky Sports F1, while the races that Sky pick will be shown exclusively live on Sky Sports F1, with highlights on BBC One. The picks go as follows:

– BBC pick three races (pick 1, 2 and 3)
– Sky pick three races (pick 4, 5 and 6)
– BBC pick one race (pick 7)
– Sky pick one race (pick 8)

This continues until every race has been picked. Next season is provisionally scheduled with nineteen races, which means Sky get the deciding pick, so that they have either half of the total number of races, or “half + 1 race”. Basically here, I’m predicting how the pick orders will go. Last year, there was a bit of free reign with the calendar picks, but next year, we have the football World Cup 2014, which may influence the pick orders. We will come to that later. So, like I did last year, I’m going to start from scratch.

Before I start, I think it’d be a good idea to see how successful I was last year. Last year I got ten out of nineteen right versus the real thing. It is only a bit of fun, and good for discussion too as the calendar moves forward.

BBC pick Britain, Abu Dhabi and Brazil – Frustration here for the BBC, I imagine. As it stands that British Grand Prix will clash with the Wimbledon final, so a move to BBC Two beckons if things do not change! I think the British race will eventually move to June 29th, but as time progresses, that is looking unlikely. Abu Dhabi looks depressingly like it is the last race of the season, so BBC will pick them, along with Brazil. Brazil is a different situation to USA, USA falls slap bang in the middle of primetime, whereas Brazil does not. The above three are set in stone. Therefore Sky pick Monaco, USA (Circuit of the Americas) and Canada. This is where things can get a messy, and where I think Sky won’t pick Australia. Two prime time races again are much bigger for Sky than getting the season opener, BBC having to pick Abu Dhabi leaves a door open like in 2012, therefore I can see Sky getting both USA and Canada.

Now, interestingly, Canada does not clash with next year’s World Cup, as the World Cup does not start until June 12th. Which means BBC could, if Sky did not pick it, screen Canada live (unlike in 2012 when it did clash with the European Championships). The only potential thwart to that plan is if England have a friendly on that Sunday in primetime. I’m not sure BBC would want the F1 to go against an England friendly on ITV. But we shall see what happens. As discussed above, BBC would not want USA. Monaco is the same as this year, as discussed above. Things alternate from here onwards. BBC haven’t screened the season opener since 2011, and I’d be surprised if they go another year without. Meaning BBC pick Australia and Sky pick Malaysia.

Which leaves us in this position:

March 16th – Australia (Melbourne) – BBC
March 30th – Malaysia (Sepang) – Sky
April 6th – Bahrain (Sakhir)
April 20th – China (Shanghai)
May 11th – Spain (Barcelona)
May 25th – Monaco (Monaco) – Sky
June 8th – Canada (Montreal) – Sky
June 22nd – Austria (Red Bull Ring)
July 6th – Britain (Silverstone) – BBC
July 20th – Germany (Hockenheim)
July 27th – Hungary (Budapest)
August 24th – Belgium (Spa)
September 7th – Italy (Monza)
September 21st – Singapore (Marina Bay)
October 5th – Japan (Suzuka)
October 12th – Russia (Sochi)
October 26th – USA (Circuit of the Americas) – Sky
November 2nd – Brazil (Interlagos) – BBC
November 16th – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) – BBC

Moving back to the European races now, and in a reverse of what happened in 2012, BBC pick Italy, Sky pick Belgium. There is not a lot to discuss here, except to make sure that BBC does not have three or more live races one after the other, it must be two at most line a stern – and that applies to Sky exclusivity too. With Sky picking Belgium, BBC pick Hungary and Sky pick Germany. It does mean that BBC viewers go six weeks without live Formula 1, but I can’t see how that can be avoided. Thankfully, the middle of the calendar though is much better balanced than last year. From this point, things alternate, although the only thing I think should be noted is that I can’t see BBC picking Russia in the event that it is dropped (same applies to Korea later). Hence BBC pick Japan and Sky pick Singapore. Also, BBC pick Austria and Sky pick Russia

Which means we are left with this:

March 16th – Australia (Melbourne) – BBC
March 30th – Malaysia (Sepang) – Sky
April 6th – Bahrain (Sakhir)
April 20th – China (Shanghai)
May 11th – Spain (Barcelona)
May 25th – Monaco (Monaco) – Sky
June 8th – Canada (Montreal) – Sky
June 22nd – Austria (Red Bull Ring) – BBC
July 6th – Britain (Silverstone) – BBC
July 20th – Germany (Hockenheim) – Sky
July 27th – Hungary (Budapest) – BBC
August 24th – Belgium (Spa) – Sky
September 7th – Italy (Monza) – BBC
September 21st – Singapore (Marina Bay) – Sky
October 5th – Japan (Suzuka) – BBC
October 12th – Russia (Sochi) – Sky
October 26th – USA (Circuit of the Americas) – Sky
November 2nd – Brazil (Interlagos) – BBC
November 16th – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) – BBC

The remaining races are therefore China, Bahrain and Spain. I cannot see BBC wanting Bahrain live whilst Also, Sky won’t want Spain exclusively as it falls on the last day of the Premier League season. Meaning BBC pick China and Sky pick Bahrain. And Sky pick Spain. Which leaves the final calendar as follows:

March 16th – Australia (Melbourne) – BBC
March 30th – Malaysia (Sepang) – Sky
April 6th – Bahrain (Sakhir) – Sky
April 20th – China (Shanghai) – BBC
May 11th – Spain (Barcelona) – Sky
May 25th – Monaco (Monaco) – Sky
June 8th – Canada (Montreal) – Sky
June 22nd – Austria (Red Bull Ring) – BBC
July 6th – Britain (Silverstone) – BBC
July 20th – Germany (Hockenheim) – Sky
July 27th – Hungary (Budapest) – BBC
August 24th – Belgium (Spa) – Sky
September 7th – Italy (Monza) – BBC
September 21st – Singapore (Marina Bay) – Sky
October 5th – Japan (Suzuka) – BBC
October 12th – Russia (Sochi) – Sky
October 26th – USA (Circuit of the Americas) – Sky
November 2nd – Brazil (Interlagos) – BBC
November 16th – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) – BBC

Bad news! The above would never happen. Why? Sky are not allowed three exclusive races in a row, whilst BBC are not allowed to screen three live races in a row. The only option I can see is to swap Austria and Monaco, so it turns into:

March 16th – Australia (Melbourne) – BBC
March 30th – Malaysia (Sepang) – Sky
April 6th – Bahrain (Sakhir) – Sky
April 20th – China (Shanghai) – BBC
May 11th – Spain (Barcelona) – Sky
May 25th – Monaco (Monaco) – BBC
June 8th – Canada (Montreal) – Sky
June 22nd – Austria (Red Bull Ring) – Sky
July 6th – Britain (Silverstone) – BBC
July 20th – Germany (Hockenheim) – Sky
July 27th – Hungary (Budapest) – BBC
August 24th – Belgium (Spa) – Sky
September 7th – Italy (Monza) – BBC
September 21st – Singapore (Marina Bay) – Sky
October 5th – Japan (Suzuka) – BBC
October 12th – Russia (Sochi) – Sky
October 26th – USA (Circuit of the Americas) – Sky
November 2nd – Brazil (Interlagos) – BBC
November 16th – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) – BBC

Which is now fine! I will update this post periodically like I did last year as the calendar changes. But this is how I imagine the pick order progressing.

Updated on November 28th, 2013.