Suzi Perry confirmed as new BBC F1 presenter

The BBC have confirmed today that Suzi Perry will be their Formula 1 presenter from the 2013 season, succeeding Jake Humphrey.

Humphrey, who announced that he will be moving to BT Vision back in September, completed his live BBC Formula 1 commitments with the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Perry on the BBC Sport website said: “Motorsport is my life and I’ve really missed being away from the grid. I am so excited to be joining the BBC. Working alongside such an eminent team and the F1 world is a huge honour and I can’t wait to get started.”

Ben Gallop, BBC Head of F1 said: “She’ll bring real energy and years of experience to one of the biggest jobs in sports broadcasting. Her presenting ability, coupled with her love and knowledge of motorsport, make her an excellent addition. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Jake Humphrey for his enormous contribution to the coverage over the last four years and we all wish him the best for the future.”

I’m in two minds about this one. On the plus side Perry has presented MotoGP for the BBC for ten years before leaving the role and being replaced by Matt Roberts. So on that angle, she brings with her a huge amount of experience in live television which will only help them from 2013 onwards. If experience was the key factor, then it is clear to see why Perry got the role. But on the negative, I do feel that Lee McKenzie has been shafted. Pit-lane reporter since 2009, I felt McKenzie was the lead contender for the BBC F1 presenter position having built up rapport with drivers’ in the past four years. It would have also felt right for McKenzie to step up to the presenter and let someone new and fresh take her role as the pit-lane reporter.

Personally, I think Perry will be a fantastic presenter at BBC, but I won’t be surprised if McKenzie begins to look at other options (maybe during next year) as a result of Perry beating her to the post for the BBC presenter role. That is assuming she was a candidate for the role, the press reports suggested she was, alongside Mark Pougatch, Gabby Logan and Perry. Of course, it is possible that McKenzie was offered the position but rejected it if so then, again, you can see why BBC went for Perry.

Interestingly the BBC release states that the rest of the 2013 team “will be confirmed in due course”. I don’t see there being any further changes and would expect everyone to slot in as they did for 2012, although 5 Live will probably change with Jaime Alguersuari not being part of the team.

BBC and Sky confirm 2013 schedule and coverage details

Alongside the announcement that Suzi Perry will be BBC F1 presenter from 2013, the BBC and Sky have this afternoon confirmed coverage details for the 20 races which is as follows:

2013 Schedule Details
March 17th – Australia (Melbourne) – Sky
March 24th – Malaysia (Sepang) – Sky
April 14st – China (Shanghai) – BBC and Sky
April 21st – Bahrain (Sakhir) – Sky
May 12th – Spain (Barcelona) – BBC and Sky
May 26th – Monaco (Monte Carlo) – Sky
June 9th – Canada (Montreal) – BBC and Sky
June 30th – Britain (Silverstone) – BBC and Sky
July 7th – Germany (Nurburgring) – Sky
July 21st – ‘a European round’ – BBC and Sky
July 28th – Hungary (Hungaroring) – Sky
August 25th – Belgium (Spa) – BBC and Sky
September 8th – Italy (Monza) – BBC and Sky
September 22nd – Singapore (Marina Bay) – Sky
October 6th – Korea (Yeongam) – Sky
October 13th – Japan (Suzuka) – BBC and Sky
October 27th – India (Buddh International Circuit) – BBC and Sky
November 3rd – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) – Sky
November 17th – United States (Austin) – Sky
November 24th – Brazil (Interlagos) – BBC and Sky

As I have noted previously, if the July 21st round does not happen, then the BBC will only be screening nine races live. Also, as noted earlier this week, Sky have confirmed that their team will remain unchanged for 2013.

The Executive Producer for Sky Sports F1, Martin Turner said: “We’re looking forward to covering the Monaco Grand Prix live and exclusively – it’s the jewel in the crown of F1 and this is the first time that GP will be exclusively live to Sky Sports F1 HD. We’ll follow the twists and turns of the most glamorous weekend in Formula 1 to bring viewers closer to the iconic race that every driver wants to win. Last season, we ran features on every team on the grid, broadcast the first UK F1 coverage in Dolby 5.1 surround sound and showed the Team Principal and Driver press conferences live too. We also introduced virtual screen technology which created the virtual car seen in the F1 Show and allowed us to recreate a driver’s perspective during key moments of a race. Next year promises to be a great season, and we’ll look to go from strength to strength as we give F1 the Sky Sports treatment in 2013.”

For me, the main surprise is that BBC are not screening Monaco live, after all Monaco is a blue riband event in the calendar. For those unfamiliar, the pick order goes as follows:

– BBC pick 1, 2 and 3
– Sky pick 4, 5 and 6
– BBC pick 7
– Sky pick 8

BBC and Sky then continue to alternate until all races have been selected. We can assume that Britain and Brazil were chosen first, logically Britain being the home race and Brazil being the title decider. One theory I have surrounding pick 3, where Monaco comes in is that BBC may choose to alternate that every year. So for 2012 ‘pick 3’ was Monaco, for 2013 it is Canada and maybe for 2014 it is Australia. In terms of television ratings Canada is the biggest draw because of it’s primetime slot which may have played a part in the decision – the figures for Canada 2012 impressed nobody. You may argue ‘why not USA’, the simple reason is that Canada falls in the Summer so is not generally disruptive to the TV schedules whereas blockading USA for three hours in November from 18:00 to 21:00 would disrupt BBC’s high rating shows including Strictly Come Dancing.

Sky’s picks would have certainly been Monaco, Australia and USA once they realised BBC did not pick Monaco. The fact that BBC did not pick Monaco is potentially fantastic news for Sky, because it means Monaco will now have more viewers on Sky Sports F1, plus they could cross promote with the Indianapolis 500. I do hope that happens, but after the events of this year where Indianapolis 500 was put on Sky Sports 4 despite the advantages of Sky Sports F1, I consider this a unlikely prospect. Whilst on the IndyCar Series subject, we have not heard anything official contractually on that subject, hopefully it will be written into the IndyCar contract for races to be shown on Sky Sports F1.

From then the BBC and Sky picks alternate one-by-one so BBC probably would have swooped for Italy first following ratings success this year. They also may be considering Italy and Belgium alternating each year for which one they choose to screen live. Of course that point was null and void when Sky picked Malaysia so BBC went for Belgium regardless. Sky then I believe would have opted for Abu Dhabi as it falls as the back end of the calendar and there is a high probability of the title ending there. I feel a bit of a risky game is being played here, because if the title gets to Abu Dhabi undecided then there is a high probability of the title win being seen only on Sky which nearly ended up happening this year.

Overall, I think BBC have done a better job this time around than with the 2012 picks, yes, they don’t get Monaco live but have instead got Canada and Italy live, both of which normally provide fantastic racing.

How Sky’s pre-season ratings predictions match up versus their 2013 predictions

Before the start of the 2012 season, back in January, Sky Media released an sponsorship pack for potential sponsors to sponsor the new Sky Sports F1 channel. As we know, Santander became the sponsor of Sky Sports F1, however, the partnership only lasted a season.

The result of the split between Sky and Santander means that a new sponsorship pack has been released by Sky, as I mentioned yesterday. The interesting thing here is that there is a new ‘Estimated Audience Delivery’ table, which means different numbers so we can see how Sky’s pre-season ratings predictions stack up with their 2013 predictions, which I assume is their real 2012 ratings.

– 2012 sponsorship pack (January 2012 – page 4)
– 2013 sponsorship pack (December 2012 – page 2)

Firstly it is worth mentioning what is meant by TVR. To quote from the Attentional glossary: “TVR: Television Rating. This is the audience of a programme or daypart expressed as a percentage of the population as a whole. For examples, an Adults 16-34 TVR of 20% for EastEnders means that 20% of all 16-34’s living in UK television households watched that programme.” So in January 2012, Sky predicted that 1.34% of the ‘Individual’ universe would watch Sky for the live exclusive races. For the sake of this blog, I have converted the TVR’s into raw viewing figures using that particular total Universe population.

Secondly, some words are abbreviated in the 2012 pack, so to help:

– INDS = All individuals
– ADS = Adults aged 16 and over
– ABC1 ADS = Adults aged 16 and over that fall into the ABC1 demographic category
– ABC1 MEN = Men aged 16 and over that fall into the ABC1 demographic category
– MEN = Men aged 16 and over

Because Sky Media has not included the ‘ABC1 ADS’ category in the 2013 pack, it is impossible to gather any meaningful data from that, as thus, it is ignored for this blog.

The headline figures are of course the race figures. And on the whole, the 2013 figures have been revised upwards from their 2012 predictions. In their 2012 pack, Sky predicted 288,000 individual viewers for each of the shared races. They’ve quite comfortably had nearly double of that figure so it is little surprise to see the 2013 figure adjusted. They have also outdrawn their 2012 race predictions in the three key demographics (Adults, ABC1 Men and Men) and as thus, all three see a rise for 2013.

The only figure that Sky have had to adjust downwards for the race is the total audience for when they are the only broadcaster live, which seems a bit of an odd one when all of the major demographics have gone upwards. This suggests that the audience is skewing older than expected (hence the rise is Adults and Men), meaning that they are missing a lot of the audience under 16.

Exclusive races (2012 prediction vs 2013 prediction)
Individuals – 773,000 vs 598,000
Adults – 457,000 vs 564,000
ABC1 Men – 174,000 vs 184,000
Men – 326,000 vs 336,000

The qualifying figures are a tale of two halves. When the coverage is shared with BBC, Sky are doing better than anticipated, but when they are screening the coverage exclusively live, they are not bringing in the younger audience. Looking at BBC’s audience, they are struggling to bring in a young audience as well, for the Brazilian Grand Prix, only 285,000 viewers were under 16. I think Sky were hoping that the launch of the Formula 1 channel would help bring a young audience to watch Formula 1 but that has not happened.

Exclusive qualifying sessions (2012 prediction vs 2013 prediction)
Individuals – 646,000 vs 333,000
Adults – 383,000 vs 314,000
ABC1 Men – 144,000 vs 103,000
Men – 274,000 vs 193,000

For me, though, the major ouch comes with the figures for practice and The F1 Show. In their 2012 pack, Sky predicted an average of 213,000 viewers for practice and 167,000 viewers for The F1 Show. Those of you who read my weekly top ten’s for Sky Sports F1 will know that neither of those two targets have been hit. Their revised 2013 prediction for practice is 80,000 viewers, whilst Sky predict that only 17,000 viewers will watch each episode of The F1 Show in 2013. The practice figure is just over a third of the 2012 prediction, whilst The F1 Show has only achieved 10 percent of what was anticipated back in January. I’ve stated before that I believe The F1 Show is the best part of the Sky Sports F1 portfolio at the moment, but that does not hide the fact that the viewing figures are disastrously low. The 2013 sponsorship pack confirms that The F1 Show will return for 2013, so we shall see if the figures do improve.

I think the conclusion here is that on one hand, Sky will be extremely pleased that they are doing better than expected when live on air with BBC, but on the other hand they will be somewhat disappointed that their exclusive coverage, in particular The F1 Show is not bringing in as many viewers as they expected.

Have BBC lost the rights to screen practice live? [UPDATED]

A fairly significant note from the Sky Media advertising release is that they are stating that Sky Sports F1 will be screening all 60 practice session exclusively live. Just to put it into context, this is the section that it was included under:

Sky Sports F1 HD will run from February 1st to November 30th 2013, showcasing the best in live, highlights & magazine shows, including:
– 10 exclusive races & 10 shared races.
– 10 exclusive qualifiers & 10 shared qualifiers.
– Exclusive coverage of all 60 practice sessions.
– Live coverage of the GP2 & GP3 race seasons.
– The F1 Show
– F1 Legends

The way it has been included definitely appears to suggest that BBC have lost the rights (or passed on the rights?) to screen practice behind the Red Button for their ten live race weekends. Please note though that this does not affect 5 Live, they will still have radio rights (which is covered under a separate deal), it would only affect the Red Button service for the ten live weekends. It could simply be a human mistake, but someone has gone into the trouble to work out that there is 60 practice sessions in the 20 race weekends. Is the news true? If it is, then it is hugely disappointing as even in 2012, BBC do practice fantastically well, and as I described yesterday, there is potential scope for improvement. Time, shall tell, it will be interesting to see if BBC counter the Sky advertising release to confirm that they will not be screening practice live on the TV or whether the Sky release is an oversight.

Update at 12:55 – Sky have amended the Sky Media document, removing the ‘exclusive’ element, confirming it was human error. So the answer to the title is ‘No, BBC have not lost the rights to screen practice live’.

Sky confirm 2013 team to remain unchanged

It has been confirmed that the Sky Sports F1 team will remain unchanged for the 2013 Formula One season. The Sky Media advertising pitch confirms that Simon Lazenby and Georgie Thompson will return to present the action on the channel, whilst Martin Brundle and David Croft will commentate on the action. In terms of other figures, Damon Hill, Anthony Davidson, Ted Kravitz and Natalie Pinkham will return for 2013 and Steve Rider will be presenting more F1 Legends programming. The news is unsurprising, as I have explained previously, stability is key for Sky heading into 2013 with it being their second year of coverage.

In terms of content, what is advertised appears largely the same, with The F1 Show back for 2013 along with the GP2 and GP3 feeder series’, although the wording is slightly unclear on the latter two as to whether practice and qualifying will return for the feeder series’. Unlike this year, it is claimed that the channel will run from February 1st, to including F1 testing, although there are no specific testing coverage details.

The media release specifies that the break pattern will be three breaks before the race and two breaks after the race which appears to be an improvement on this year as far as I can tell. As with 2012, and as reported a few weeks ago, all races will be uninterrupted. What is interesting though is to compare the estimated audience delivery table for 2012 vs 2013. The majority of the figures are lower, and the change of reach figures is worth noting:

– Individual – 11.21 million [2012 prediction] vs 9.32 million [2013 prediction]
– Adults – 9.67 million [2012] vs 8.26 million [2013]
– ABC1 Men – 3.52 million [2012] vs 2.59 million [2013]
– Men – 5.63 million [2012] vs 4.81 million [2013]

There is another very interesting snippet of information, which may or may not be true, but worth noting, and I shall cover that in the next blog piece.