Sky Sports F1 schedule times for GP2, GP3 and Season Review repeats next weekend

Next weekend, Sky Sports F1 is showing every GP2 and GP3 Series race from the season so far. Which is a pretty good idea when you think about it, instead of showing the latest F1 race, as it is quite easy to miss a GP2 or GP3 race, so it is a good idea for them to repeat them back-to-back.

Sky are also going back to the start with their Season Reviews. They did broadcast 1988 onwards beginning in March when the channel launched, and are now going back in a full circle starting back in 1988. Here are all the times you need if you want to play catch up.

GP2 Series – Saturday 14th July
07:00 – Malaysia, Race 1
08:25 – Malaysia, Race 2
09:30 – Bahrain, Race 1 (Round 1)
10:55 – Bahrain, Race 2 (Round 1)
12:00 – Bahrain, Race 1 (Round 2)
13:25 – Bahrain, Race 2 (Round 2)
14:30 – Spain, Race 1
15:55 – Spain, Race 2
17:00 – Monaco, Race 1
18:30 – Monaco, Race 2
19:35 – Europe, Race 1
21:00 – Europe, Race 2
22:05 – Britain, Race 1
23:30 to 00:35 – Britain, Race 2

GP3 Series – Sunday 15th July
07:50 – Spain, Race 1
08:40 – Spain, Race 2
09:30 – Monaco, Race 1
10:20 – Monaco, Race 2
11:10 – Europe, Race 1
12:00 – Europe, Race 2
12:50 – Britain, Race 1
13:40 to 14:30 – Britain, Race 2

The EPG should have each race in a separate ‘programme’, so if you for example missed the second GP2 race at Monaco, you can just record that race if you wished to. Although they are not screening full Classic F1 races, the above is definitely a good way to utilise the weekend on Sky Sports F1.

Aside from that, there are the Season Review programmes, which are as follows:

– 1988: 21:00 to 22:15, Thursday 12th July
– 1989: 22:15 to 23:25, Thursday 12th July
– 1990: 21:00 to 22:00, Friday 13th July
– 1991: 23:00 to 00:10, Friday 13th July
– 1992: n/a
– 1993: 22:00 to 23:05, Sunday 15th July
– 1994: 23:05 to 00:05, Sunday 15th July
– 1995: 21:00 to 22:00, Monday 16th July
– 1996: 21:00 to 22:00, Tuesday 17th July
– 1997: 21:00 to 22:00, Wednesday 18th July
– 1998: 21:00 to 22:00, Thursday 19th July

As the channel had only just launched when the majority of the above were shown, chances are a lot of people did not spot them first time around, so definitely worth watching if you did not see them.

As always, timings are subject to change, and I shall update this blog if they do.

BBC to stick “with F1 until the end of the current deal and perhaps longer”

The BBC are set to remain covering Formula 1 until at least 2018. That is according to an interview conducted by Phil Duncan of the Daily Mail with BBC’s Formula 1 presenter Jake Humphrey.

In the interview with Duncan, Humphrey noted that he has “been told categorically that the BBC are sticking with F1 until the end of the current deal and perhaps longer”, while he cannot see “be astounded and massively shocked if the BBC say: “we’re stepping away from F1″”.

The comments from Humphrey follows an interview Bernie Ecclestone gave to The Guardian last month, suggesting that free-to-air Formula 1 could end on the BBC.

This line from Humphrey interests me though: “Internally, I can promise you there has not been a single discussion”. I’m not sure how factually accurate that statement is myself. Let us rewind back to last July and work ourselves up the chain. We have the Head of Formula 1 at the BBC, Ben Gallop. Ahead of Gallop in the chain, so to speak, is Barbara Slater, Head of BBC Sport. And ahead of her is the new Director General at the BBC, George Entwistle. Last July, the new rights deal between BBC and Sky Sports was announced on Friday 29th July at 07:00. The BBC Formula 1 team were not told about the new deal until the night before. We know that, Martin Brundle specifically tweeted that himself.

As they were told the night before, we can assume that Ben Gallop (and Mark Wilkin, the editor for BBC F1) was not told until the Thursday as well as the deal was thrashed out primarily between Barbara Slater, Jeremy Darroch (the managing director of Sky Sports) and Bernie Ecclestone.

The point is, with regards the line from Humphrey above, just because there has been no discussion within the Formula 1 team, it does not mean that discussion has not taken place higher up, if they really wanted to exit the contract earlier. I’m not sure that would be in their financial interests, of course, legally binding contracts have such things called get-out clauses.

Humphrey also said that he has been “have been really impressed” with Sky’s coverage, but noted that he “still think[s that] we hold the edge”.

Sky Sports F1 confirm Allan McNish as pundit for next 3 races

Sky Sports F1 have today confirmed via their Twitter account that Allan McNish will be a pundit with them for the next three races. McNish will be with the team for the British, German and Hungarian Grand Prix’s.

This will be McNish’s third appearance with the Sky Sports F1 team, having previously appeared with them for Monaco on The F1 Show and throughout the European Grand Prix race weekend.

As I’ve noted on my Twitter account several times, I think McNish is one of the best pundits on the Sky Sports F1 team with his breadth of knowledge on all areas of Formula 1 and motor sport. McNish will likely be on the Sky Pad alongside Georgie Thompson and commentating alongside David Croft for practice while Anthony Davidson continues his recovery after his crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

On a side note, Johnny Herbert’s five race deal expires this weekend, so it shall be interesting if we see him later in the season, while Damon Hill will be with the Sky F1 team as well for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 24th June, 2012)

From BARB:

1 – 531k – Live European Grand Prix (Sunday, 11:30)
2 – 348k – Live European Grand Prix: Qualifying (Saturday, 12:00)
3 – 70k – European Grand Prix Highlights (Sunday, 22:42)
4 – 64k – F1 Legends (Saturday, 09:35)
5 – 64k – Live European Grand Prix: Practice 3 (Saturday, 09:45)
6 – 64k – Live European Grand Prix: Practice 1 (Friday, 08:45)
7 – 61k – Live European Grand Prix: Practice 2 (Friday, 12:45)
8 – 49k – Fast Track (Sunday, 10:38)
9 – 47k – F1 Legends (Sunday, 11:06)
10 – 42k – European Grand Prix: Practice 2 Replay (Friday, 18:00)

Some notably poor figures above. Qualifying and the Race did fine, but all three practice sessions recorded surprisingly low figures, none of the three live showings breaking 64,000 viewers. In fact, the average of three sessions is the lowest since the Malaysian Grand Prix in March.

The channel reach was 2.19 million, which is also the lowest yet for a race weekend for the channel. BBC One’s live race programme entered the top 30 on BARB, with an average of 3.92 million viewers.

As I noted in my ratings piece last Monday, I expected the combined viewership to be the highest since 2000, and this is exactly the case with a viewership of 4.45 million viewers. The number is the second highest of the year, only behind the Chinese Grand Prix, also coincidentally a race that both Sky and BBC broadcasted live.

The Qualifying figure of 348,000 combined with BBC’s overnight rating of 2.24 million (25.2% share), brings a total combined viewership of 2.60 million, about 300,000 viewers down on last year.

British Eurosport to screen MotoGP live tomorrow

Note: If you have come to this article via a search engine, this article was written in June 2012, and is no longer relevant. It will, however, be kept here for historical purposes. Thank you.

British Eurosport are to screen all three MotoGP races live tomorrow, as well as all three warm-up sessions live tomorrow, it has been announced. The broadcaster normally broadcasts the Moto3 and Moto2 races live, with the MotoGP race on a tape-delay as the MotoGP races air live on BBC Two.

However, due to live coverage of Wimbledon, MotoGP will not be airing live on BBC Two tomorrow. As with past occurrences where this has happened (such as Qatar in the past few years), it means British Eurosport is allowed to air MotoGP live as BBC will only be broadcasting it on the Red Button.

As for the warm-up, I do not remember Eurosport broadcasting Moto3 or Moto2 (even in their previous form 125cc and 250cc) warm-up’s before, so nice to see them broadcasting that too.

British Eurosport 2’s schedule tomorrow therefore runs as follows:

07:35 to 08:05 – LIVE: Moto3 warm-up
08:05 to 08:35 – LIVE: Moto2 warm-up
08:35 to 09:15 – LIVE: MotoGP warm-up
09:15 to 09:45 – LIVE: Build-up
09:45 to 11:05 – LIVE: Moto3 race
11:05 to 12:25 – LIVE: Moto2 race
12:25 to 14:15 – LIVE: MotoGP race

For viewers without access to Eurosport, the three races are live on BBC’s Red Button service from 09:45, with the MotoGP race repeated at 12:30 on BBC Two on Sunday (it’s usual timeslot). The current contract between British Eurosport and BBC expires at the end of the 2013 season.