BBC to screen practice sessions for live races on BBC Two

The BBC are to screen practice sessions on BBC Two for their live races in 2013, it has been confirmed. The BBC F1 Season Preview magazine notes:

“In addition to all the coverage on BBC1, for the first time BBC2 will be covering all the practice sessions of the BBC live races. This will mean an extra 4 hours’ coverage per race for the fans and the most comprehensive coverage we have ever offered. We will have unprecedented access and opportunities to go behind the scenes as the drivers and teams prepare their cars for the weekend.”

This was suggested by me back in December on this blog as one of the ways to improve BBC’s coverage for 2013, although I did note that this was ‘unlikely’. The reason for this happening will be as a result of the Delivering Quality First cuts (DQF) to the BBC Red Button service, with a reduction of streams from five down to one.

It looked like practice coverage was going to be reduced earlier this month, but the move to put practice on BBC Two will make it available to a lot more people. It will be interesting as well to see how well it does on BBC Two, I doubt Sky Sports will be too pleased with the move as no doubt it may knock their practice ratings down a knock. Nevertheless, it is a great move by BBC. I don’t think there will be any extra coverage as a result, but it merely means that what was on the Red Button will now be on BBC Two – even though the announcement makes it seem like a expansion, it is just BBC moving it from one platform to another, albeit one with a much bigger potential viewership. I think it will just be the World Feed from five minutes before the session to five minutes after the session, like how it has been on the Red Button since 2009.

BBC confirm remainder of 2013 line-up

The BBC have today officially confirmed in their Season Preview magazine the rest of their 2013 Formula One line-up, with the line-up as expected. In the commentary box, for the second year running, Ben Edwards remains alongside David Coulthard.

As part of the presentation team alongside Suzi Perry (who was announced as presenter in December) will be Eddie Jordan and Coulthard, both now heading into their fifth season as part of the BBC F1 team. Lee McKenzie and Gary Anderson will again be in the paddock and roaming up and down pit-lane.

This is largely pedantry and semantics on my behalf, but for me, Jordan and Coulthard were before today still question marks as neither have appeared with the BBC crew during either of the first two tests. The magazine though confirms the two which is great to see.

Whilst this does confirm the remainder of the TV line-up, the 5 Live F1 co-commentator is still unconfirmed, with an announcement expected early next month. The TV and radio groups come under separate production teams – the radio content is controlled by USP Content, hence why no announcement has yet occurred. James Allen and Jennie Gow are the only two people confirmed for BBC Radio at the moment, with Chessie Bent producing the output, succeeding Jason Swales from this year onwards.

Ofcom clear BBC, Sky over Sebastian Vettel swearing

Ofcom have today revealed in their bi-weekly Broadcast Bulletin that they have received complaints over Sebastian Vettel’s swearing at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix however, both BBC and Sky have been cleared by the regulator over the matter. At the time, the BBC said that they received 21 complaints.

The relevant transcript is as follows:

David Coulthard: “Well, your name is up there as a double world champion. Do you now feel that you’ve got your hand on one side of the cup for a third world title?”
Sebastian Vettel: “Um, I think there’s still two races to go so obviously we see how quickly things can change. Yesterday was a surprise for us. I think would we have start from third it would have been a different race but, yeah, it was obviously a chance to fuck it up and we didn’t do that.”
David Coulthard: “OK, well, Sebastian, thank you for those words, and we should just remind our audience that he is speaking in his second language. We apologise for the choice of words that you had.”

The language used therefore was a violation of Ofcom Rule 1.14 of the Broadcasting Code which says “The most offensive language must not be broadcast before the watershed (in the case of television)[.]” (confusingly, no mention is made of Kimi Raikkonen’s swearing – in the same sequence, Raikkonen uttered the word ‘shit’)

Both BBC and Sky explained to Ofcom that the footage where the swearing was present was part of Formula One Management’s (FOM) World Feed, whilst BBC noted that they have discussed the matter with FOM. On both channels, the presenter (Jake Humphrey and Simon Lazenby) apologised for Vettel’s swearing. Whilst the phrase uttered was a clear breach of the Broadcasting Code, Ofcom noted that the swift apology from both broadcasters’ led to them resolving the matter.

It is not the first time Formula 1 has come under the wrath of Ofcom, a similar occasion was in 2006 when ITV received complaints about content broadcast as part of the World Feed during the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix.

I discussed the podium and press conference here following Vettel’s swearing, it will be interesting to see whether they change the procedure again for 2013, or whether they retain the format used in the latter half of 2012.

Poll: Who do you want to be the new 5 Live F1 co-commentator?

It is a bit of a quiet week F1 Broadcasting wise with the week and a half gap between test one and two. With that in mind, I thought I would throw the opinions over to you.

Earlier today, the 5 Live F1 account tweeted “Putting the BBC 5 Live F1 team together for 2013. Finishing touches. Full line-up in place by March 6th.”

So my question to you is: Who do you want to be the new 5 Live F1 commentator?

The poll includes a few current generation drivers’ who have been in the commentary box at various times such as Bruno Senna, Jerome d’Ambrosio and the ultimate F1 dictionary man Karun Chandhok. Also included in the list are Formula 1 legends who have been part of the 5 Live team in the past at various stages – Sir Jackie Stewart and John Watson. The final few are those who have not yet found a drive for 2013, they are Heikki Kovalainen and Kamui Kobayashi.

My personal preference is John Watson for the role due to his vast amount of commentary experience in the past spanning multiple decades. He is also, in my opinion, easy to listen to and good for discussion based conversations which 5 Live’s practice coverage is famous for.

That’s my opinion. Who do you think should be the new 5 Live F1 co-commentator? Have your say in the comments below. I’ll announce the results on the same day as the new commentator is announced, whether it is March 6th or before.

BBC announce changes to multi-platform F1 coverage

The BBC have announced some changes to their multi-platform Formula 1 coverage as a result of the Delivering Quality First changes concerning the Red Button.

Their 2013 coverage page has been updated to rectify the fact that the Red Button service has been reduced from five streams to one stream. The first sign of change is previously the page said that you could “customise their viewing experience through the BBC’s multi-platform offering”, this has been adjusted to say that the audience can “customise their viewing experience online”, meaning that it appears you will not be able to watch the races on-board through the Red Button because of the Delivering Quality First cuts.

Furthermore, this paragraph was previously in the Red Button section of that webpage: “On race day, viewers will be able to choose from three different video streams: the main network feed with a choice of commentary from BBC One and BBC Radio 5 live; a split screen comprising the main network feed, an in-car camera feed and leaderboard; or rolling highlights.”

That paragraph has now been removed entirely, whilst only “selected on-track sessions” from BBC’s live ten races will be broadcast behind the Red Button, instead of “all on-track sessions” from those races as it was previously. I’m not sure which sessions, but I suspect the odd practice session that BBC have the rights to show live will be online only depending on clashes with other events. In those circumstances, it would be nice if practice was shown on BBC Two as I suggested at the end of 2012, but I don’t think that is highly likely, nor is it suggested in the updated version of the BBC coverage page.

One final thing that page has removed is mentions of Jaime Alguersuari, who is unlikely to return to his 5 Live commentary role this season. The BBC team for 2013 has not yet been officially confirmed, but aside from the presenter change, everything else is likely to remain the same.