The 2017 Indianapolis 500: how, and where you can see it in the UK

Update on May 17th – BT Sport’s full schedule for the 2017 Indianapolis 500 can be found here.

The news that Fernando Alonso will be racing in the Indianapolis 500 has come to a major shock and surprise to motor racing fans across the world. A pleasant surprise, and one that will be fascinating to watch in front of our very eyes.

From a media perspective, the Indianapolis 500 will have more eyeballs on it this year given the attention that Alonso brings with him from Formula 1. Closer to the time, I will post a more concrete scheduling.

For those unfamiliar with IndyCar, the Indianapolis 500 is one of the 17 races on the 2017 IndyCar Series calendar, playing host to round six of the season. In the United Kingdom, the IndyCar Series is broadcast exclusively live on BT Sport, in a deal that runs through until 2022. The race itself starts on Sunday 28th May at 17:20 UK time, with BT airing it commercial free.

I do not envisage that changing however, it is possible that another broadcaster may want to try to get in on the action (for a fee) and show the Indianapolis 500 to a wider audience whether through live or highlights form (i.e. Quest TV, Dave, or Frontrunner to give some examples).

Certainly, there could be money left on the table if IndyCar bosses did not try to sign a series of one-off television deals for the race. I can imagine a situation in other countries whereby broadcasters just want to take the Indianapolis 500 for the Alonso effect, but no other IndyCar action.

As it stands, the Indianapolis 500 will be exclusively live on one of BT Sport’s portfolio of channels, but if any other broadcasters’ get in on the action, I will update the site as usual.

Scheduling: The 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix

The battle between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel rolls into Bahrain for round three of the 2017 Formula One season, in a busy weekend at home and abroad.

Bahrain marks Channel 4’s first live Grand Prix of the season. As revealed last week, in a change to their structure from last season, the broadcaster has opted to follow Sky’s approach by segmenting their programme into separate chunks. Mark Webber will be with Channel 4’s usual team fronted by Steve Jones and David Coulthard. Channel 4 will also air their first ‘F1 Meets’ programmes of the new season, with Lee McKenzie chatting to Murray Walker in an extended season.

Alongside Formula 1 in Bahrain is the return of the Formula Two Championship, which replaces the GP2 Series. As with GP2, every race of the Formula Two Championship will be live on Sky Sports F1. For the first time, the action will be covered in ultra high-definition.

Also returning this weekend is the World Endurance Championship, with Silverstone hosting the season opener. Live coverage will air across Motorsport.tv (was Motors TV), BT Sport and Eurosport, with Sky Sports News also airing news reports. Viewers watching across the first two networks will hear some slightly different voices compared to previous years. Toby Moody and Martin Haven will share play-by-play duties throughout the year, with Moody commentating on the season opener from Silverstone. Allan McNish will be present at six rounds, whilst Louise Beckett and Graham Goodwin are also part of the team.

Elsewhere, it is a very busy weekend on the domestic front, with a lot of racing within an hour and a half radius of one another across the weekend: the aforementioned WEC, BTCC from Donington Park, and the British GT cars are racing at Oulton Park on Bank Holiday Monday.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
14/04 – 11:55 to 13:35 – Practice 1
14/04 – 15:55 to 17:35 – Practice 2
15/04 – 12:55 to 14:25 – Practice 3
15/04 – 14:55 to 17:30 – Qualifying
16/04 – 14:50 to 18:45 – Race
=> 14:50 – Build-Up
=> 15:35 – Race
=> 18:15 – Reaction

Supplementary Programming
15/04 – 14:25 to 14:55 – F1 Meets… Murray Walker

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
14/04 – 11:45 to 13:50 – Practice 1
14/04 – 15:45 to 18:00 – Practice 2
15/04 – 12:45 to 14:15 – Practice 3
15/04 – 15:00 to 17:45 – Qualifying
16/04 – 14:30 to 19:15 – Race
=> 14:30 – Track Parade
=> 15:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 15:30 – Race
=> 18:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
12/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
13/04 – 13:00 to 14:00 – Driver Press Conference
13/04 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
14/04 – 18:30 to 19:00 – Team Press Conference
14/04 – 19:00 to 19:30 – The F1 Show
19/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
13/04 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
14/04 – 11:55 to 13:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
15/04 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
15/04 – 15:55 to 17:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16/04 – 15:30 to 19:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
=> updates also on BBC Radio 5 Live

British GT – Oulton Park (Frontrunner)
17/04 – Races
=> 10:45 to 14:00
=> 15:00 to 17:15

British Superbikes – Brands Hatch (Eurosport 2)
16/04 – 14:15 to 17:00 – Qualifying
17/04 – 12:30 to 18:00 – Race

British Touring Car Championship – Donington Park (ITV4)
16/04 – 10:45 to 18:15 – Races

Formula Two – Bahrain (Sky Sports F1)
14/04 – 09:30 to 10:15 – Practice
14/04 – 18:00 to 18:30 – Qualifying
15/04 – 11:10 to 12:15 – Race 1
16/04 – 12:15 to 13:05 – Race 2

Formula V8 3.5 – Silverstone (BT Sport/ESPN)
15/04 – 11:30 to 13:15 – Race 1
16/04 – 09:30 to 10:30 – Race 2

World Endurance Championship – Silverstone
16/04 – Race
=> 11:30 to 18:00 (BT Sport/ESPN)
=> 11:45 to 18:20 (Motorsport.tv)
=> 17:00 to 18:15 (Eurosport 2)

As always, if the schedules change, I will update the above times.H

Scheduling: The 2017 Chinese Grand Prix / Argentine MotoGP

The 2017 Formula One season moves onto Shanghai for round two of the championship in China, as fans hope for the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel to continue.

The Chinese round of the season switches with Bahrain, which follows the next weekend. Coverage from China will be broadcast exclusively live on Sky Sports, with highlights on Channel 4 later in the day. Readers may have noticed that, compared to last year, Channel 4’s highlights are slightly longer in length but are also being broadcast in a later time slot than 2016.

Over on BT Sport, their MotoGP coverage from Argentina is headed up by Craig Doyle for his first round of the 2017 season. In terms of returning championships, the World Touring Car Championship is back this weekend, live on Eurosport 2 from Morocco. ~~Eurosport are also broadcasting the MAC3 time trial this season, which I do not believe was broadcast last year.~~ Eurosport have split qualifying and the MAC3 time trial into two separate slots on the EPG (thanks Alex in the comments for the correction).

A noticeable omission in the schedule below is the Virgin Australia Supercars series. The series was broadcast live on BT Sport last season, but the arrangement appears to have stopped with Motorsport.tv taking over from the start of 2017. Unfortunately, it looks like that Motorsport.tv will not be airing the series live for the next few rounds at least, hence why it does not feature below.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
08/04 – 13:00 to 14:30 – Qualifying Highlights
09/04 – 14:30 to 16:45 – Race Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
07/04 – 02:45 to 05:05 – Practice 1 (also on Sky Sports 1)
07/04 – 06:45 to 08:55 – Practice 2 (also on Sky Sports 1)
08/04 – 04:45 to 06:10 – Practice 3 (also on Sky Sports 1)
08/04 – 07:00 to 09:40 – Qualifying
09/04 – 05:30 to 10:10 – Race
=> 05:30 – Track Parade
=> 06:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 06:30 – Race
=> 09:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
05/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
06/04 – 08:00 to 09:00 – Driver Press Conference
06/04 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
07/04 – 09:00 to 09:30 – Team Press Conference (also on Sky Sports 1)
07/04 – 09:30 to 10:00 – The F1 Show (also on Sky Sports 1)

BBC Radio F1
06/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
07/04 – 02:55 to 04:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
07/04 – 06:55 to 08:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
08/04 – 04:55 to 06:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
08/04 – 06:55 to 08:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
09/04 – 06:30 to 09:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

IndyCar Series – Long Beach (BT Sport//ESPN)
09/04 – 21:30 to 00:00 – Race

MotoGP – Argentina (BT Sport 2)
07/04 – 13:00 to 20:00
=> 13:00 – Practice 1
=> 15:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 17:00 – Practice 2
08/04 – 13:00 to 20:15
=> 13:00 – Practice 3
=> 16:00 – Qualifying
09/04 – 13:30 to 15:15 – Warm Up
09/04 – 16:30 to 22:00
=> 16:30 – Moto3 race
=> 18:15 – Moto2 race
=> 19:45 – MotoGP race
=> 21:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Argentina (Channel 5)
10/04 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Highlights

World Rally Championship – France
07/04 – Day 1 Highlights
=> 22:30 to 23:00 (BT Sport 1)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motorsport.tv)
08/04 – 15:00 to 16:00 – Stage 1 (BT Sport//ESPN)
08/04 – Day 2 Highlights
=> 22:00 to 22:30 (BT Sport 3)
=> 23:05 to 23:35 (Motorsport.tv)
09/04 – 11:00 to 12:30 – Power Stage (BT Sport 1)
09/04 – Day 3 Highlights
=> 22:00 to 22:30 (BT Sport 2)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motorsport.tv)
11/04 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Highlights (Channel 5)

World Touring Car Championship – Morocco (British Eurosport 2)
08/04 – 15:15 to 17:30
=> 15:15 – Qualifying
=> 16:30 – MAC3 time trial
09/04 – 16:30 to 18:30
=> 16:30 – Race 1
=> 17:30 – Race 2

As always, I will update the above schedule if anything changes.

Scheduling: The 2017 Mexico City ePrix

The 2017 motor racing season moves up a gear this weekend, with both the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and the British Superbikes starting their journey.

The BTCC series continues on ITV4, with Steve Rider and Louise Goodman again fronting the eight-hour race day programme. As in previous years, David Addison will continue to lead the commentary line-up, with Tim Harvey, Richard John Neil, Paul O’Neil and Phil Glew supplementing ITV4’s touring car offering.

Sticking with free-to-air, Formula E returns this weekend for round four of its season that started last October. For the first time ever, Channel 4’s Formula 1 expert and former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard will be part of Channel 5’s Formula E offering this weekend. Coulthard will be alongside presenter Andy Jaye in Channel 5’s studio for qualifying and the race.

It is a huge coup for both Channel 5 and Formula E to bring Coulthard on-board for their coverage, given his wealth of motor racing and broadcasting experience. I suspect that this is currently a one-off commitment for Coulthard, with a view to a longer-term relationship going forward.

The World Rallycross Championship returns this weekend, and with it a change of broadcasting rights. Quest TV will no longer be broadcasting live coverage, nor will ITV4 be airing highlights. Instead, Motorsport.tv (aka Motors TV) will air live coverage on their TV network and over-the-top, with highlights airing on Sky Sports Mix. A separate press release from Motorsport Networks notes that Andrew Coley, Liam Doran and Andrew Jordan will provide commentary throughout the year.

Blancpain Sprint Series
01/04 – 19:15 to 21:00 – Qualifying Race (BT Sport X3)
02/04 – 10:45 to 12:45 – Championship Race (BT Sport//ESPN)

British Superbikes – Donington Park
01/04 – 15:45 to 18:00 – Qualifying (British Eurosport 2)
02/04 – 13:00 to 18:00 – Races (British Eurosport 2)
05/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

British Touring Car Championship – Brands Hatch (ITV4)
02/04 – 10:15 to 18:15 – Races

Formula E – Mexico City (online via Channel 5’s social media channels and YouTube)
01/04 – 14:55 to 15:55 – Practice 1
01/04 – 17:25 to 18:10 – Practice 2

Formula E – Mexico City
01/04 – 18:30 to 20:30 – Qualifying (Spike)
01/04 – 22:30 to 00:15 – Race (Channel 5)

TCR International Series – Georgia (Motorsport.tv)
02/04 – 15:50 to 17:20 – Race

World Rallycross Championship – Barcelona (Motorsport.tv)
02/04 – 13:00 to 15:05 – Race

World Superbikes – Aragon
01/04 – 09:15 to 14:00 – Qualifying and Race 1 (British Eurosport 2)
02/04 – 10:00 to 13:00 – Race 2 and Support Races (British Eurosport 2)
04/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

As always, if anything changes I will update the above schedule.

Update on April 1st – Looks like Karun Chandhok is now alongside Jaye this evening, so Coulthard is no longer part of Channel 5’s Formula E coverage. Also of note is that Bob Varsha will be joining Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti in the commentary box.

MotoGP jumps to highest audience since 2015

The 2017 MotoGP season started in fine fashion this past weekend according to unofficial overnight viewing figures, thanks to a strong number for Channel 5’s highlights programme.

BT Sport decreases…
As usual, BT Sport 2 aired live coverage of the MotoGP weekend. Their coverage overran by 45 minutes due to the delayed MotoGP race, running from 15:30 to 20:45. The whole programme averaged 120k (0.8%), down marginally in audience and share on 2016’s average of 132k (0.9%). It is BT Sport’s lowest audience for a season opener. Like Formula 1 earlier in the day, warm weather and Mother’s Day hit MotoGP’s viewing figures. In addition, a factor for MotoGP will have been the England football game, which aired on ITV from 16:25 to 19:30.

The MotoGP race itself, which aired from 18:30 to 20:45, averaged 175k (0.9%), down around 13 percent on the equivalent 2016 figure of 201k (1.2%). The red flag periods will not have helped the race segment; also, BT’s lowest for the first round of the year. There is some solace in the peak figure. BT’s coverage on Sunday peaked with 247k (1.3%) at 19:50, a marginal drop on 270k (1.5%) on 2016, down also on 2015 but up on the 2014 peak audience.

The slightly lower than expected numbers follow on from the trend that we saw with BT Sport’s coverage in the latter stages of 2016, but should not be seen as a major concern at this stage in proceedings.

…but Channel 5 benefits
In 2016, ITV4’s highlights programme on Monday evenings from 20:00 to 21:00 averaged 285k (1.4%) across the whole season. Channel 5’s Qatar programme averaged 486k (2.7%) in an earlier time slot from 19:00 to 20:00. Although slightly below Channel 5’s slot average, this is a good number for MotoGP on their return to the channel. Demographically, the championship lost viewers amongst the younger audience against Channel 5’s slot average, but this is a problem that all of motor racing has right now.

It is the highest highlights number since the 2014 Qatar MotoGP, ironic almost in some ways given that was when the pay TV deal started. The strong numbers at the beginning of the 2014 season came off the back of publicity surrounding the BT Sport deal. I think, even taking into account the relative profile of Channel 5 versus ITV4, Dorna will be pleased to see a good Channel 5 average. Channel 5’s audience built consistently throughout the hour, peaking with 645k (3.5%) at 19:50.

The combined audience of 662,000 viewers is the highest for MotoGP since the 2015 season finale and the highest for a season opener since 2014.

Top 5 – MotoGP audiences since the move to BT Sport (source: Overnights.tv)
01 – 679,000 – 2014 Qatar (BT Sport + ITV4)
02 – 676,000 – 2015 Valencia (BT Sport + ITV4)
03 – 662,000 – 2017 Qatar (BT Sport + Channel 5)
04 – 603,000 – 2015 Italy (BT Sport + ITV4)
05 – 601,000 – 2014 Italy (BT Sport + ITV4)

I am hopeful that Channel 5’s audience may improve from here, especially considering that the channel is starting to build up its motor racing portfolio. Some cross promotion with Formula E and the World Rally Championship will boost all three series and help increase the viewing figures further.

The 2016 Qatar MotoGP ratings report can be found here.