Scheduling: The 2016 Spanish MotoGP / Paris ePrix

The start of the European phase of the MotoGP season marks the return of Suzi Perry to the two-wheeled paddock. Perry returns to the MotoGP paddock as BT Sport’s new MotoGP presenter after a six-year absence, having been superseded by Jennie Gow as BBC’s MotoGP host in 2010.

Perry hosted BBC’s Formula 1 coverage from 2013 to 2015. The musical chairs following BBC’s F1 TV exit at the end of 2015 means that Perry is now back covering two-wheels, hosting BT’s MotoGP coverage from Jerez alongside Craig Doyle. It will be fantastic to see Perry back doing what she does best, and I’m glad to see that the movement has happened quickly on that front (although it does come at the expense of Iwan Thomas and Abi Griffiths).

Jack Nicholls is also a returnee this weekend, stepping back into his Formula E shoes ready for the inaugural Paris ePrix. The race will be shown live on ITV4 on Saturday afternoon with Jennie Gow presenting as usual. Given the fact that Paris is only a few hours in the Eurotunnel, it would have been nice for ITV to have some on-site coverage instead of studio coverage like London last season, but it looks like that is not the case, unsurprisingly I guess with low viewing figures for the series.

There is a mass of other single-seater action spread across BT Sport and Motors TV ranging from the IndyCar Series to the new Formula V8 3.5 Series. Elsewhere, there is rallying from Argentina to whet the appetite, with highlights airing on Channel 5. Below are all the scheduling details you need…

MotoGP – Spain (BT Sport 2)
22/04 – 08:00 to 15:00
=> 08:00 – Practice 1
=> 10:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 12:00 – Practice 2
23/04 – 08:00 to 15:15
=> 08:00 – Practice 3
=> 11:00 – Qualifying
24/04 – 07:30 to 09:15 – Warm Up
24/04 – 09:30 to 15:00
=> 09:30 – Moto3 race
=> 11:15 – Moto2 race
=> 12:45 – MotoGP race
=> 14:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Spain (ITV4)
25/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

Formula E – Paris (online via YouTube)
23/04 – 07:10 to 08:10 – Practice 1
23/04 – 09:25 to 10:10 – Practice 2
23/04 – 10:45 to 12:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Paris
23/04 – 14:00 to 16:30 – Race (ITV4)
24/04 – 09:25 to 10:20 – Highlights (ITV)

Blancpain Endurance Series – Monza (Motors TV)
24/04 – 13:30 to 17:30 – Race

Euroformula – Portugal
23/04 – 14:00 to 15:00 – Race 1 (BT Sport//ESPN)
=> note: also showing on Motors TV on a one-hour delay
24/04 – 12:00 to 13:00 – Race 2 (BT Sport X4)

Formula 3 Europe – Hungary
23/04 – Race 1
=> 10:05 to 11:10 (Motors TV)
=> 10:15 to 11:00 (BT Sport Europe)
23/04 – Race 2
=> 13:50 to 15:00 (Motors TV)
=> 14:00 to 15:00 (BT Sport Europe)
24/04 – Race 3
=> 10:05 to 11:10 (Motors TV)
=> 10:15 to 11:00 (BT Sport Europe)

Formula V8 3.5 – Hungary
23/04 – 12:30 to 14:00 – Race 1 (BT Sport Europe)
24/04 – 14:00 to 15:30 – Race 2 (BT Sport//ESPN)

IndyCar Series – Alabama (BT Sport//ESPN)
24/04 – 20:30 to 23:00 – Race

International GT Open – Portugal
23/04 – 15:00 to 16:45 – Race 1 (BT Sport//ESPN)
=> note: also showing on Motors TV on a one-hour delay
24/04 – Race 2
=> 13:00 to 14:30 (BT Sport X4)
=> 13:30 to 14:30 (BT Sport Europe)

TCR International Series – Portugal (Motors TV)
24/04 – 11:10 to 12:10 – Race

World Rally Championship – Argentina
22/04 – 16:00 to 17:00 – Stage 1 (BT Sport 2)
22/04 – 23:00 to 00:00 – Stage 2 (BT Sport 2)
24/04 – 13:00 to 14:00 – Stage 3 (BT Sport//ESPN)
24/04 – 16:00 to 17:00 – Power Stage (BT Sport//ESPN)
25/04 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Highlights (Channel 5)

World Touring Car Championship – Hungary
24/04 – 13:00 to 14:00 – Race 1 (British Eurosport 1)
24/04 – 16:00 to 17:00 – Race 2 (British Eurosport 2)

As always, the schedule will be amended if anything is adjusted.

Scheduling: The 2016 Chinese Grand Prix

As well as the Chinese Grand Prix, next weekend is another busy weekend of motor sport across British Eurosport, BT Sport, ITV4 and Motors TV.

The third round of the Formula One season airs live on Sky Sports F1 from China, with extended highlights on Channel 4. No word on who is conducting analysis for the latter, but I will not be surprised if it is a slimmer operation than Australia and Bahrain with the team of five featuring Steve Jones, David Coulthard, Ben Edwards, Lee McKenzie and Karun Chandhok.

If you look at the show lengths, there will not be a massive amount of analysis around the highlights package itself so it makes little sense to take an extra pundit to China if they will not be utilised too much. The usual operation and scheduling over on Sky Sports F1. Three races in, and there is no sign of any additional supplementary programming yet beyond their current race weekend shows.

Outside of Formula 1, the World Endurance Championship gets underway from Silverstone. There was some confusion a few weeks back about who is screening the series live, but the answer remains Motors TV for 2016 (apart from Le Mans where Eurosport steps into the fray). As of writing, no highlights package is currently scheduled to air on Quest TV for either itself or the World Touring Car Championship. It looks like the experiment which started at the end of 2015 is not going to continue.

The first round of the brand new Formula V8 3.5 Series will air live on BT Sport 2. This is likely a similar arrangement to previous years under the previous Formula Renault 3.5 banner where themselves or Eurosport air the event live depending on what else both channels are covering during the weekends. I’ve included a lot more events than usual below, not something I usually do, but hopefully it gives an idea just how many events receive coverage of some nature on UK television.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
16/04 – 12:30 to 14:00 – Qualifying Highlights
17/04 – 13:30 to 15:30 – Race Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
15/04 – 02:45 to 04:50 – Practice 1
15/04 – 06:45 to 09:00 – Practice 2
16/04 – 04:45 to 06:15 – Practice 3
16/04 – 07:00 to 09:45 – Qualifying
17/04 – 05:30 to 10:15 – Race
=> 05:30 – Track Parade
=> 06:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 06:30 – Race
=> 09:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
13/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
14/04 – 08:00 to 08:30 – Driver Press Conference
14/04 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
15/04 – 09:00 to 09:30 – Team Press Conference
15/04 – 09:30 to 10:00 – The F1 Show
20/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
15/04 – 02:55 to 04:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
15/04 – 06:55 to 08:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16/04 – 04:55 to 06:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16/04 – 06:55 to 08:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
17/04 – 06:30 to 09:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

British Touring Car Championship – Donington Park (ITV4)
17/04 – 10:30 to 18:15 – Races

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 – Aragon
16/04 – 11:30 to 13:00 – Race 1 (BT Sport 2)
16/04 – 17:15 to 18:15 – Race 2 (BT Sport//ESPN)
17/04 – 11:00 to 12:30 – Race 3 (BT Sport 2)

European Le Mans Series – Silverstone
16/04 – 14:15 to 18:45 – Race (Motors TV)
16/04 – 14:15 to 19:00 – Race (BT Sport 2)

FIM CEV Repsol – Valencia (BT Sport//ESPN)
17/04 – 09:45 to 15:00 – Races

Formula V8 3.5 – Aragon (BT Sport 2)
16/04 – 13:00 to 14:15 – Race 1
17/04 – 12:30 to 13:45 – Race 2

IndyCar Series – Long Beach (BT Sport 2)
17/04 – 21:30 to 00:00 – Race

V8 Supercars – Phillip Island (BT Sport 1)
16/04 – 07:00 to 08:45 – Race 6
17/04 – 04:45 to 06:45 – Race 7

World Endurance Championship – Silverstone
17/04 – 11:30 to 18:10 – Race (Motors TV)
17/04 – 16:00 to 18:10 – Race (Quest)
17/04 – 16:00 to 18:10 – Race (Eurosport 2)

World Rallycross Championship – Portugal (Quest)
17/04 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Race

World Superbikes – Assen
16/04 – 09:15 to 13:00 – Qualifying and Race 1 (Eurosport 2)
17/04 – 10:00 to 13:00 – Race 2 and Support Races (Eurosport 2)
19/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

World Touring Car Championship – Slovakia
16/04 – 13:00 to 14:30 – Qualifying (Eurosport 2)
17/04 – 11:00 to 12:00 – Race 1 (Eurosport)
17/04 – 13:00 to 14:00 – Race 2 (Eurosport)

As always, if anything changes, I’ll update the schedule.

Last updated on April 16th at 14:10.

BTCC starts 2016 best of the rest

The British Touring Car Championship was best of the rest on Sunday (3rd April) in the motor racing stakes, unofficial overnight viewing figures show. Alongside the F1, cricket and football, there was a plethora of motor sport: BTCC, MotoGP and Formula E to name a few.

British Touring Car Championship peaks with 369k…
Live coverage of round one of the BTCC from Brands Hatch on Sunday averaged 169k (1.6%) across eight hours from 10:15 on ITV4. The action recorded a five-minute peak audience of 360k (3.8%) at 14:35 as the second race of the day came to a conclusion. As you would expect, the one-minute peak came within that segment at 14:36 with 369k (3.9%) watching.

Earlier in the day, the first race of the new season hit a one-minute high of 340k (4.8%) at 11:46 half way through the action. As is typical when the British Touring Car Championship clashes with Formula 1, audiences slump within the F1 time slot. As thus, the final BTCC race of the day recorded a one-minute peak audience of 145k (0.9%) at 17:35. Viewing figures for the championship have dropped slightly in recent years, but nevertheless it still benefits from the significant amount of air-time given by ITV4.

…MotoGP tucks in behind…
MotoGP on BT Sport was close behind the BTCC, but suffered too as a result of the Bahrain Grand Prix and other sporting competition. Live coverage of all three races, including Moto2 and Moto3, averaged 131k (0.7%) from 16:30 to 21:00 on BT Sport 2, marginally down on the equivalent figure last year of 147k (0.8%). The MotoGP segment from 19:30 to 21:00 averaged 193k (0.9%), peaking with 246k (1.1%). It was the main race that suffered the most year-on-year. Last year, the MotoGP race itself averaged 240k (1.1%) live on BT Sport.

Back on ITV4, highlights from Argentina averaged 309k (1.9%), compared with 297k (2.1%) from 2015. I think it is too early to judge BT’s MotoGP figures for this season compared to previous years: the competition was unusually tough, we should get a clearer picture once we get to the European races, beginning with Jerez in two weeks’ time.

…with Formula E on the back foot
Season two of the Formula E championship hit Long Beach for round six. Live coverage on ITV4 on Saturday evening from 23:00 to 01:30 averaged 78k (1.1%), peaking with 118k (1.5%). That’s not a good number and continues Formula E’s second season syndrome when you consider that Long Beach last season averaged 121k (1.9%). As always, being on the same weekend as Formula 1 never helps, but this is an ongoing pattern now with Formula E that is not reversing itself.

Highlights of the ePrix averaged a further 163k (2.4%) on ITV from 09:25 to 10:20 on Sunday morning, peaking with 195k (3.0%). The last four highlight shows on ITV have averaged around 160k, it is pretty clear that the highlights have settled within that region now. In the UK at least, there are no signs that the Formula E fan base is growing.

MotoGP opener drops slightly year-on-year

The start of the 2016 MotoGP season in Qatar dropped slightly compared with the 2015 opener, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.

Live coverage of race day, broadcast live on BT Sport 2 from 14:45 to 19:00 on Sunday 20th March, averaged 132k (0.9%). In comparison, last year’s coverage of race day averaged 172k (1.1%). The drop is largely down to tougher competition, most notably the Manchester derby in the Premier League on Sky Sports, which averaged nearly two million viewers. Furthermore, the MotoGP season opener was held a week earlier this year compared to last, meaning that races aired an hour earlier due to British Summer Time having not yet kicked in.

For the MotoGP race itself, live coverage from 17:30 to 19:00 averaged 201k (1.2%), peaking with 270k (1.5%) at 18:40. Last year’s race from 18:30 to 19:00 averaged 212k (1.1%), peaking with 263k. It was only Moto2 and Moto3 that really suffered on BT Sport, as mentioned above due to the tougher competition. The MotoGP race itself held up very well compared with 2015, the peak measure marginally up year-on-year which can only be good news for BT.

ITV4’s highlights on Monday 21st March from 20:00 to 21:00, averaged 341k (1.6%), peaking with 408k (1.9%). Both measures are down slightly on 2015’s Qatar average of 372k (1.6%) and 2015’s peak of 455k (1.9%). As the shares attest to, the total viewing audience was down year-on-year, so this is not a case of MotoGP dropping adversely compared to the competition. There would be more concern if the audience and share had dropped, but that is not the case here.

The combined audience of 542k is down on 2015’s number of 588k, whilst the peak number of 677k is down on the 718k number recorded last season. I do not think this year’s numbers in context are too bad when you consider the competition and also that MotoGP and Formula 1 started on the same weekend for the first time since 1995.

In a week where pay TV has dominated the four wheeled agenda, it should be reminded that the total MotoGP viewership (BT Sport and ITV) is down significantly on 2013’s numbers when MotoGP was live on free-to-air television. The Qatar MotoGP in 2013 on BBC Two averaged 1.67m (6.9%) from 19:30 to 21:00.

The 2015 Qatar MotoGP ratings report can be found here.

Scheduling: The 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix

If you like your Formula 1, MotoGP, Formula E, IndyCar and British Touring Car Championship action, then you will be doing a fair bit of multitasking and channel hopping as April begins.

Formula 1 heads to Bahrain for the second round of the 2016 season. For the first time ever, live coverage will be shown on Channel 4 as part of their three year shared deal with Sky Sports. As we have learnt in the past week, that deal will not go beyond three years: Sky will be screening Formula 1 exclusively from 2019.

Susie Wolff will be part of Channel 4’s team in Bahrain, whilst a pre-recorded interview with Eddie Jordan and Bernie Ecclestone will be shown (note: this was filmed before the Sky announcement). Channel 4’s live broadcast will contain adverts, however the race itself will be live and uninterrupted. On the interactivity side, Channel 4 do not have access to the additional feeds and the popular F1 Forum will not be returning following each live race.

BBC’s radio schedule is a bit different than usual for Bahrain. Practice two will not air in full on 5 Live Sports Extra due to horse racing. The race itself will only air through updates on 5 Live due to Premier League football and Twenty20 coverage. The live full race commentary should be on BBC Sport’s website with the usual team. Speaking of the team, Jennie Gow will be in London as she is presenting ITV’s coverage of the Long Beach ePrix.

Jack Nicholls will be commentating on the Bahrain Grand Prix for 5 Live, meaning that he will not be part of Formula E’s broadcast team in Long Beach. It will be the first time that Nicholls has not commentated on a Formula E race. Nicholls and Gow have confirmed that Bob Varsha will be the lead commentator in Long Beach. Outside of the usual 5 Live programming, BBC Radio 2 are airing a special F1 programme on Easter Monday. Suzi Perry presents, with contributions from the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and David Coulthard.

Elsewhere, the British Touring Car Championship season gets going in Brands Hatch. ITV have assembled the usual team with Steve Rider, Louise Goodman and Tim Harvey leading the line-up. David Addison is their lead commentator for the fourth season running.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
01/04 – 11:55 to 13:35 – Practice 1
01/04 – 15:55 to 17:35 – Practice 2
02/04 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Practice 3
02/04 – 15:00 to 17:30 – Qualifying
03/04 – 15:00 to 18:30 – Race
03/04 – 23:00 to 00:00 – Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
01/04 – 11:45 to 13:50 – Practice 1
01/04 – 15:45 to 18:00 – Practice 2
02/04 – 12:45 to 14:15 – Practice 3
02/04 – 15:00 to 17:45 – Qualifying
03/04 – 14:30 to 19:15 – Race
=> 14:30 – Track Parade
=> 15:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 15:30 – Race
=> 18:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
30/03 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
31/03 – 13:00 to 13:30 – Driver Press Conference
31/03 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
01/04 – 18:00 to 18:30 – Team Press Conference
01/04 – 18:30 to 19:00 – The F1 Show
06/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
28/03 – 17:00 to 19:00 – Suzi Perry’s F1 Anthems (BBC Radio 2)
31/03 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
01/04 – 11:55 to 13:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
01/04 – 16:20 to 17:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
02/04 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
02/04 – 15:55 to 17:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
03/04 – TBC – Race (BBC online)
=> updates on BBC Radio 5 Live

MotoGP – Argentina (BT Sport 2)
01/04 – 13:00 to 20:00
=> 13:00 – Practice 1
=> 15:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 17:00 – Practice 2
02/04 – 13:00 to 20:15
=> 13:00 – Practice 3
=> 16:00 – Qualifying
03/04 – 13:30 to 15:15 – Warm Up
03/04 – 16:30 to 22:00
=> 16:30 – Moto3 race
=> 18:15 – Moto2 race
=> 19:45 – MotoGP race
=> 21:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Argentina (ITV4)
04/04 – 22:00 to 23:00 – Highlights

Formula E – Long Beach (online via FIAFormulaE.com and YouTube)
02/04 – 16:10 to 17:10 – Practice 1
02/04 – 18:25 to 19:10 – Practice 2
02/04 – 19:45 to 21:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Long Beach
02/04 – 23:00 to 01:30 – Race (ITV4)
03/04 – 09:30 to 10:25 – Highlights (ITV)

British Touring Car Championship – Brands Hatch (ITV4)
03/04 – 10:15 to 18:15 – Races

IndyCar Series – Phoenix (BT Sport 2)
02/04 – 02:00 to 05:00 – Race

As always, if anything changes, I’ll update the schedule.

Updated on March 30th to reflect the Formula E lead commentator announcement.