Whisper Films are to produce Channel 4’s coverage of Formula 1, it has been confirmed.

The indie, founded by Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and Sunil Patel in 2010, will produce their coverage through to the end of their contract in 2018. The company won a closed tender process that, according to Broadcast, was against North One Television. However, North One will produce supplementary programme for Channel 4’s coverage. As part of the announcement, Coulthard is the first name to be announced as part of Channel 4’s team.

To give a comparison between the two organisations. North One Television was set up in 1990 under the Chrysalis name, most notably producing ITV’s Formula 1 coverage from 1997 to 2008. More recently, they have been responsible for BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage from 2014 onwards. North One would have brought with them a massive amount of experience having covered Formula 1 for twelve years.

However, ‘experience’ can be found in many different lights. Although Whisper Films was founded twenty years after North One Television, the likes of Humphrey, Coulthard and Patel have recent experience of making Formula 1 television and are in a prime position to know what makes audiences click. In the background, Whisper have been grabbing staff from both BBC’s and Sky’s Formula 1 portfolio including producer Andrew Willis, who originally was part of Sky’s team.

Today’s announcement confirms that Whisper have also grabbed the former BBC F1 programme editor Mark Wilkin. Whisper have also been producing films for Formula 1 teams such as the Red Bull Racing Story, covering the story of the team from inception to the end of 2012. The reaction from those in industry outside of the immediate circles and Formula 1 fans could not be more different. Whilst fans will be happy with the news today, the commenters on Broadcast have a different opinion, one saying the deal is in “no way dodgy.”

Ed Havard, Channel 4’s Head of TV Events and Sport said: “Whisper Films outlined an extremely impressive and exciting vision for their F1 coverage, with outstanding on and off screen talent as an integral part of their pitch. We are delighted that David Coulthard will be at the heart of Channel 4’s coverage and look forward to announcing the full presenting team in the coming weeks.”

Sunil Patel, Executive Producer for Whisper Films said: “Whisper Films has an unrivalled production team with over 20 years’ experience in Formula One and unique contacts throughout the sport. Channel 4 and the sport have talked about a new approach and we believe we are ideally placed to deliver this.”

David Coulthard said: “This is an exciting time for the sport and an exciting time for Whisper Films. The F1 World has been incredibly impressed with what Whisper has delivered over the last five years and Channel 4’s decision is testament to that. I’m looking forward to being part of an exciting new era for Formula One, with Whisper Films and our proven level of creativity and innovation very much at the heart of that.”

Formula 1 broadcasting in the United Kingdom in recent years has enjoyed a rich offering, with both the BBC and Sky Sports throwing hours of air-time at the sport. For a live weekend, the BBC would dedicate ten and a half hours of air-time, with Sky Sports adding a further thirteen hours (excluding GP2 and GP3). But things have not always been that way, and a lot has happened to get to where we are now.

1995 was the first season that the BBC showed every race live, with qualifying being covered in a post-session update during BBC’s Saturday Grandstand on BBC One. It was only when BBC lost the coverage in December 1995 did they up the ante, to lay down the marker as it were, for ITV. The following year, the BBC showed 15 out of the 16 qualifying sessions live (Japan the exception) as well as sending Steve Rider out on location for the majority of the European races, setting down a marker for ITV. The average programme length for the race was 2 hours and 20 minutes, but there was limited post-race analysis, the BBC choosing to move to the next sport in the afternoon immediately after the press conference.

ITV’s coverage in 1997 resembled something closer to what we recognise now, with a proper presence at the circuit in the form of an on-site studio and an expansive pre and post-race session analysis. The studio element was dropped for the start of 2004, with ITV now allowed to broadcast live from the paddock. Over the course of their coverage, ITV’s pre-race build-up expanded from 30 minutes to an hour in length, with a greater quality of features being produced by North One Television (previously known as Chrysalis). However, ITV never fully exploited the post-race analysis block, too often quickly getting off air without exploring the race that happened before it, this was a common problem with the American-zone races.

In 2008, ITV added Friday practice to their online portfolio, which the BBC followed up on in 2009 by airing all three practice sessions behind the Red Button as well as online. BBC learnt from previous mistakes, creating an interactive Red Button forum, which aired for an hour after their main BBC One race day coverage. The forum became a fixture of BBC’s offering and was well received from the get-go. Although the forum dipped in quality in BBC’s later years, it still showed a commitment to the sport that was not there beforehand.

Last year for a live race, the BBC would be on air for around four hours: From 12:10 to 15:15 on BBC One and then 15:15 to 16:00 on the Red Button with qualifying on air from 12:10 to 14:15 give or take. So, where do Channel 4 go from here? Readers may remember I talked about possible scheduling options for Channel 4 back in 2012, but that was when looking at an alternative scenario where the corporation had full Formula 1 rights. Obviously a lot of ideas in that post are no longer relevant: Channel 4 will not have the rights to GP2 or GP3 besides the fact that they will only be airing half the Formula 1 season. With that in mind, based on the current circumstances, The F1 Broadcasting Blog examines the elements below, day by day, session by session…

Practice Live
Channel 4 on Friday mornings typically airs repeats such as The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier. Aside from the News Summary at 12:00, there is no new programming on the network until Deal or No Deal at 14:10. Although the slate of programming does deliver solid numbers for the network, I think Channel 4 would want to showcase Formula 1 as much as possible. Given that Channel 4 have been happy to displace the likes of Deal or No Deal and Countdown for horse racing coverage over the years, I don’t think there will be any issues in displacing repeats for Formula 1 practice. If live practice clashes with horse racing, I would expect the latter to be given priority, however it is the latter’s last year on Channel 4 so they may want to give F1 priority, with horse racing being bumped to More4.

The more interesting question for me is whether we will see any colour wrapped around practice. Sky Sports since the beginning of their coverage have added a short introduction and post-session analysis with a presenter and pundit talking for five to ten minutes, the BBC have followed on in recent years. Is there any value to be added by adding colour to practice coverage? Not really. I would be happy if Channel 4 went for the ‘World Feed only’ approach to Friday practice. There may be one time out of ten where there was a key incident which could do with extra analysis, but not enough to justify anything more. Channel 4 need to use their resources wisely. Saturday practice should be the session with all the ‘bells and whistles’ around it, the timeslot two hours before qualifying begins means that it brings in a higher audience than the previous day’s action.

Magazine Show
Instead of pouring resource into practice, the resource should be allocated towards a magazine show, to attract the casual fan. If we look at The F1 Show on Sky Sports outside of race weekends, it originally started a chat show discussing the latest stories, with no audience in attendance. To some degree it still is, except there is now a studio audience. The problem is that the show has failed over the past four years to get any high-quality guests in – presumably Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are above the budget that the show has. The F1 Show may attract some hard-core aficionados, but it does little to attract anyone beyond that. Of course, The F1 Show has not been the only magazine show. In the late 1990s, ITV aired Murray and Martin’s F1 Special on Saturday evenings (although that was filmed on location). At 20 to 25 minutes in length, the show reviewed qualifying and aired some features to attract a non-F1 audience.

Is it possible to design an F1 magazine show to attract a casual fan with a passing interest in the sport? I’d like to think it is, whether it is on Channel 4 or their sister channel E4. This part is dependent on whether Whisper Films win the production contract, but someone such as Jake Humphrey would be the perfect person to front a magazine show. Guests such as Hamilton and Button, alongside celebrity Formula 1 fans would make it a worthwhile watch. The problem we have had with The F1 Show is the same opinions week in, week out, it looks and feels like a ‘paint by numbers’ show. On a Friday evening, I do not want to watch what feels like a ‘heavy’ magazine show in The F1 Show. Any new magazine shows that air outside of the race weekend does not need to be live. If Channel 4 can get better quality guests in a recorded show, so be it. Sky have constrained themselves with the live studio shows, in my opinion. Recording the show also gives you flexibility with scheduling.

On the basis that weekday evenings from 18:30 to 20:00 are a no go (due to Hollyoaks and the Channel 4 News), either 17:30 to 18:30 or 20:00 to 21:00 on Fridays could be feasible, although the latter would directly clash with The F1 Show. Alternatively, a Sunday afternoon could attract the motor sport audience. I think there are several options during the weekend, but the scheduling aspect is tricky. Which slot would appeal most to a motor sport audience? One thought I did have aside from the above is that Channel 4 may want to replicate the success of The Morning Line (horse racing) and The Cricket Show by airing a magazine show on Sunday mornings live from the circuit. I’m not fully convinced because Channel 4 currently air Sunday Brunch in that slot, but I have incorporated it into the schedule further down this post…

Qualifying and Race Highlights
A first point to make. Looking at Channel 4’s website, a 30-minute programme slot has 23 minutes of content. Bear that in mind below…

This season, Channel 4 will be screening 22 highlights shows where they do not have the rights to screen live coverage. As a general rule, BBC’s qualifying highlights show have been 75 minutes in length, which would equate to 57 minutes excluding adverts. BBC’s race highlights have been 90 minutes in length, which equates to around 66 minutes excluding adverts. For the moment, let’s say both of those stay the same for 2016, with around 12 minutes of build-up and 12 minutes of reaction. That means viewers would see around 33 minutes of qualifying action and 42 minutes of race action. If you want an extensive highlights programme that is to match the quality of its predecessor, I think you would struggle to justify not extending the lengths of both shows on Channel 4.

I expect the qualifying highlights show on Channel 4 to be 90 minutes and the race highlights show to be two hours long. That gives you approximately nine minutes extra of qualifying action and around twenty minutes more of race action. It also gives Channel 4 a longer window to build an audience during the transmission slot and to time their ad-breaks strategically. I don’t anticipate the style of the highlights programmes to change significantly. One option is to keep some of the presentation team in London to keep costs down, especially for the fly-away races. I would not be opposed to this, as long as there is a benefit to it. If it brought something new to the coverage, such as getting a few new faces and opinions involved, or using the latest gadgets, I would be all for it. Would it be considered a reduction in coverage? I think it would be only considered a reduction if they presented live races fully from the studio, like ITV did on numerous occasions with the Malaysian and Japanese Grands Prix.

The timeslots I imagine will be similar to the BBC’s slots. Highlights for the fly-away races will probably air at 12:00 as there s no Channel 4 News lunchtime summary at weekends, the European races at 17:00 with the American races at 22:00. It would be interesting to know what the contract stipulates with regards the latter, Channel 4 may wish to air those shows earlier as the audience at 22:00 drops off significantly. If BBC One’s highlights around that time averaged just over two million viewers, you fear that Channel 4 may struggle to hit 1.5 million with a much lower lead-in before it compared to the BBC but time will tell.

Qualifying and Race Live
As referenced above, the BBC were typically live for 125 minutes for qualifying and live for just shy of four hours for the race when you include the Red Button forum. Unquestionably, both qualifying and the race will be live on Channel 4, irrespective of any clashes. Moving a race to E4 or More4 would not go down well with either the fans or Bernie Ecclestone. And given the amount of money Channel 4 have paid for the rights to broadcast Formula 1, it is probably not in their interests.

Before we talk about the content, again the subject of adverts should be touched upon. We already know that the actual race itself is ad-free. What we do not know is how late before a race Channel 4 can insert an ad-break or how soon after a race. I would assume the two answers are “before the 5-minute sting” and “on the slowing down lap”. That would be a similar arrangement to BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage, BT opt to go to a break virtually as soon as the race is over. The risk you run is that you lose your audience instantly which, in Channel 4’s case will equate to many thousands. A better strategy would be to place the first ad-break after the podium ceremony to keep the audience for longer, but at the same time Channel 4 will want the first ad-break post-race to be as profitable as possible. A difference of five minutes after the race can mean the difference of a million viewers watching the ad-break.

Like with the highlights programming, commercial breaks have to be placed sensibly so not to annoy the audience. Watching Sky’s current coverage, you can specifically tell when they are about to take a break. What frustrates me is that the channel feels the need to tell audiences constantly what is “coming up”, which is problematical when the channel should be using the available airtime wisely. I felt in 2015 that Sky chose to hype up features far too much by wrapping VT’s around ad-breaks for little reason whatsoever. The audience should be naturally building towards the race as it is without the need to hype the next item.

As David Elstein points out, a former executive with Sky and Channel 5, there are opportunities for Channel 4 to average out advertising across the whole event. Looking at Channel 4’s current Sunday schedule, the channel has a live chat show called Sunday Brunch which airs from 09:30 to 12:30. The programme averaged around 600k (8%) last year, a very high share by Channel 4’s standards. I certainly don’t see anything Formula 1 related displacing it. I think, for the European races, we will see this kind of schedule:

09:00 – F1: The Inside Line
09:30 – Sunday Brunch
12:00 – F1: Spanish Grand Prix
15:15 to 16:15 – F1: The Inside Line

I can’t see Channel 4 providing a 90-minute build-up, but there is scope and opportunity to entice the current Sunday Brunch audience by linking to the paddock once or twice through the course of the programme to get an update on the action and grab a live interview with a key F1 star in the hours before the race. That is a good way of providing the best of both worlds, in my opinion. In terms of the Formula 1 build-up, I would expect to largely be on-location with a similar style to BBC and Sky, although again studio coverage should be considered if it enhances the quality of the programme. If you wanted to sustain the Sunday Brunch audience preceding it (for European races), you could do a seamless transition with ad-breaks taken at 11:50 to 12:10 respectively, and opening titles at midday so that the audience does not jump ship.  The Inside Line is a magazine show referenced earlier in the piece if Channel 4 wanted to do something similar to their historical cricket and horse racing coverage. In theory, The Inside Line and live updates during Sunday Brunch can be done irrespective of whether Channel 4 are broadcasting that race live. You only irritate the Sunday Brunch audience if you overdo the Formula 1 links. But two x five-minute links within a 150-minute programme is not excessive, in my opinion.

Following the race, I would expect Channel 4 to stay on air until around 16:15, so that they can re-coup on ad-breaks, a split programme like the above schedule is therefore likely. An idea would be for Channel 4’s post-race action to “slip behind live”. In other words, when we see four minutes of adverts, the team on-location only stop for around 30 seconds. So, whilst the Channel 4 programme finishes at 16:15, they have finished filming at 15:55 UK time. The Inside Line for your post-race segment could be studio content mixed with on-site content. If you can good quality guests in the studio that are unwilling to be on-site, I would again be all for it. Furthermore, you could use said guests earlier in the coverage, such as giving opinions throughout the race itself.

One thing Channel 4 may want to do is air highlights shortly after the live race at around 17:30. In my opinion, doing so would be playing is a dangerous game, simply because the audience could start drifting towards the highlights package rather than the live race itself. Highlights for the live races should be played out on More4 in the evening, and then again in a late night slot on Channel 4. The same applies to repeats of practice and qualifying.

No ‘Red Button’ hideaways
Quoting directly from Channel 4’s ten-point plan in 2011, the extra on-board cameras and Pit Lane feed would no longer be Red Button hideaways. Instead, the feeds would be ‘road blocked’ across Channel 4’s portfolio of channels: E4, More4 and 4seven as well as online. I can imagine it now: “If you want to watch the race from the view of Lewis Hamilton, head to E4, and if you want to watch the race from Sebastian Vettel’s car, jump to More4 for the duration of the race.” You could even make the process interactive by getting viewers to vote for the content that they want to see on the three other Channel 4 channels. That sounds a lot better than telling viewers to go through to the Red Button whereas all you need to press is three buttons.

Lastly, remember that if you miss any of Channel 4’s coverage, there is always the +1 options which (it is assumed) will be available for all of their Formula 1 coverage.

Conclusions
Okay, I’ve rambled a fair bit here, but here are some conclusions on what I would like to see:

– A Formula 1 magazine show done correctly
– A Sunday morning show from inside the paddock
– Practice with World Feed only
– Scheduling similar to BBC and Sky
– Less generic “coming up” VT’s in and out of ad-breaks
– Studio coverage is not discouraged, as long as there is a net gain

I’ve over-egged and under-egged some points above, and probably missed a few bits out, but the above is just some thoughts on how I would like Formula 1 to be scheduled on Channel 4’s portfolio of networks.

I have had my thoughts, now it is time to have your say, with The F1 Broadcasting Blog’s survey looking at Channel 4’s Formula 1 line-up.

There are six pages in the survey, each focussing on a different role:

P1. Presenter
P2. Lead Commentator
P3. Pit Lane Reporter
P4. Co-Commentator
P5. Analyst
P6. Technical Expert

Each page has two questions:

Q1. Your number one choice for that role (multiple choice).
Q2. Your order of preference for that role (rank).

The point of having two questions related to each role is that, in some cases, the number one choice may not be available to Channel 4, or there may be multiple people that may fill that role as discussed in the three pieces. All the candidates listed are based upon the comments you made in the posts over the holiday period, alongside my own suggestions in each of the three posts.

Predicting Channel 4’s Formula 1 team
> part 1
> part 2
> part 3

For some of the roles, there are a lot of candidates. I could have removed some choices, but I wanted to keep as much choice as possible and thought it would be unfair to remove some contenders based on my own personal preferences. There are 16 people that could make up the analyst roles, beware when ranking them to make sure no one is accidentally left at the bottom. The person at the top is your favourite for the role, and the person at the bottom is your least favourite for the role. Inevitably there may be one or two names you don’t recognise, but again I did not want to remove candidates based on personal preference.

The survey can be found here, and will close on Sunday 10th January at 16:00 UK time. It should take no longer than ten minutes to complete.

The reason I emphasise the closing date is simple, as I want to write about the results before Channel 4 announce their team. I may extend the closing date, depending on the volume of readers’ who have completed the survey. As usual I’m happy to hear your thoughts below if there is anything I have missed out.

Update on January 2nd at 22:00 – Thanks to those that have already completed the survey, some interesting trends are already emerging. I’ve made two slight technical changes to the survey: a) every question is now mandatory; and b) the ‘rank’ starting order is now randomised instead of alphabetical order so that those at the lower end of the alphabet are not penalised (this was an issue mainly for the Analyst question, but no others appear to be affected).

The series of posts predicting Channel 4’s Formula 1 team comes to a conclusion with part three, as The F1 Broadcasting Blog looks at the role of technical expert.

To recap, parts one and two focussed on the other roles within Channel 4’s setup. So far, I have predicted the following:

– Presenter: Suzi Perry
– Magazine: Jake Humphrey
– Commentator: Ben Edwards
– Commentator / Analyst: David Coulthard
– Pit Lane: Nicki Shields
– Analyst: Eddie Jordan
– Analyst: Allan McNish

Admittedly that line-up looks like a repeat of BBC’s talent shop from 2012 to 2015, as well as having Jake Humphrey back in the fray. The exception is Nicki Shields, who is currently pit lane reporter for the electric Formula E championship. It looks like Lee McKenzie will not be part of Channel 4’s team based on her recent tweets, hence me placing Shields as pit lane reporter. You could argue that such a line-up would be unimaginative, but you have to ask how Channel 4 can improve on the current BBC line-up. In my opinion, ‘ripping it out from the core’ is not the answer, but comments have varied. On the whole, the audience liked BBC’s coverage and I will be shocked if there is not some element of ex-BBC in the Channel 4 line-up.

The last role to look at surrounds the position of technical expert. The technical role is similar to that of pit lane reporter, but the two should not be confused. Whilst they may be positioned in similar locations within the paddock, the purpose of the technical expert is to update viewers on the upgrades that teams may have chosen and to show viewers around the new formula from a DNA perspective. It is important that the person chosen for this role has technical understanding of the sport.

Before we look at the candidates, there will no doubt be a question about the necessity of the role. In my opinion, it is critical that there is a technical view point represented in Channel 4’s Formula 1 coverage. As I have discussed previously, experts such as James Allen, Ted Kravitz and Gary Anderson have helped convey the information towards the casual audience. It is important that the audience watching appreciates the technical element of motor racing.  Yes, we watch for the overtaking and the personalities, but we also watch to see the technical advances that Formula 1 is making in the wider world.

One of the failures of BBC F1 was to part ways with Gary Anderson in early 2014, and then (according to Anderson) make the claim that viewers are not interested in technical analysis. In a poll conducted on this blog, 71 percent believed that BBC’s coverage needed a technical expert. As good as Tom Clarkson was in 2014 and 2015, he was no match for Anderson through no fault of his own. Although as Anderson himself said following the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix: “The casual viewers is where the big viewing numbers are and many of them don’t give a damn about what’s under the bonnet of an F1 car.” We could debate this all day, but if Channel 4 are to be taken seriously, then there needs to be some technical element.

So, who are the contenders for a technical analyst role with Channel 4?

Craig Scarborough – The popular technical writer has been talking about motor racing for print and television since the early 2000s, writing for publications such as AUTOSPORT and F1 Racing. To date, Scarborough has yet to appear on terrestrial television with a UK broadcaster covering Formula 1. He has made sporadic appearances with on the Midweek Report show on Sky Sports F1, alongside working for foreign broadcasters. If you’re looking for someone who has television experience and can convey information to a casual audience, Scarborough is likely to be one person on Channel 4’s technical list.

Gary Anderson – As I noted above, the former Jordan technical director appeared on BBC’s Formula 1 programming in 2012 and 2013. Anderson currently writes for AUTOSPORT answering readers’ questions. From reading his series of posts with AUTOSPORT, it appears Anderson was not in the paddock during 2015 and was commenting from far afield. My gut instinct is that, even if he is asked, Anderson will not return to the broadcasting fray.

Mark Priestley – A former McLaren mechanic from 2000 to 2009, Priestley has been a regular in the broadcasting scene over the past few years. Priestley was one of the highlights in Sky Sports F1’s live pre-season testing coverage in 2013 and has since been part of ITV’s Formula E coverage as a regular studio guest. I’d like to see Priestley part of Channel 4’s team purely because there is a lot that he can bring to the programming, along with being a fresh voice that viewers have not heard before. Priestley has the added advantage of having been part of the inner dealings with a world championship team.

Ross Brawn – Benetton, Ferrari, Brawn and Mercedes. Technical director and team owner. His CV stands alongside Adrian Newey in terms of what they have achieved in Formula 1, which makes Brawn a contender for a role at Channel 4. Brawn has not been part of the Formula 1 paddock since the end of 2013, but would bring with him a huge amount of expertise from his decades’ worth of dealings in the Grand Prix world. My personal opinion is that Brawn would choose to stay away from the paddock if he was approached by Channel 4, but don’t rule out the odd appearance here and there depending on what other programming the station plan on airing.

Tom Clarkson – A familiar face covering Formula 1 for Australian television, Clarkson initially joined the BBC F1 team half way through the 2012 season deputising for Lee McKenzie. Clarkson became a full time member of the BBC team in 2013 alongside McKenzie in the pit lane, eventually covering the technical side of Formula 1 in 2014 and 2015 with Anderson now absent. If Clarkson is not part of Channel 4’s team, I don’t think it would be a major loss. As a pit lane reporter he is good, but he should not be a technical analyst in my opinion, unless Channel 4 run out of options from those already discussed above.

There are not many candidates to fill the technical role. Out of the five above, I would narrow it down to two people: Scarborough or Priestley. For me, Priestley edges it because he has experience within a top tier Formula 1 team. Therefore…

The F1 Broadcasting Blog predicts: Marc Priestley to become Channel 4’s Formula 1 technical analyst.

Which means that my predicted Channel 4 line-up is as follows:

– Presenter: Suzi Perry
– Magazine: Jake Humphrey
– Commentator: Ben Edwards
– Commentator / Analyst: David Coulthard
– Pit Lane: Nicki Shields
– Analyst: Eddie Jordan
– Analyst: Allan McNish
– Analyst (Technical): Marc Priestley

In there, you have your recognisable front three faces from the BBC, along with some new blood in Shields and Priestley. For the lead commentator and technical analyst roles, there are not many candidates, which leaves Channel 4 with not many options, whereas there is a vast array of talent to become either presenter or analyst. It will be fascinating to see how the line-up unfolds over the coming weeks as we uncover more clues on the road to Melbourne.