Scheduling: The 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Whether it is noise, fuel or just, you know, the racing that gets you talking, there is plenty on the agenda as Formula 1 heads to Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The Malaysian circuit is highly regarded by Formula 1 fans, this year is its 15th anniversary on the calendar having joined in 1999. The race will be the first of nine races to be screened live on both the BBC and Sky Sports F1 this season. Before getting into the main details, the most important point for all of those in the UK is that the clocks go forward one hour in the early hours of Sunday morning. So, just be wary of that if you plan to put your alarm on. If you want to jump to the schedule, click on the links below…

– Thursday 27th March
– Friday 28th March
– Saturday 29th March
– Sunday 30th March
– Wednesday 2nd April
– Classic F1

Based on comments in Australia, I don’t believe that Eddie Jordan will be with the BBC team in Malaysia, so expect to see Allan McNish alongside Suzi Perry and David Coulthard for the build-up and post-race reaction. Over on Sky Sports F1, ahead of ‘Senna Week’ at the end of April to mark the 20th anniversary of Ayrton’s death, Bruno Senna will be making his first appearance with the team in Malaysia. I did at the time say that Bruno would be a good addition to the Sky team, nothing more, nothing less. Whilst we don’t have concrete details, I think it is fair to assume that he will be playing a significant part in the Senna programming coming up, which was probably the main reason for Sky getting him on-board in the first place.

The F1 Show from Malaysia will be a Williams special, which should be good. I assume the entire show will be from location in Malaysia, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some of it was coming from the studio in London if they are going to showcase some of the old Williams cars. As I have done in the past, again in 2014 I will include non-F1 content of my choice, in other words, if I plan to watch said motor sport, I’ll add it below. This week, the IndyCar Series is back on BT Sport, albeit on ESPN, whilst the BTCC returns to ITV4, with Steve Rider fronting the coverage and David Addison and Tim Harvey in the commentary box.

Thursday 27th March
07:00 to 07:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
20:30 to 21:00 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
20:45 to 21:00 – F1: Gear Up for Malaysia (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 28th March
01:45 to 03:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
01:55 to 03:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
05:45 to 08:00 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
05:55 to 07:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Two)
08:00 to 08:45 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
10:00 to 11:00 – The F1 Show: Williams Special (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 29th March
04:45 to 06:15 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
04:55 to 06:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
07:00 to 09:30 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
07:00 to 09:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
13:15 to 15:30 – F1: Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

NOTE: Clocks go forward one hour, with the change from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time. The times below are BST…

Sunday 30th March
07:30 to 12:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
=> 07:30 – Track Parade
=> 08:00 – Race
=> 11:30 – Paddock Live
08:00 to 11:15 – F1: Race (BBC One)
10:30 to 18:00 – BTCC: Brands Hatch (ITV4)
11:15 to 12:15 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
13:45 to 15:45 – F1: Race Replay (BBC One)
20:00 to 23:00 – IndyCars: St Petersburg (ESPN)

Wednesday 2nd April
20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

Classic F1 on Sky Sports F1
An addition to the Sky Sports F1 line-up starting this week is some classic season reviews from the 1970s coming out of the Brunswick Films archive, which is really good as Sky have not shown much content from that era, their ‘GP Uncovered’ strand has tended to focus on the 1950s and 1960s, whereas of course material owned by FOM is 1980s onwards. 2001 Malaysia was included in the provisional schedule, but again failed to make the final cut, which suggests that the copy FOM has is incomplete, or without UK commentary.

27/03 – 21:00 to 23:45 – 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix
28/03 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix
29/03 – 09:45 to 10:45 – 1970 Season Review
29/03 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix
30/03 – 12:15 to 13:15 – 1971 Season Review
30/03 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
31/03 – 21:00 to 21:35 – 1982 Austrian Grand Prix Highlights
01/04 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2012 Canadian Grand Prix (Sky commentary)
02/04 – 21:00 to 00:00 – 2012 Singapore Grand Prix (Sky commentary)

As always, if anything changes I shall update this blog if necessary.

BT Sport to screen IndyCar Series until 2015

BT Sport are to continue screening the IndyCar Series up to an including the 2015 season, it has been confirmed. Writing on Twitter, Mark Coyle, the channel’s Head of Digital Production noted: “We have the rest of this season then seasons 2014 & 2015.”

Although the series is still screened on ESPN UK under BT Sport’s ownership, the confirmation secures IndyCar Series’ future in the UK for the forthcoming future, so is very good news. I don’t know if the deal has been renegotiated or whether the original deal with ESPN UK was always three years, but it is still good to know.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 1st September, 2013)

Another seven days has passed which means it is times for the weekly BARB update, with MotoGP and IndyCar being the main highlights.

Live coverage of the MotoGP race from Silverstone officially averaged under 1.00 million viewers on BBC Two. This is not as surprising as it first seems given that it was longer than your typical MotoGP broadcast, with BBC live on air from 12:00 to 14:30 compared to usually 12:30 to 14:00. The overnight average from 12:00 to 14:30 was 856,000 viewers, with a 15-minute peak of 1.26 million at 13:30. The 12:30 to 14:00 overnight average was 1.04 million viewers, which is really not higher than your typical MotoGP race. As always, BARB have not reported ratings for Eurosport which is why I am unable to report their official ratings on here.

There was a motor sport double for ITV4 this week, with the Ulster Grand Prix highlights on Tuesday (27th August) averaging 250,000 viewers, whilst the Classic TT a day later averaged 243,000 viewers, both comfortably inside its top ten. On Sky Sports F1, there was a very unusual occurrence as The F1 Show was not the highest rated show of the week. That honour went to a repeat of the Midweek Report which averaged 28,000 viewers on Saturday evening (although I’m not entirely why). The F1 Show itself had 25,000 viewers, with the first airing of the Midweek Report recording 25,000 viewers. I think this is a combination of The F1 Show doing poorly by its standards this season, and the Midweek Report doing very well – which is an interesting anecdote considering the latter is filmed against a green screen and a shoe string budget.

Over on ESPN, live coverage of the IndyCar Series from Baltimore brought 12,000 viewers to the channel.

Scheduling: The 2013 Belgian Grand Prix

After a four week Summer break, F1 is back! The drivers and teams head to the Ardennes forest in Belgium for the Belgian Grand Prix from Spa. The race starts the second half of the Formula 1 season with nine races in 13 weeks. Before you know it, it will all be over. Both BBC and Sky are live this weekend, so expect the usual full line-ups from both sides.

Alongside their usual Classic races, Sky are also broadcasting a three-part Lost Generation series, which I have outlined below. Also, in a moment of brilliance, MotoGP clashes with the F1 again, it is not a direct clash as the MotoGP race is in the F1 build-up, but still frustrating if you want to keep track of everything. The day is rounded off with the IndyCar Series from Sonoma, with coverage on ESPN UK.

Saturday 17th August
20:00 to 20:40 – F1: 1985 Belgian Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and James Hunt
– repeated on Friday 23rd August at 12:05

Sunday 18th August
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 1998 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 25th August at 06:05

Monday 19th August
19:30 to 20:00 – The Lost Generation (1/3) (Sky Sports F1)
– focussing on Roger Williamson
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2000 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 23rd August at 18:00

Tuesday 20th August
19:30 to 20:00 – The Lost Generation (2/3) (Sky Sports F1)
– focussing on Tony Brise
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2008 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 24th August at 17:15

Wednesday 21st August
19:30 to 20:00 – The Lost Generation (3/3) (Sky Sports F1)
– focussing on Tom Pryce
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2010 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 25th August at 20:15

Thursday 22nd August
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
19:45 to 20:00 – Gear Up for Belgium (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 23rd August
08:45 to 11:00 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
11:00 to 11:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
12:50 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Two)
14:50 to 15:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:00 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
21:00 to 21:45 – F1: 1955 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– repeated on Saturday 24th August at 11:15

Saturday 24th August
08:45 to 09:20 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
09:55 to 11:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 14:15 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
14:35 to 16:00 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:05 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 25th August
08:20 to 09:05 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:35 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
11:30 to 13:00 – MotoGP: Brno (BBC Two)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 15:15 – F1: Race (BBC One)
15:15 to 16:15 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
16:15 to 17:00 – GP Uncovered: 1958 Belgian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
21:00 to 00:00 – IndyCars: Sonoma (ESPN)

Wednesday 28th August
19:30 to 20:00 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

As always, if anything changes I shall update this blog if necessary.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 21st July, 2013)

The second and final week of the first Formula 1 mid-season break meant that MotoGP shined again on BBC Two. This time, the series was in primetime on BBC Two, airing from 22:00 to 23:00 live on Laguna Seca. The programme averaged 1.30 million viewers, which is a 28 percent increase from the Sachensring rating on July 14th. Although up on 2012, it is down on 2009 and 2011.

MotoGP – Laguna Seca ratings
2009 – 1.53 million
2010 – 1.45 million or below
2011 – 1.49 million
2012 – 1.13 million
2013 – 1.30 million

Over on ITV4, the Tour de France came to a conclusion in primetime also on the Sunday. The final stage recorded an average of 1.17 million viewers and peaked with over 2 million viewers as Chris Froome won the tour. The peak was higher than the MotoGP peak. Highlights through the week averaged between 561,000 and 751,000 viewers. The F1 Show Special on Sky Sports F1 failed to bring in any extra viewers than usual with an average of 74,000 viewers. As always, promotion is the issue here – it was never destined to do better than usual because the promotion was level outside of the ‘Sky F1 Twitter bubble’. Nevertheless, 63 percent of those polled on this blog want to see it again, although there are several comments which are definitely worth food for thought should this be done again.

Several repeats of the Goodwood Festival of Speed also made Sky Sports 4 and F1’s top ten ranging from 12,000 to 27,000 viewers. Across four airings, the total was 81,000 viewers. Lastly for the channel, the 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix highlights made the top ten with 12,000 viewers on Saturday evening. ESPN’s motor sport contribution to this post comes via Indy Lights highlights which averaged 17,000 viewers on Wednesday 17th July at 21:45. DTM, in the preceding hour, brought 13,000 viewers to the channel.