Scheduling: The Monaco Grand Prix

Formula 1 heads to the glitz and glamour of Monte Carlo this upcoming weekend with the Monaco Grand Prix. Both BBC One and Sky Sports F1 will be showing the coverage live this weekend. As is the tradition in Monaco, F1 Practice is held on Thursday’s instead of Friday’s. Also, as I noted on Thursday, there is a double dose for The F1 Show this weekend due to the different schedule.

If you like your classic Formula 1 action, then I would advice that you tune in to Sky Sports F1 from 09:00 tomorrow morning for nearly 15 hours of Classic F1 from Monaco. Back to the present day, however, here is the scheduling with all the times, including Sky Sports F1’s coverage of the GP2 and GP3 Series, which has a hideously early start on Friday morning!

Wednesday 23rd May
14:00 to 14:30 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)

Thursday 24th May
08:45 to 10:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Red Button)
10:55 to 11:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 15:00 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
12:55 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Red Button)
15:00 to 15:30 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
15:50 to 16:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 25th May
06:35 to 07:20 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:25 to 10:50 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
11:25 to 12:15 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)

Saturday 26th May
09:45 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
09:55 to 11:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Red Button)
12:00 to 14:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 14:15 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
15:05 to 16:10 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
16:50 to 17:45 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)

Sunday 27th May
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
12:05 to 15:30 – F1: Race (BBC One)
15:30 to 16:30 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
16:30 to 20:00 – Indy 500 (Sky Sports 4)

As of writing, Indy 500 is still on Sky Sports 4, so if you only have Sky’s HD package, you will not be able to view it. I shall update this post if/when that changes.

And for the first time, I want your opinion. Which channel will you be watching for the Grand Prix weekend? I think I shall stick with Sky Sports, as I did for Spain, although that depends somewhat on the pundits. If Sky have Damon Hill only, then I may be forced in turning over to BBC, but if they have Johnny Herbert alongside Hill, or no Hill at all, then I will probably stick with Sky Sports F1.

Of course, there’s also an interesting point about location, with space tight, will both BBC and Sky be located on a boat somewhere, or will Sky go for a ‘high up’ studio like ITV did in their latter days? We shall see.

Comments, as always, welcome.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 29th April, 2012)

From BARB, a day later than usual due to the Bank Holiday:

1 – 74k – The F1 Show (Friday, 20:00)
2 – 28k – Fast Track (Tuesday, 21:01)
3 – 23k – 2002 Season Review: Part 4 (Sunday, 21:00)
4 – 16k – Live IndyCar Series (Sunday, 16:00)
5 – 15k – 2002 Season Review: Part 1 (Thursday, 21:00)
6 – 14k – The F1 Show (Friday, 22:10)
7 – 12k – 2002 Season Review: Part 2 (Saturday, 21:00)
8 – 12k – F1 Legends (Sunday, 19:00)
9 – 12k – Bahrain Grand Prix Highlights (Monday, 16:31)
10 – 11k – The F1 Show (Sunday, 19:30)

The 20th April edition of The F1 Show had the highest individual rating since the Australian Grand Prix edition, so a good rating for that. Below that, everything is under 30 thousand viewers. Disappointing for the Live IndyCars, albeit it was moved at late notice, so it is not as bad as what it seems.

No GP2 in there though for it’s standalone weekend at Bahrain, all under 11 thousand viewers. One thing I noticed in the Spanish Grand Prix adverts was how they were promoting the whole weekend, but they failed to even note GP2 or GP3. It’s no wonder they are doing poor if they fail to promote them in adverts.

Sky Sports confirm Indy 500 scheduling

During today’s IndyCars race programme on Sky Sports F1, it was confirmed that that Indianapolis 500 race on Sunday 27th May will air at 16:30 live on Sky Sports 4. What’s interesting here, though, is that on the same day is the Monaco Grand Prix, from 11:30 to 16:30 live on Sky Sports F1.

For a race billed as “the greatest motor racing spectacle”, why is it on Sky Sports 4? Secondly, it would make far more sense to put it on Sky Sports F1 given the core Indy 500 audience would already be watching that channel. I imagine that 99 percent of the IndyCar Series viewers in the UK also watch Formula 1. So putting the Indy 500 race on the same channel as the Monaco Grand Prix surely would be a logical decision? It seems someone on the Sky Sports hierarchy disagrees…

Scheduling: Sky Sports not broadcasting this weekend’s IndyCars live [UPDATED]

This weekend’s IndyCar Series race meeting from Sao Paolo will not air live on Sky Sports. The race, which is due to start on Sunday (29th April) at 16:45, is going to be shown on tape-delay on Sky Sports 4 at 17:30. That is despite the race being advertised as airing live.

Looking at the other Sky Sports channels, there is live action on until 17:00, so the decision is somewhat understandable though. What is not understandable, though, is the insistence not to show it on Sky Sports F1. As Sky will well know, the only live action on Sky Sports F1 this weekend is the GP2 Series standalone event from Bahrain. You may remember that Sky Sports F1 broadcasted the latter stages of the first race of the season live on their channel, in similar circumstances.

Sky Sports F1 at the time is broadcasting a repeat of The F1 Show, which coincidentally is also airing at 16:30. The decision not to show IndyCars on the channel this weekend seems bizarre and nonsensical to me when they have done so in the past. In my opinion, live broadcasting always trumps repeats. Why Sky couldn’t do this:

11:30 – Bahrain Grand Prix (R)
16:30 – Live IndyCar Series
19:00 – GP2 Series: Round 3, Race 1 (R)
20:30 – Legends
21:00 – as normal

Instead, I don’t know. Would seem logical to me instead of throwing IndyCars around the schedule. Repeats on non-F1 weekends don’t do well as it is, according to BARB the highest rated programme on Saturday 31st March was a Legends programme with 21,000 viewers, while the highest rated programme on Sunday 1st April was the 1998 Season Review with 17,000 viewers. The following weekend, the Saturday figures did better, with Australian Grand Prix highlights getting 31,000 viewers, but on Sunday 8th April the highest programme had 8,000 viewers.

I think IndyCars would get higher figures than that. As a whole, I find it disappointing that Sky are seemingly choosing to screen recorded content over live content on the F1 channel when they have a clear opportunity to show IndyCars on that channel on Sunday.

Edit: According to Keith Huewen on Twitter, the organisers changed the schedule from what the originally had it as. It shall be interested to see if it remains a one-hour tape-delay or if Sky move it to Sky Sports F1, or (the more likely solution) put the first hour of the race behind the Red Button, although Huewen also notes that this is not a popular option.

Updated edit at 16:00: Keith Huewen has confirmed on his Twitter that the IndyCar Series race from Brazil this Sunday will be live on Sky Sports F1 at 16:30. Good to see common sense prevailing.