Scheduling: The 2015 Japanese Grand Prix

From Singapore, the ten teams and twenty drivers head to Suzuka as the F1 paddock wonders whether Mercedes lack of pace from Singapore is a one off, or a new trend. Due to the events that occurred last year, the Japanese Grand Prix start time was moved forward one hour, with the race now starting at 14:00 local time, eight hours ahead of the UK, meaning the race begins at 06:00 UK time.

There is a bit of unusual scheduling from the BBC this year, who are covering the weekend live. The race show on BBC One is a mammoth four hours long, which I believe is the longest that they have ever billed it as. As a result of the extended BBC One show, there is no formal F1 Forum. I believe it is only the second time since Formula 1 returned to the BBC that a post-race forum has not happened after a live race (the first being Canada 2011 due to the red flag period). In a way you could say it is disappointing, but I imagine the last hour to 45 minutes on BBC One will be like a forum, without it being called a forum. Edit – Suzi Perry on Twitter calls it a Forum.

Saying the above, early indications are that the race weekend could be affected by a Tropical Storm similar to 2014. Obviously if the schedule changes, I will update this piece and/or republish this post elsewhere. The return of the Formula 1 fly-away races means that we get Formula 1 and MotoGP on the same day, and without a clash. It looks like BT’s coverage may be studio based again due to the majority of their team working on the Rugby World Cup – it certainly is that way for MotoGP’s fly-away rounds, but I’m unclear as to whether that applies for Aragon as well.

BBC F1
BBC TV – Sessions
25/09 – 01:55 to 03:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Two)
25/09 – 05:55 to 07:45 – Practice 2 (BBC Two)
26/09 – 03:55 to 05:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Two)
26/09 – 06:00 to 08:30 – Qualifying (BBC One)
26/09 – 13:00 to 14:30 – Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
27/09 – 05:00 to 09:00 – Race (BBC One)
=> 05:00 – Race
=> 08:00 – Forum
27/09 – 13:15 to 15:15 – Race Replay (BBC One)

BBC Radio – Sessions
25/09 – 01:55 to 03:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
25/09 – 05:55 to 07:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
26/09 – 03:55 to 05:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
26/09 – 06:55 to 08:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
27/09 – 05:30 to 08:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Supplementary Programming
25/09 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
26/09 – 08:30 to 09:30 – F1 Rewind: Rivalries (BBC Two)
26/09 – 19:45 to 20:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
25/09 – 01:45 to 03:50 – Practice 1
25/09 – 05:45 to 08:00 – Practice 2
25/09 – 03:45 to 05:15 – Practice 3
26/09 – 06:00 to 08:45 – Qualifying (also Sky Sports 1)
27/09 – 04:30 to 09:15 – Race (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 04:30 – Track Parade
=> 05:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 05:30 – Race
=> 08:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
24/09 – 07:00 to 07:30 – Driver Press Conference
24/09 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Japan
25/09 – 08:00 to 08:45 – Team Press Conference
25/09 – 10:00 to 11:00 – The F1 Show
30/09 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

British Touring Car Championship – Silverstone (ITV4)
27/09 – 10:00 to 18:30 – Races

MotoGP – Aragon (BT Sport 2)
25/09 – 08:00 to 15:00
=> 08:00 – Practice 1
=> 10:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 12:00 – Practice 2
26/09 – 08:00 to 15:15
=> 08:00 – Practice 3
=> 11:00 – Qualifying
27/09 – 07:30 to 09:15 – Warm Up
27/09 – 09:30 to 15:00
=> 09:30 – Races
=> 14:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Aragon (ITV4)
28/09 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

If anything changes, I will update the schedule above.

Update on September 22nd – I’ve received confirmation that there is no F1 Forum on the Red Button across the weekend, so I have updated the description and schedule to reflect that.

ITV retain Formula E rights

ITV will screen the second season of the FIA Formula E Championship, it has been confirmed.

As with the first season, every race will air live on ITV4, with the season ending London ePrix airing on ITV. In addition, ITV’s main channel will air a highlights programme after every ePrix, presumably on Saturday or Sunday evenings after peak. The deal appears to be a one-year extension, rather than a multi-year deal.

Ali Russell, Director of Media and Strategic Partnerships at Formula E, said: “It’s fantastic news that we are extending our partnership with ITV. The interest and following of Formula E in the UK has been overwhelming, which was evident at the final two rounds in London. We look forward to continue to build Formula E together over the course of the season.” Niall Sloane, Director of Sport at ITV, said: “We are delighted to renew our Formula E deal for next year. The sport is building significantly on a thrilling first year and we look forward to bringing this fresh, innovative and futuristic series to our viewers on ITV and ITV4.”

As of writing, there is no word on who will be presenting the programming, although it assumed that Jennie Gow will be returning to the role with Andy Jaye filling in where necessary. The final round of Formula E’s first season, which saw Nelson Piquet Jnr win the championship, peaked with 1.2 million viewers. It goes without saying that this is fantastic news, but also important for Formula E to grow further in the UK. Season 1 (excluding the London finale) averaged 168k (2.2%), peaking with 285k (3.4%), so hopefully season two’s numbers grow on the base already established.

I’m hopeful that the highlights programming may be strategically placed depending on the race is, for example it may be better to show Beijing and Putrajaya in an earlier slot potentially on Saturday afternoon or early evening, if the contract allows that. From ITV’s side, I hope the advertising is better as it seemed to completely disappear after the first round or two, never reappearing until London.

Mercedes inquiry boosts Sky’s post-race show

The 2015 Italian Grand Prix may not go down as the greatest race ever, but what happened after the race helped boost Sky Sports F1’s post-race show, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Live coverage of the race, broadcast on Sky Sports F1 from 12:00 to 15:30, averaged 657k (8.5%) with a peak audience of 1.09m (13.5%) coming at 14:15 as Lewis Hamilton claimed victory. Sky’s exclusive numbers are only up 7.5 percent versus 2014’s shared average of 611k (6.0%). Italy is one race where you expect lower numbers, simply because the race is not as long as the likes of Singapore and Monaco, meaning that there is more post-race analysis to fill.

Typically on a day like yesterday you would expect the audience to drift away to below 150k. However, the Mercedes enquiry meant that a specially extended Paddock Live from 15:30 to 17:05 averaged 256k (2.7%), one of the biggest post-race numbers of the season so far. The audience never dropped below 230k until the end of the programme, which clearly shows that there was demand for Sky to stay on air and capture the verdict live. There was very little drop off, 255k (2.4%) were watching Sky’s post-race show when the stewards decision came in at 16:45. I made the point on Twitter that this is exactly what Sky Sports F1 should be doing, and it is fantastic to see the viewing figures support that assertion. You almost need events like that to happen to justify the existence of the F1 channel, if the F1 was on another Sky Sports channel, they would have no doubt gone off air to cover the next sporting event in the schedules.

As for the race itself, I don’t like saying a race is “made for highlights”, but from the BBC’s perspective, Italy is exactly that (although they have, to my surprise, covered 2013 and 2014 live). BBC’s highlights programme averaged 3.23m (23.7%), in-line with their other highlights programming this year, so no surprises there. To prove the “made for highlights” point, the combined average of 3.88m is the highest for Italy since 2012 which averaged 4.37m, albeit the highlights were in a later slot. The viewing figures continue a run of good or solid numbers for Formula 1, however tricky waters lie ahead with the Rugby World Cup on ITV. BBC’s highlights from Singapore will clash with matches in two weeks time, but apart from that the F1 should escape relatively unscathed.

BTCC hurt by F1
Clashing with the F1 hurt the British Touring Car Championship on ITV4. On air from 10:45 to 17:45, the programme averaged 134k (1.6%). The programme average over seven hours may not tell too much, but the peak of 290k (2.8%) at 16:45 is lower than you would expect from a championship which regularly peaks with over 400k. With the World Series by Renault (BT Sport 2), ELMS (Motors TV), Blancpain GT (BT Sport Europe) and British Superbikes (British Eurosport) also airing live yesterday, it is easy to see how small the audience gets fragmented when the F1 is being broadcast.

The 2014 Italian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

Scheduling: The 2015 Italian Grand Prix

The last race of the European season comes from Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. It marks the first BBC highlights race since Austria, nearly three months ago thanks to the absence of the German Grand Prix.

As in Belgium, Sky are not simulcasting their shows on any other Sky Sports channel. I think it is fair to assume, for the moment, that the simulcasts we saw in June and July was just a Summer thing rather than anything more, but we will see if anything more turns up in the schedules as we head into the Asian and American races.

The usual schedule details are below. I’ve not included Sky’s classic races, as there are no new races to the channel in the schedule, whilst I think we are safe in saying that the F1 Legends strand of programming is not returning to the channel this year sadly. I have, however, included the World Series by Renault from Silverstone which BT Sport are giving extensive live coverage to this weekend. Abi Griffiths and Gemma Scott will be presenting the coverage, with Keith Collantine, Johnny Mowlem and Oliver Webb alongside them.

BBC F1
BBC One
05/09 – 17:00 to 18:10 – Qualifying Highlights
06/09 – 17:05 to 18:35 – Race Highlights

BBC News Channel
04/09 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1
05/09 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1

BBC Radio
04/09 – 08:55 to 10:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
04/09 – 12:55 to 14:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
05/09 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live)
06/09 – 12:30 to 15:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
04/09 – 08:45 to 11:00 – Practice 1
04/09 – 12:45 to 15:00 – Practice 2
05/09 – 09:45 to 11:15 – Practice 3
05/09 – 12:00 to 14:35 – Qualifying
06/09 – 11:30 to 16:15 – Race
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 12:30 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
03/09 – 14:00 to 14:30 – Driver Press Conference
03/09 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Italy
04/09 – 16:00 to 16:45 – Team Press Conference
04/09 – 17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show
09/09 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

GP2 Series – Italy (Sky Sports F1)
04/09 – 11:00 to 11:50 – Practice
04/09 – 14:50 to 15:30 – Qualifying
05/09 – 14:35 to 16:05 – Race 1
06/09 – 09:30 to 10:45 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Italy (Sky Sports F1)
05/09 – 08:45 to 09:20 – Qualifying
05/09 – 16:10 to 17:10 – Race 1
06/09 – 08:20 to 09:20 – Race 2

British Touring Car Championship – Rockingham (ITV4)
06/09 – 10:45 to 17:45 – Races

World Series by Renault – Silverstone
05/09 – 11:00 to 18:15 – Races (BT Sport 2)
06/09 – 11:00 to 16:15 – Races (BT Sport 1)

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

Poll: Will ITV broadcast season two of Formula E live?

Formula E testing from Donington Park has come and gone. Now, the long journey begins for the 40 cars to head to Beijing in time for the 2015-16 season opener on Saturday 17th October.

On the track, many questions remain about the pecking order, and these questions will not be answered until the first qualifying session of the season has finished. Off the track however, one question remains for UK readers. Who will be broadcasting season two of Formula E? As of writing, nothing has been officially confirmed. The most likely outcome is that ITV will continue to screen live coverage. Mentions of Formula E remain in ITV Sport’s Twitter bio, whilst ITV’s Formula E website has been giving testing updates over the past few weeks, although there was no ITV presence at Donington. So, why has there been no official announcement? I think there are three main reasons.

The first potentially contentious point surrounds whether a London ePrix will take place next June. As noted previously, the London ePrix weekend is taken up by the British Grand Prix. AUTOSPORT says that an early July slot is likely, but that’s yet to be made official. Were the London ePrix to be dropped, then this makes Formula E less attractive to UK broadcasters, given that the big season finale would instantly disappear from their radar. A peak audience of 1.2 million viewers watched the season finale on ITV’s main channel, a point Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag emphasises in his AUTOSPORT interview.

The second stumbling block is money. In order to get Formula E on free-to-air television for its inaugural season, I imagine ITV paid peanuts to broadcast it. It was an unknown entity, nobody knew what was going to happen. Now that we’re heading into season two, it is not unreasonable to expect that Formula E may well want a few more pounds off ITV in order to broadcast the series. If the figure ITV wants to pay and the figure Formula E thinks it should get are not in the same ballpark, that could be the source of some contention. Okay, this is mostly conjecture, but new motor sport series live and die off money, whether we like it or not. An extra million off ITV could be vital for Formula E’s health in the long term, however the investment off Liberty Global and Discovery Communications is believed to help Formula E enormously.

The third issue is pay-TV. I doubt Sky Sports would be interested, they have Formula 1, GP2 and GP3 for single-seater action. Formula E would add nicely to BT Sport’s portfolio, bearing in mind that the channel did show delayed highlights last season. However, the biggest link for me is between Formula E and British Eurosport. Eurosport are owned by Discovery Communications who, as mentioned above, have a minority investment in Formula E. I think, this early in its life cycle, it would be an absurd move to put Formula E live on pay-TV, and it would go smack in the face of Formula E’s ethos to be accessible to the public. I don’t think ITV4’s numbers for Formula E were big enough to attract major pay-TV interest, that could change though in the future if Formula E stayed on ITV to an increased number of viewers.

As of August 6th, an ITV spokesperson told this blog that the 2015/16 broadcast rights were still “to be decided.” In reality, I would be surprised if an agreement is not announced between ITV and Formula E soon. Last year’s deal was announced in March. But until that time comes, there is always a chance that another broadcaster could swoop exclusive live rights to Formula E.

Update on September 8th – No news to report publicly. Provisional schedules for the week commencing Saturday 17th October are released on Thursday 1st October. We should hear something before then, I’d be really surprised if we don’t.

Update on September 9th – Looks like we have an extra week to play with now that Beijing is on Saturday 24th October.