Scheduling: The 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix

The 2014-15 Formula E season continues through South America, stopping in Argentina for the Buenos Aires ePrix!

The race marks race four of the nine round season, the unofficial halfway stage of the season. I say unofficial as, following this race, the championship goes on a two month break, returning in March from Miami on the same weekend as the Australian F1 Grand Prix. The reason for the large gap is because the round in Rio, scheduled originally for early February, failed to materialise. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt as this is season one, but the calendar has to be paced better for season two. Eleven or twelve races, with two or three week gaps, would be better for the 2015-16 season.

On location is the usual team of Nicki Shields, Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti, with Jennie Gow in the ITV Sport studio alongside guests to be confirmed as of writing. If one of your New Year resolutions was to watch a Formula E race, then you’ll be happy to learn that ITV4’s coverage has no adverts during the race itself, so you don’t miss a thing. There are plenty of adverts during the pre and post-race coverage, but this is a good compromise in my opinion.

Formula E – Buenos Aires (online via FIAFormulaE.com)
10/01 – 13:25 to 14:10 – Practice 2
10/01 – 14:45 to 16:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Buenos Aires (ITV4)
10/01 – 18:00 to 20:30 – Race
11/01 – 11:00 to 12:00 – Highlights

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

Scheduling: The 2014 Punta del Este ePrix

The cold winter days are upon us, which means that the motor sport season is over. Well, not quite. With Formula E running through the winter, your motor sport fix is actually never far away!

Round 3 of the series takes place in Uruguay and ITV4 has full live coverage again. Jennie Gow presents the show alongside Alex Brundle and Mark Priestley in the studio. Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti will be on location commentating, with Nicki Shields down in pit lane. No coverage of qualifying on ITV4, but the action will be streamed on Formula E’s website, details are listed below.

As well as Formula E, there is the annual Race of Champions event, which airs live on Motors TV. Frustratingly, the Nations Cup portion clashes with Formula E, however Motors TV is repeating the running in full on Sunday afternoon so this is not too much of an issue.

Formula E – Punta del Este (online via FIAFormulaE.com)
13/12 – 12:30 to 13:00 – Practice 2
13/12 – 14:00 to 14:55 – Qualifying

Formula E – Punta del Este (ITV4)
13/12 – 17:00 to 19:30 – Race
14/12 – 09:30 to 10:30 – Highlights

Race of Champions (Motors TV)
13/12 – 16:00 to 19:05 – Nations Cup
14/12 – 12:55 to 16:00 – Nations Cup (R)
14/12 – 16:00 to 19:05 – Race of Champions

As always, I’ll update the above if anything is added or changed.

Update on December 13th – As per this tweet from Jack Nicholls, practice one is not broadcast online. Apologies.

Scheduling: The 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

After 18 races, the Formula 1 championship battle comes down to the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi! In any of the previous seasons, that statement may be somewhat surprising, but given the double points scenario this year, it is not too much of a surprise to see the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg go down to the wire.

With no broadcasting announcements yet for 2015, it remains to be seen whether Abu Dhabi will be the last race for anyone on the BBC and Sky Sports teams. What we do know is that Natalie Pinkham will not be at any of the early 2015 races, but as of writing, we don’t know who will be filling her position. I suspect it will be Rachel Brookes, but that hasn’t been confirmed officially. Sadly though, Abu Dhabi will be the last race for Will Buxton as lead GP2 and GP3 commentator. The change will allow Buxton to focus solely on Formula 1 for NBC Sports, even so, he will be missed by those viewers who listen to his passionate commentary.

One person who will have an unusually busy weekend is Jennie Gow. Thanks to Formula 1 and Formula E clashing, Gow is flying to Abu Dhabi as usual mid-week, flying back to the UK after her F1 practice commitments with the BBC on Friday. Gow then heads to ITV’s London Studios to present Formula E live in the early hours of Saturday mornings, and is straight back on another plane to Abu Dhabi to cover the Formula 1 race live for BBC Radio 5 Live! For Formula E, Gow will be joined in the ITV studio by Alex Brundle and Mark Priestley.

I’ve changed the usual format to see if there are ways that the information can be presented better, I may stick to the below for 2015 instead of having one long list. It also allows me to cover different series instead of using abbreviations throughout. I notice Sky are continuing Classic F1 races throughout December, so I have omitted that as well from the below. But, for the last time in 2014, here is the full UK Formula 1 schedule with all the details you need:

Formula 1 – Sessions (BBC TV)
21/11 – 08:55 to 10:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Two)
21/11 – 13:00 to 14:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Two)
22/11 – 09:55 to 11:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Two)
22/11 – 12:10 to 14:15 – Qualifying (BBC One)
23/11 – 12:10 to 15:30 – Race (BBC One)

Formula 1 – Sessions (BBC Radio)
21/11 – 08:55 to 10:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
21/11 – 12:55 to 14:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
22/11 – 09:55 to 11:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
22/11 – 13:00 to 14:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live)
23/11 – 12:45 to 15:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Formula 1 – Sessions (Sky Sports)
21/11 – 08:45 to 11:10 – Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
21/11 – 12:45 to 15:05 – Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
22/11 – 09:45 to 11:15 – Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
22/11 – 11:15 to 14:35 – Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
22/11 – 12:00 to 14:35 – Qualifying (Sky1)
22/11 – 13:00 to 15:35 – Qualifying (Sky1 +1)
23/11 – 11:30 to 16:15 – Race (Sky Sports F1)
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live

Formula 1 – Supplementary Programming
20/11 – 11:00 to 11:45 – Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
20/11 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
20/11 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Gear Up for Abu Dhabi (Sky Sports F1)
21/11 – 16:00 to 16:45 – Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
21/11 – 17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
21/11 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
22/11 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
23/11 – 15:30 to 16:30 – Forum (BBC Red Button)
23/11 – 16:15 to 17:15 – Architects of F1: John Barnard (Sky Sports F1)
26/11 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

GP2 Series (Sky Sports F1)
21/11 – 07:15 to 08:05 – Practice
21/11 – 15:05 to 15:45 – Qualifying
22/11 – 14:35 to 16:05 – Race 1
23/11 – 10:15 to 11:30 – Race 2

GP3 Series (Sky Sports F1)
21/11 – 11:10 to 11:45 – Qualifying
22/11 – 08:00 to 09:00 – Race 1
23/11 – 08:55 to 09:55 – Race 2

Formula E – Putrajaya (ITV4)
22/11 – 05:00 to 07:30 – Race
22/11 – 18:00 to 19:00 – Highlights

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

Update on November 18th at 16:10 – Sky are staying live on Saturday from 09:45 all the way through to 16:05, as their qualifying build-up has been extended to a mammoth 105 minutes.

News round-up: Buxton ending GP2 and GP3 commitments; MotoGP numbers

In between the lull of the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix, there have been some interesting bits of news worth reporting in one post.

Buxton says “a very warm goodbye”
The biggest piece of news is that the Abu Dhabi weekend will be the last for Will Buxton as lead commentator of the GP2 and GP3 Series. Writing on his blog, Buxton said “My work in America has increased over the years to the point where I feel I am no longer able to divide my time effectively between three championships. By concentrating solely on Formula 1, I hope that I will be able to improve the quality of the content I bring to the burgeoning American audience, and help to grow the sport Stateside”. I’ve sampled a bit of ‘Off the Grid’ (a 30-minute show for NBC Sports) with Buxton and Jason Swales, and it is safe to say that the American audience is incredibly lucky to have two talented and dedicated people producing content for them.

I will miss hearing Will commentate on GP2. Not many people come across as passionate and articulate on the microphone, but he is always willing to give his opinion, which I think viewers appreciate. As for his replacement, Jack Nicholls and Ben Evans are surely two contenders high on the list. Nicholls is currently lead commentator on the Formula E World Feed, whilst Evans has been commentating on a lot of things for BT Sport alongside Keith Collantine. I guess we could always see someone like David Croft or Ben Edwards hoisted into the seat, but it depends whether FOM want to breed new talent or rely on a veteran figure such as those mentioned.

I’m a former MotoGP presenter
…Get Me Out of Here? Apparently so. Former MotoGP presenter for BT Sport, Melanie Sykes, is heading into the jungle. Sykes is not the only motor cycling alumni heading down under though, as Carl Fogarty is joining her on the ITV show. I didn’t mention this at the time, but Sykes did very briefly mention leaving BT’s MotoGP coverage on her Twitter feed at the end of August, albeit did not go into any further detail. Let’s see if her time in the jungle lasts longer than her time as MotoGP presenter…

MotoGP season ends with 669k
The 2014 MotoGP season ended with a combined peak audience of 669k, unofficial overnight viewing figures reveal. It was a tale of two halves however, as ITV4 figures were up compared to usual, and BT Sport ended the season on a low. The respective peaks were 518k (2.3%) for ITV4’s highlights programme and 151k (1.5%) at 13:45 for BT Sport’s live coverage from Sunday afternoon. ITV4’s highlights on Monday evening seen a boost compared to recent numbers, averaging 407k (1.8%).

No such boost for BT Sport’s coverage, which averaged 71k (0.7%) to 09:30 to 14:30. From 12:30 to 14:00, the channel averaged 110k (1.1%). Both of those numbers are poor, and I believe that is actually their lowest overnight figures for a European round of the entire season. BT’s audiences have not grown throughout the year, although they haven’t been helped by having a championship that was decided many months ago. Last year’s championship finale averaged 1.21m (11.9%) over on BBC Two. Unusually, the MotoGP finale was held on the same weekend as an F1 race, which could well have had a side-effect even though there was no direct clash.

ITV were non-committal when this blog asked about MotoGP highlights for next season. When the highlights deal was announced earlier this year, no details were released about how long the contract was for. I hope it will be multiple seasons, but we shall see. Personally, it would be a catastrophic mistake from Dorna to ignore its free to air audience. I don’t see any evidence that axing ITV4’s highlights programme would increase BT Sport’s MotoGP audience, either.

BTCC is best of the rest on Sunday

Away from the Formula 1 last Sunday, which peaked with 5.55m (46.3%), there was a lot of motor sport action on Sunday, albeit most of it occurred in the early hours. Nevertheless, as expected, the figures are once again a reminder that, in the UK at least, the F1 stands head and shoulders above anything else. And sadly, where BTCC and MotoGP are concerned, viewers appear to be tuning out…

The factors associated with both though are different. The British Touring Car Championship finale aired on ITV4 across a whopping eight hours, from 10:15 to 18:30. The entire programme averaged 186k (1.6%) according to overnight viewing figures, peaking with 360k (3.6%) at 15:00 at the conclusion of race two. The first of three races peaked with 99k (1.1%) at 11:40, whilst the final race peaked with 357k (2.0%) at 17:45, the huge difference in number can be put down to the fact that race one clashed with the build-up and early laps of the Russian Grand Prix, clearly taking a bite out of the audience.

I haven’t looked at all the numbers in detail, but there does appear to have been a fairly big fall in comparison to 2012 and 2013. Last year’s season finale averaged 328k (2.6%), peaking with 697k (3.8%) for the final race of the day, although that was with no F1 clash. Even so, that doesn’t account for the peak figure, outside of the F1 timeslot, dropping by almost half. I’m not sure why the figures have dropped year-on-year, but something has changed to make people turn off.

Meanwhile, over in Motegi, BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage peaked with 108k (10.1%) at 06:05. Their live programme from 02:45 to 07:15 averaged 42k (3.8%), with the MotoGP portion from 05:30 averaging 74k (6.4%). As always at this point, it is worth me pointing out that the figures include anyone who timeshifted that programme before 02:00 on Monday morning, it does not mean that 108k were up watching MotoGP at 06:05 in the morning, it just means that an average of 108k watched that five-minute ‘segment’ before 02:00 on Monday, which is the cut off for overnight ratings. BT’s repeat averaged 34k (0.3%) from 12:00 to 13:30, peaking with 79k (0.7%). ITV4’s highlights programme on Monday evening brought 283k (1.3%), which I believe is their lowest MotoGP rating of the year so far.

What that means is that the MotoGP year-on-year comparisons with the BBC are worse than usual. 204k (18.4%) watched BBC Two’s live airing last year, with 900k (8.1%) catching the repeat. A combined audience of 1.10m last year compares with about 391k for this year, which is a 64 percent drop. BBC’s peak was 1.33m, with 281k (24.1%) for the live airing and 1.05m (9.2%) for the re-run. The ITV4 rating surprises me the most, given that Motegi was the title winning race for Marc Marquez, I would have expected that to pick up one or two casual viewers, but clearly that wasn’t the case.

The weekend also seen both the Bathurst 1000 and the latest round of the World Touring Car Championship take place, again in the early morning. The latter peaked with 29k (0.4%), whilst the Bathurst 1000 peaked with under 20,000 viewers.