Scheduling: The Formula E debut / 2014 Beijing ePrix

After two years build-up, five days of testing, a mock race and many months of speculation, Formula E has arrived! The electric series begins its first season in China for the 2014 Beijing ePrix. Unusually, the series will have all of its race activity in a one day period, and on a Saturday. Practice will begin at 08:15 and 10:30 local time, qualifying at 12:00, with the race at 16:00. For the first race at least, ITV will only be broadcasting the race live, although I imagine this is the case worldwide. In the UK, qualifying is at 05:00, so it makes little sense to broadcast it live.

Instead, highlights of practice and qualifying will be part of the pre-race build-up presented by Jennie Gow. Gow, who seems to get just about everywhere in the motor sport world, will be presenting the show from London with a series of experts – for Beijing that will be gamer turned racer Jann Mardenborough and engineer Kyle Wilson-Clarke. If demand is good, and I really hope the peak is near to one million viewers on ITV4, then maybe we could see qualifying broadcast live for say Uruguay in December when the timezone is much more favourable. I hope advertising for the series picks up on ITV as we build towards the race with adverts during their big shows. The World Feed commentators, which UK viewers will hear, are Jack Nicholls and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti. Nicki Shields is the World Feed pit-lane reporter and presenter of the World Feed, but I don’t think ITV watchers will see her in action for the latter. Former McLaren F1 mechanic Mark Priestley will be joining Shields out in Beijing.

There are several programmes before the opening weekend, notably a documentary covering the birth of the series on National Geographic, a preview of which is linked above. Both that, and the season preview on ITV4 are repeated multiple times over the week. From a broadcasting stand-point, it will be fascinating to see how the series is presented. From camera angles to pit lane and onto the soundtrack. The point about camera angles has not been talked about that much, but given that Formula E is limited to 150mph, the camera positions need to be strategic enough to capture this speed. This is one reason why Formula E is street circuit based, so that the lack of speed is not as obvious. Who knows how the soundtrack will really come across to viewers should they go down that route for definite. There’s a sense of intrigue that comes with it, for better for worse, I am excited to see how it goes down.

One thing is for certain: on Saturday 13th September, the eyes of the motor racing world will be on Beijing. And here, for the UK folk, are all the scheduling details you need…

Thursday 4th September
17:30 to 18:00 – Blue Peter (CBBC)
– a feature involving Formula E will air

Saturday 6th September
18:00 to 19:00 – Season Preview (ITV4)

Tuesday 9th September
17:00 to 18:00 – Racing Recharged (National Geographic)

Saturday 13th September
08:00 to 10:30 – LIVE Race (ITV4)
18:00 to 19:00 – Highlights (ITV4)
22:00 to 23:00 – Highlights (BT Sport 2)

Given that this is the inaugural race, I would expect there to be a few media appearances through the next week and a half building up to Beijing. I’ll try and keep the above updated as and when features are announced.

Scheduling: The 2014 Italian Grand Prix

Following the last round in Belgium, which seen Daniel Ricciardo close in on both Mercedes drivers at the front of the field thanks to their own coming together, the field heads to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix!

If you want to jump to the schedules, click the links below…

– Thursday 4th September
– Friday 5th September
– Saturday 6th September
– Sunday 7th September
– Wednesday 10th September
– Classic F1

Both BBC and Sky Sports are live weekend, meaning that it is the usual schedule for both, and not too many surprises worth pointing out. There is an oddity in the Sky schedule which claims that practice one is getting half an hour of build-up, which (outside of Australia) never happens so that should change, which is why I’ve deliberately used the normal programme time in the piece below. One scheduling note that is accurate is BBC giving practice three half an hour of reaction. It’s good to see that happen, and bridges some of the gap between practice three and qualifying shows.

Elsewhere, the second episode of Tales from the Vault is on immediately after the race on Sunday, focussing on underdogs, with Damon Hill, John Watson and Pat Symonds as guests. There currently is not a third episode scheduled for after Singapore, as only two episodes have been filmed so far. I’d expect further episodes to turn up later in the year, or more realistically 2015 sadly given that there is a lot more travel and time involved in the last haul of races. Here are all the details you need:

Thursday 4th September
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
23:30 to 23:45 – Gear Up for Italy (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 5th September
08:45 to 11:00 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
11:00 to 11:50 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
13:00 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Two)
14:50 to 15:30 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:00 to 16:45 – 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)

Saturday 6th September
08:45 to 09:20 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:25 to 09:45 – The F1 Show: Journalists Special (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:15 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
09:55 to 11:30 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky1)
12:10 to 14:30 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
13:00 to 15:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky1 + 1)
14:35 to 16:05 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:15 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 7th September
08:20 to 09:20 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:45 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
10:45 to 17:45 – BTCC: Rockingham (ITV4)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live
12:10 to 15:30 – F1: Race (BBC One)
15:30 to 16:30 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
16:15 to 17:15 – Tales from the Vault (Sky Sports F1)

Wednesday 10th September
20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

Classic F1 on Sky Sports F1
30/08 – 21:00 to 22:00 – 1991 Canadian Grand Prix Highlights
31/08 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1993 Monaco Grand Prix Highlights
01/09 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1994 British Grand Prix Highlights
02/09 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1986 Australian Grand Prix Highlights
03/09 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2008 Italian Grand Prix
04/09 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 1989 Italian Grand Prix
05/09 – 18:00 to 20:00 – 2010 Italian Grand Prix
06/09 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1993 Italian Grand Prix Highlights
07/09 – 17:15 to 18:00 – 1995 Italian Grand Prix Highlights
07/09 – 20:30 to 21:30 – 1973 Season Review
08/09 – 21:00 to 21:30 – 1981 Spanish Grand Prix Highlights
09/09 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix Highlights
10/09 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix
11/09 – 21:00 to 22:00 – 1986 Spanish Grand Prix Highlights
12/09 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 1999 Austrian Grand Prix

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

Update on August 30th – Sky’s coverage of qualifying is being simulcast on Sky1. Whilst good, I don’t understand why they are doing this for a race where BBC are also live. Seems a bit of a waste to me.

Update on August 30th at 18:30 – So an advert during Saturday Night Football concerning the F1 shows that Sky’s coverage does indeed start Friday ‘at 08:30’. I’m not sure why that is, and for what it’s worth, that hasn’t been amended in the last week since Belgium, it has always been the case.

Update on September 2nd – Sky schedule for the Friday now the usual-selves so nothing to see here.

Update on September 6th – A late edition to the schedule’s for today, and repeated multiple times is the addition of an F1 Show Journalists Special, at twenty minutes long focussing on the Mercedes drama from Spa.

Jennie Gow to present ITV’s Formula E coverage

Jennie Gow is to present ITV’s coverage of the FIA Formula E Championship, it has been confirmed. The news also confirms that ITV will be adding their own pre and post race analysis to the World Feed coverage of the championship.

A post on Digital Spy Forums noted that ITV4 would be on air for Beijing, round one of championship on September 13th, from 08:00 to 10:30 with an hour of build up, which is a throwback to their Formula 1 coverage. Given that the World Feed coverage is only 90 minutes long, it appears that ITV will be having its own presentation team. I would expect them to take the World Feed commentary, however.

The next question then is whether Gow and the ITV Sport team is on site, I would expect it to be in London, but time will tell. I have to say that this is an interesting, surprising, but however a very pleasing development and shows ITV’s commitment to the series. I’m happy to see Gow get the role as well, much deserved in my opinion. Expert pundits are to be confirmed.

Speaking to ITV’s press office, Gow said: “I’m delighted and very proud to have been asked to lead ITV4’s coverage of Formula E – I’m a massive motorsport fan and I’m really excited about this brand new series. It’s great to be involved in a new chapter of motorsport history from the very beginning, and I can’t wait for the season to begin.”

Niall Sloane, ITV’s Director of Sport said: “It’s great news that Jennie has joined ITV4’s coverage of this innovative new series – which promises top-level racing with the iconic backdrops of some of the world’s most famous cities. The coverage of this series adds to the strength of ITV4’s motorsport portfolio.”

Gow will continue her Formula 1 commitments for BBC Radio 5 Live.

Scheduling: The 2014 Belgian Grand Prix

The battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg heads into the second half of the season as the Formula 1 teams and drivers reconvene in Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix! With eleven points separating the two, it is pretty much a guarantee that the title battle will, barring a miracle, go down to the wire at the last race of the season, the controversial ‘double points’ round in Abu Dhabi. For those wishing to jump to the scheduling, click the links below…

– Thursday 21st August
– Friday 22nd August
– Saturday 23rd August
– Sunday 24th August
– Wednesday 27th August
– Classic F1

On the broadcasting front, the situation is interesting in the championship run-in. Sky have only three exclusive races left this year, compared with BBC’s five live races. One of the BBC’s five live races is Russia. In the unlikely event that Formula 1 chooses to avoid the situation in Russia and removes it from the calendar, it poses an interesting question of whether BBC could ‘claim’ another live race in the championship run in, because the removal of Russia would leave BBC with eight live races and ten highlight races across the entire season, obviously that is not a 50/50 split. I’ll follow that line in the run up to Russia if it is axed, it would be interesting to see what the contract stipulates (there is the more serious point as to whether BBC and Sky choose to send their teams to Russia, but that is a separate subject and one that will probably be monitored nearer to the event).

Back to Belgium, and the BBC side is at full strength again, both Lee McKenzie and Eddie Jordan will be back with the team. Over on Sky, their new show with unseen footage from Formula One Management’s archive will première on Sunday 24th August on the channel. The first edition will focus on team-mates with Nigel Mansell and Christian Horner alongside Steve Rider. I hope this doesn’t fly under the radar, but that relies on Sky to promote it. And by that I mean get the message out to the wider F1 media. The key phrase, as I’ve said before should be “unseen footage”. If that isn’t a trigger for an interesting article or two on whatever footage they’ve got hold of, I don’t know what is. It depends how good/revealing the footage is too as to whether they can ‘sell’ it to the F1 journalists to write about, or whether it is just another Sky F1 programme which probably won’t be written about in the future (hopefully not, mind).

Elsewhere, ESPN have the penultimate round of the IndyCar Series on Sunday evening, whilst ITV4 have live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship from Knockhill. Below are all the details you need:

Thursday 21st August
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
23:30 to 23:45 – F1: Gear Up for Belgium (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 22nd 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 11:50 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
12:55 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Two)
14:50 to 15:30 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:00 to 16:45 – 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)

Saturday 23rd August
08:45 to 09:20 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:15 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
09:55 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 14:20 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
14:35 to 16:05 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:15 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 24th August
08:20 to 09:05 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:45 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
10:45 to 18:00 – BTCC: Knockhill (ITV4)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live
12:10 to 15:30 – F1: Race (BBC One)
15:30 to 16:30 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
16:15 to 17:15 – Tales from the Vault (Sky Sports F1)
21:30 to 00:00 – IndyCars: Sonoma (ESPN)

Wednesday 27th August
20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

Classic F1 on Sky Sports F1
16/08 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1996 Spanish Grand Prix Highlights
17/08 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2011 German Grand Prix
18/08 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2005 Japanese Grand Prix
19/08 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1985 Belgian Grand Prix Highlights
20/08 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 1998 Belgian Grand Prix
21/08 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2010 Belgian Grand Prix
22/08 – 18:00 to 19:45 – 2000 Belgian Grand Prix
23/08 – 21:20 to 22:05 – 1982 Belgian Grand Prix Highlights
24/08 – 17:15 to 18:15 – 1972 Season Review
24/08 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2005 Belgian Grand Prix
25/08 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 2012 Spanish Grand Prix (Sky commentary)
26/08 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 2011 Chinese Grand Prix
27/08 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix
28/08 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix Highlights
29/08 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 2012 European Grand Prix (Sky commentary)

As always, any scheduling updates will be posted here as well.

MotoGP’s UK viewing figures halve year on year

Halfway through the 2014 MotoGP season, and the move to pay TV for live coverage is having a profound effect on the UK ratings, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.

> Half a million viewers across BT and ITV
> BT Sport “expect numbers to grow with time”
> ITV decline to comment

For the best part of fifteen years, BBC had screened every race live, with further more extensive coverage on British Eurosport. With an average of one million viewers every race, BBC’s coverage was motorcycling’s gateway to a new generation of fans, should a British rider rise to the top. In May 2013, it was announced that BT Sport would be taking over exclusive coverage of the championship from 2014 onwards, unsurprisingly provoking a backlash from fans. The exclusivity aspect failed to make it to the first race, just two weeks before the start of the 2014 season, it was announced that ITV4 would be screening highlights of the championship, a move aimed at appeasing a larger portion of the MotoGP fan base. And the viewing figures, in my opinion, back that up.

All the viewing figures below exclude BBC iPlayer for 2013, and similarly BT Sport’s app and ITV Player for this season. So far in 2014, BT Sport’s live race day coverage for the MotoGP portion of proceedings – from 12:30 to approximately 14:00 – have averaged 155k, peaking at just over 200k the majority of the time. ITV4’s highlights programming on Monday evenings have averaged 366k, this number including their +1 timeshift channel. The combined audience of 521k is significantly down on figures in previous years, when MotoGP was live on terrestrial television.

In comparison, BBC Two’s MotoGP coverage for the first half of the 2013 season, excluding Austin and Assen, which were not covered live by the channel, averaged exactly 1.00m, regularly peaking around 1.3m. In addition to that, an additional audience in the region of 150k watched on British Eurosport an hour later, bringing the combined audience is 1.15m. Traditionally, UK’s audiences have remained around that level for many years, with slight fluctuations about 100k either way depending on that season’s circumstances and other sporting competition in that calendar year. As mentioned above, audiences this year have more than halved in comparison to last year.

Looking into the figures, I maintain that ITV were brought on board to save face. BT Sport exclusivity would have been a catastrophic disaster for all concerned. Yes, they may be providing more in-depth coverage than BBC (albeit, with the use of a studio at every race weekend), but that in my opinion is meaningless if audiences are 10 percent of what BBC were getting. BT Sport’s coverage is not going to bring in new fans. If it does, it’ll be tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands as BBC’s coverage could have done if the likes of Bradley Smith get to the front of the field in the years to come.

I would be surprised if Dorna are happy with BT’s viewing figures, however it was them that made the decision to go with BT Sport’s money rather than BBC’s viewers. Whether ITV4’s highlights programming was a nice compromise, the jury is out. In any case, I’m not at all surprised about the drop. There is a valid point about the dominance of Marc Marquez having a detrimental effect on viewing figures. From BT’s perspective, viewing figures have stayed consistent (in fact, their Qatar programme only peaked with 230k), whilst ITV4’s highlights have dropped to around the 350k mark. Because of the football in the past month, there is no direct yes or no answer where the Marquez theory is concerned.

A BT Sport spokesperson said: “BT Sport is a brand new channel and less than a year old and MotoGP launched on the channel in March of this year. BT Sport show some of the most extensive coverage of MotoGP seen in the UK across Friday, Saturday and Sunday on a race weekend. We are pleased with the number of people watching MotoGP as well as MotoGP Tonight so far and feedback on our coverage has also been extremely positive. We expect numbers to grow with time.” ITV declined to comment.