Scheduling: The 2013 Indian Grand Prix

It may not have happened in Japan, but the chances are significantly higher in India for Sebastian Vettel to clinch his fourth consecutive Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship. If you happen to be reading this and work for the BBC F1 team, chances are you want to be there and on-air live when Vettel wins the title. So, they probably want it wrapped up this weekend. On the other hand, Sky will definitely want the title race to continue to Abu Dhabi or USA, which are both Sky exclusive races.

There is also MotoGP from Motegi as the series completes its triple header, with coverage live on BBC Two, the team presenting their penultimate race before the championship moves to BT Sport. My plan is to watch the MotoGP on iPlayer whenever I get up, and jump into the middle of the F1 build-up. After all, MotoGP’s title race is now firmly in the balance, whilst F1 is now a foregone conclusion. And a reminder that the clocks go back one hour in the early hours of next Sunday morning.

Thursday 24th October
10:30 to 11:15 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 17:15 – Gear Up for India (Sky Sports F1)
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 2011 Indian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Martin Brundle and David Coulthard
– repeated on Sunday 27th October at 20:30

Friday 25th October
05:15 to 07:20 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
05:25 to 07:10 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
09:15 to 11:30 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:25 to 11:15 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Two)
11:30 to 12:15 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
13:30 to 14:30 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 26th October
06:15 to 07:40 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
06:25 to 07:35 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
08:30 to 11:15 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
08:30 to 10:45 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
13:00 to 14:00 – F1: Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

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

Sunday 27th October
04:30 to 06:00 – MotoGP: Motegi (BBC Two)
08:00 to 12:45 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
– please see for possible format changes
08:30 to 11:45 – F1: Race (BBC One)
11:15 to 12:00 – Slicks-0-Six (BBC Radio 5 Live)
12:45 to 13:00 – GP Uncovered: BRM Beginnings (Sky Sports F1)
13:00 to 14:30 – MotoGP: Race Replay (BBC Two)
14:00 to 16:00 – F1: Race Replay (BBC One)

Wednesday 30th October
19:00 to 19:30 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

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

A graphics comparison: Dorna vs FOM

This morning I, as many other motor sport fans, got up early to watch the Formula 1 Qualifying session from Japan. An early start, but one I always relish. There is always personally for me something special about Japan. But anyway, the session was fairly eventful with the other Red Bull on pole position. The coverage provided by FOM (Formula One Management), now out of the hands of Fuji Television, was largely fine, even though Jean-Eric Vergne decided to run over a virtual advert!

From there I watched BBC One wind down their coverage, and then I flicked over to Eurosport, to witness the climax of the MotoGP Qualifying session from Sepang in Malaysia. And what a session it was! Helped by a bit of rain before hand, the lap times tumbled down with Marc Marquez taking pole. Again, the coverage was largely fine, and as Toby Moody said in commentary, Dorna’s director did a stonking job when the action was going off all over the shop. So, credit to them there.

As I noted on Twitter though, the big gulf between Dorna and FOM comes with their graphics. Dorna’s graphics are head and shoulders above FOM. Whilst I praised FOM a few weeks back, their basic graphics set needs improvement. For the purposes of this post, I am only looking at the Qualifying sessions as I admit that is what made me tweet this morning.

A picture of FOM's graphics set, as seen during Q2 at the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix. — A picture of FOM’s graphics set, as seen during Q2 at the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix.

The above is just as the chequered flag has been thrown. Down the left hand side is a list of the lap times that have been set. We can also see who has already passed the chequered flag and who is in the pits. Those with no symbol are on no flying lap. At the bottom of the screen, we see two drivers current progression around the lap – in this case Nico Hulkenberg and Nico Rosberg. Already, we can see a limitation to the graphics set. We can only see two lap times at the bottom of the screen at a time, due to the lay out. There are ten drivers on laps, which shows a fairly major limitation and a bug bear for me during Qualifying.

Aesthetically, it is pleasing and easy on the eye, the slanting may feel a bit unprofessional, but I can see why they went down that route because of the style of the ‘F1’ logo. The graphics set also makes a clear differential between who is currently ‘in’ to the next part of Qualifying, and who is ‘out’. Finally, a particular drivers’ row lights up whenever he sets a personal best time for the session. How does that compare to Dorna’s graphics set?

A picture of Dorna's graphics set, as seen during Q1 at the 2013 Malaysian MotoGP. — A picture of Dorna’s graphics set, as seen during Q1 at the 2013 Malaysian MotoGP.

Like I said above, I maintain that FOM’s graphics set looks more aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, Dorna’s graphics do not feel as cluttered, and shows a detailed amount of information. Whilst it does not have a list of everyone’s lap times, it makes up in that by displaying the current sectors on the left hand side. In FOM’s graphics set, green is simply up on whichever number is to the left of it, or orange is down. Dorna on the other hand has the more traditional red for session best, orange for personal best and grey for no improvement (although this can get confusing if a commentator says that someone has “gone purple!”).

When you look at the example above, Dorna’s graphics set definitely allows them to display more information in comparison to FOM’s system. It may not look fantastic on the eye, but the information is there, and allows you to scroll down the left and see who is setting fast times which is impossible with FOM. The only reason I can think why FOM don’t do that is because green/orange down the side may be confusing to the casual viewer.

Both sets have their positives and negatives. If you are looking for something easy on the eye, then FOM wins, but if you want a data driven set, then Dorna with their MotoGP graphics is a clear winner.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 29th September, 2013)

MotoGP may have been the main motor sport event during the last weekend of September, but the coverage on BBC Two failed to make BARB‘s Top 30, official viewing figures show (or in MotoGP’s case, don’t). The race programme, from Aragón, averaged less than 1.09 million viewers on BBC Two.

Also failing to make the charts was coverage of the British Touring Car Championship, which averaged less than 218,000 viewers. The Goodwood Revival 2013 fared better on Thursday evening, also on ITV4, with 254,000 viewers or 283,000 viewers if you wish to include the +1 equivalent. Staying with the classic theme, and two archive programmes made BBC Four’s top ten. Grand Prix: The Killer Years averaged 535,000 viewers, whilst a repeat of Hunt vs Lauda: F1’s Greatest Racing Rivals averaged 409,000 viewers.

Over on Sky Sports F1, The F1 Show averaged 37,000 viewers or 74,000 viewers across three airings. Pretty disappointing, as it was one of their better efforts this year with Nigel Roebuck in the studio. For anyone wondering where the Korean Grand Prix ratings report is, as of writing no ratings have been reported. I am hopeful, that Broadcast’s top 100 in their magazine this week will include the relevant ratings, so hopefully a report is coming later in the week.

Scheduling: The 2013 Japanese Grand Prix

Technically and mathematically the championship race is still on, but the law of diminishing returns means that Sebastian Vettel is likely to win the Drivers’ Championship next weekend or in India. The season heads to Suzuka, a circuit full of Formula 1 history and clashes every direction you look. Sky’s F1 team really could have picked any Japanese race and it would be served as a classic, they chose 1989, 1994, 1998, 2000 and 2007 which was held in Fuji. All worth watching, and as always the schedule times are below. If that was not enough, ITV are screening ‘Senna’ on the Sunday evening at 22:20.

BBC are live this weekend, as they are indeed for India as well, so a good dosage of live action coming up for the BBC F1 team, which is always good to see. Rather oddly though, and very frustrating, whoever did the pick order decided it would be fabulous idea to have live F1 and live MotoGP on the BBC clashing! Why not pick Korea live and have MotoGP whip up a bigger audience on the Sunday? The mind boggles. The two don’t actually clash in terms of race duration (F1 should finish at 08:30, MotoGP beginning at 09:00), but the programmes do and I feel it is a bit of a cock up. At least the schedulers get to breathe easy next year, I suppose…

Tuesday 8th October
20:00 to 21:30 – F1: 1989 Japanese Grand Prix Extended Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and James Hunt
– repeated on Friday 11th October at 18:30

Wednesday 9th October
20:00 to 21:00 – F1: 1994 Japanese Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Jonathan Palmer
– repeated on Saturday 12th October at 08:00
21:00 to 23:30 – F1: 1998 Japanese Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 12th October at 14:00

Thursday 10th October
07:00 to 07:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 17:15 – Gear Up for Japan (Sky Sports F1)
20:00 to 22:30 – F1: 2000 Japanese Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 12th October at 19:30
21:00 to 21:30 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
22:30 to 01:15 – F1: 2007 Japanese Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 13th October at 19:15

Friday 11th October
01:45 to 03:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
01:50 to 03:40 – 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 (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 12th October
02:45 to 04:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
02:55 to 04:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
05:00 to 07:30 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
05:00 to 07:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
13:20 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
14:35 to 15:35 – MotoGP: Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 13th October
05:30 to 10:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
06:00 to 09:15 – F1: Race (BBC One)
09:15 to 10:15 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
08:30 to 10:00 – MotoGP: Sepang (BBC Two)
10:15 to 10:55 – GP Uncovered: 1962 Season (Sky Sports F1)
12:30 to 14:00 – MotoGP: Race Replay (BBC Two)
14:00 to 16:00 – F1: Race Replay (BBC One)
22:20 to 00:20 – FILM: Senna (ITV)

Wednesday 16th October
19:00 to 19:30 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

A message to Dorna Sports

I have been debating whether to actually publish this for a little while, but thought “why not?”.

Back in May I e-mailed you concerning the MotoGP coverage changes in the UK from the 2014 season onwards. I am disappointed that you not did acknowledge or respond to the questions I asked in the e-mail.

Several months on, and I see the situation concerning coverage has not changed. As it stands, MotoGP will not be broadcast on terrestrial television in the UK. The only deal you have is with BT Sport.

My question is: Will you be creating a new highlights package for BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to bid on? If not, what are the reasons for this?

Under the current arrangement with BBC Sport, audiences for MotoGP are in excess of one million viewers. This is a healthy audience, and helps bring motorbike racing to the masses, something that the deal with BT Sport will not do. The future arrangement with BT Sport from the 2014 season risks shrinking the audience by potentially 75 percent if not more. In my opinion, for MotoGP to thrive in the UK, terrestrial television coverage of some degree is needed.

I look forward to your response.

The above, of course, is an e-mail to Dorna Sports, who are the rights holders to the MotoGP World Championship, along with the Moto2 and Moto3 feeder series. The e-mail was sent on August 29th to an e-mail address that is located on their website. Which is why I have decided to publish this blog.

It is a fairly simple question in the e-mail, whether Dorna will be creating a highlights package for MotoGP. As it stands, only BT Sport will be screening the series. Let me state clearly that this is not an attack on BT Sport. BT Sport will, pretty much certainly, be dedicating more time and resources into MotoGP than any UK broadcaster previously. And that is a credit to them. I’m pretty certain that their coverage will be fantastic and push the boundaries of what is possible. Would it be commercially sensitive information for Dorna to say? I don’t think so – if it is a no, then fair enough, but if it is a yes, I would imagine and hope that interested parties would already have been informed.

Unfortunately though, like most other rights holders, it feels like Dorna do not really care about getting MotoGP out to the widest possible audience. If they did, then options such as a terrestrial highlights package would have been announced, and explored. Fans have not been communicated once, and as I said in the e-mail to them, they risk the MotoGP audience shrinking. Which would be sad, especially if Cal Crutchlow did turn into a championship contender in 2014.

I hope Dorna use some common sense here, but I don’t forsee it happening. Personally I want two things from 2014: for MotoGP to receive the best coverage possible and to the widest possible audience. BT Sport I am sure will provide the first part. Sadly, no one is providing the second part. Anyway, if the full interests of disclosure, I thought I should publish the e-mail, which as of writing has received no response.