Updated Schedule: The 2013 Australian Grand Prix

With the changes to the BBC and Sky schedules thanks to today’s Qualifying postponement, I have ditched the original post. For the remainder of the weekend, refer to the amended times below:

Saturday 16th March
13:00 to 13:55 – F1: Qualifying 1 (BBC One)
17:45 to 18:00 – Ted’s Qualifying Notebook (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
23:45 to 01:30 – F1: Qualifying 2 and 3 (Sky Sports F1)
00:00 to 01:00 – F1: Qualifying 2 and 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Sunday 17th March
04:30 to 09:30 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
05:15 to 06:00 – F1: Qualifying 2 and 3 (BBC One)
05:30 to 08:00 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
12:30 to 12:45 – Ted’s Race Notebook (Sky Sports F1)
14:20 to 16:20 – F1: Race (BBC One)
– note: For Scotland viewers, the race is on BBC Two

As you can see, BBC’s Qualifying 2 and 3 coverage directly clashes with Sky’s build-up. I don’t know if that is deliberate on their behalf, or just a case of not room for maneuver regarding their main highlights show in the afternoon.

‘GP Uncovered’ added to Sky schedule

A new strand of shows has been added to the Sky Sports F1 schedules starting this Sunday at 09:00. GP Uncovered will look back at Formula 1’s early days.

The first edition, entitled ‘1967 – Nine Days In Summer’ will air following the Australian Grand Prix, lasting an hour. The description is as follows: “The story of the Lotus 49, the revolutionary car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe and driven with startling success by both Jim Clark and Graham Hill.”

Furthermore, the Sky website says that the programme will air following race weekends, so presumably as soon as the main race programme has finished. The films come from the Beaulieu archive.

Rolex become Sky F1 title sponsor

Watching practice two this morning, and I note that the Rolex sponsorship is present during break bumpers on Sky Sports F1. Santander, their previous title sponsor, pulled out at the end of last season.

Given Rolex’s increased presence in Formula 1 this year, the move makes logical sense. I will hunt around for something official later.

Update at 06:09: Shell are also a sponsor for 2013 it appears, so they have multiple sponsors. That is reminiscent of the Eurosport days in the mid 90s where they had multiple sponsors.

A few Sky Sports F1 schedule updates

Ahead of this weekend’s season opening Australian Grand Prix, I have spotted a few updates to the previously published Sky schedule, with a few extra additions.

– On Thursday at 20:00, there is a half hour programme entitled The Martin Whitmarsh Interview, which does what it says on the tin.
– On Friday at 08:30, there is an airing of The Petrol Age by Paul McGann. Whilst the programme is new to Sky Sports, the programme is not new to Sky, as it was aired on Sky Atlantic this time last year.

Both programmes are repeated on the channel throughout the weekend. Elsewhere, the 2009 German Grand Prix and 2008 Italian Grand Prix will be shown on Saturday 30th March and Sunday 1st April at 21:00 to conclude the “Debut Wins” strand.

Later in that week, the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix is on Friday 5th April at 21:00 to begin the Chinese five races. One thing to note is that The F1 Show for that week is listed on the Friday at 20:00, so I am unsure why the previous week is listed as Thursday at 20:00.

I will update the blog if anything changes.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 3rd March, 2013)

From BARB:

1 – 58k – Live Barcelona Testing: Day 3 (Saturday, 14:00)
2 – 47k – Live Barcelona Testing: Day 4 (Sunday, 14:00)
3 – 47k – Day 1: Barcelona Test 2 (Thursday, 21:00)
4 – 43k – The F1 Show (Friday, 16:30)
5 – 42k – Car Unveiling: McLaren (Saturday, 16:30)
6 – 41k – Ted’s Notebook: Barcelona Test 2, Day 1 (Thursday, 21:18)
7 – 38k – The F1 Show (Friday, 20:00)
8 – 34k – Barcelona Testing: Day 1 Replay (Thursday, 18:30)
9 – 32k – Live Barcelona Testing: Day 1 (Thursday, 14:00)
10 – 29k – Ted’s Notebook: Barcelona Test 2, Day 4 (Sunday, 21:23)

Most of the above I have summarised here from the overnight ratings, the only note being is that a lot of people do not seem to watch The F1 Show live or on the day and instead choose to watch it on Saturday or Sunday, the show timeshifting a fair bit in the official BARB ratings.

The channel during the testing week reached 1.12 million people across the week, by far the highest reach of the year. In comparison, the channel’s first weekend on air last year reached 1.76 million viewers. Although the reach there is lower, I think Sky will be pleased overall with the ratings for testing, and I can see it returning in 2014.