Tag: Sky Sports F1

All posts relating to Sky Sports F1.

Poll: Your Formula 1 2013 television viewing habits

One year ago today, the Sky Sports F1 channel launched. Now in its second year, the channel is firmly geared up ahead of the start of the 2013 season. And ahead of next weekend’s race, The F1 Broadcasting Blog wants your thoughts on all things Formula 1 broadcasting in 2013. With that brings a mini questionnaire. There are ten questions, which are as follows:

Q1: Have your viewing habits or situation changed between 2012 and 2013?
Q2: Sky subscribers: What is your status regarding Sky Sports F1?
Q3: Virgin Media subscribers: What is your status regarding Sky Sports F1?
Q4: How did you consume Formula 1 in 2012? [Sky live races]
Q5: How did you consume Formula 1 in 2012? [BBC and Sky live races]
Q6: How do you plan to consume Formula 1 in 2013? [Sky live races]
Q7: How do you plan to consume Formula 1 in 2013? [BBC and Sky live races]
Q8: BBC F1 – 2012 vs 2013
Q9: Sky Sports F1 – 2012 vs 2013
Q10: Have the changes to the BBC team made you…

The questions are fairly self-explanatory, but to just go through it – Question 1 is an overview question. Questions 2 and 3 concern Sky and Virgin Media customers only and their status regarding Sky Sports F1. So if you don’t have Sky or Virgin Media, skip to Question 4.

Questions 4 through to 7 concern how you chose to consume Formula 1 in 2012, and also how you plan to consume it in 2013. For these questions, assume it is a normal European race, and not an Asian race, where there would be extra re-runs added to the schedule. Questions 8 and 9 ask whether you are more likely to watch BBC’s and Sky’s coverage compared with 2012, whilst Question 10 focusses primarily on the changes to the BBC team over the Winter.

The poll results will be announced in the three week break following the Malaysian Grand Prix along with some articles to go alongside it. As always though, it is not just about the poll – if there is a particular reason why you plan to consume Formula 1 differently in 2013, or whether you have been converted from one broadcaster to another, drop a line in the comments.










Scheduling: The 2013 Australian Grand Prix

The waiting is almost over, as the 2013 Formula One season finally gets under way on Friday 15th March from Melbourne for the traditional curtain raiser: the Australian Grand Prix! The weekend’s coverage is live on Sky Sports F1 and BBC Radio, with BBC television showing highlights in the afternoon.

For those that have not been following over the Winter, there are a few personnel changes compared with 2012. On Sky, Georgie Thompson is no longer with the team, meaning that Natalie Pinkham now fronts The F1 Show alongside Ted Kravitz. There are two changes on the BBC team, firstly there is the well-publicised move of Jake Humphrey to BT Sport, with Suzi Perry now the BBC F1 presenter. Secondly, Jaime Alguersuari is stepping out of his 5 Live co-commentary role, with Allan McNish replacing him. Although the previous sentence is true, McNish’s first race is not until Barcelona, so it is anyone’s guess who will be alongside James Allen in the commentary box for the first double header of 2013. Not a change per se, but an addition for BBC in Tom Clarkson, his move bolstering the pit-lane team.

Everything else remains the same. The Sky programme lengths throughout the race weekend are identical to last year, meaning a very early 04:30 alarm call for those who can watch it live. The main change for Sky viewers is before the race weekend itself. Five Classic F1 races will be broadcast, four of them in their entirety, with the original BBC or ITV commentary, so if you want to whet your appetite, then those are ready to be watched.

Below are all the scheduling details you need:

Saturday 9th March
20:30 to 21:30 – F1: 1994 Australian Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Jonathan Palmer
– repeated on Friday 15th March at 10:30

Sunday 10th March
20:30 to 22:45 – F1: 1999 Australian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 16th March at 21:45

Monday 11th March
20:30 to 22:30 – F1: 2003 Australian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 17th March at 09:00

Tuesday 12th March
20:30 to 22:30 – F1: 2007 Australian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 15th March at 18:00

Wednesday 13th March
20:30 to 22:45 – F1: 2010 Australian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 16th March at 07:45

Thursday 14th March
04:00 to 04:40 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
19:45 to 20:00 – F1: Gear Up for Australia (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 15th March
01:00 to 03:20 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
05:15 to 07:30 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
05:25 to 07:15 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
07:30 to 08:10 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:30 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 16th March
02:45 to 04:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
05:00 to 07:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
05:55 to 07:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live)
13:00 to 14:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
17:45 to 18:00 – Ted’s Qualifying Notebook (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 17th March
04:30 to 09:30 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
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 always, if anything changes I shall update this blog if necessary.

Update on March 16th – Please refer to this post for the amended schedule following Saturday’s Qualifying postponement.

The F1 Show to move to Thursday’s during non-race weeks

The weekly Sky Sports F1 magazine show appears to be on the move, schedules released today show. The edition after the Malaysian Grand Prix is provisionally scheduled for Thursday 28th March at 20:00 live. The show throughout 2012 aired on Friday’s to low ratings.

It is a wise move by Sky to move it to Thursday’s, even last week, for whatever reason their testing ratings had the lowest ratings on the Friday. The other possibility is that they are adding in an extra live show on Friday, but the schedules do not suggest this – all that is in Friday’s 20:00 slot is a repeat of the Thursday F1 Show.

Update on March 13th – Sam O’Sullivan on Twitter points out that Friday 29th March is Good Friday, which may explain why it is not on the Friday. The following weeks schedule have it back in the Friday slot.

Sky’s Classic F1 series to expand into “strands”

Following the announcement that Sky Sports F1 will be showing five Classic F1 races before every round, it appears it will be going beyond that and heading into “strands” of races. In the original piece towards the end of February, I said how there will be five races before every race weekend.

While that is true there will be more than that. The first “strand” will feature debut wins, with schedule times as follows:

Thursday 28th March
21:30 to 23:45 – 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– Fernando Alonso’s first win

Friday 29th March
21:30 to 23:45 – 2007 Canadian Grand Prix
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– Lewis Hamilton’s first win

Saturday 30th March
21:00 to 23:15 – 2009 German Grand Prix
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– Mark Webber’s first win

Sunday 31st March
21:00 to 23:15 – 2008 Italian Grand Prix
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– Sebastian Vettel’s first win

I suspect there may more more on Saturday 30th March and Sunday 31st March. As of writing, schedules do not go that far to reveal what races they are, but given the strand, I expect 2008 Canada and 2008 Italy to both turn up somewhere.

Update on March 28th – I’ve updated the above with the full details now, and some timing changes as well thanks to last weekend’s events in Malaysia. Note that as far as I can see these are not repeated, so record them while you can!