How BBC and Sky broke the Hamilton penalty news

As you probably by now have read, Lewis Hamilton has been excluded from the Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying session, with the McLaren driver starting at the back of the grid.

From a broadcasting perspective, it was interesting to see how BBC News and Sky Sports News covered it. From about 17:00 UK time, on Sky Sports News, Ted Kravitz and their reporter Rachel Brookes were stationed outside of Race Control waiting for an announcement, with the Sky Sports News channel occasionally crossing to them live.

The first word, however, came out from BBC F1 web editor Andrew Benson on Twitter at 18:42. Autosport writer Edd Straw was the first (on my Twitter timeline at least) to break the news officially at 18:44.

When the news broke, Sky Sports News was on an advert break. They came back from the advert break at 18:45 approximately. But instead of going live to Kravitz and Brookes they instead went to the latest ‘Football Scores’, a League 2 play-off match between Crewe and Southend. They didn’t end up going live to Kravitz and Brookes until about 18:54.

While that was going on, BBC were live on the BBC News Channel, with Inside F1 presented by Lee McKenzie at 18:45 alongside Gary Anderson and Eddie Jordan. In brilliant timing for BBC, the FIA’s decision was made minutes before Inside F1 was due to air live. Jake Humphrey tweeted: “Quick…BBC News Channel NOW for Pastor Maldonado LIVE and the latest from Barcelona…WE ARE LIVE!!” For whatever reason, the feed went completely at 18:51, which may have been the result of thunderstorms in Barcelona.

Either way, despite Sky being stationed outside of Race Control, and being on air for a lot longer ready for the news with updates, BBC managed to break the news first to their viewers. They also, as Humphrey noted managed to a live word with Pastor Maldonaldo, something Sky did not.

Villeneuve to join Sky Sports F1 for Canada; Hill extends deal

Jacques Villeneuve is to join the Sky Sports F1 team as a pundit for the Canadian Grand Prix, it has been announced. The announcement was made here via their Twitter account. A good move by them as it is likely to be one of only two races this season where the Sky Sports viewership will end up higher than the BBC Sport viewership, with their highlights show not going out until 22:30.

Meanwhile, it is being reported by Bryon Young of the Daily Mirror that Damon Hill has signed on to do a further four races with Sky Sports F1. His original contract had him down to do ten races this season.

blackcircles.com to sponsor Sky Sports F1’s coverage

The tyre company blackcircles.com have announced that they are to sponsor Sky Sports F1’s coverage. The article on their official website goes onto say that their sponsorship will feature “in opening/closing credits and a lot of on-air promotions”.

Eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted their sponsorship during The F1 Show on May 4th at the start and the end of the show, as well as during commercials with break bumpers. Voice overs are provided by legendary commentator Murray Walker. Their trailer can be found here. While Santander will continue to sponsor Sky Sports F1’s main Formula 1 programme, blackcircles.com will sponsor their supplementary programming on the channel, including The F1 Show, F1 Fast Track and the Season Reviews.

blackcircles.com joins Texaco, Sony and Shell, amongst others to sponsor Formula 1 coverage in the United Kingdom.

Sky Sports F1 to screen Thursday Press Conference live on channel

From this weekend, Sky Sports F1 will be screening the Thursday press conferences live on their channel. For the first four races, the press conference were only uploaded to the Sky Sports website, but it seems that it shall be airing live at 14:00 on Thursday with repeats later that day.

UPDATE: I wrote the above last night when I first spotted it. Having checked the website and Sky Sports F1’s Twitter, it turns out that the press conference was not uploaded to the website for Australia and Malaysia, but was uploaded for the last two rounds in China and Bahrain. I assume they’ve brought in a few hits to the website, hence why they’ve decided to put it on the channel. A good move, in my opinion, as live action is always better than repeats. As it turns out, all that would have been on air tomorrow at 14:00 was the ‘Your Home of Formula One’ rolling loop, so it was a no brainer.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 29th April, 2012)

From BARB, a day later than usual due to the Bank Holiday:

1 – 74k – The F1 Show (Friday, 20:00)
2 – 28k – Fast Track (Tuesday, 21:01)
3 – 23k – 2002 Season Review: Part 4 (Sunday, 21:00)
4 – 16k – Live IndyCar Series (Sunday, 16:00)
5 – 15k – 2002 Season Review: Part 1 (Thursday, 21:00)
6 – 14k – The F1 Show (Friday, 22:10)
7 – 12k – 2002 Season Review: Part 2 (Saturday, 21:00)
8 – 12k – F1 Legends (Sunday, 19:00)
9 – 12k – Bahrain Grand Prix Highlights (Monday, 16:31)
10 – 11k – The F1 Show (Sunday, 19:30)

The 20th April edition of The F1 Show had the highest individual rating since the Australian Grand Prix edition, so a good rating for that. Below that, everything is under 30 thousand viewers. Disappointing for the Live IndyCars, albeit it was moved at late notice, so it is not as bad as what it seems.

No GP2 in there though for it’s standalone weekend at Bahrain, all under 11 thousand viewers. One thing I noticed in the Spanish Grand Prix adverts was how they were promoting the whole weekend, but they failed to even note GP2 or GP3. It’s no wonder they are doing poor if they fail to promote them in adverts.