Brazilian Grand Prix hits three year high

An average audience of 4.57 million watched the Brazilian Grand Prix, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Live coverage of the race, broadcast live on BBC One from 15:25 to 18:00, averaged 4.02m (24.9%), up significantly on 2013’s number of 3.45m (19.9%). It should be noted that 2013’s broadcast was 185 minutes long, whereas yesterday’s was 155 minutes long and yesterday would have benefited also from a strong lead-out with the BBC News at Six focussing on events in Paris. Sky Sports F1’s coverage from 15:00 to 18:30 added a further 548k (3.3%), an increase on 2013’s number of 473k (2.7%) across the same timeslot.

The combined average of 4.57 million is the highest for Interlagos since 2012, when Sebastian Vettel clinched his third championship in the final race of the year. Last year, an audience of 4.27 million watched as BBC showed highlights of the race, whilst 3.93 million watched in 2013.

Whilst yesterday’s Grand Prix was not the greatest in the world, it would have benefited from little sporting competition on pay-TV channels with no domestic top-flight football being played. Considering the championship has already been resolved, it is a good number.

The 2014 Brazilian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

Scheduling: The 2015 Race of Champions / Macau Grand Prix

Next weekend is a fairly big weekend of motor sport, with two annual events taking place. The Race of Champions will take place at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and is being broadcast exclusively live on Sky Sports F1. It looks like they have taken the live rights from Motors TV, I suspect that is a ‘one year only’ thing given that the event is in London.

Given the number of Formula 1 stars competing, such as Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa, the channel are presumably hoping that the event will do better than usual non-race weekend coverage, which should be do-able. Sky are providing their own studio coverage, hence a 30-minute edition of The F1 Show live from the Olympic Park. They are taking the World Feed commentary, which is being provided by Martin Haven and Jennie Gow, the first time I believe that either voice has been heard on the channel.

Elsewhere on Sky Sports F1, there is live GP2 and GP3 action from Bahrain, the two series supporting the World Endurance Championship this weekend, itself airing on Motors TV. What this means is that Sky Sports F1 has six and a half hours of live action on Friday, none of which actually contains F1! This is a good thing though, it is about time Sky airs non-F1 content on non-F1 weekends, a case of all things falling at once here.

The other big annual event is the Macau Grand Prix, which will air exclusively live on BT Sport. The channel will be airing just over eight hours of coverage next Saturday and Sunday including the 33rd running of the Formula 3 race.

Race of Champions – London (Sky Sports F1)
20/11 – 19:00 to 23:00
=> 19:00 – The F1 Show
=> 19:30 – Nations Cup
21/11 – 15:00 to 18:00

GP2 Series – Bahrain (Sky Sports F1)
~~19/11 – 08:30 to 09:20 – Practice~~
~~19/11 – 11:15 to 11:55 – Qualifying~~
20/11 – 12:25 to 13:55 – Race 1
21/11 – 07:40 to 08:55 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Bahrain (Sky Sports F1)
~~19/11 – 09:40 to 10:15 – Qualifying~~
20/11 – 10:15 to 11:15 – Race 1
21/11 – 05:55 to 06:55 – Race 2

Macau Grand Prix (BT Sport 1)
21/11 – 04:15 to 08:15
=> 04:15 – FIA GT World Cup Qualifying and F3 Grand Prix
=> 07:00 – Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix
22/11 – 04:45 to 09:00
=> 04:45 – FIA GT World Cup
=> 07:00 – F3 Grand Prix

V8 Supercars – Philip Island
21/11 – 03:45 to 04:45 – Race 31 (BT Sport 2)
21/11 – 05:45 to 06:45 – Race 32 (BT Sport 2)
22/11 – 02:45 to 04:45 – Race 33 (BT Sport 1)

World Endurance Championship – Bahrain
21/11 – 11:30 to 18:35 – Race (Motors TV)
21/11 – 17:00 to 18:15 – Race (British Eurosport)
25/11 – 18:00 to 19:00 – Highlights (Quest)

If anything changes, I will update the above.

Update on November 19th at 09:15 – Per GP2’s official Twitter page, it looks like no World Feed is being provided for practice or qualifying (same applies for GP3), meaning that the scheduled programmes on Sky Sports F1 will no longer air.

Sky’s F1 channel “will be back” in 2016

The Sky Sports F1 channel will be back in 2016 in the UK, it has been confirmed. The news has been confirmed via a verified Sky representative on an Irish news forum.

In response to Sky Sports Darts taking over the F1 channel during the Christmas period, Sky’s spokeswoman on the forum said that “Motor fans will still be able to enjoy F1 content across other Sky Sports channels during this timeframe [14th December to 4th January]. As the F1 season will have already came to a close it means that F1 fans will not miss out on any live races. It also means that there will be no disruption to any live sport on any of the other Sport channels.”

The spokeswoman added that “In the New Year Sky Sports F1 will be back on channel 407, and will be the only place to see all 20 practice and qualifying sessions as well as every live race. Sky Sports F1 will continue to be a dedicated motor sport channel during the whole F1 season including preseason testing, and every race weekend live.”

Whilst a forum representative may not always be the strongest source, The F1 Broadcasting Blog has been able to independently verify the information to confirm that the F1 channel will be back in 2016. The future of Sky’s F1 channel has been under the microscope in recent months. Various race simulcasts on Sky Sports 1 have increased speculation, alongside rising contract prices for the likes of the Premier League and the news that Sky are streamlining their F1 production operation.

Of course, the continuation of Sky’s F1 channel is good news, it is after all a dedicated Formula 1 channel. However, I hope Sky make better use of the channel next season. At times it has felt like a ‘contractual obligation’ this season more than anything else, with the same Classic F1 races on a loop and little new programming outside of the race weekend beyond Midweek Report and The F1 Show. F1 Legends has been cut significantly, with Tales from the Vault and Architects of F1 the only new historical programming. Sky should look to programmes such as the Road to Mercedes for inspiration. 2015 has not all been negative – the channel has produced some stunning features such as the Mercedes behind the scenes feature alongside the ever present Notebook from Ted Kravitz (I will expand on the above in my post-season review).

It will be interesting to see if the structure of the channel changes for 2016, if at all. In the short term, the main news is that the F1 channel in the UK is definitely returning.

Scheduling: The 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix

Both titles may have been won, but there are two more races still to go as the Formula 1 paddock heads to Interlagos for the Brazilian Grand Prix. All the action for this round and Abu Dhabi will be live on both BBC and Sky Sports.

I have listed Inside F1 instead of F1 Focus because the latter is not currently scheduled on the Red Button for this upcoming week. As mentioned before, I don’t know if F1 Focus is a replacement for Inside F1 but time will tell, I’ll update the below if F1 Focus appears anywhere. With it being a BBC live weekend, expect Eddie Jordan to be back with the team. Given the way things went in USA, BBC probably wish they had Jordan with them for Austin, but that is the luck of the draw.

Over on Sky, Natalie Pinkham has not travelled to a Grand Prix since Singapore, although she has presented The F1 Show recently and has been part of a few features here and there (notably Fogglebox, filmed during the US Grand Prix). I would be surprised to see her in Brazil, but she should be back with the team in Abu Dhabi, I imagine. This also explains why Rachel Brookes and Craig Slater have been more involved recently. The edition of Architects of F1 with Flavio Briatore is back in the schedule, scheduled for straight after the Grand Prix on Sunday. It was originally scheduled for post-Mexico, but was moved to the Brazil schedule instead.

Elsewhere, BT Sport are covering MotoGP testing live this week, with Dorna’s World Feed crew staying in Valencia to film the post-season test from Valencia on Tuesday and Wednesday. The channel is also running a ‘Motorsport Weekend’ with reviews of the series that they cover, such as the aforementioned MotoGP along with IndyCar and Blancpain GT. Guests will appear throughout both live programmes, including Nick Tandy and Moto3 champion Danny Kent.

BBC F1
BBC TV – Sessions
13/11 – 11:55 to 13:45 – Practice 1 (BBC Two)
13/11 – 15:45 to 17:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Two)
14/11 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Two)
14/11 – 15:10 to 17:20 – Qualifying (BBC One)
15/11 – 15:20 to 18:00 – Race (BBC One)
15/11 – 18:00 to 19:00 – Forum (BBC Red Button)

BBC Radio – Sessions
14/11 – 16:00 to 17:15 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
15/11 – 16:00 to 18:06 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Supplementary Programming
12/11 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
13/11 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
14/11 – 11:55 to 12:55 – F1 Rewind: Great Results (BBC Two)
14/11 – 19:45 to 20:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
13/11 – 11:45 to 13:50 – Practice 1
13/11 – 15:45 to 18:00 – Practice 2
14/11 – 12:45 to 14:15 – Practice 3
14/11 – 15:00 to 17:45 – Qualifying
15/11 – 14:30 to 19:15 – Race
=> 14:30 – Track Parade
=> 15:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 15:30 – Race
=> 18:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
12/11 – 13:00 to 13:30 – Driver Press Conference
12/11 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Brazil
13/11 – 18:00 to 18:45 – Team Press Conference
13/11 – 20:00 to 21:00 – The F1 Show
15/11 – 19:15 to 20:15 – Architects of F1: Flavio Briatore
18/11 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

MotoGP – Testing (BT Sport 1)
10/11 – 09:00 to 12:00 – Day 1: Morning
10/11 – 13:00 to 16:00 – Day 1: Afternoon
11/11 – 09:00 to 12:00 – Day 2: Morning
11/11 – 13:00 to 16:00 – Day 2: Afternoon

Motorsport Weekender (BT Sport 1)
14/11 – 16:30 to 20:00 – Part 1
15/11 – 11:30 to 14:30 – World Rally Championship
15/11 – 14:30 to 18:30 – Part 2

As always, I will update the schedule if any amendments need to be made.

Update on November 14th – BBC Radio’s Qualifying coverage will be on 5 Live Sports Extra now due to the events over the past twelve hours in Paris.

Sky Sports Darts to replace the F1 channel during Christmas

Sky Sports Darts in, Sky Sports F1 out. For Christmas, at least. To coincide with the William Hill Darts Championship, Sky Sports Darts will be returning from Monday 14th December. Instead of replacing one of the main five Sky Sports channels, the Darts channel will be replacing the F1 channel from 14th December through to Tuesday 5th January 2016.

It is the first time that the F1 channel has gone off air for multiple weeks since it launched on Friday 9th March 2012. It appears therefore that there will be no new F1 programming over the Christmas period on Sky Sports. A cynic might be tempted to suggest that this could be a move to quietly kill the F1 channel in the off-season – although I doubt that very much and would be incredibly surprised (even if Sky’s press office has refused multiple times to comment on the subject). Sky’s 2016 schedules should be out before Christmas, so we will no doubt see the schedule for Sky Sports F1’s early weeks in 2016 soon.