Scheduling: The 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix / Qatar MotoGP

The Formula 1 paddock heads from Australia to Malaysia for round two of the season. Round two is the first live race for the BBC this season, with coverage airing on BBC One as usual.

Elsewhere, the 2015 MotoGP championship begins on BT Sport. In the second year of their exclusively live contract, as of writing, no details about their coverage have been officially announced, I’ve compiled what we know so far here. As revealed on this blog earlier this year, ITV4 will again be broadcasting highlights on Monday evenings. Also beginning is the IndyCar Series live on ESPN, an agreement which will run through to 2022.

NOTE: Clocks go forward one hour on Sunday 29th March, with the change from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time. The times listed are for GMT on Saturday and before; BST for Sunday and afterwards…

BBC F1
BBC TV – Sessions
27/03 – 01:55 to 03:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Two)
27/03 – 05:55 to 07:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Two)
28/03 – 05:55 to 07:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Two)
28/03 – 08:00 to 10:30 – Qualifying (BBC One)
28/03 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
29/03 – 07:00 to 10:30 – Race (BBC One)
29/03 – 10:30 to 11:30 – Forum (BBC Red Button)
29/03 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Race Replay (BBC One)

BBC Radio – Sessions
27/03 – 01:55 to 03:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
27/03 – 05:55 to 07:30 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
28/03 – 05:55 to 07:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
28/03 – 08:55 to 10:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
29/03 – 07:30 to 10:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

BBC News Channel
27/03 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1
28/03 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
27/03 – 01:45 to 03:50 – Practice 1
27/03 – 05:45 to 08:00 – Practice 2
28/03 – 05:45 to 07:15 – Practice 3
28/03 – 08:00 to 10:45 – Qualifying
29/03 – 06:30 to 11:15 – Race
=> 06:30 – Track Parade
=> 07:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 07:30 – Race
=> 10:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
26/03 – 07:00 to 07:30 – Driver Press Conference
26/03 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Australia
27/03 – 08:00 to 08:45 – Team Press Conference
27/03 – 10:00 to 11:00 – The F1 Show
01/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

MotoGP – Qatar (BT Sport 2)
26/03 – 15:00 to 19:45 – Practice
27/03 – 14:45 to 19:00 – Practice
28/03 – 14:30 to 18:30 – Qualifying
29/03 – 16:00 to 20:00 – Races
29/03 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Qatar (BT Sport Xtra)
29/03 – 13:50 to 16:00 – Warm Up

MotoGP – Qatar (ITV4)
30/03 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

IndyCar Series – St Petersburg (ESPN)
29/03 – 20:00 to 21:30 – Race

As always, if anything changes, I’ll update the schedule.

F1 2015 starts off with 3.5 million

A depleted grid for the Australian Grand Prix meant that off-track talk continued to dominate the agenda, but the 2015 Formula One season began with 3.5 million viewers this past Sunday, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.

Race
From the outset, it is important to note that direct comparisons for Sky are difficult, as the race was held an hour earlier this year. Another issue is that, for Australia at least, Sky have decided to split their live programming on race day into four segments instead of three as in 2014. This blog has always tried to make the fairest comparisons. Going forward, I will continue to use the three and a half hour block from an hour before the race to an hour after the race, irrespective of what Sky do or don’t regarding scheduling. For this piece, I will provide both comparisons in the interest of clarity. As always, figures exclude Sky Go and BBC iPlayer.

Sky Sports F1’s numbers were down year-on-year, unsurprisingly given the change in start time. In 2014, from 05:00 to 08:30, the channel averaged 594k (26.9%), which compares with 517k (29.5%) from 04:00 to 07:30 for this year. The 05:30 to 08:30 slot in 2014 averaged 659k (27.2%) versus 586k (32.9%) from 04:30 to 07:30 for yesterday’s race. So either measurement puts Sky down around 70k year-on-year. I would say that the drop is due to the start time change rather than anything more, although the figures do include anyone who watched the live Sky broadcast later in the day. Having said that, the 2015 average was identical to 2013, which is an impressive feat all considering. Sky’s 2015 coverage peaked with 789k (40.3%) at 06:10, compared to a peak of 945k (21.2%) from 2014. 2013’s coverage peaked with 893k (21.1%). Looking at the breakdown, more people watched Sky’s post-race coverage in comparison with previous years. On one hand that is surprising as the race was uneventful, but there was a British winner so it evens out really.

Over on BBC One, highlights of the race averaged 3.03m (27.7%) from 13:15 to 14:40, which is up on 2.88m (25.4%) from 2014 but marginally down on 3.05m (21.9%) from 2013. There’s an argument about whether you can compare those figures as BBC’s highlights programme was 35 minutes shorter than in previous years. The share is strong, the raw figure, not so much. Yesterday was Mothering Sunday in the UK, which may explain that one. BBC’s coverage peaked with 3.38m (29.7%) at 14:15, up on 2014’s peak figure of 3.15m (26.6%), but down on 2013’s peak of 3.69m (24.5%). It is a mixed bag, but nothing disastrous either way.

The combined total is bang in line with 2013 and 2014, and up on 2012. 2013 averaged 3.57m, whilst 2014 averaged 3.47m. The 2015 Australian Grand Prix slides straight in the middle of those two figures with 3.54m. You can’t read too much into figures, I’d say it is just ‘good’ rather than anything more or less.

Qualifying and Formula E
Live coverage of qualifying averaged 261k (12.7%) on Sky Sports F1, with a further 54k (2.6%) watching on Sky1, and an additional 24k (1.2%) choosing to watch on Sky Sports 1. The three combined means that an average of 339k (16.4%) watched across Sky’s platforms, although both the Sky1 and Sky Sports 1 airings were not promoted. BBC One’s coverage averaged 2.29m (24.5%). The total number of 2.63m is a solid start to the season where qualifying is concerned.

Formula E’s underperformed on ITV4 for round five of its championship from Miami. Live coverage of the race from 19:00 to 21:30 on Saturday averaged 150k (0.7%), peaking with 269k (1.3%) at 20:45. Highlights the following day averaged 71k (0.9%). Both numbers were below the respective slot averages for ITV4. I don’t think Miami was helped by being on the same weekend as the Formula 1 season opener and also by being up against two big Saturday night shows on both BBC One and ITV. Is it concerning yet that the highest audience for the series in the UK is still the inaugural race? I really like Formula E, in fact Miami was better than Melbourne, but for whatever reason, the series is not yet taking off in the UK.

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

Sky’s race day programme to split into four for 2015?

From one in 2012, to three at the back-end of 2013, to four for 2015. That’s right, it looks like Sky Sports F1’s race day programme will be split into four for the 2015 season. The schedule for the Australian Grand Prix shows this…

– 03:30 to 04:00 – Live Australian GP: Track Parade
– 04:00 to 04:30 – Live Australian GP: Pit Lane Live
– 04:30 to 07:30 – Live Australian GP: Race Show
– 07:30 to 08:15 – Live Australian GP: Paddock Live

As of writing, Malaysia still shows the ‘old style’ schedule, with no Pit Lane Live, but it may a case of that it just hasn’t been updated yet.

Either way, clearly Sky think that the three individual shows, at least from an EPG and ratings perspective, worked in 2014, and have decided to add a fourth show for 2015. Of course, the total run-time is identical, its just the number of shows that looks likely to be increasing.

BBC confirm 2015 plans as Sky drops online Race Control

It has been a busy two days in F1 broadcasting land, with both BBC and Sky holding their annual media days.

The BBC have officially confirmed their 2015 team which, as expected, is identical to their 2014 team. The main bit of news is that Suzi Perry will be presenting an F1 Rewind programme on BBC iPlayer and the Red Button, which is essentially a repackaged classic race. It also will be turning up on BBC Two, presumably on Saturday’s when the European season starts, as has been the case recently with their FA Cup Rewind programming. On 5 Live, Jack Nicholls will be commentating on five rounds (China, Austria, Hungary, Japan and Russia) with James Allen the lead commentator on the other 14 rounds.

BBC Head of F1, Ben Gallop, says: “With the current World Champion writing exclusively for the BBC, our access and insight into Formula 1 cannot be beaten. Across TV, radio and online, our top-class team will get audiences as close as possible to the starting grid, paddock, pit-lane and track – bringing expert analysis and insight throughout the race weekend. We are all hugely looking forward to the 2015 season and delivering every moment of Lewis Hamilton’s defending season to millions of F1 fans.”

This season, it looks like the BBC’s web offering for their live races will now be more expansive than Sky’s. The latter have decided to tailor their Race Control offering to just iPad and Red Button, dropping the web version entirely, which seems like a silly decision to me. When asked by this blog whether they would be dropping the online version of Race Control, Sky said “Yes that is right, we are going with iPad and red button.” I can’t speak for others, but I used Race Control online whenever Sky Go was playing up, so I’m disappointed to see it disappear. Whether it is related to costs, I don’t know. I do wonder if this will also be the case for Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia as well…

On the brighter side, Sky say that, they will “offer eight individual on board feeds from different cars on the Race Control iPad app”, a total of 14 live streams.

Scheduling: The 2015 Australian Grand Prix

Three and a half months after Lewis Hamilton won the 2014 championship, Formula 1 is back! The first round of 2015 takes place at Albert Park, Melbourne, traditionally the season opener. Whilst there have been a lot of high profile changes in the driver line-up, with Sebastian Vettel heading to Ferrari and Fernando Alonso off to McLaren, it has been an extremely quiet off-season on the broadcasting side of things.

Both BBC and Sky are, as of writing, fielding the same teams as last season. Suzi Perry returns as presenter of BBC’s coverage. She will again be joined by Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard, the latter also alongside Ben Edwards in the commentary box. Tom Clarkson and Lee McKenzie round off BBC’s television team. Over on radio, Jennie Gow will lead the coverage. James Allen and Allan McNish will commentate on proceedings, with Jack Nicholls commentating on several rounds in place of Allen. Gow is ITV’s Formula E presenter, and will not be in Melbourne, which may in turn explain the skeleton BBC radio schedule for Australia. Commentary should turn up on the BBC Sport website, though.

Meanwhile the situation on Sky Sports F1 remains the same as 2014. Simon Lazenby heads into year four as Formula 1 presenter, alongside him on rotation is Anthony Davidson, Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and Bruno Senna. Ted Kravitz, Natalie Pinkham and Rachel Brookes will continue to trawl pitlane, with Martin Brundle and David Croft on commentary. One thing worth pointing out is that it appears there will be more integration with Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia this year based on their testing coverage, so don’t be surprised if Tanja Bauer turns up periodically this season.

As has been the case since the shared deal came into effect in 2012, Sky Sports F1 are covering the weekend exclusively live, with highlights on BBC One. The programming slate is largely identical to 2014, although BBC TV’s run-times are shorter due to the Six Nations, whilst over on Sky, there are not many new classic races and qualifying is being simulcast live on Sky1 and Sky Sports 1. Elsewhere, Formula E is back with round five of their season from Miami. The aforementioned Jennie Gow presents the coverage from ITV’s London studios with Mark Priestley and Jann Mardenborough joining her as guests. Below are all the scheduling details you need…

BBC F1
BBC One
11/03 – 23:15 to 00:25 – 2014 Review (R)
14/03 – 12:50 to 14:00 – Qualifying Highlights
15/03 – 13:15 to 14:40 – Race Highlights

BBC News Channel
13/03 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1
14/03 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1

BBC Red Button
10/03 – 22:00 – Season Preview

BBC Radio 5 Live
05/03 – 19:30 to 20:00 – Season Preview
12/03 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Australia Preview
15/03 – 04:30 to 07:00 – Race

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
13/03 – 01:00 to 03:20 – Practice 1
13/03 – 05:15 to 07:30 – Practice 2
14/03 – 02:45 to 04:15 – Practice 3
14/03 – 05:00 to 07:45 – Qualifying (also Sky1 and Sky Sports 1)
14/03 – 06:00 to 08:45 – Qualifying (Sky1 +1)
15/03 – 03:30 to 08:15 – Race
=> 03:30 – Track Parade
=> 04:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 04:30 – Race
=> 07:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
06/03 – 20:00 to 21:00 – The F1 Show
06/03 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Mercedes F1 Team: Road to 2015
07/03 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Sauber’s Secrets of F1
12/03 – 04:00 to 04:30 – Driver Press Conference
12/03 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Australia
13/03 – 07:30 to 08:15 – Team Press Conference
13/03 – 09:30 to 10:30 – The F1 Show
18/03 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

NEW Classic Races
10/03 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 1999 Canadian Grand Prix
20/03 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1995 Pacific Grand Prix Highlights

Formula E – Miami (online via FIAFormulaE.com)
14/03 – 12:10 to 13:10 – Practice 1
14/03 – 14:25 to 15:10 – Practice 2
14/03 – 15:45 to 17:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Miami (ITV4)
14/03 – 19:00 to 21:30 – Race
15/03 – 10:00 to 11:00 – Highlights

If anything changes, I’ll update the post as usual.

Update on March 5th – Some changes based on confirmation of BBC line-up, along with Sky’s race day changes.

Update on March 8th – The 1995 Pacific Grand Prix, which was scheduled for Monday 9th March on Sky Sports F1, has disappeared. In its place is a repeat of the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Update on March 12th – The 1995 Pacific Grand Prix has returned, in highlights form, which will air on Friday 20th March. Also of note is the fact that, for Australia at least, Natalie Pinkham is presenting the Midweek Report alongside Mike Gascoyne and David Brabham. Hopefully Anna Woolhouse is back later this year as the Midweek Report was much more watchable than The F1 Show at points last year, in my opinion.