BBC and Sky confirm 2015 coverage details

BBC Sport and Sky Sports have today confirmed their 2015 calendar picks. The picks are as follows:

2015 Schedule Details
March 15th – Australia (Melbourne) – Sky
March 29th – Malaysia (Sepang) – BBC and Sky
April 12th – China (Shanghai) – Sky
April 19th – Bahrain (Sakhir) – BBC and Sky
May 10th – Spain (Barcelona) – Sky
May 24th – Monaco (Monaco) – Sky
June 7th – Canada (Montreal) – BBC and Sky
June 21st – Austria (Red Bull Ring) – Sky
July 5th – Britain (Silverstone) – BBC and Sky
July 19th – Germany (TBA) – Sky
July 26th – Hungary (Budapest) – BBC and Sky
August 23rd – Belgium (Spa) – BBC and Sky
September 6th – Italy (Monza) – Sky
September 20th – Singapore (Marina Bay) – Sky
September 27th – Japan (Suzuka) – BBC and Sky
October 11th – Russia (Sochi) – BBC and Sky
October 25th – USA (Circuit of the Americas) – Sky
November 1st – Mexico (Mexico City) – Sky
November 15th – Brazil (Interlagos) – BBC and Sky
November 29th – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) – BBC and Sky

Both teams appear to be the same as in 2014, with Sky confirming their team on the website. Interestingly, there are no changes, although I assume that Natalie Pinkham will not be travelling to the early races with Sky. The F1 Show will be returning to the channel (date TBC) along with GP2 and GP3, but testing will not be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Live updates however will be provided on Sky Sports News. Following clarification with Sky, the mention of “live pre-season testing from Barcelona and Jerez in February” in the press release refers to the live updates on Sky Sports News only.

BBC’s Head of F1, Ben Gallop said: “Like all F1 fans, we can’t wait for the 2015 season. With Lewis Hamilton as World Champion, F1 in Britain is in a great position and we’re delighted with our race package. These live races, combined with our ever-popular highlights programmes and our extensive coverage on radio and online means F1 fans can follow every step of Hamilton’s title defence on the BBC.”

Sky Sports F1’s executive producer Martin Turner said: “All eyes are on world champion Lewis Hamilton and Sky Sports F1 will be the only place to follow every race of his title defence. There are so many exciting story lines next season and we’ll cover every twist and turn from Australia to Abu Dhabi.”

There is no major surprises above. Bahrain may be considered a surprise, however it has a more prominent slot now which justifies BBC showing it live. I find it interesting how BBC are showing four out of the ten European races live, their first European race is not until July. In general, the BBC picks are more lop-sided towards the latter half of the season, which makes sense considering how the 2014 title race went. For those unfamiliar, the pick order goes as follows:

– BBC pick 1, 2 and 3
– Sky pick 4, 5 and 6
– BBC pick 7
– Sky pick 8

Shockingly, I predicted 14 out of the 20 picks correctly, which is pleasing! What this does mean is that, there is not a lot to change from my guesstimates to reality. As predicted, BBC picked Britain, Abu Dhabi and Brazil, presumably learning from their mistake in 2014 where Brazil was concerned. Sky countered with USA and Mexico, at this point things diverged. I predicted that Sky would take Canada ahead of Monaco. As it turned out, Sky considered Monaco ahead of Canada, presumably because Monaco is a blue ribboned event and is good for advertising and press releases.

So, BBC at this stage went for Canada in my opinion. I thought Sky would go for Bahrain, but again Australia is probably the better pick because of its season opening slot, with BBC grabbing Bahrain. Bahrain previously would be one of the least preferred races, but its mid-afternoon slot, and potentially the great 2014 race, has upped its stock. Sky picking Spain is surprising given that BBC have aired it live from 2012 to 2014, so that must have been earlier in the pick process. From there, the picks alternate between the two sides until all races have been picked.

I think both sides will be pleased with how things have turned out. The important thing for the BBC was getting a good run in, which they have with four of the last six races live, whilst Sky have the season opener and Monaco.

PL 100 – F1 style

Yesterday before The FA Cup action began, I was watching an episode of PL 100 Club on Sky Sports.

The idea behind PL 100 Club is simple. It is “a celebration of some of the finest goalscorers in Barclays Premier League history”, those that have scored over one hundred goals have an episode dedicated to them, hence the programme title. The episode that I watched featured Robbie Keane. At thirty minutes in length, it showed some of his best goals from his time in the Premier League. I did not count the number of goals, but I’d estimate that about 25 to 30 goals were shown, this was interspersed with mini VT’s as Keane moved between clubs.

As I say, its an incredibly simple programme, making great use of the Premier League archive. You don’t need to know a lot about Keane to watch the programme, it can be background viewing at times. I also think that you can apply programming of this nature to Formula 1. I’ve suggested before about how Sky could utilise the Summer break where Classic F1 races are concerned so that viewers can follow a single season, or potentially create retrospective documentaries of a race weekend.

I suggest a programme called F1 20 Overtakes if you’re to use the same style as the Premier League programme. To continue along those lines, the programme would be a celebration of some of the finest overtakers in Formula 1 history. Making sure that a programme like that would actually be possible, I went on YouTube, typed in “schumacher overtake” and listed the first twenty below.

Schumacher overtakes
1. Alain Prost (1993 Belgium Grand Prix)
2. Jean Alesi (1995 European Grand Prix)
3. Jean Alesi (1996 Spanish Grand Prix)
4. Jacques Villeneuve (1996 Spanish Grand Prix)
5. Alex Wurz (1998 Monaco Grand Prix)
6. Damon Hill (1998 Canadian Grand Prix)
7. Mika Hakkinen (1998 British Grand Prix)
8. Mika Hakkinen (1998 Italian Grand Prix)
9. Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli (2000 Belgium Grand Prix)
10. David Coulthard (2000 US Grand Prix)
11. Kimi Raikkonen (2003 Austrian Grand Prix)
12. Jarno Trulli (2003 German Grand Prix)
13. Fernando Alonso (2006 Chinese Grand Prix)
14. Kimi Raikkonen (2006 Canadian Grand Prix)
15. Giancarlo Fisichella (2006 Brazilian Grand Prix)
16. Nick Heidfeld (2006 Brazilian Grand Prix)
17. Kimi Raikkonen (2006 Brazilian Grand Prix)
18. Fernando Alonso (2010 Monaco Grand Prix)
– the illegal overtake
19. Kamui Kobayashi and Felipe Massa (2011 Canadian Grand Prix)
20. Kamui Kobayashi (2012 Italian Grand Prix)

Whilst it is great to have Classic F1 races and Legends shows on the channel, you have to appreciate that there is a portion of the audience who want something to ‘dip in and out’ of during non-race weekends, I question whether any of Sky F1’s programming achieved that during 2014. Plus, many can put 30 minutes aside to watch a programme of the nature described, whereas two hours for classic races is more difficult. You could have a lot of different episodes in an overtaking strand: Schumacher as mentioned, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Juan Montoya and Ayrton Senna to name a few. In the case of the latter two, it would be a nice companion programme to their respective Legends of F1 programming already aired.

As always, the issue is getting access to the footage. Sky have been broadcasting the Premier League since its inception, but only Formula 1 since 2012. This means that Sky would need to get the footage for the races mentioned from Formula One Management (FOM), BBC or ITV if they wanted to screen programmes of that nature. Or better still, FOM could produce programmes such as F1 20 themselves, and distribute it to broadcasters.

Looking ahead to 2015

2014 has been a fascinating year in the world of motor sport broadcasting, from the launch of BT Sport’s MotoGP series to the launch of the Formula E series. 2015 looks like it will be another intriguing year with plenty of news lines heading into the New Year and beyond.

Something I was expecting to be announced last week did not happen. Normally, the BBC and Sky 2015 picks are revealed before Christmas, as has been the case previously. Presumably, the reason for the delay is because neither broadcaster expects Korea to appear in the finalised calendar. I would be surprised if there was a separate reason, but we shall see. The picks will need to be confirmed in the first few weeks of January, so that both sides can start publicity, in particular Sky where their exclusive races are concerned.

Another story that will be followed throughout the first few months of 2015 are the Premier League highlights rights, which went out to tender recently. The Guardian reported in November that ITV are going to bid for the highlights contract. It goes without saying that the Premier League highlights, through their Match of the Day brand, is the most important contract that BBC Sport currently hold. Any attempt to destabilise BBC Sport’s portfolio could have major consequences. The early rumour was that Wimbledon could be split between BBC and BT Sport, although this has been denied. Let us hope that any change does not effect the current BBC F1 package…

Formula One Management’s social media expansion is set to continue into 2015, with the relaunch of Formula1.com. What exactly will the new website bring? Furthermore, based on Marissa Pace’s recent comments, we may well see an official Formula 1 channel on YouTube in 2015. Elsewhere, BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage enters year two, and Formula E will be entering year two in September. From a UK perspective, I hope year two remains live on ITV, but we won’t know the answer to that question for many months yet. 2015 looks set to be another intriguing year on and off the track as Formula 1 heads into its second season with the V6 power units.

The best and worst of Sky’s F1 coverage in 2014

Sky Sports F1’s ratings have increased 23 percent on 2013, according to unofficial overnight viewing figures. Alongside this, the consensus amongst blog readers is that the product has improved on 2013, suggesting that things are definitely heading up for the team.

As with the BBC, there are areas of Sky’s product which have been superb. However, there are still a few points in my eyes which could be tweaked, or should be changed altogether.

Best
Revolutionary features
When it was announced that Sky Sports would be launching their own Formula 1 channel, they promised to push the boundaries of what would be possible with the coverage. That did not happen, in my eyes. Some of the features produced were longer in length than BBC’s, but not necessarily better (Martin Brundle driving a Ferrari one of the early examples). 2013 was not great for the team, but this season, they have taken a significant step forward where the quality of features are concerned. Normally, Sky’s pre-race build-up contains Martin Brundle’s grid walk, but Sky went down a different avenue at Monza.

For Italy, Sky went behind the scenes with Williams, tracing their every step from garage all the way to the starting grid. It was something that I had never seen before, it was superb television viewing. Sometimes, a viewer does not appreciate just how much effort goes into the start procedure, the feature with Williams and Brundle really brought the build-up into the viewers home and gave the viewer a perfect insight into what happens before the race begins. I hope we see more features like this during 2015.

Ted’s Notebook
Rain or shine, Ted Kravitz’s Notebook continues to be a cornerstone of Sky Sports F1’s coverage, both on TV and online. Kravitz’s Notebook began when he was with the BBC, although the quantity has increased in the past few years on Sky Sports F1. You could argue that quality is more important than quantity, normally, I would agree with that statement, but the Notebook is a different kettle of fish.

I don’t watch the Notebook for the best technically produced product, I watch it to see Kravitz going up and down the paddock giving the viewer information along with a mixture of gossip and behind the scenes information. It is completely different to the rest of the output on Sky Sports F1 which makes it stand out from the rest of the channel.

#AskCrofty
A great way of creating debate on social media, #AskCrofty has once again been an interesting read in 2014. Sometimes I laugh and despair at the questions asked, however I appreciate the openness of doing something of that nature over social media. In some instances, the questions have influenced their live TV broadcast, as the reaction to Adam Parr’s tweet in September showed. #AskCrofty led to David Croft doing a live show based on the hash tag at the end of the season, which was brilliant to watch, generating more reaction on social media than your typical episode of The F1 Show.

Worst
US Grand Prix build-up
I wanted to make this point a separate blog at the time, but sadly time constraints meant that I was unable to. The US Grand Prix build-up was probably Sky’s worst of the entire year. The actual features in a standalone context were good, with Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill trying out NASCAR and a selection of sports stars focussing on the psychology. The problem was that both features were completely out of place on a weekend when only 18 cars lined up on the grid. 90 percent of the programme was focussed on the Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg title battle.

The entire race programme was simulcast on Sky Sports 1, in an attempt to capitalise on a Super Sunday football game prior to it and to bring some casual fans into the picture. You can understand from that perspective why Sky developed features to cater for those who may not be regular Formula 1 fans. I know they talked about Formula 1’s issues in the qualifying show, but even so, the issues facing Formula 1 on race day were brushed under the carpet as a result of the simulcast.

Punditry
With financial issues being a key talking point throughout the season as a result of the new formula, Sky have not been helped by having too many pundits that are former drivers. Whilst the Brundle piece with Peter Windsor debating potential changes for 2015 was a good feature later in the season, not having any ex team bosses or ex team personnel in their programming hurt them. Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill may be okay to talk about driver issues, but when it comes to issues off the track, the programming is hurt as a result of not having enough variety.

A separate issue to do with the punditry, but under the same banner concerns the bias surrounding Lewis Hamilton, which was noticeable during the US Grand Prix build-up as mentioned above, however the bias that Sky may have shown pales in comparison to that displayed in other countries in recent years.

VT’s
Sky have made some fantastic improvements, their programming feels more ‘fluid’ than it once did. Their features overall have improved as well. But there is something about the majority of their VT’s that does not click. Some of the VT’s come across as a ‘cartoon’-like in nature whilst the poetry aspect in the end of season VT seemed out of place. This is one area for me where Sky still languishes behind the BBC. I don’t feel as much connection with the VT’s that Sky Sports produce compared to the VT’s that BBC produce.

There are a few other points worth making, such as the scheduling, it would be great if GP2 was more integrated into the programming, but I think that boat sailed a long time ago. Overall, Sky Sports F1 has made some major strides forward in 2014, which has been reflected in the viewing figures. If there is a British driver in the 2015 championship race, there is no reason why the viewing figures cannot continue to improve, with the quality of Sky’s broadcasts improving alongside it.

UK F1 viewing figures record slight year-on-year drop

Lewis Hamilton’s championship victory may have brought joy to both BBC and Sky Sports F1’s ratings in the latter half of the season but despite this, viewing figures are down year-on-year according to unofficial overnight viewing figures. Whereas 2013’s figures dropped sharply after the Summer break, the 2014 season has seen the opposite occur.

> BBC average figures drop year-on-year
> Sky record highest figures since channel launch
> Numbers still down on 2009-11 figures

As always, for those that are new to the blog, it is best stating what figures we are comparing here. For Sky Sports F1, all the viewing figures are for the three and a half hour race day slot: one hour before the race and approximately 45 minutes after the race. I have used the equivalent slots for 2012 and 2013 to present a fair and complete picture, there would be little use in presenting a skewed picture, so all data is for the equivalent timeslots. Over on BBC, I have used their programme averages, whether it be live or highlights, irrespective of whether the highlights were shown on BBC One or BBC Two, as was the case for Bahrain and Austria this year. Repeats are taken into account for Asian-based races that the BBC showed live. As always, viewing figures are for TV only. iPlayer, Sky Go and the such like are not included.

The 2014 story
It is worth a reminder that, in my Summer post, I stated that the UK’s audience for Formula 1 had “dropped to their lowest level since 2008.” Luckily, that has not happened. Thanks to a British driver winning the championship, numbers have increased. Crucially though, have numbers increased as much as expected, and has the scheduling hit the numbers badly?

Sky Sports F1’s race day programme has averaged 790k from 12:00 to 15:30, or equivalent across 2014. That number is up a massive 23.4 percent on 2013’s figure of 640k and up 11.1 percent on 2012’s figure of 711k. Whichever way you spin that, for Sky, those are very positive numbers. Things were not looking good for Sky during 2013 with numbers falling, but this year, they have turned it around, and then some more, to record an average higher than both 2012 and 2013. Back in the Summer, I was taking about a “meagre 22k.” The numbers bandied around above are much bigger than 22k, and in my opinion is definitely something worth recognising.

So, why the increase? Better picks? Absolutely. Having both USA and Brazil exclusively during the title run in would have done the average wonders. But even then, it is more than just that. In fact, 14 out of 16 races recorded increases between 2013 and 2014 on Sky Sports F1 (the other four didn’t take place), so even the races where Sky shared coverage with BBC did the numbers increase. That suggests to me that viewers are liking the product that Sky are putting out, otherwise they would not be tuning in to their pre and post-race shows. The substantial increase correlates with feedback on this blog to suggest that people are liking Sky’s race day show more than previously. Sky’s figures are no fluke, in my opinion.

The BBC’s figures dropped year-on-year by 5.9 percent, recording an average of 3.22m versus 3.42m in 2013. Numbers are up slightly on 2012’s average of 3.21m, although those two numbers are within the margin of error to be statistically insignificant. Scheduling was not great. Bahrain and Austria were both screened on BBC Two in highlights form, USA and Brazil, two races bound to draw big audiences if shown live, were shown as highlights. Under this current agreement, I feel that there will be a yearly discussion about what things could/could not have been done differently as a result. With USA, Brazil and Mexico back to back in 2015, BBC will not be able to screen all three live, although at least one of the three will be screened live.

Still down on BBC only days
The combined average of 4.01m is up 2.3 percent on 2012’s 3.92m, but down 1.3 percent on 2013’s average of 4.06m. What is fascinating to me is the closeness of those three figures despite the complete parallels that each of those three seasons faced. 2012 had a battle between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso until the end. 2013 arguably peaked in Malaysia from a fan perspective, with figures tumbling in the latter half of the season. In contrast, 2014 started with backlash from the wider media over the sound, or lack of, developing into a rivalry between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, inevitably helping the British figures in the final half of the year due to Hamilton’s involvement. I would suggest that it is a coincidence that the three years line up next to each other, although astonishing at the same time.

However, the 2011 season averaged 4.5m, a 10 percent drop. In fact, 2009, 2010 and 2011 all averaged higher than 2014. It will be, for me, an age old question of whether figures are really down 10 percent versus 2011, or whether more people are now watching Formula 1 via tablets, smart phones and as thus not being included in those figures. I don’t know. I’m not sure whether FOM even know the exact answer to that statement. For some people, 2009 through to 2011 will always be the barometer of Formula 1 coverage in the UK. Whether a group of fans bailed out of watching every race live at the end of 2011, I don’t know. I think it should probably be noted that a lot of shows have dropped year-on-year (the majority of ITV’s schedule is just one example), so in comparison, F1 has done well to hold onto the majority of its existing audience.

My own opinion is that viewing figures are down versus the BBC only days. That is an undeniable fact. When you include other devices, I think 2014 would close the gap in on 2011 slightly. Not significantly, as it seems clear to me that people have moved on. Sadly this is something that you cannot prove statistically, but anecdotally. If you were to grab a few people who have watched F1 at some stage in the past few years, chances are they would tell you that they are watching less F1 than when every race was live on BBC One, because it is not as readily available now as it was previously.

Heading into 2015
Whilst the overall picture is not exciting, the movement of viewers between BBC and Sky is somewhat interesting. There has been a 10 percent shift from BBC to Sky, although whether these are new viewers watching Sky’s coverage, or returning viewers to the channel from 2012, it is impossible to tell. It will be intriguing to see if Sky can continue the upwards swing heading into 2015, or whether BBC can claw back a few viewers off Sky that they have lost during 2014.

A BBC spokesperson said “In what has been a fantastic year with a wealth of sport available to watch on the BBC including the Winter Olympics, World Cup and Commonwealth Games we’re delighted with our F1 coverage this season which reached an impressive 26.1m people. This was undoubtedly helped by a brilliant season finale – Abu Dhabi was the most watched race of the season, with 6.5m people tuning in.”