uk f1 tv coverage - sky, bbc and ch4

[Rob29]

Originally Posted by S griffin

The only motorsport the BBC covers these days is F1 on Five Live. And also the odd documentary on the telly

This reply had me even more baffled-guess you mean the sound radio channel? Last race I recall listening to was the 1955 British GP at Aintree

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Rob29

Read somewhere that Sky are going to rename their sport channels-maybe I can cancel my subscription to all but the F1 channel which is the only one that covers any sport that I follow

Apparently, 1-2-3-4-5 will be renamed Football 1, Football 2, Cricket, Golf and Arena.

Not the best idea, since they may need to air four football matches, or two tennis matches.

In South America, ESPN has four feeds: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPN+. They air ads for events in any of the other feeds. So no matter what you are watching, you will get ads for UEFA, rugby, golf, tennis, MotoGP, NFL or whatever.

Fox Sports has three feeds. However, they only show ads of events on the respective channel. So unless you put Fox Sports 3 (former Speed), you won't see any motorsport ad. And if you don't put Fox Sports 2, you won't see any ad of North American sports or tennis.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by AdrianM

By that token you could say a gentleman driver is the only pure racing driver as he's doing it for the love of it whereas professional drivers cram as many sponsors in as they can.

I think there are plenty of pro drivers who also do it for the love of it - but have that beautiful additional incentive of being paid to do it.....


It's a bit like me, I go to work as a civil servant because I love it and I'm paid to do it....... Erm, now I come to think of it, that might not quite be the God's honest truth........

[Adam43]

NaBUru38, I see your point as it gives less flexibility. However I'm up for it as I can chose the couple I want (I understand that is the idea).

Obviously on the Beeb, ITV and sky points it isn't clear cut. However I was expressing a general trend that I agree does hold pretty true. It was not meant to be an absolute. Obviously BBC does require some good ratings and can have dumbed down programmes (e.g. Jeremy Vine's lunch time show were people can only deal in absolutes). It has also been known for ITV to make a good programme, although I think the last was Brideshead Revisited.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Wishing Martin Brundle the best of health, he took unwell with a stomach complaint off camera during Sky's pre-race show, it was refreshing to hear a race co-commentary by Paul Di Resta.

[djinvicta]

I'm sorry, but since cancelling my VPN connection for Sky F1 last week, I today watched Channel 4 live.
Ben...who? Screaming, flustered, excited when someone is 6 seconds behind...
Absolute crap commentating...And shut up about Hamilton Ben....Bet he has a picture over his bed to bash Bishops with....

[BSchneiderFan]

I think that's harsh; for me Ben Edwards and DC make a good pairing. And, to be fair, it was a commanding performance by Hamilton. I'd choose C4's coverage over Sky every time.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I liked the addition of Jenson Button to C4. I hope it wasn't just a one off because of the British GP.

[Born Racer]

I was thinking about commentary recently and noticed that despite some memorable commentators (Murray springs to mind) who excel and what they do, much good commentary is very unobtrusive. I watched the Austrian Grand Prix somewhere over the net and changed streamer. It was David and Martin from Sky. When I returned for the last ten laps, it was Ben and David and I didn't even notice it had changed until after the race.

[djinvicta]

Martin far far better. At least he keeps his composure. Fed up with a screaming excitable Ben..calm down man. Half of what he screamed about never happened.

[S griffin]

Ben doesn't scream like some do, he raises his tone more than his voice and his passion is there for all to see. Add to the fact that he's done plenty of other motorsports in his time and you see why people have often thought him the best. And it would be good to see Button do more punditry work in the future. Of course we first saw his broadcasting skills on ITV at Monaco in 2005 and he did a good job then

[Paradise City]

I've the blinkers on with Edwards because he takes me right back to the glory days of Eurosport. So he could start speakin' in a Japanese shriek and I'd probably still let him off the hook. It's actually Coulthard that I have found annoying because he has (or had) the tendency to pepper his commentary with stock words and phrases.

I haven't watched any of Ch4's output this year in part due to my Jordanphobia and Sky's team are very strong. I'm also unsure as to what they are showing live so off to Sky I go for the convenience of it.

And diResta did well. His was a very solid effort considering the short notice. Good to see it was only a minor issue with Brundle.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

I've never been able to take to Edwards on this his most recent adventure into F1. Back in the F1 Digital days he was OK but I can't stand John Watson as a co-commentator.

I agree that Edwards commentary on other motorsports in the past has been very good.

[old man]

Ed Straw makes some good points on Autosport when talking about how TV could add more to the spectacle of FI and in particular the cornering speeds.
The big difference between F1 & Moto GP is that you can see what the rider/driver is doing in a corner. The actual corner speed will be much less on the bike than F1 and the skill of the F1 driver makes it look smooth and less spectacular so Straw is making suggestions of graphics to illustrate the speed.
Pictures of the cars through sweeping bends with direction change are good and I agree with him that comparisons between different cars and drivers through such a sequence would also be interesting to see.
I have said in other comments that I found the entry speed to Brooklands more spectacular with GP3 than F1 for some reason I could not fathom.
More must be done to add to the viewing experience.

[S griffin]

Yes, that has long been a problem, the TV pictures don't do justice to the speed of the car

[Sodemo]

I think a lot of cameras are purely there for the purposes are providing coverage of a given area, so down a straight = have the camera at the end of the corner. Need to have more whip pan cameras towards the end of straights and also locked off cameras in corners with a low-ish shutter speed. Quite a number of motorsport cameras have their shutter speeds too high, you need it to be at the right level to introduce motion blur, but not too much that its unwatchable.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I think a lot of cameras are purely there for the purposes are providing coverage of a given area, so down a straight = have the camera at the end of the corner. Need to have more whip pan cameras towards the end of straights and also locked off cameras in corners with a low-ish shutter speed. Quite a number of motorsport cameras have their shutter speeds too high, you need it to be at the right level to introduce motion blur, but not too much that its unwatchable.

A lot of these cameras at the end of straights are also to maximise advert coverage. Stick Rolex banners behind the cars and hold the camera on the straight for a while = $$

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

A lot of these cameras at the end of straights are also to maximise advert coverage. Stick Rolex banners behind the cars and hold the camera on the straight for a while = $$

Oh yes, without doubt. I worked for a while for a motorsports TV company and was specifically told to hold shots and frame shots on advert hoardings.

[NaBUru38]

Monaco is a blatant example. Cameras really make ads stand out.

[chillibowl]

wasnt sure were to post this, but the official F1 web site just posted a link to the full 2001 Malaysian GP...which i think is the first time i have seen them do this.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/f...rand-prix.html

just watched a bit so far and i think its the original ITV commentary crew minus any ITV (or other) broadcaster logo.

not seeing any details about what licencing/legal issues were involved with showing an old broadcast in full but clearly it is possible and a perhaps a sign that more 'classic' races will be shown online and for free...which is pretty cool imo.

some flack for the new owners for more talk then action but bit by bit (including the recent deal with French broadcasters for more FTA race coverage in France) things appear to be moving in a positive direction.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

FOM who own that website, "own the rights" to all the event broadcast content from any given event including the commentaries from all the national broadcasters. As such they can use it as they wish. I'm not sure how it works in terms of rebroadcast royalties for the commentators

As part of the national broadcast rights, FOM include some highlights or full race content, this is the reason that for example Sky can show a race from the ITV era with the ITV commentators with out having to credit ITV as the source.

[Akrapovic]

FOM are currently claiming the rights to the ELMS 4 Hours of Spa event too, which is amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IdSvYTyLE8

Watched the whole thing. Don't recall any F1 going on. It'd be nice of FOM would stop being so aggressive, especially with things that don't belong to them.

[djinvicta]

Except FOM have blocked it!!

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

FOM are currently claiming the rights to the ELMS 4 Hours of Spa event too, which is amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IdSvYTyLE8

Watched the whole thing. Don't recall any F1 going on. It'd be nice of FOM would stop being so aggressive, especially with things that don't belong to them.

Originally Posted by djinvicta

Except FOM have blocked it!!

This is one of the reasons why many National series are reluctant to attend the F1 weekends. FOM crews are the only ones allowed to film the track action all weekend, and so if the National series has it's own TV deal, they can't bring in their own cameras. If they want the footage they have to pay FOM for it.

In Aus, the V8s used to (I'm not sure if it's still the case) run a non championship round at the GP, because their TV contract is for the Championship events to be covered. It would be up to either the V8 series or host broadcaster of the V8s buy the coverage from FOM, but of course there wouldn't be any regular series sponsor banners around the track, only the F1 official sponsors.

[Akrapovic]

Yes, but AFAIK, FOM was not involved in the ELMS race at Spa. It was an ELMS standalone event, with nothing F1 related. The Le Mans Cup support race is still active on YouTube, as it should be too - it's streamed by the series itself.

FOM have blocked a video that is owned by ELMS.