BBC vs Sky

The BBC has announced the plans for their scaled down Formula 1 coverage next year. You can find the full details here on the BBC website.

In short the BBC will show ten races live including all practice and qualifying sessions, with the other potential ten having race highlights packages of 90 minutes for European races and 2hours for early race starts.

Now I’m a firm believer in watching sports events live, but the BBC are not just going to cover the non-live races from a Manchester studio, they’re still sending what seems like a full presentation team to all races.

What concerns me about that is that when they’re going to the expense of flying their staff over to the races then obviously they’ll be a fair amount of pre-race coverage and post-race analysis, otherwise what would be the point? But is that really needed when the event will have been shown on Sky Sports hours earlier, with many viewers perhaps knowing the result already?

And if you have deliberately avoided the result, surely you’ll want as much of the race covered as possible to have as much as a live experience as you can in the current circumstances, assuming many F1 fans don’t buy into the Sky Sports package, costing as it does £40 a month.

Another thing to strike me is the races the BBC have picked to cover live. Now the two broadcasters took it in turns to pick  which events they wanted to broadcast or have exclusivity for, it seems the BBC have ended up with the short straw.

They’ve ended up with both the Spanish races, which with no disrespect intended aren’t traditionally the most thrilling in the world. However, BBC only viewers do get Monaco, Britain, Belgium and the final race of the season in Brazil covered live, although having said that it takes until the third race in China for live BBC coverage to start.

The BBC has provided the best Formula 1 coverage I have ever seen, brilliantly in depth, and that’ll at least continue ten times a year. They’re certain to maintain a lot of their current team, Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard are definite BBC men.

However, Martin Brundle looks likely to make a move to Sky, and pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz is rumoured to be joining him there. With a dedicated Formula 1 channel being announced for Sky, it looks like they’re going all out to create a truly immersive Formula 1 experience, although full details of their coverage have yet to be announced, but the likes of Brundle and Kravitz will be tempted at such opportunity.

It remains to be seen whether a dual commentary role could be applied for both Sky and BBC’s coverage as it would be a shame to split Brundle and Coulthard who have made a brilliant impression in their first year together, although again the likely rumour to be true is the David Croft from the BBC radio 5 live commentary team will be the lead commentator.

Sky has yet to confirm their presentation team or the full details of their coverage but at the price, a dedicated channel is definitely a good start.

However, is that enough for the average fan of which there are many? The BBC has recorded record figures with at least six million people tuning in regularly. I speculate that many won’t buy into Sky if they don’t already have it, and viewing figures will take a dive. It could drive many regular fans away whom are unhappy at the reduced terrestrial coverage and the potential separation of the BBC team which has welcomed many new people to the sport.

Overall despite the money Sky look like spending on their coverage, and it does look very promising, it still seems a shame that a compromise deal wasn’t reached with another terrestrial channel. Or even an option from Sky to sell each race at £5-£10 wouldn’t be as off-putting as the full £40 whack on the wallet.

But for now all that can be said is that Sky have a lot to live up to the award winning BBC team, although I have no doubt they’ll do a superb job in the end and there is still a lot to be decided by both broadcasters, but it still feels a bit like the British fans have been slightly short changed. We’ll see how it all pans out from Australia 2012.

Anyway the BBC aren't finished quite yet, with rain forecast for Brazil tomorrow it could be quite an action packed send off for their full live coverage!

edit: Martin Brundle has confirmed he is off to Sky next year. Not really a surprise, but it does give Sky instant credibility for their coverage from the start.