BBC F1 plans announced today (updated: full details below)
Melbourne will be the first BBC F1 broadcast for 13 years
The details of BBC’s F1 coverage this year are due to be announced in a press conference today.
We already know a lot about their TV plans for 2009. Today I expect some big announcements about their online coverage.
What we already know
Commentators
Jonathan Legard (former BBC F1 radio commentator) will be joined by former ITV man Martin Brundle in the commentary booth. Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie will supply added commentary from the pits.
Keep an eye on McKenzie’s Twitter profile as she’s planning to drop some early hints about the coverage on there this morning.
Studio coverage will be presented by Jake Humphrey with David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan.
Coverage
The early race coverage details seen last week indicate that not only will the races and qualifying be shown live, but the practice sessions as well. However it’s not clear if the Saturday practice will be shown (ITV missed it last year) and if it will just be confined to ‘red button’ coverage.
They also promise “interactive forums” during the race which are likely to take the same form as those used during football matches, where BBC’s live text reports include comments from people watching the game.
So why the press conference?
People usually call press conferences when they’ve got something to announce. But we already know a lot about what the BBC’s got planned for next year, which leads me to suspect they’ve got something big up their sleeves. What could it be?
We’ve had signals in recent weeks that the powers-that-be in Formula 1 have finally woken up to the existence of the internet. Max Mosley wants F1’s online coverage to improve, and FOTA will discuss it in their future F1 plans press conference next week.
Bernie Ecclestone, whose suspicion and hostility towards the internet (the ‘ether’, as he calls it) is well known, recently said it was the responsibility of television companies to cater for internet broadcasting.
The BBC has at least 19 years’ worth of archived “Grand Prix” programmes, covering most of the races from 1978 to 1996. Many F1 fans would love to be able to watch this material online legally – just look how popular such material is on Youtube and torrent sites.
At the moment the BBC can’t make use of that material because FOCA owns the copyright on it. Has Ecclestone lifted that restriction to allow BBC to use the material on their websites? Perhaps – a few months ago a video from the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park appeared on BBC Sport.
Three years ago Ashley Highfield, then the head of BBC’s Future Media and Technology Division, indicated this was a strategy BBC wished to pursue:
We’ve got one of the world’s largest archives, if not the largest archive. And yet, because we’ve got so few channels – routes to our audience – inevitably 99.9% of that content stays on the shelves. We ought to liberate it and make it available, how, when and where our audience would like to consumer it.
I expect much of tomorrow’s announcement to focus on how the BBC will cover F1 online.
And they might mention something about a certain song from Fleetwood Mac’s record-selling album, “Rumours”.
Share your thoughts on what the BBC is going to announce and post updates from the press conference below.
More on BBC’s 2009 F1 coverage
- How are you watching F1 in 2009?
- BBC to show F1 practice live
- BBC: No HD F1 in 2009
- How will BBC TV cover F1 in 2009?
- Want to watch F1 on BBC iPlayer from outside the UK? It’s not going to be easy
- How the BBC’s F1 intro should look
- BBC’s 2009 F1 team confirmed
- BBC’s 2009 F1 team: Legard, Brundle, Coulthard, Humphrey and McKenzie
Scott Joslin said on 24th February 2009, 18:33
Here are the proposed TV start times – Looks like we are not going to have much sleep for the first two race weekends if we are going to take advantage of the practice sessions:
* Practice: Friday 27 March, Red Button and BBC Sport website, 0125-0305 & 0525-0705
* Practice: Saturday 28 March, Red Button and BBC Sport website, 0255-0405
* Qualifying: Saturday 28 March, BBC One, 0500-0715
* Qualifying (re-run): Saturday 28 March, BBC One, 1300-1415
* Race: Sunday 29 March, BBC One, 0600-0900 (0700 race start)
* Interactive forum: Sunday 29 March, Red Button, 0900-1000
* Race (re-run): Sunday 29 March, BBC One, 1300-1500
* Highlights: Sunday 29 March, BBC Three, 1900-2000
Malaysian GP
* Practice: Friday 3 April, Red Button and BBC Sport website, 0255-0435 & 0655-0835
* Practice: Saturday 4 April, Red Button and BBC Sport website, 0655-0805
* Qualifying:, BBC One, 0900-1115
* Race: Sunday 5 April, BBC One, 0900-1200 (1000 race start)
* Interactive forum: Sunday 5 April, Red Button, 1200-1300
* Highlights: Sunday 5 April, BBC Three, 1900-2000
hitchcockm00 said on 24th February 2009, 21:32
I’m so excited!
I agree with Scott about the in-car feed though. As good as it’ll be I’ll probably spend the entire race flicking between the cars so I don’t miss the action….and as a result will miss all the action haha.
Need GP2 news though.
Clare msj said on 25th February 2009, 12:51
I’m really quite excited about F1 this year, the BBC and their coverage plans are just making me look forward to it even more. And the news that ‘The Chain’ is going to be back is brilliant! I’d have only been watching F1 about two years before it moved to ITV, yet I still associate ‘The Chain’ with the opening titles, such was its influence!
I agree with a couple of others though concerning the GP2, I’d quite like to hear something about that. Eurosports coverage for GP2 Asia was quite good, but not live, it was delayed by half hour – hour I think and whilst the delay wasnt really that long, its still better watching live. Plus Hulkenberg is in it this year, so I am extra excited about GP2 2009!
KingHamilton said on 25th February 2009, 16:24
THE CHAIN IS BACK!! (theoretically) Thats all that matters surely, we all know the beeb will do a splendid job.
Pointer said on 26th February 2009, 13:16
Fingers crossed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otA5sriGr_s&eurl=http://timesonline.typepad.com/formula_one/2009/02/the-greatest-sp.html
Snoopy said on 28th February 2009, 4:18
Well…this things dont help us in Australia. They show F1 allways about 3-4 hours later than real race time and because time different, its normally very late in the evening…sigh.
I only hope and cross my fingers that BBC commentators understand that not all people who watch F1 are Lewis Hamilton fans… It really did start irrotate when they said Lewis about 100 times during race lol.
manatcna said on 1st March 2009, 22:55
I deliberately listened to “The Chain” and I don’t understand why (almost) everybody thinks it’s so great.
BUT – How much will it gat played?