F1 gets internet coverage in USA
21st December 2009, 23:56 by Keith Collantine 54 Comments »
Speed TV has confirmed a new deal to broadcast F1 live in America – including the first deal to show official Formula 1 video online in the USA.
A statement from the channel said:
Speed will continue to offer its long-running live coverage of the FIA Formula One World Championship, including live coverage of qualifying and practice sessions.
As has been the case in recent years, four yet-to-be-named races will be shown live on Fox.
The deal to show F1 clips online is long overdue. American motor sports fans are used to a much higher quality of coverage from NASCAR and Indy Car racing including multiple live online feeds as well as HD footage.
F1 hasn’t had a race in America since 2007 and its following in the United States is best described as modest but passionate as Speed commentator Bob Varsha alluded to:
Anyone who was a part of the paddock fun at the old USGP at Indy knows that our fans are smart, loyal and vocal. I look forward to trying to give them what they expect on Grand Prix weekends for years to come.
We’ll have the biggest field of cars since the ’90s, so knockout qualifying will be crazier than ever. Three new teams, including one from here in the USA, new tracks, new rules, a new points system, no refuelling, narrower front tyres, the return of the Canadian Grand Prix and, we are told, the return of Michael Schumacher! What more can we ask?
Bob Varsha
What do American F1 fans think of Speed’s new deal? Do they do a good job of broadcasting F1?
Thanks to Gerard for the tip
F1 on TV
YeaMon said on 22nd December 2009, 0:06
FINALLY
Harry said on 22nd December 2009, 0:06
I miss living in the UK because their F1 broadcast are 100 times better than here in the US.
fototaker said on 7th May 2011, 23:11
yes, i AGREE with Harry. i live in southern Spain and can watch all the qualifying runs friday and saturday, plus the race on sunday FREE. in the USA where i am now, it’s such a pittance what little is shown, plus so difficult. in the USA, nothing is free.
rmac923 said on 22nd December 2009, 0:07
At least the FOX races are live, FINALLY!!! If I had to guess, the 4 races will be Canada, Valencia, Britain and Germany. (Since Canada and US GP’s were always shown live on Broadcast Stations, similar to US and Indy MotoGP races.)
sato113 said on 22nd December 2009, 0:36
why valencia? surely Monaco instead…
Jack said on 22nd December 2009, 5:20
Nah, American broadcast networks don’t care about Monaco, that’s Indy 500 weekend. It sounds unfortunate, but it means that Monaco is on Speed, not Fox. Fox is terrible at F1 broadcast.
Mouse_Nightshirt said on 22nd December 2009, 0:41
Well, if there is one way to turn America off F1, it’s to broadcast Valencia…
rmac923 said on 22nd December 2009, 1:38
It’s 4 straight races. So even if it starts with Monaco it’ll be Turkey, Canada, Valencia.
Plus, June through July is typically the time of the year when FOX shows F1. Any earlier, it could interfere with Nascar coverage. Any later, it interferes with the NFL. So it has to be in the Summer.
Jagged said on 22nd December 2009, 2:12
From the Speed announcement
There ts no mention of the Fox races being broadcast live, they will probably be shown tape delayed as they have been in the past (except of course for Canada if it is included in the four).
Keith Collantine said on 22nd December 2009, 9:13
You’re right, sorry about that.
rmstrong said on 22nd December 2009, 3:03
Fox races are not live. In fact they are the disgrace of the season. Usually, I know the results. They rarely show the podium and good luck with the interviews.
Speed does a good job. They used to seem in a quandary in the 90′s and early 2000 but now they have much improved. This is good news that will make a good show even better.
rmstrong said on 22nd December 2009, 3:04
Ooops. Forgive me. My mistake about the FOX issue.
Jagged said on 22nd December 2009, 3:22
Yes it’s pretty bad, they squeeze everything into a 2 hour time slot with about a quarter of it taken up by commercials!
Jess said on 22nd December 2009, 17:26
Well they have to pay the troll his money
Myles Woerner said on 22nd December 2009, 0:19
I still plan on keeping my $20 per month subscription to a UK proxy server so I can watch the BBC coverage online whenever I want.
muller said on 30th December 2009, 4:27
myles, what subsciption is that?
Sean said on 22nd December 2009, 0:44
Harry – for some reason I think the opposite of you. I’ve been living in the US for about 10 years and the current SpeedTV team of Varsha, Matchett and Hobbs is the most enjoyable commentary team I’ve heard since James Hunt and Murray Walker were together – before the latter became too old to be fully cogent.
Matchett’s technical insights and features are excellent, Varsha knows his stuff and is a serious motorsports all-rounder and Hobbs has a proper sense of humour – British old guard ex F1 and Le Mans racer that he is. Yes, they have their foibles, their pet loves and hates and so on but they also have a great, sincere camaraderie. Windsor – on his way out now of course – always had a keen insight or two even if he had a glossier view of F1 than I do and a few biases of his own.
Long may they shine on. As for the UK, I didn’t see much of the new team but I saw enough of the last one to be thankful for what I have, and my friends and family in the UK are less than awed. Brundle is a small treasure and I’ll always have time to listen to him, but the SpeedTV team could be way, way worse. As this article shows, things are generally getting better, not worse.
Dafizzner said on 22nd December 2009, 15:01
Agreed! Varsha, Matchett and Hobbs are the jam…
Harry said on 22nd December 2009, 17:21
Sean,
Dont get me wrong….
I like the SPEED team, especially Matchett’s technical comments as well as Hobbs Driver insight. I also really like Windor’s constant insight from the pit and his grid walk interviews. However, it does my head in when he gets on his ‘F1 is not about over taking’ rants. Varsha is tolerable, although a bit of a geek and a little to much self promoting at times. But I will take him over most others.
I am greatful that they do the FOX coverage as weell (For those who dont know – FOX owns SPEED so it is basically the same set up). It just irritates me no end that the FOX coverage is so stripped down without the aforementioned Grid Walks, Pre-Race show and Post race interviews & commentaries.
While I fully agree (but dont understand why) NASCAR is a lot more popular in the US than F1 – I dont understand why FOX’s F1 coverage is cut short in order to bring 4-6 hours of NASCAR Pre-Race, especially considering that 99% of it is crap that even the most die hard NASCAR fan could do without.
It should also be noted, as stated in another post, that the majority of NASCAR fans are in the South & Mid-West. I live in Orange County California and the people I know dont give a rats arse about NASCAR and most have never heard of F1.
I have been in the US since 96 so I have not seen any BBC/ITV F1 coverage in ages, save for the occasional vid posted here & there. I have no idea what there coverage is like now.
tom said on 22nd December 2009, 23:32
orange county here too – mission viejo. looking forward to the internet availability but not the FOX coverage with derek daley as commentator and the abbreviated coverage. f1 fans locally are tough to find but we are all up early for every race……
mfDB said on 22nd December 2009, 1:17
I think the Speed guys do a decent job. I have nothing to compare it to except youtube clips. Varsha makes a lot of little mistakes, but he usually corrects himself.
Live races are too early for me, but I DVR the races si I’d rather they were live.
What I really want is HD….
bwells said on 22nd December 2009, 1:30
That is great news… I think… as here in Canada last year, for some reason, and for the first time ever Speed’s broadcast of quali and races were blacked out… thank god our local TSN channel also had the races… but I hope that changes next year… when it really helped was for commercials… you could always switch to the other channel to keep watching…
What do they mean by video “clips”… I would like to have all the practice sessions online… I would pay for that in a second… Speed only televise Friday second session… I’m always up watching online trying to find feeds before the FIA kills it… why can’t the FIA just have global online broadcasts? People would pay… they say they need more money… there it is…
This does sound like good news and I hope it makes it’s way to Canada…
Alan said on 22nd December 2009, 1:32
Although not having any other F1 coverage to compare it to, the Speed TV team does a good job IMHO, and as annoying as Peter Windsor is, it was nice having the access to the F1 paddock that he was afforded, that will be missed.
Compared to other sport coverage in the US, I think Speed is pretty good, they get worse when the races are on FOX (much larger audience than Speed, races are edited too) and the Speed TV team would try to dumb down the race talk, which just doesn’t work.
I hate the same kind of approach from some American Football announcers too. The best ones are the ones that talk to you like you know about the sport, which is what the Speed team does for the most part too.
rmac923 said on 22nd December 2009, 1:39
More reason for USF1 to succeed. Less Peter Windsor on screen!
wasiF1 said on 22nd December 2009, 1:37
This is a great opportunity to increase the amount of F1 fan in USA.
F1Yankee said on 22nd December 2009, 1:42
more of the same crap.
1. speed’s (fox, newscorp) level of commitment to f1 is minimal. actually, speed’s level of commitment to anything other than nascar and their own terrible shows is minimal.
2. the production value of the BBC’s show is first class. it is comparable to the best sports coverage in the states. contrast this with the non-show (half-hour pre-race, commenters not on site) that speed slaps together. hobbs, varsha and matchette are good, and do the best with what little they have to work with. i don’t know if they would be interested in working live at the race, or if the offer would be made.
3. the picture quality on speed standard-def is miserable. speed hi-def isn’t widely available. fox hi-def is widely available, and the picture quality on those programs is very good. however, races carried on fox are not shown live, and the races are edited for time. there is also more advertising.
4. some of the races chosen for fox broadcast have been really boring. when they were on, i remember thinking “this does not reflect well on f1″.
5. speed’s website is pretty terrible.
F1Yankee said on 22nd December 2009, 1:46
good point, alan. they are directed to dumb things down to widen the appeal on fox. too bad the boss doesn’t realize this make for an even worse show.
Alan said on 22nd December 2009, 2:29
As much as we all follow F1, I’m sure Speed’s revenue is not very big from it, and pennies when compared to some of the European markets, remember there was a time in the 90s when there was no F1 on TV in the US, so I’ll take what I can get…but we can still bitch about it
American_F1_Fan said on 22nd December 2009, 1:58
Speed does a decent job, but the BBC coverage is much much better.
explosiva said on 22nd December 2009, 7:12
Wholeheartedly agree. I’m in DC, and I always watch the BBC’s live coverage online (thanks, proxy servers!). Speed’s coverage is boring at best. Plus, BBC’s COMMERCIAL FREE coverage has completely spoiled me.
Kimster said on 22nd December 2009, 2:46
SPEED’s in race commentary is better than the BBC’s in my opinion. However, due to a small F1 fan base in the US and little commitment SPEED’s pre/post race stuff is horrible.
Sushovan said on 22nd December 2009, 3:09
Yes, Fox does not show them live, and I hate it. I want F1 live in america :’( I got spoiled by my RSS reader twice this season. x-(
F1fanatic: you should edit your post and remove the bit about Fox being live.
btjones said on 22nd December 2009, 3:11
Having lived in Britain and Germany and now the U.S., I agree that the coverage obviously isn’t the same, but Matchett really brings a technical side to the coverage that I hadn’t seen in other countries.
I think they do a pretty good job with limited resources and I actually like the speed coverage much better than I expected to.
Alpinestar said on 22nd December 2009, 3:22
I enjoyed SPEED’s pre-race coverage but when it comes to the actual race I would switch over to TSN, which broadcasts the BBC coverage. I hope this deal also means the race will be allowed to be broadcast in Canada, as this year we could only watch on TSN.