NOT only does the 2011 FIA Formula One world championship ends this weekend, but it will also feel like the end of an association for many Grand Prix petrol heads. Television viewing changes next year and the BBC is taking a backseat from its coverage of one of the most colourful and glamorous sports in the world. 2011 has been the final season where you will be able to watch every single Grand Prix on free-to-air television. From next season, Sky Sports becomes the home of Formula One racing.
Under the controversial new deal, signed at July’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Sky subscribers will get extensive previews to races, plus live coverage of every single practice, qualifying and race event from the currently 20 scheduled events in next year’s championship. The deal runs until 2017. The BBC has had to scale back its coverage, due to sweeping budget cuts. It decided to do this, despite recently renewing deals for the Six Nations and the Wimbledon tennis championships. However, they will still screen ten live weekends next year of all sessions, plus delayed highlights of the other ten events it will not show live. Monaco, the season finale in Brazil and the British Grand Prix will be definitely covered in the agreement by the BBC, while there is still an announcement pending over the other seven races. Pundit teams have also yet to be revealed, although we do know that Jake Humphrey will still be fronting BBC’s coverage, whilst Martin Brundle is debating over taking over as the lead commentator for Sky Sports, or staying on as the leading anchor for the BBC.
The BBC has a prestigious history of screening Formula One, even if that is not so much in recent times. They began showing live coverage of the entire Grand Prix season from 1978 onwards. ‘Grand Prix,’ became the home of F1 for 18 years, until 1996. They showed the drama of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna's dramatic collisions in successive years at Suzuka, Nigel Mansell's spectacular tyre blowout that robbed him of the 1986 championship and Damon Hill's popular title success in 1996 which had Murray Walker literally with a lump in his throat.
In 1997, ITV outbid the BBC to take the rights away for 12 seasons. Although the levels of extensive coverage improved from BBC’s output, especially in the early days, its later years were seen as a massive letdown for fans. Commercial breaks during some huge moments in events, including the embarrassing faux-pas at the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix added to the mounting frustration. In March 2008, ITV announced their F1 exit for commercial pressures; three years before their current deal was due to expire. The BBC took back the rights for 2009 on a new five year deal. Formula One was coming home!
Jake Humphrey was preferred to Steve Rider in taking over the hosting duties. He was joined in the paddock by Eddie Jordan and newly retired David Coulthard, who have certainly added plenty to the coverage, especially Eddie’s horrific choice of shirts! Jonathan Legard, who had previously covered F1 for BBC Radio 5 Live became lead commentator, whilst both Brundle and Ted Kravitz switched from the ITV team to the BBC crew. Lee McKenzie, an experienced motorsport presenter from A1GP and GP2 joined Ted in reporting from the pitlane and the legendary voice of Formula One, Murray Walker, has been part of the team too, previewing, reviewing and answering burning questions from fans on a regular basis.
The BBC era started brilliantly and in a way, they took over from where ITV left off, with a British world champion. Jake and the team did magnificently to interview Jenson Button in a massive media scram only moments after he had clinched the championship in sensational style in Brazil. They took coverage to a new level, with every session on the red button and all qualifying and race events on BBC One, with a prime time highlights package on freeview station BBC Three. BBC built on this in 2010 and has also given plenty of time for analysis from the action, which has included the popular F1 Forum. The forum lasts an hour online and on the red button after every race. Blogs from the presenters on the BBC F1 website, Ted Kravitz’s behind the scenes report from the pitlane and features such as Classic F1 have only added to the experience.
There was a minor change to the team in 2011, when Legard was dropped from the team and Coulthard joined Brundle in the commentary box; Brundle moving into the lead role having been the expert provider since 1997. TV ratings have always been very high, peaking regularly on raceday at between five and seven million viewers. It won the BAFTA for Sport in 2011, thanks to its coverage of the season decider 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which saw Sebastian Vettel take the title in the first four way showdown ever. Its impeccable coverage of the sensational Canadian Grand Prix this season, which lasted nearly five hours, means it, will be a favourite for more awards in 2012.
This isn’t the end for the BBC and the F1 partnership, as they will still be giving us unbeatable coverage in 2012 and for the next five seasons afterwards, but on a more reduced scale which is a big disappointment to the normal viewer. Money talks in this business and it is clear that BSkyB has this in abundance. I have no doubt that Sky Sports has the ability to take F1 coverage to another level, like they have with the Premiership since 1992, but they will never get the same audience appeal that the BBC has enjoyed in the last three seasons. Enjoy the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend everyone, as another F1 broadcasting chapter reaches a conclusion.
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