BBC confirm ten live free-to-air races for 2013

2013 F1 season

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The BBC have confirmed which of the ten races on the 2013 F1 calendar will be shown live.

The yet-to-be confirmed race on July 21st is among those the BBC plans to show live. It is not clear whether a different race will be chosen if that Grand Prix does not go ahead.

The Monaco Grand Prix, which was shown live this year, is among those which will not get live coverage in 2013. The Canadian Grand Prix, which was not shown live in 2012, will be next year.

As this year there will be delayed highlights of the races not shown live.

The BBC also announced Suzi Perry will take over from Jake Humphrey as the presenter of its F1 coverage. Perry, who has presented Moto GP for the last ten years, said: “Motorsport is my life and I’ve really missed being away from the grid. I am so excited to be joining the BBC. Working alongside such an eminent team and the F1 world is a huge honour and I can’t wait to get started.”

Update: As the ‘TBC’ race will not go ahead, BBC will only broadcast nine races live this year.

Round Race Circuit Date Channel
1 Australian Grand Prix Albert Park March 15 – 17 Sky
2 Malaysian Grand Prix Sepang International Circuit March 22 – 24 Sky
3 Chinese Grand Prix Shanghai International Circuit April 12 – 14 BBC/Sky
4 Bahrain Grand Prix Bahrain International Circuit April 19 – 21 Sky
5 Spanish Grand Prix Circuit de Catalunya May 10 – 12 BBC/Sky
6 Monaco Grand Prix Monte-Carlo May 23 – 26 Sky
7 Canadian Grand Prix Circuit Gilles Villeneuve June 7 – 9 BBC/Sky
8 British Grand Prix Silverstone June 28 – 30 BBC/Sky
9 German Grand Prix TBC July 5 – 7 Sky
10 TBC TBC July 19 – 21 BBC/Sky
11 Hungarian Grand Prix Hungaroring July 26 – 28 Sky
12 Belgian Grand Prix Spa-Francorchamps August 23 – 25 BBC/Sky
13 Italian Grand Prix Monza September 6 – 8 BBC/Sky
14 Singapore Grand Prix Singapore September 20 – 22 Sky
15 Korean Grand Prix Korean International Circuit October 4 – 6 Sky
16 Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka October 11 – 13 BBC/Sky
17 Indian Grand Prix Buddh International Circuit October 25 – 27 BBC/Sky
18 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Yas Marina November 1 – 3 Sky
19 United States Grand Prix Circuit of the Americas November 15 – 17 Sky
20 Brazilian Grand Prix Interlagos November 22 – 24 BBC/Sky

2013 F1 season

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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90 comments on “BBC confirm ten live free-to-air races for 2013”

  1. China?! SPAIN?! What are the BBC thinking? I’d have Monaco, Oz, US, even Abu Dhabi or Singapore over those two! Just because there were surprise winners last year does not mean they’re suddenly must have races! Poor choices by the BBC. Still, 6 of their races are good. Not sure about the TBA one, depends where it ends up being…

    1. You appear not to know that the way these races are sorted out is that the BBC and Sky take turns to pick three races each, with the Beeb going first.

      1. I’m guessing they would have took Brazil 1st too.

    2. China is one of the best venues. Always exciting races there.

  2. I’m guessing the same agreement of “no 3 races in a row” (either Sky exclusive or available on BBC) applies this season, which is why Monaco isn’t live.

  3. They’ve dropped bloody MONACO? Of all the races to drop? Christ.

    1. Because it’s usually incredibly boring? Seems like a good choice to get rid of to me.

      1. Monaco can only be ‘boring’ when you fall out of love with motorsport.

    2. I’m fine with Monaco being dropped, especially in favour of Canada. Yes, it’s one of the most historical events and qualifying is admittedly great to watch as drivers push the limits of the circuit, but it’s often a dull, dull race unless rain enters the equation. It’s one of the few races that I’d rather watch a highlights package of than the whole thing.

      1. I couldn’t bring myself to miss Monaco.

      2. It occurs to me that actually the biggest problem the BBC will have with dropping Monaco is – how do you do a highlights package for a race in which nothing happens?

        1. You admire the beauty of the cars racing around the same streets as Fangio and Moss. By nothing happens I presume you mean ‘overtakes’. Personally, I couldn’t care less if there isn’t an ‘overtake’ in the next 10 grand prix at Monaco, I will still love watching the race (on an suitable internet stream now it turns out) and everything that comes with it.

          1. You could try playing the highlights package 3 times in a row to get the effect of a full race length?

            (sorry couldn’t resist :) )

          2. I probably will !!

    3. And rightly so… Don’t like that GP. I wouldn’t have picked it myself.

    4. petebaldwin (@)
      21st December 2012, 19:47

      They can’t have 3 in a row on BBC and therefore, to have Monaco, they’d have had to drop Canada or Silverstone……

      Out of those 3, I think they made the right choice. The only exciting part of Monaco is the qualifying anyway.

  4. No Monaco live? :(

    1. Canada is a usually a much more exciting race, plus the highlights would be at an inconvenient time if it wasn’t live, so between Monaco and Canada I’d choose Canada every time…

      1. But Monaco is considered the biggest, most prestigious event of the f1 season. Its the race all the drivers talk about wanting to win the most because of the history & challenge of the race.

        Since I want to see Monaco live (And don’t really like Suzi Perry) Im subscribing to sky early next year & will not be watching the BBC coverage at all!

        1. It also normally produces terrible racing that flatters even Abu Dhabi

          1. Watching cars fly around Monaco is never boring!

    2. Or australia – opening gp is pretty important.

      1. I don’t think most of the BBC’s target group would vhatch it live anyway because it is on so early in the morning.

    3. I can understand Monaco to be honest. But I’m really surprised they’ve not gone for; Singapore – a real must these days in F1 as the only night race and the fanfare around it; and the US Grand Prix – a roaring success in it’s first year, and the track looks like it will always deliver a good race.

      Surely either of these, or Monaco of course, would be better than the TBA?!

      1. As mentioned, heads of both BBC F1 and Sky F1 pick the races in turn, 3 at a time.

        The BBC promised, from day 0 of this deal, to always have the final race (be it Brazil, Abu Dhabi or elsewhere) along with Silverstone. That’s two gone. They probably picked Spa along with that block, because its always a great race, doesn’t require mad scheduling and is the first after the summer break.

        Sky probably lept on Monaco as a result (the BBC confirmed that as a ‘guaranteed event’ along with the aforementioned ones in 2012), given the mentioned prestige, even though this years race was fairly poor. They also probably took the US race again, because it turned out to be very good. They probably also picked AUS, because that’s usually an good race with lots of interest because its the first time the cars turn a wheel in anger, which is a good sell for the TV package. The BBC don’t want it, because it’s a bad race to schedule.

        The BBC probably then took Canada, Japan and Italy, the three big ‘classic’ races they were criticised for missing this year. Given they [the BBC] aren’t allowed 3 consecutive live races, it probably all fell in place shortly afterwards.

    4. Interesting to see the differing opinions. I get to watch every race live so dont have to make that hard decision. Both sides have very valid arguments!

  5. If the TBA never happens, do BBC get a race back?
    Also quite pleased with Suzi Perry as the presenter choice, but I think there’ll be a lot of people unhappy with an ex-Superbikes presenter. I reckon she’s feisty enough to give Eddie Jordan some stick.

  6. Quite a few big surprises there…

    Firstly, Monaco. I’d have thought that this race would’ve been near the top of BBC’s list, considering it’s one of the ‘Blue Ribbon’ events that fans enjoy seeing on the calendar.
    Secondly, they’ve taken a punt on the TBA GP, this could turn out to be a complete farce. Although, we laughed when the beeb said they were showing China, Valencia and Abu Dhabi live, and they were some of the best races of the year!
    Finally, the biggest shame of them all. Suzi Perry instead of Lee McKenzie. I have nothing against Suzi, I think she’ll be great in the role. But I’m struggling to see why Lee McKenzie didn’t get the role. She already filled the main role when Jake was away on other commitments this year, and has gained a lot of respect in the paddock. I hope Suzi does well (A return for the catsuit?)

    1. Beshore Blue (@)
      21st December 2012, 13:44

      I imagine Lee McKenzie was kind of a victim of her own success, in that she’s so good as a reporter/interviewer that they didn’t want to move her from that role (maybe?). Either way, interested to see how well Suzi Perry does. She was good doing the MotoGP.

      1. Do you think Lee would want to be in such a leading role? I always fashioned her as someone who loves it to be right in the middle of the action and doing a great job ”backstage”.

  7. Why don’t they have Australia, I like watching the opening round live!

    1. @master-firelee I’m guessing that’s due to the fact Sky have chosen to have exclusive live coverage of it. Quite why they have chosen to have the Bahrian, Abu Dhabi and Korean GP’s is beyond me though, unless of course they were left with those as I believe that as @ilanin has said the BBC get 3 picks for live coverage, then Sky…

      1. I wonder if we can resurrect how the draft went. Probably something like this:

        The BBC go first and pick Brazil, Silverstone and I guess maybe Spa. Sky, going with the strategy they used last year of taking the first two rounds, pick Australia, Malaysia and Monaco. The BBC grab Canada, Italy and Japan and Sky take the US, Singapore and Germany. The BBC go for China, Spain and India, leaving Sky with Abu Dhabi, Korea and Hungary, and then finally the BBC decide that quite possibly not having a race at all is a better bet than Bahrain.

        1. That looks about right @ilanin but what has always confused me is why the BBC wouldn’t want live coverage of the season opener, unless of course they feel because of the very early start time in Britain that it would have a minimal audience so would rather broadcast later in the day to a wider audience.

          1. It does give opportunity for the highlights to be at a “normal” time, however getting up at 3/4am for the Australian GP is one of the highlights of the season for me :-)

          2. petebaldwin (@)
            21st December 2012, 19:59

            It’s simple, they would want the first race but they’d have lost out on a really big one. If they went for Australia, Sky could have gone in with Canada, Spa and Monaco and suddenly, the BBC’s schedule looks rubbish!

            Because they left the first 2 alone, Sky picked them and it’s allowed the BBC to get a decent few better races. Sky would always aim for the first races as it gives them a better chance of getting subscribers in on a 12 months contract.

  8. Beshore Blue (@)
    21st December 2012, 13:49

    Well, I’m happier with this than last year’s…in an ideal world I’d have Australia and the US instead of TBC and India, but at least we’ve got Monza this time round. After last year I can’t confidently call which races are going to be boring/exciting anyway.

  9. 1) I’m glad Monaco is not on the list!
    I want to stay awake during a BBC broadcast and the Monaco GP is just so boring to watch as a race.
    2) Why are they broadcasting the Indian GP?? these 2011/12 Gp’s turned out to be even more boring than the Monaco GP of 2012… overtakes in the DRS zone and that’s that!

    1. They probably had to take India as a result of the draw process. By the same measure, Sky probably didn’t want to waste an exclusive on it.

  10. I can’t believe they didn’t make sure to secure the 1st race. It may be on at an awkward time, but the first round is often incredibly interesting, even if the quality of the race itself is found lacking. I would also have thought it would be good to pull in casual fans interested in seeing the opening of the season, not to mention real fans, who I imagine are surprised and annoyed like me.

    1. The formal process for allocating the races likely meant they’d lose Spa. Which would you rather?

      Casual Fans won’t get up at 3/4am for it anyway – competent planning/editing can get just as much information across as Sky’s drawn out coverage.

      1. I’d rather Australia.

  11. Glad that Canada is going to be live as having late night highlights is incredibly problematic for due to my busy schedule that time of year, which makes it impossible to watch the highlights when they’re broadcast, not to mention the fact that it’s usually a great race. Shame they aren’t showing Austin for the same reason, although my November schedule isn’t as bad.

  12. davidnotcoulthard
    21st December 2012, 14:08

    Hmmmm……one can always look for streams….perhaps of channels not in English, but basically “imports” an English coverage live (I do know that there is at least 1 example: Indonesian Kompas TV (Which, by the way, happens to be free-to-air)- which takes coverage from ESPN HD and also allows streaming, at http://www.kompas.tv/live/ , I know they did air f1 in 2012… ). I don’t live in Britain, though, and I’ve got no idea if the link I gave is legal there – at all (so if it happens to be illegal I hope Keith removes this post as soon as he can…..).

    1. davidnotcoulthard
      21st December 2012, 14:18

      …anyway does anyone think that the TBA race will be one in the USA (Breaking BE’s promise of 1 race/nation, which he was going to break anyway), possibly Laguna Seca or SonomaInfineon, both of which reminding me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyq4lTvJNE , though both circuits are much further north. Indy also comes to my mind. We’ll see…….we’ll see.

      1. Are either track up to FIA F1 racing standard?

        Also, streaming foreign channels is a grey area – it’s up to the broadcaster to honour any deals they have with FOM. If they’re not ip-blocking their streams, the fans can’t be blamed for using them.

  13. Surprised they didn’t get Monaco.

    OK its not often the most exciting of racing from an action/overtaking standpoint, However it is one of the most historic races in F1, Its the race teams/drivers always talk about been the one to win & is considered the jewel in F1’s crown.

    I personally love Monaco, I love watching the cars inches from the walls & love the challenge of the place. Its totally different to anything else & I really like that aspect. The difficulties in overtaking there don’t bother me as I look to other things & it also makes the overtaking you do see stand out that extra bit more.

    If I didn’t have sky, I’d be really ****** off about not been able to watch Monaco live.

    Regarding Suzi Perry, Surprising pick considering they had lee McKenzie who I’ve always felt they have under-used. Suzi isn’t necessarily a bad choice, However whenever I’ve heard her talking about F1 in the past she hasn’t exactly come across as someone overly keen on F1 or as someone who watches F1 a great deal.

    1. If I didn’t have sky, I’d be really ****** off about not been able to watch Monaco live.

      That’s me right now $:)

  14. Stunned BBC lost Monaco as it was always a race that drew a big ratings number & the race which tended to attract a lot of more casual viewers.

    I can see Sky been ecstatic they have Monaco as one of there exclusive’s & expect them to use that in there advertising.

    Also surprised they went with Suzi Perry who is not an F1 fan & has taken every opportunity in the past to take shots at F1 in order to promote the bike racing which is her real passion.

  15. Why didn’t the BBC show the highlights for the far east races, including Australia, maybe some hioghlights for the European races, and then the far western races live?
    That way, they’d have more viewers as Europe is arguably F1s largest fan-base, and the races would be on at a sensible time; if highlights of a race normally on at 5.30pm are shown, it’d be on at 10pm or so which will restrict their audience dramatically; people have work and school to go to, and it’d effectively alienate F1 from the younger viewers.

    For example:
    Australia: Highlights
    malaysia: Live
    China: Highlights
    Bahrain: Highlights
    Spain: Highlights
    Monaco: Live
    Canada: Live
    Britain: Highlights
    Germany: Live
    TBC: Live
    Hungary: Highlights
    Belgium: Live
    Italy: Highlights
    Singapore: Live
    Korea: Live
    japan: Highlights
    India: Highlights
    Abu Dhabi: Highlights
    America: Live
    Brazil: Live

    Just a rough mock-up, but for the largest amount of viewers possible, this would be one of the best solutions.

    1. Britain: Highlights

      The British Broadcasting Corporation having the British Grand Prix airing in Britain as highlights? I doubt that would ever happen

      1. I know, but as i said, it is only a mock-up representing the sort of races to be shown live in relation to time zones.

    2. they can’t have 3 races in a row as highlights either..

      1. I thought it was 3 live races in a row.
        Either way, FTA should be given a bit more flexibility to attract the greatest audience possible to keep F1 alive in most age groups

  16. #first_world_problems

  17. I wonder where all the fuzz about missing Monaco comes from… Sure it’s lots of glitter and glamour, but the races weren’t really THAT excited the last couple of years were they?
    I don’t see the point in not having the US GP live though… Not only is it on prime time and offers the COTA track a great chance of having a brilliant race, but out of the last three races only broadcasting the last one live could really be a wrong gamble if they miss the championship decider.

    On the other hand, I remember the critisism on the Beeb from last year though, and they still ended up with broadcasting nearly all the exciting, brilliant races live (Abu Dhabi, Valencia, China).

    1. I wonder where all the fuzz about missing Monaco comes from… Sure it’s lots of glitter and glamour, but the races weren’t really THAT excited the last couple of years were they?

      Monaco isn’t about exciting racing, its about spectacle, about skill & about watching cars mm away from disaster.
      Watching cars fly around Monaco, watching them scrape the walls & watching the skill of drivers is to me a big part of what racing is all about.

      I would rather watch a Monaco weekend fully live than a lot of the other circuits where drivers have zero chance of hitting anything & have little fear of running beyond the white lines.

  18. i think suzi perry was probably a clever idea because lee mackenzie is a very good pitlane reporter so if she got promoted who would do the pit lane and interviews(its basicly dont fix whats not broken)
    im not to pleased with the track picks. this would be my ideal picks for live races :
    australia
    malasyia
    bahrain
    canada
    silverstone
    spa
    singapore
    japan
    usa
    brazil

    1. @al3xander – Bahrain? It’s not exactly a thrilling track, nor is the area exactly a peaceful paradise either. I do hope, unless of course the political unrest is settled positively, that F1 boycotts the race but of course the lure of Arabian oil money was to lucrative to miss despite the awful leadership and consequent civil unrest.

  19. No Monaco live?
    Looks like i’ll be subbing to sky in the near future, Monaco live is a must!

  20. I am not that bothered by not having Monaco live as there are other races I would pick before it, such as Canada, however when the BBC/Sky deal was first announced last year I thought the BBC said they would always show the British GP, Monaco GP and the season finale live, so I wonder what has changed since then.

    Also I liked Suzi Perry when she presented the BBC’s MotoGP coverage but when she was rumoured for the F1 job I read some comments on a website which stated that in the past she has said she didn’t like F1, does anyone know if this is true.

    1. I read some comments on a website which stated that in the past she has said she didn’t like F1, does anyone know if this is true.

      Yes, She has been very negative on F1 over the years & has often spoke about how she rarely watches it, has never really followed it & hates how noisy it is & how stuck up the teams/drivers are.

      Its why I was really surprised when I heard she was the BBC’s #1 choice a few weeks ago.

      1. That’s a shame as while I would like a someone who is a good presenter fronting the BBC coverage I would also like them to be a F1 fan who is knowledgeable about the sport.

  21. Monza live – brilliant.
    Canada live – fantastic.
    Austin only highlights – that’s a shame.
    Monaco only highlights – fine with me. You get so many laps there where nothing much changes, it’ll be an easy one to edit.
    Abu Dhabi and Korea on Sky – haha, you can keep them.

    Nice surprise that it’s Suzi Perry. A bit surprised they’ve not set themselves apart from Sky and promoted Lee McKenzie, who knows everyone in F1 already. But Jake was an “outsider” too, Suzi’s got loads of racing experience and she’ll be surounded by production team who’ve been there & done it for years. And I’m pleased that (presumably) Lee McKenzie carries on in a similar role, she’s very good at that.

  22. I wish Jake Humphry would stay, and that bbc had all the races live

    1. The politics about the rights happened, but you can’t besmirch Jake from leaving F1 – he’s got a baby on the way and didn’t really want to spend half the year away from it & his wife.

  23. Can’t believe people are up in arms about Monaco not being shown live by the BBC. Most of the time it is a boring, processional race. I’m glad Canada is live instead, it’s arguably provided some of the best races we’ve seen in recent years. It’s a shame the beeb don’t have Australia live though, would be nice to see the season opener live. And it also sucks they don’t have a race till a month after the season begins.

    1. Can’t believe people are up in arms about Monaco not being shown live by the BBC. Most of the time it is a boring, processional race.

      Processional yes, Boring never!

      Monaco ain’t about overtaking, If thats what you want to see then go watch Nascar. Monaco is about skill, speed & the love of watching f1 drivers pushing to the limit, scraping the walls knowing that one mistake could see them damage there car.
      Its the one race where drivers have to concentrate more than any other purely because of the additional danger because of how close the walls are.

      Monaco is racing history, Its racing as it used to be. No room for error, little run-off & a place where a driver can out drive a poor car to show his true skill.

      Plenty of other races through the year where you see lots of overtaking & where drivers can easily run wide & not risk the car, simply running through miles of tarmac or bouncing over grass or into a gravel trap.

      I already have sky so i still get to see everything live, however if I didn’t I would be genuinely so mad about them not taking monaco live that i would subscribe to sky & refuse to watch any of the bbc’s f1 action in 2013!!!!

  24. Good to see Bahrain being avoided as a live BBC race, and that we’ll have Spa, Monza and Montreal on the viewing platform of choice.

    I echo the sentiment that Lee would have been a prime candidate for the job, but for whatever reason the BBC don’t seem to have a great liking for her. On the races she did front this year, they didn’t do anything much in the way of VT, they didn’t do a forum for at least one race, and they even brought Jake back for a race he wasn’t supposed to be at anyway. They don’t include her in post-race forums or discussions, they don’t include her in “three amigos” skits, and for all the pitlane expertise, they don’t seem to want to leverage her connections, or her relationship with the drivers, which she’s built up over decades.

    With all that said, it’s not a surprise they didn’t give her the job, but I have to say I think she could have been great, if the Beeb were prepared to put the effort into backing her like they did with Jake.

  25. Even though I was less than impressed with the deal BBC got us this year with only 10 races live & stuck with them, however losing monaco as one of those live races & going with a non-f1 fan for lead presenter is for me the final straw & I will be ordering a sky installation for January.

    Not impressed with them going with suzi perry who for years has been sniping at f1 & talking about how the motorcycle world is better.

    also totally unimpressed they either couldn’t have or didn’t want Monaco as a live race. i love watching the monaco gp, love watching all the practice sessions & its always a thrill watching qualifying there.

    if you think monaco is boring then simply don’t watch, nothing making you watch it live if you think its such a poor race, just dont watch it. however going by the ratings it gets each year & the massively negative feedback so far from the bbc not showing it live next year, I’d say those who dislike monaco are in the minority!

  26. BBC viewers annoyed this month, next month it’ll be the Sky viewers turn when Sky drop the “get f1 with an HD subscription of 2012” and force us to pay for sky sports regardless of the fact its 90% balls (sports).

  27. So glad we subscribed to Sky a few weeks ago as Monaco live is a must.
    The BBC not having the Monaco Gp is like ESPN showing the Indycar season but not showing the Indy 500, Or Fox showing all the Nascar races but not showing Daytona.
    Your biggest event, The most historic event & the one with all the prestige & which all the teams/drivers say they love & want to win should always be the 1 race you make sure you always have Live & in Full!

    I can see the BBC taking a big hit over this & rightfully so.

  28. BBC did all 20 races live in 2012.. you just had to be outside of the UK to watch.. TSN (in Canada) used BBC feeds/pundits all year long.

  29. A hole created by the BBC with Monaco not being screened live but a comprehensive decision that could ultimately reap it’s potential benefits.

    Races at Monaco don’t always match it’s renowned glamour & challenges the track provides, these two factors are what makes Monaco what it is although the races are either dramatic & subsequently exciting or it’s dull & processional so perhaps the BBC opted to veto the race for that particular reason. Hopefully, this would open the eyes of the audience as I believe despite Monaco’s prestige, history & tradition that there’s more to the sport than the latter & if you’re very perceptive you would actually agree. If the 2013 race turns out to be dull & processional then this justifies their decision to not screen the race, I would frankly trade the TBC/uncertain race for the opener at Australia just to be secure given the BBC’s position as anything could happen with that race, plus with Canada being screened live, perhaps travel expenses isn’t actually a major factor in which 10 races are selected.

    I just want to wish all the best to Suzi, I haven’t seen much of Lee when she’s the lead presenter but I’m certain that they’re both great in that role in their own unique way.

  30. while you fight over BBC, do give a thought to we Indians. We do not get F1 over free-to-air. To watch F1, we gotta subscribe to cable or DTH. Both payable monthly

    1. You do understand the concept of the BBC being ‘free-to-air’ is a common misnomer.

      Every UK citizen choosing has to pay £145.50 a year to legally use a TV or computer to watch a live broadcast, the majority of which goes to the BBC.

  31. Something else regarding BBC not showing Monaco live, This means there will be no In-car channel available for qualifying or the race.

    Thats a big thing for me as I always watch the in-car feed on my laptop via the bbc website & that is something i always thoroughly love watching for Monaco, especially during qualifying.

  32. Was just told that the BBC were forced to remove a blog post from there website as a result of 95% of the comments responding to it been very negative.

    Did some digging & have been unable to find out if BBC were unable to select Monaco as a live race or if they simply didn’t select it. The guy I was speaking to who is part of the BBC F1 team said that there not happy about Monaco not been live as its always one of the biggest draw’s & that without been able to promote Monaco as live there expecting a big ratings hit.

    I also hear there is concern at FOM about Monaco not been live on terrestrial TV for similar reasons to what I described above. I was also told that there is a possibility that the BBC broke the terms of an agreement which stipulated Monaco always be live on the terrestrial platform.

    Im not going to get into the whole ‘Monaco is boring so who cares its not live debate’ but all I will say is that Monaco has always done well above average in terms of ratings, Is always the race which tends to attract more of the casual viewers & that the prestige & history of the event do matter when it comes to promoting not just the Monaco Gp but also F1 as a whole.

    Monaco not been on Free Terrestrial TV in the UK may not seem like a big thing (Especially to those who dislike Monaco anyway) but trust me, This will be bad not just for the BBC but also for F1 as a whole.

    1. Monaco has always done well above average in terms of ratings, Is always the race which tends to attract more of the casual viewers & that the prestige & history of the event do matter when it comes to promoting not just the Monaco Gp but also F1 as a whole.

      Ordinarily, yes, but last year the BBC’s audience for Monaco was a little more than 60% of what it had been the year before.

      1. And that despite the race being live, rather than highlights. In fact the Monaco audience figure was almost identical to the Silverstone one – and since the British Grand Prix was up against the Wimbledon Men’s Singles Final (which, since it featured Andy Murray, almost certainly swept up the vast majority of the casual sports fan audience in Britain), there’s no particular reason to believe that Monaco attracted more casual fans than any other race.

        That said, last year’s viewing figures were just weird. I can only assume the reason Valencia attracted so many viewers was because given how much rain Britain had in early summer, everybody stayed inside and watched television.

  33. Here in Australia we get Qualifying and Race live on ONE all expect 2 Races which are Australia which is simulcast on TEN and ONE; Canadian GP which is shown live on TEN

  34. I think the Beeb should drop coverage all together. If they can’t be bothered to do the job properly then why waste our license money trying to do a half ***** job? I am bitterly disappointed that Sky have been allowed to muscle in. Their coverage may be very good but it is not worth the £60 odd per month I’d have to pay. I guess it will be all irrelevant in a couple of years time. When Bernie is no longer with us to keep them in line, they will all descend into a downward spiral of destruction and F1 will fall apart.

    1. When Bernie is ‘no longer with us’, we can all live in hope that his replacement will be more accepting of the available technology and ditch the antiquated TV contracts all together.

  35. Hopefully BBC Scotland get their priorities right next year. The Australian and Monaco GPs fall on the same days as both domestic football finals which BBC Scotland have the rights for, I just hope they do not cut the highlights out or shift them to an unreasonable time.

    1. Seeing as they have an exclusive on the football, my guess is BBC Scotland’s priority is showing that.

      1. Was meaning that surely BBC Scotland will have to have a different BBC 2 programming list to England to show the football and f1 highlights, surely BBC Scotland won’t drop f1 highlights, .

  36. Oh Wake Up all of you – As Deep Throat said ” Follow the Money” then it all becomes obvious. BBC gets the hand offs from Sky because Sky has the clout. This way it just comes across as BBC are getting 50% but that’s just BS.

  37. Oh PS … I’m in UK Nat. in NZ and have to watch the Iplayer (which you aren’t allowed to do) or D/L an uploaded prog (which you aren’t allowed to do) just so I can watch 2 hr of mobile and stationary advertising.(which I’m meant to pay for ) …….. Something is wrong here Guys !.

  38. Stephen Maiden
    15th March 2013, 16:07

    Tbh, i don’t care what races are shown live or not, at least we get to see cars go round on a track a few hours later on the BBC.

  39. sky are pathetic and greedy, I hate all sport apart from f1 but will they let me subscribe to this channel only no you have to have sports package well they can shove it, sky presenters drivel on unlike bbc.

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