F1 goes to Sky sports

[MarkG]

I really enjoyed watching the GP and build-up on Sky, enjoyed it far more than many have enjoyed posting anti-Sky stuff on here. I really enjoyed the BBC coverage previously, and I think Sky did a good job in comparison. Not everything is perfect but I'm not bothered.

[Adam43]

It is pretty much as expected then. The beeb is the quality broadcaster. sky has the quantity at a decent, but lesser, quality. The race coverage hit some spots and missed some, as you'd expect for a first time. BBC had an advantage for their first race as they followed the woeful ITV, but they took a little time to get up to full speed. I doubt sky will get to the quality of beeb, but their depth of coverage, the legend programmes, the features, the live races, the old season reviews, make it worth it.

[rocketcar]

just watched bbc highlights. Their analysis was far better than skys hands down.

[Adam43]

Did they do their post race analysis 'as live'?

[mattt]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Did they do their post race analysis 'as live'?

The light environment certainly suggested they did

at times watching the highlights it didn't seem like a highlights programme, seamless switching from one incident to the next with even the commentary swapping across.

Haven't seen the sky coverage yet, will have to check that out in the malaysia race

[Adam43]

Thanks. I recorded the beeb coverage, but I doubt I'll get round to watching it.

[gregc]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Did they do their post race analysis 'as live'?

Yep, not sure how long after the race they filmed it but drivers were still coming past from the media area so it can't have been that long.

Really enjoyed the whole BBC show today - the only thing I missed was the 40-50 min build up, I know it's not to everyones taste but I always enjoy it. Other than that - I said yesterday that Ben and David might need a few races to gel properly, but I have to say that by the end of the race today I'd forgotten they were a new pairing, it was very natural.

The interesting thing for me is that it didn't feel especially like a highlights show, it was very well edited and there wasn't a sense (for me anyway) that I was missing anything. Anyone know what the actual race time was, I'm curious as to how much us BBC viewers lost (we got about 1h15min of racing).

[bella]

Originally Posted by Mal

A top commentary from Edwards. It is great to see him get the break and he really could be the BBC's trump card. It kept me entertained even though I had already watched the Sky version.

the only thing about ben edwards' commentary was that... well, i didn't learn much about anything. last year you got a lot more information from brundle and coulthard about strategies, tyre wear, and you felt like you'd genuinely seen and understood a race. obviously once they've done some more commentary together they'll improve but i felt that if i'd have turned the sound off i wouldn't have missed anything. i actually enjoy crofty's way of desribing absolutely everything because the way he sees and explains and describes things is pretty bloody good - again, you learn a lot, it gives the expert co-commentator something to build on and use their specialist knowledge to explain. coulthard was a bit short of things to elaborate on, imo.

on the whole the programme was definitely a step down from what we were getting last year, but i think that's completely understandable. if you want screen time and the same people, you have to put the cash down for sky. if you're happy just seeing the race and developing your own thoughts about it, the bbc is fine.

my only worry is that they're not developing the bigger picture much, but it's only the start of the season. there isn't really much of a bigger picture *to* develop!

[chunder]

I would agree bell, Ben is a better actual race caller than Brunders, and DC seems to be a little more confident and far more cosy without Brundle around.

I enjoyed the race, thought Jake and EJ were fine later on, I have no issue witht he way things are doen there, its low budget you can tell, but you get all the stuff you need.

I do feel you are gonna miss a few things in the races from Kravitz, but the rest of it is fine.

Am sure Ben will get up to speed, and his race calling was fine.

You simply dont need 20 people all on huge salaries to call a race, you need 3, its simple

[bella]

Originally Posted by chunder

I would agree bell, Ben is a better actual race caller than Brunders, and DC seems to be a little more confident and far more cosy without Brundle around.

i think brundle not being a lead commentator by nature worked out well last year, we got a shed ton of information and you always knew what was going on.

i suspect the lead commentator style is actually what gets most peoples backs up. two people with f1 race experience and a good way with words talking about it as it happens is more compatible with what most viewers know already and want to learn more about. the bbc seem to be approaching it as educating the masses and providing a base level of coverage no-one's really got beef with rather than keeping the same level of knowledge and expertise we were lucky enough to have last year.

[JeremySmith]

I can not really comment about Sky's programming, but the impression I get from what I have read is that they run the danger of being too slick maybe?

[wolfhound]

I haven't seen the sky coverage but fromreading about it on various forums its seems as if it is no better than or not as good as the BBC especially when it has to be paid for.
So far I am glad I have not shelled out over 700 notes for Sky.

[VIVA GT]

OK, so I watched the race highlights on BBC (my only option). I realise I'm 'old school', so wasn't surprised that I didn't like the excessive CGI intro, but did like the snippets from very old races (showing how long the BBC have been involved in this).
Unfortunately, I didn't immediately warm to Ben Edwards (duck!). His style (for me) wasn't anywhere near as professional as I'm used to (OK, I admit to being a huge Martin Brundle fan, both as a driver, and a commentator). The effect to me was as if the 'real commentator' had been kidnapped at the last minute (obviously a devious trick by the Merdoch empire!), and someone young and keen from the production staff was asked to step in at the last minute.
Overall, I thought the coverage was OK, and the deficiencies in commentary were cancelled out by the post race analysis and 'pulling it all together' by Jake Humphries.
As I've already stated, BBC is my only option, so I'm hoping that, given time, the new team will gel, and that the overall coverage will improve...

[craigd]

Had a quick scan of some above comments and I'm tending to agree with everyone here.

I decided to add the Sky Sports package and it is impressive in some cases, though if anything the pre-show was too long (shock horror!). Though maybe I just so tired at being up early! It is pretty slick and impressive but all the best bits are what the BBC were already doing, and not expensive production graphics. Just shows how quality the BBC did things over the last 3 years.

It's interesting that they've almost done the exact same presenting format as the BBC, such as the walk and tall down the pitlane. But yeah the good best bits are the likes of Brundle and Kravitz, etc. I grew up being a Damon Hill fan, so I'm very glad he's on board and is certainly a more knowledgeable pundit than Eddie Jordan (though Eddie does provide some funny moments!).

Simon Lazenby was fine really, and disconcertingly was very similar sounding with similar mannerisms to Jake Humphrey! Jake really is excellent in his role though and overall all I preferred the BBCs presenting effort. But then perhaps it's because it's also comfortingly familiar.

The Sky Pad is kinda cool if a silly name. But please, what's the point of Georgie Thompson? I'm also not a fan of Natalie Pinkham - though I appreciate she's quite new. She just seemed to ask a lot of banal questions, and if anyone caught her interviewing Michael Schumacher at the end of a Practice session I think it was, it made me cringe and laugh! She asked one too many questions and Schumacher gave a look that could kill haha! I prefer Lee McKenzie for sure.

As for the BBC show. I was impressed. As others say, it wasn't produced as a highlights package. They were there as normal in the paddock, doing all the build up and post race analysis in 'real time' as it were. It was just well edited. And you got pretty much the whole race. Many will prefer the stream lined digestion as opposed to watching hours of build up (not that I don't of course)!

I also thought the BBC's commentary was good. DC was more on the ball with some of his calls than over at Sky (spotting instantly Grojean's broken suspension, for example). Being the prime F1 expert now, he seemed more confident than last year. Gary Anderson is decent too.

I'm still happy to pay for the Sky channel since they offer so much extra than just the race: past season review shows, documentaries on F1 legends, etc, plus GP2 I think.

Overall, if you're prepared to pay, I do feel F1 has stepped up a gear for us in the UK. We get the best of both world's now. Top coverage and analysis from both channels. Which to watch when they're competing live though? I guess having paid for it, it will be Sky for me.

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

).
Unfortunately, I didn't immediately warm to Ben Edwards (duck!). His style (for me) wasn't anywhere near as professional as I'm used to (OK, I admit to being a huge Martin Brundle fan, both as a driver, and a commentator). The effect to me was as if the 'real commentator' had been kidnapped at the last minute (obviously a devious trick by the Merdoch empire!), and someone young and keen from the production staff was asked to step in at the last minute.

I am sat here literally seething.

[bravo]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

I haven't seen the sky coverage but fromreading about it on various forums its seems as if it is no better than or not as good as the BBC especially when it has to be paid for.
So far I am glad I have not shelled out over 700 notes for Sky.

Currently I'd say not worth it.

I'm still clueless as to what happened at the end with the cars around 10th place - my recording of the BBC cut out about 30 minutes in

It takes someone doing it badly (or at least not as well), to see just how well JH performs in the 'informal' anchor role.

[Alfaholic]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

Slightly OT, but how was James Allen on BBC R5L and the rest of the team?

Originally Posted by James Allen

And when all five lights go out they're GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I didn't realise how little I'd missed that until this morning...

[Knowlesy]

He fits in with Beeb budget cuts. The man seemed so desperate on his blog I assume he offered the BBC a salary to let him in.

[bella]

does jaime actually manage to get a word in edgeways?

[Born Racer]

Having watched both shows, I think Sky need more post-race analysis. There was a good amount of time devoted to it (I think it was an hour to an hour and half) but they didn't cover enough. No interview with Grosjean was ever got. We saw Lee McKenzie of the BBC interviewing him on the world feed, knowing even the BBC's viewers wouldn't see that until much later in the day.

From a feminist perspective, I'm fed up of token females chosen because of their looks. Georgie Thompson just feeds Ant lines. A monkey could do that if it could speak. I'm not sure whether this applies to Natalie Pinkham because she was on the radio before so it wouldn't just be about looks.

Martin Brundle has said he's looking forward to making extended pieces on things. I'm hoping that's all still to come. Obviously they all need time to bed in and make these things and I'm sure it's been busy getting things started. But, and here's a complaint, what was the point of that Brundle in a Ferrari piece? It lasted only a few minutes; crazy! He said he did about 40 laps, but we barely saw him drive. He talked about the supposed aura of the Scuderia a bit, had a brief chat with Stefano Domenicali and then drove it, but the piece was then done. A waste, and as they'd been plugging it all weekend, you expected some substance.

The transitions to ad breaks are not always good. I like that they've respected and incorporated the history into it, but when you're watching the main Grand Prix weekend programme, it can just be a bit unwelcome to have a minute's bit of footage of Mansell randomly interspersed into the show before it segways into a commercial break.

Can anyone answer this about the BBC? Do they have the rights to show the full race for the races they do not have the rights to show live? If so, then it's extremely disappointing they don't. As discussed previously, watching the race later and incomplete has its major disadvantages, such as no live timing and seamlessly edited changes between laps, which the editing team are probably proud of, but which do not give you the best immersion in what really happened. Taking all this out off the equation, 'Auntie' seemed to bring a tightly packaged show, with little build-up, but in the 2 hours they prioritised post-race analysis, which they did a bit better than Sky. But the lack of the full podium ceremony (they probably did not consider it a priority on this occasion and maybe on other occasions) added to the feeling of it not being live. We saw the three drivers mount the podium and then the champagne spraying, but no national anthem. That might seem trivial, but things like this help the atmosphere of appreciating the Grand Prix.

I will definitely give Sky time to work on it (well, I'm locked into a contract with them), but I mean I accept it may take a bit of time, but and this is the crux: if you're paying for something, you want at least what the BBC did, and probably more. The biography programmes are good, but we want more of the right stuff in the main shows too. That shouldn't be too much to ask when you're now paying for it. That's what gets people's backs up.

[Knowlesy]

You have to wonder where they go with the F1 Legends stuff eventually as well. Presumably they have a successor programme for that and it won't be years of repeats.

Is anyone else finding the season reviews a tad annoying with the sound? The volume balance seems to be too far towards the rather dull voice-over. This may be a TV setting problem, but I don't think so.

[Born Racer]

I haven't caught any of those yet, but I'm looking forward to them.

I saw on one of the channels one of the Red Bull senior members with Christian Horner. It looked and sounded like Adrian Newey, but he had hair and for a fleeting moment, I thought he'd bought a wig. I think this was because:

a) I'd been watching old clips on Sky in which Adrian Newey had hair (circa early 80s).

b) I was tired.

[TWRv12]

I watched the Beeb feed live and really enjoyed it.

Having Ben as proper lead commentator and DC doing colour was good, sorry didn't really miss Brundle. Don't think they used Gary enough, his calls seemed spot on.

No way on earth is Crofty is in the same league as Ben.

Have yet to see any F1 graphics consistently explain expected pitsops stategy and tyre degradation like Larko with his whiteboard doing the V8's.

When the Beeb and Sky go head later in the season, the Beeb should come out on top.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

From a feminist perspective, I'm fed up of token females chosen because of their looks. Georgie Thompson just feeds Ant lines. A monkey could do that if it could speak. I'm not sure whether this applies to Natalie Pinkham because she was on the radio before so it wouldn't just be about looks.

i didn't know you were a secret bra burner

natalie has never offended me from a "only women who are competant at asking questions on telly should do it" perspective to be honest. i just don't understand sky's obsession with having token dolly birds on some otherwise good programming. why is it the bbc that has a smart, able lady like lee mckenzie at the forefront of their coverage where she rightfully deserves to be, and sky can't manage to do that with natalie pinkham without casting in a token pretty face to bring the tone down?

i don't know, maybe i'd be a lot less offended if they brought in a very pretty man to do some interviews to balance it out. but if he couldn't string a sentence together either it'd probably ruin the effect.

[TrapezeArtist]

I haven't seen the Sky coverage because I am not going to line Murdoch's pocket, on principle. However, if I were paying for Sky I would expect something considerably better that what I get free. From all the comments on here and some other things I've heard, they don't seem to have achieved that. Perhaps in the world of Sky, that can't understand the difference between quantity and quality.

I have been very favourably surprised by the Beeb though. As others have said, the "highlights" programme doesn't feel like highlights. The editing is very good (a bit too good as it is sometimes difficult to identify when something has been cut) and it ensures that nothing is missed. They can effectively slow down real time when they need to, to show an incident from several angles.

I don't think I'll ever get wildly excited over the commentary because it is just unobtrusively good. It just drifts into my brain without me noticing it is there. It can't compete with the best bits of Muddly Talker or Martin Brundle (but when we think back to them we only think of the "best bits") but it's far better than anything that came from James Allen or the other one.

Sadly, I don't see why people are so appreciative of Lee Mackenzie. Just how hard can it be to ask "Tell us what happened" over and over again? And while we're also being sexist about the female presenters, she's a bit too broad in the beam for my tastes.

Here's another vote for getting rid of the silly CGI at the start of the show. Unfortunately that's just one example of the useless bloating that pads out so many television programmes: like coming back from and advert break and telling us what just happened before the break. I know! I was watching it!!!!

Last year I was feeling very angry and let-down by the Sky/BBC arrangement. Having watched the Australian GP on BBC, I now feel much better.