BBC and Sky did WHAT?

This morning, a little before Free Practice 1 at 4am (EST), twitter A-SPLODED with this news. BBC was in full damage control mode. F1 journalists on twitter were partially “OSHI-” at the flood of fury about the news.

BBC’s announcement: BBC and Sky awarded rights in new Formula 1 deal

The BBC has been the exclusive broadcaster of F1 in the UK since 2009 but its contract with Formula One Management was due to expire after the 2013 season.

Sky Sports will show every race, qualifying session and practice live.

BBC Sport will broadcast half the races live, as well as the qualifying and practice sessions from those races.

BBC’s Ben Gallop, head of F1 for the broadcaster, tries to explain: New F1 deal explained

The headline is that under a seven-year deal starting next season, we will be showing 10 of the races in the F1 calendar, plus the corresponding qualifying and practice sessions, live on BBC TV.

We will broadcast extended highlights for the rest of the grands prix just a few hours after the chequered flag has been waved. Sky will have live action from all races, qualifying and practice sessions.

James Allen talking to Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal of McLaren (the ones with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button driving for them) Whitmarsh: Sky deal is “cautiously good news”

“Sky sound like they are really going to commit to it as well, so it sounds like there is a little bit of competition between the BBC and Sky. So overall, from Bernie’s view, it will increase the total viewership within the UK. Bernie assured me, and I asked him several times, the deferred coverage will not be highlights, it will be a full race.

“Based upon that, if it increases the total viewership, and it maintains the ability of free to air for all of the viewing public in the UK, then cautiously it’s good news isn’t it?”

Jonathan Noble for Autosport, getting some important quotes from F1 head honcho Bernie Ecclestone: Bernie Ecclestone says Sky pay-to-view TV deal will grow F1′s audience

“Sky will broadcast everything, all the races, live. The Beeb will do 50 per cent live, and when it isn’t live, they will be putting together a very good highlights package.

“They [BBC] may yet do the whole race deferred, we have to see.”

Asked what he would say to fans who could not afford a Sky subscription, Ecclestone replied: “That’s where the problem is, I know, but from what I understand Sky has enormous coverage, 10 million homes.

“For those who can’t watch Sky, they can still watch on a Sunday night, which will probably be better than watching the whole race live half the time,” he added.

Adam Cooper, also commenting on who might be covering F1 for Sky BBC and Sky in new UK F1 deal until 2018

There will no doubt now be a musical chairs game among commentators and presenters as some BBC folk lose their jobs, some go to Sky, and ex-ITV people such as James Allen and Louise Goodman have a chance to return.

Can you see how this is a mess? I knew you could. Conflicting comments abound. The outpouring of outrage from the fans was near simultaneous with the announcement. F1 Fans: a most dedicated lot.

It’s important to cover some background for the non-UK readers out there. Wanna watch tv out there? You need a TV Licence (short version explanation). This automatically gets you the BBC, which makes it count as free-to-air since you need a license to watch tv in the first place (and, technically, to even watch online with the very cool iPlayer). BBC has been doing an absolutely fantastic job covering Formula one with Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard, Martin Brundle, and Eddie Jordan. Fun, informative, perfect commentary, great access to the drivers, it’s pretty much all a fan could ask for!

Sky, on the other hand, you pay extra for. And it has commercials. Take it from me, racing with commercials breaks is crap. TSN at least shows the ads picture in picture, although the commercial audio wins and the commentary is cut off for the duration. Full commercials just obliterates the flow and you get no recap. It’s a black hole. Then there’s the whole stepping all over the whole “F1 must remain free-to-air” that everyone has gone on about the last few months. Yeah, whoops. Autosport reports that there will be no adverts during the races, so that’s something. Obviously pre- and post-race shows will be fair game for commercials.

Since I was up until way too early, followed immediately by next to no sleep, this is where my obsessive coverage of the story falls off a cliff.

I heard rumours that Sky will broadcast the races free, which would follow the fta that the teams (and their sponsors!!) want and need. F1 needs to be seen by more people, not less. If sponsors find that the numbers take a nosedive, they’re going to be furious and the teams might find that the increased revenue generated by a pay scheme won’t cover a shortfall. But the Autosport article specifically mentions that people will have to pay “from £31.95″ for the package that will include the F1 broadcasts. Balls.

In other news, Lewis Hamilton has been kicking butt in practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix on my birthday — possibly better known as July 31st. Apparently also the birthday of J.K Rowling & Harry Potter, as people keep telling me — and Mark Webber went and stuck his nose into a wall in Free Practice 1 after touching a wheel to the soaking wet astroturf.

Webber kicked ass here last year and I’d love to see him win at least one freakin’ race this year. Here’s hoping to it happening sooner rather than later. And no more team orders, pretty please.

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My initial reaction to the news was not good. In fact, it was exceptionally poor. I’ve really grown to love the BBC team and their fun segments are often the highlight of the race weekend for me. What other broadcaster gets their team and the McLaren drivers racing jet skis? Rides a three person bike through Silverstone to hang with the fans? Gets you closer behind the scenes at Vettel’s appearance at Top Gear? And on and on.

Brundle and Coulthard, both former drivers, provide outstanding race commentary. Informative, slightly opinionated, a lighthearted tone when the situation calls for it, and stern condemnation when drivers and teams make stupid mistakes. Love it. Eddie Jordan is hilarious, intentionally or not, and getting a former team boss opinion never hurts. With him and the ex-drivers, BBC has all the contacts you could need. Jake Humphrey does an excellent job keeping that group mostly on track and, honestly, causing mischief when he gets the chance. I didn’t agree with his pimping out Brundle and Eddie to cross the line a bit in Valencia parc ferme, but getting Eddie close to the Red Bull pool in Monaco to talk to Vettel? Well duh he was gonna go in! Bonus Coulthard dunking, too. Good times. Semi-fairplay, too, since Mark Webber had dunked him in earlier in a pre-recorded segment :)

Brundle’s tweet has me hoping that he’ll jump to Sky to keep on providing excellent coverage for ALL the races, not just half. And fingers crossed that Coulthard will cross with him. If they get those two, I’ll probably be fine with it. There are, indeed, other strong contenders for the position. Sky probably didn’t get the rights without their own team in mind, though, but they smartly announced nothing about that to keep people talking about it. Jerks.

When CBC lost the Olympics to CTV/TSN, I was pretty crushed. I had convinced myself that no one could do the job they did. I was wrong. TSN had already poached Captain Olympics, Brian Williams (not the US newscaster), and did a stellar job with the Vancouver games. Sky could end up doing a solid job with F1, if they get the right people. Unfortunately, it’ll be a bit of a wait to find out who those people are :(

In the meantime, I’ll continue to watch every spec of Formula 1 coverage I can on the BBC. Thankfully, out of all this, 5Live will continue their own stellar coverage 100% of the time last year. Hooray for small mercies.