Making the new BBC-Sky F1 deal work for fans

F1 News
Date: 30/July/2011

The announcement that Formula One TV coverage in the UK is to be shared between the BBC (free) and Sky Sports (subscription) from 2012 has caused uproar among many fans.

At present, all F1 races are shown live on the BBC. But, under pressure to reduce its budgets, the BBC has now cut a deal with Sky which means that from 2012-2018 only Sky will broadcast all F1 track action live in the UK.

The BBC will broadcast half of the races (and qualifying) live, with the non-live events being shown as 'extensive' highlights. Online polls show that less than 5% of F1 fans consider the move to be a positive one - but here is how to limit the damage within the new deal:

We know that the BBC will definitely show the British, Monaco and final grands prix of each season live - so that makes up 3 of its 10 live races per year. What the BBC should now do is ensure that the ten races it can’t show live includes all the early morning events.

These are: Australia (9 hours ahead of UK time), Japan (+8 hours), South Korea (+8 hours), Malaysia (+7 hours), China (+7 hours) and India (+4.3 hours).

Those are events that many British F1 fans might tolerate seeing a few hours late, especially if it gives them a longer lie-in on a Sunday morning.

And what about the four other races that the BBC must sacrifice?

The evening races (UK time) are usually good for audience figures, so the BBC should try to keep Canada, the USA and Brazil - and the same goes for the 'special' Abu Dhabi and Singapore night events.

With Brazil also the final round that makes 7 of the 10 BBC live events, and we'd add to that the first European round of the year, at Catalunya, the challenging Belgian Grand Prix and historic Monza round in Italy.

This way the BBC would only miss out on three European rounds - Valencia, Germany and Hungary.

Our live BBC TV schedule, in order of the proposed 2012 calendar, would be as follows:

1.    Australia - Sky
2.    Malaysia - Sky
3.    China - Sky
4.    India - Sky
5.    Spain - BBC & Sky
6.    Monaco - BBC & sky
7.    Canada - BBC & Sky
8.    Valencia - Sky
9.    Great Britain - BBC & Sky
10.    Germany - Sky
11.    Hungary - Sky
12.    Belgium - BBC & Sky
13.    Italy - BBC & Sky
14.    Singapore - BBC & Sky
15.    Japan - Sky
16.    Korea - Sky
17.    Abu Dhabi - BBC & Sky
18.    Bahrain - Sky
19.    United States - BBC & Sky
20.    Brazil - BBC & Sky