Formula 1 moving from NBC to ESPN in 2018

F1 will move from NBC Sports to ESPN next year as part of a multiyear rights deal that is expected to be announced later today. Neither side would comment on financials, but ESPN is not believed to be paying a rights fee for the programming and will rely on a world feed to carry the races. The circuit's OTT rights are not part of this deal, as F1 will retain control over those rights. F1's talks with NBC, which had carried races on NBCSN since '13, apparently broke down over the length of the deal. NBC pushed F1 to sign a longer-term deal, but F1, which is trying to build up the league under new ownership, did not want its U.S. rights to be tied down in any kind of long-term deal, sources said.

ESPN committed to televise all 21 races live next year -- 16 on ESPN2, three on ESPN and two on ABC. ABC will re-air the May 27 Monaco Grand Prix in the timeslot following the Indianapolis 500. ESPN has committed to carry all practice sessions, qualifying and races live and in replay on one of its platforms next year.

“We had the ability on Sunday mornings on ESPN2 to slide the races right into the schedule,” ESPN Exec VP/Programming & Scheduling Burke Magnus said. “The design here is to lean heavily into the sport once again. It’s been a few years. We want to make it a big deal again.”
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http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2017/10/04/F1.aspx

Monaco will air live on ESPN, U.S. and Mexico live on ABC.
 
Damn. I'm gonna have to stick with the overly ****** biased Sky Sports broacasting with Martin Brundle and that other dude who love to deepthroat Lewis Hamilton every damn race.

I like Hobbs and Leafy and that other guy whose name I cant come up with right now. NBCSN does a great job. Too bad.
 
Oh, good, a form of racing I don't watch moved to a network I already ignore.

I wonder what NBCSN will use to fill the time.
 
Someone's not happy.

“Although we take great pride in having grown Formula One’s visibility and viewership since we became its exclusive U.S. media rights holder in 2013, this will be our last season with the series. In this case, we chose not to enter into a new agreement in which the rights holder itself competes with us and our distribution partners. We wish the new owners of F1 well.”
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http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2...rts-spokesperson-on-formula-one-media-rights/
 
Reck said:
Damn. I'm gonna have to stick with the overly ****** biased Sky Sports broacasting with Martin Brundle and that other dude who love to deepthroat Lewis Hamilton every damn race.

I like Hobbs and Leafy and that other guy whose name I cant come up with right now. NBCSN does a great job. Too bad.
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Croft and Kravitz? Yeah they are big Hamilton sympathizers. I used to stream Sky coverage because no commercials and then I got sick of their ****.

I think there's a good chance Hobbs and Matchett move to ESPN. They came from SPEED when that transition happened. It's not like they're covering anything else. Diffey, I think, can find other opportunities at NBC.
 
I liked the NBCSN coverage for what it was, and they promoted F1 pretty heavily and enthusiastically. I don't see ESPN doing it any better, and they will be doing it on the cheap. I think F1 was a better fit on NBCSN, where it was actually a significant piece of programming for them. Sure, it was behind NASCAR in terms of priority, but at least there is some overlap of interest there, and the two could be cross-promoted. ESPN pays such massive rights fees for the big leagues that they have to be all about:

1. NFL
2. NBA
3. College football
4. College basketball

8. MLB

50. Tennis
51. Golf

Something like F1 will be about 1000 on that pecking order. If ESPN tries to steal something like UFC from Fox, it will slip even further down the pecking order. Just lost in that sea of sports that aren't compatible. On the plus side, a test pattern on ESPN2 will draw better than one on NBCSN, so F1 may get a few more eyeballs just by default. I just don't think ESPN will have any serious interest in helping Liberty Media actually build a more substantial American audience.

It is disappointing that NBC apparently wanted to commit longer term, but Liberty doesn't want to tie up the rights currently because it is believed they want to add as many as two or three additional American GPs.
 
Wished Fox got the rights, I always preferred them over NBSCN and I think Fox would treat F1 better than ESPN

ESPN is a mess and F1 is now going to be apart of that......
 
downnice said:
Wished Fox got the rights, I always preferred them over NBSCN and I think Fox would treat F1 better than ESPN

ESPN is a mess and F1 is now going to be apart of that......
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Sounds like F1 wanted to be on ESPN because the guy in charge of that division used to work for them. Insane.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Sounds like F1 wanted to be on ESPN because the guy in charge of that division used to work for them. Insane.
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Less money goes into it when you have someone with the hook ups.

I'm more concern about the quality of the broacasting than anything. If they put some idiots that dont know jack about the sport then I'm out.

I rather watch a couple of homers than watch morons that cant even pronounce the names of the drivers right.
 
Reck said:
Less money goes into it when you have someone with the hook ups.

I'm more concern about the quality of the broacasting than anything. If they put some idiots that dont know jack about the sport then I'm out.

I rather watch a couple of homers than watch morons that cant even pronounce the names of the drivers right.
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Not sure how much ESPN will care. I'm guessing they paid next to nothing for rights because this guy at Liberty pretty much pushed NBC out the door. Doesn't sound like there's any incentive for them to care.

ESPN is a dying brand anyway. The combination of NBCSN, FS1 and CBS Sports are tearing them apart. All they have left is college sports, and Fox and CBS are slowly eating away at that too.
 
Reck said:
Less money goes into it when you have someone with the hook ups.

I'm more concern about the quality of the broacasting than anything. If they put some idiots that dont know jack about the sport then I'm out.

I rather watch a couple of homers than watch morons that cant even pronounce the names of the drivers right.
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What has been reported thus far is that they are paying zero rights fees and will rely on the international feed. I would be pleasantly surprised if they bother to send a single reporter to be on the ground at the overseas races. They're doing this on the cheap. Maybe it will grow if Liberty is serious about more American races and the relationship grows with it.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
ESPN is a dying brand anyway. The combination of NBCSN, FS1 and CBS Sports are tearing them apart. All they have left is college sports, and Fox and CBS are slowly eating away at that too.
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Oh come on. One can hate on ESPN all one wants, and there are many reasons to do so. Nobody who seriously understands sports media thinks that Fox and FS1 are in a better position to survive than ESPN. FS1 is in constant upheaval and their goal is to try to beat ESPN2 when they can. NBCSN and CBS Sports are hardly even blips on the radar. The industry may be eating itself alive due to runaway rights fees, but the 800 lb gorilla will always be more poised to survive than the smaller players.
 
gnomesayin said:
Oh come on. One can hate on ESPN all one wants, and there are many reasons to do so. Nobody who seriously understands sports media thinks that Fox and FS1 are in a better position to survive than ESPN. FS1's goal is to try to beat ESPN2 when they can. NBCSN and CBS Sports are hardly even blips on the radar. The industry may be eating itself alive due to runaway rights fees, but the 800 lb gorilla will always be more poised to survive than the smaller players.
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Don't kid yourself, ESPN's in bad shape. There was a report a while back that Disney loses as much money per day as they made in Star Wars box office ticket sales. That's insane. On top of that, they're losing rights to major sports left and right.

Turn on ESPN during the day and it's mostly just political talk shows. You can watch the same thing on MSNBC everyday. I accidentally watched First Take, which they air twice a day, the other day and they were talking about politics. Not even in any relation to sports, but straight up politics, segment after segment about Donald Trump.

Then there's their carriage fees. Something close to a quarter of my monthly bill goes to ESPN. That's insane ... especially since they don't have anything to justify that cost.

:espnsux:
 
No rights fee and it does sound like they're just using the FOM world feed. No studio shows or anything. Not sure this really does much to help F1 in America, although it is true that ESPN/ESPN2 are in more homes than NBCSN and more well-known. Still, I think they'll have to promote their product at least a little bit. Unfortunately, they put zero promotion into anything IndyCar besides the 500 so I'm not sure we'll see that.
 
Reck said:
Less money goes into it when you have someone with the hook ups.

I'm more concern about the quality of the broacasting than anything. If they put some idiots that dont know jack about the sport then I'm out.

I rather watch a couple of homers than watch morons that cant even pronounce the names of the drivers right.
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I'm guessing the English world feed is the Sky broadcast.
 
Like so many kids of the 80s and 90s, I grew up with ESPN. I don't care much one way or the other anymore and don't watch their studio shows often.

I think you're misunderstanding the realities of the industry. As @FLRacingFan has stated well, ESPN is still profitable, just not as profitable as it was for the past two decades. It is blatantly untrue that Disney loses money on ESPN. It is that mammoth company's primary consistent profit generator. The fear of those profits going away is what is driving all of Wall Street's fears about Disney.

All of the cable industry negatives facing ESPN apply to Fox and NBC as well, and they are in an inferior position to weather them. ESPN will be launching their own standalone subscription model. This isn't even on the table for FS1 or NBCSN. Content wise, I'm not a fan of ESPN's hot talk studio shows. I'm less of a fan of FS1's awful craven imitation of what ESPN started. This is the network that paid Katie Nolan but could find nothing for her to do until she asked to be allowed to leave early, and threw millions at idiots like Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd, and Jason Whitlock. Now that Jamie Horowitz is gone, even that "vision" of a network is gone with it.
 
Am I right in assuming the international feed includes commentary - including play-by-play, a color guy in the booth, and at least one pit reporter? That is the way MotoGP does it, and the announcers are really first-rate. BeInSport just has a few words of introduction from their studio presenter, who then plugs in the international feed. I'm assuming that is what ESPN will do... zero rights fees, zero production costs, zero manpower, zero commitment.

Reports are that NBC has been paying $3 million per year - which Liberty's CEO referred to as a "popcorn fart" - plus some small production costs. Liberty thinks the future is streaming the content... time will tell.
 
LewTheShoe said:
Am I right in assuming the international feed includes commentary - including play-by-play, a color guy in the booth, and at least one pit reporter? That is the way MotoGP does it, and the announcers are really first-rate. BeInSport just has a few words of introduction from their studio presenter, who then plugs in the international feed. I'm assuming that is what ESPN will do... zero rights fees, zero production costs, zero manpower, zero commitment.
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I'm unclear on whether ESPN will be using its own commentators or not. NBC was mostly using the international feed as well, and had Diffey, Hobbs, and Matchett in a studio calling the race as they watched it on monitors. Only Will Buxton was on site at the races as a reporter. I grew to like that NBC crew and would be happy if ESPN signed any of them, but I would understand if they wanted some younger faces than Hobbs and Matchett.

On one hand, ESPN relying on international announcers would not appeal to casual American fans. On the other, if their idea of appealing to American fans is to bring in someone like Eddie Cheever or Scott Goodyear, then give me the European announcers any day.
 
LewTheShoe said:
Am I right in assuming the international feed includes commentary - including play-by-play, a color guy in the booth, and at least one pit reporter? That is the way MotoGP does it, and the announcers are really first-rate. BeInSport just has a few words of introduction from their studio presenter, who then plugs in the international feed. I'm assuming that is what ESPN will do... zero rights fees, zero production costs, zero manpower, zero commitment.

Reports are that NBC has been paying $3 million per year - which Liberty's CEO referred to as a "popcorn fart" - plus some small production costs. Liberty thinks the future is streaming the content... time will tell.
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There isn't really an official international commentary group like with WEC; it's the video feed, graphics, radio comms, etc. But it looks like English-speaking networks who don't use their own crew just use the Sky commentary, with some exceptions who use Channel 4. Australia (FOX) and Canada (TSN) use Sky.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_broadcasters
 
gnomesayin said:
I'm unclear on whether ESPN will be using its own commentators or not. NBC was mostly using the international feed as well, and had Diffey, Hobbs, and Matchett in a studio calling the race as they watched it on monitors. Only Will Buxton was on site at the races as a reporter. I grew to like that NBC crew and would be happy if ESPN signed any of them, but I would understand if they wanted some younger faces than Hobbs and Matchett.

On one hand, ESPN relying on international announcers would not appeal to casual American fans. On the other, if their idea of appealing to American fans is to bring in someone like Eddie Cheever or Scott Goodyear, then give me the European announcers any day.
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I hope Matchett and Hobbs are still our commentary guys. It would be cool if they could get someone recent like Weber though. I am strangely excited about F1 coming to ESPN I dont know it thats right or wrong to feel. I do love what NBCSN has done for the IRL and F1 though, I think theyve done a great job. Wonder what NBCSN will do to cover that hole in coverage.
 
ESPN with massive loses in manpower and viewership lately, no auto racing shows whatsoever has chosen to bring back racing to their network. Hopeful that they might pick up some other series to go with it. Love to see them follow some live dirt sprints series that are out there and popular. I don't watch much programming talking about so in so's jock strap and it looks like viewers like to watch action sports. One can hope. :idunno:
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Sounds like F1 wanted to be on ESPN because the guy in charge of that division used to work for them. Insane.
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I took a couple of seminars on the differences between business practices of various countries. In many of the European countries, pre-existing personal relationships override competitive bidding and technological advantages. It's not the way we're used to working, and I'll admit it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me some. But it's their way of doing business.
 
ESPN does a damn good job of covering games, it's the talk shows that have gotten so bad. PTI is still gold and even their backup team of Bomani and Pablo are great. But the other stuff is so so bad
 
FLRacingFan said:
Someone's not happy.



http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2...rts-spokesperson-on-formula-one-media-rights/
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So this looks like F1 will have an internal streaming service.


That's great and all, but dammit I would really hate to see $20 a month subscriptions for all these different motorsports. It's already happening in some of the more obscure stuff.

Side note: ESPN has stated that they are planning on using World Feed coverage and commentators. I hope Sky picks up Buxton....
 


Six Nations Rugby will move from beIN Sports to NBC next year as part of a six-year rights deal expected to be announced formally later today. NBC will pay a rights fee for the annual seven-week-long tournament, though the companies would not divulge how much. The deal starts in February with televised games appearing on NBC, NBCSN and CNBC. NBC Sports Gold will stream all Six Nations matches live. “We’ve been working on this deal for close to a year,” said NBC Sports and NBCSN President of Programming Jon Miller. “This is one that we’ve wanted for a long time.”

NBC execs said Six Nations Championship games will fit into weekend morning windows that became available when F1 left for ESPN, a deal that was announced yesterday. NBC also will use EPL games and NASCAR programming for those time slots. Many of the EPL games will move from CNBC to NBCSN. The schedule will have NBC carry the England-Ireland rugby match on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. The TV schedule will be somewhat abbreviated next year as NBC covers the PyeongChang Games, but it will ramp up again in '19.

NBC Sports Group will use its own talent and produce studio shows and shoulder programming around the matches, including a “Men In Blazers” Six Nations-focused show. “We want to demonstrate how big the sport is over there,” Miller said. NBC also holds rights the Rugby World Cup through '23, Premiership Rugby and Olympic rugby through '32.
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