Formula 1 moving from NBC to ESPN in 2018

DUN24 said:
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....
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I'd pay $20 a month for ALL motorsports content. I could drop down at least one satellite tier, possibly two, and save more than that.
 
DUN24 said:
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....
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That's the future of sports I think. And honestly, I don't like it. First, not everyone has access to high speed internet ... in fact, a good portion of the country does not.

And then, like you said, the costs add up. Lucas Oil TV or Speed51 aren't bad deals, but when you factor in adding those $10/month fees on top of your internet bill, Netflix, Playstation Vue or whatever, it adds up fast.

Right now, with AT&T and DIRECTV, I'm paying as much for TV, internet and phone as I was last year. And I get more channels on the TV (without all the problems that come with streaming media), more mobile data on my phone and higher speeds on my primary internet.
 
The big plus about using the world feed, is that Sky Sports doesn't show commercials during the race. I'd be willing to bet a doughnut, that won't happen on ESPN.
 
Yogisd1 said:
The big plus about using the world feed, is that Sky Sports doesn't show commercials during the race. I'd be willing to bet a doughnut, that won't happen on ESPN.
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lol well, yeah , no kidding, we don't have that TV model outside of the premium
movie channels, so yes, you can bet your a**hole there are going to be adverts during the race.

This sounds like a good deal for ESPN and is something they need right now, a really popular sport that they can get the rights too that wont cost them a lot of money on the production side, they are going to have a very little overhead , so more profit .
 
ESPN has become so political I simply refuse to watch. Hell. almost all of tv has gotten that way. Racing is about the only place on tv that doesn't feature political agenda enemas, and now they are going to ruin that too.
 
My hope is that Hobbs and Matchett stay on because I like that in all of motor sports TV race announcing that these two are the only ones who will voice their honest opinion on TV of the drivers, race promoters and most of all the FIA on what they see as inane and asinine. I totally agree with those two on how the FIA has continually screwed up F1 with it's constant rule changes.
 
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PRR1957 said:
I totally agree with those two on how the FIA has continually screwed up F1 with it's constant rule changes.
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Not to even mention sportscar racing. The shift to hybrid units in both F1 and WEC had driven the costs through the roof. The FIA's obsession with all things green is killing the sport.

As of right now, only Toyota might be coming back to WEC, but I suspect that's because they haven't made the announcement yet that they aren't. There is no one to race against because Porsche and Audi simply packed up and left. The hybrid WEC is so expensive that no other manufacturers ever even gave it a look. How can you have a manufacturers championship with no manufacturers? Well, you can't, that is, unless you can do it with just one manufacturer. Toyota can't afford to stay because they can't win. If they win races against the slow, underfunded ByKolles, remember they are supposed to beat them. And if Toyota loses, well, that's not supposed to happen, is it?

Not content that they have almost totally killed off prototype racing, the FIA is going to change the rules again for 2020. They don't seen to understand whenever you change the rules the teams have to redesign, build new cars, refit all of their equipment, and drop a ton of scratch.

Now F1 is proposing a budget cap, but all that is going to do is cause people to lose their jobs. You have a lot of fixed costs in racing where you just can't cut back, but you can drop personnel. What you are going to end up with is cars that are still super complex and super expensive, but not enough money to have the proper amount of quality people to run them. It seems to me a better idea would be to make the cars less expensive, but the FIA seems hell bent on showcasing so much technology that no one can afford to race any more.

If you look at how miserably WEC has failed, you will get some insight into how short sighted the FIA really is. They are so blind that they can't see the answer that is right under their noses, and in fact, actually in their hands. They already have a healthy, quality field of P2 cars ready to go. All they need to do is adopt IMSA's DPI rules. This way the current field will now become the top class, with current cars remaining competitive and manufacturers allowed to supply engines and bodykits. The current teams wouldn't have to do anything but show up, and they would be competing for overall wins, and surely there would be new teams interested in using manufacturer kits. If the affordable P2 class were top become the top division, it's not had to image the grids would swell up to the bursting point.

The FIA could have very easily made this adjustment the moment Porsche hinted they were pulling out, but instead, they stuck to their guns convinced that no one could possibly have a better idea than them. How very French of them. Now, no one has time to plan ahead, convert current cars, or even put a new team together. Meanwhile, IMSA's DPI seems set to become a modern day Group C/GTP with new cars and teams being announced on an almost weekly basis. Still DPI is based on the FIA's P2 concept with a few tweaks. They had a really good idea....they just executed it badly. P2 is succeeding quite well as a second division prototype class, but it really should have been the premier division all along.

Sorry to be so long winded on this, but I wanted to lay the foundation of an argument that the FIA really has no business running world class motorsports. When you look at what they have already done to ruin world class motorsports, it's hard to see a rosy future for F1 if they continue down the road they are on.
 
PRR1957 said:
My hope is that Hobbs and Matchett stay on because I like that in all of motor sports TV race announcing that these two are the only ones who will voice their honest opinion on TV of the drivers, race promoters and most of all the FIA on what they see as inane and asinine. I totally agree with those two on how the FIA has continually screwed up F1 with it's constant rule changes.
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According to David Hobbs' Twitter, he will not be a part of the ESPN team. :(:(:(
 
Barbara Charles said:
According to David Hobbs' Twitter, he will not be a part of the ESPN team. :(:(:(
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I heard from Bob Varsha earlier this week that they're trialing a true international feed this weekend, FOM will have their own announcers. If that works out that's probably what ESPN uses next year instead of Sky Sports.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I'm sorry, what's FOM? And how will a 'true international' feed differ from what NBC uses?
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Formula One Management. They produce the television feed.

NBC has their own broadcasters in studio and their own pit reporter on the ground, their own commentary, packaged towards Americans. This would be a crew commentating for all English-speaking countries that don't have their own dedicated announcing crew like NBC currently does for the US.
 
PRR1957 said:
My hope is that Hobbs and Matchett stay on because I like that in all of motor sports TV race announcing that these two are the only ones who will voice their honest opinion on TV of the drivers, race promoters and most of all the FIA on what they see as inane and asinine. I totally agree with those two on how the FIA has continually screwed up F1 with it's constant rule changes.
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I would be fine with Martin Brundle, he's the same way.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Formula One Management. They produce the television feed.

NBC has their own broadcasters in studio and their own pit reporter on the ground, their own commentary, packaged towards Americans. This would be a crew commentating for all English-speaking countries that don't have their own dedicated announcing crew like NBC currently does for the US.
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Sounds like those Disneyfied liberals at ESPN will outsource 'Murican jobs to furrinners :p
 
gnomesayin said:
So their plans appear to be "We have no idea yet. Hopefully we'll have some idea by the end of the year."

It is hard to be optimistic about this, especially knowing how enthusiastic NBC Sports was about building F1 interest in the U.S. ESPN took this on as bargain basement content when NBC balked over the digital thing.
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NBC and Liberty couldn't get over the streaming rights issue so Bratches went over to his old employer to ask for a favor. That's about it. It still doesn't sound like they'll put their own stamp on it in any fashion, no studio content or anything. Really disappointing because NBC really has been killing it. The world feed commentators have big shoes to fill.

I'm still somewhat expecting ratings to go up just because ESPN is more of a household name and has more exposure.
 
One thing I do like is ESPN has plenty of channels to go to should
scheduling get sticky at times with weather delays, practice and quali sessions, etc.
 
ESPN just isn't going to be able to even come close...it's the small things like these intros by Leigh or Sam Posey's essays that are going to be missed.
 
Hotrod said:
One thing I do like is ESPN has plenty of channels to go to should
scheduling get sticky at times with weather delays, practice and quali sessions, etc.
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NBC has tons of channels, too. CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN. ESPN doesn't give a crap about motorsports and they will end the broadcast if it goes over the scheduled time even if the race hasn't finished yet.
 
Marcingak said:
NBC has tons of channels, too. CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN. ESPN doesn't give a crap about motorsports and they will end the broadcast if it goes over the scheduled time even if the race hasn't finished yet.
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I don't watch much, but with F1 races being relatively short, with fewer caution / delays than some other forms of racing, don't their races normally finish within the broadcast window? And don't they usually have a post-race scheduled immediately after, providing a built-in buffer?
 
Marcingak said:
NBC has tons of channels, too. CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN. ESPN doesn't give a crap about motorsports and they will end the broadcast if it goes over the scheduled time even if the race hasn't finished yet.
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Well dang, I hope not. I just recently started using NBCSN live streaming of F1 practices and hope ESPN will do something similar on ESPN3.
We shall see.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I don't watch much, but with F1 races being relatively short, with fewer caution / delays than some other forms of racing, don't their races normally finish within the broadcast window? And don't they usually have a post-race scheduled immediately after, providing a built-in buffer?
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Yes.... for the most part. A long rain delay is really a rare exception. F1 time schedule goes like a train schedule clock work.
You can generally set your watch by it.
 
Marcingak said:
NBC has tons of channels, too. CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN. ESPN doesn't give a crap about motorsports and they will end the broadcast if it goes over the scheduled time even if the race hasn't finished yet.
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ESPN has more channels than Lewis Hamilton has championships.
 
I just had an idea: If Will Buxton cant do the pit reports and grid walks for the NBC Broadcast, they have an in house candidate: Rutledge Wood. Bring a little hipster flair to the spectacle known as F1.
 
Snappy D said:
I just had an idea: If Will Buxton cant do the pit reports and grid walks for the NBC Broadcast, they have an in house candidate: Rutledge Wood. Bring a little hipster flair to the spectacle known as F1.
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I already have sufficient reasons to not watch F1, thank you very much.

It's not like that would even improve NASCAR coverage. NBC would just find someone else to cover the rainbows and unicorns they assign to him.
 
Lol Ted ****** Kravitz.

But I supposed it could have been worse. Having American broadcaster who likely knows as much as me about F1 would have been a disaster.

Going in, I’m already used to Martin Brundle’s voice so no surprise there. This is not going to go down well with the the masses though. Holy jolly me!

Damon Hill is a nice addition I think though. David Coulthard would have been nicer though.
 
Formula 1 to launch F1 TV, a live Grand Prix subscription service
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...v-a-live-grand-prix-subscription-service.html

$8-12USD per month, annual rate TBD.

F1 TV is Formula 1’s over the top (OTT) platform and marks F1’s biggest investment in its digital transformation to date.

Formula 1 fans will get commercial-free live streams of each race with multi language commentary. In addition, the service will provide exclusive access to all 20 driver on-board cameras throughout every race session. F1 TV Pro will have unique feeds not available on any other platform with the capability of multi-level personalisation.

Subscribers will be able to choose the content they view and how and when they access it. All of practice, qualifying and races, will be offered live, along with press conferences and pre and post-race interviews. Subscribers will be able to watch live races of the main support series, the FIA Formula 2 Championship, GP3 Series and Porsche Supercup, among others.
...
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I'm a casual fan and won't be subscribing to F1 TV. As long as it is on the first tier of cable I'll watch the races.
 
Reck said:
But I supposed it could have been worse. Having American broadcaster who likely knows as much as me about F1 would have been a disaster.
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In America, the loss of Difey, Matchette and especially Hobbs is already a colossal, epic cataclysmic disaster. They have ripped the soul out of the US broadcast
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I would gladly pay $15 / month or $150 / year for a NASCAR subscription service.
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I'd pay $200 or $250. It would let me drop cable.

Right now I have all my TV entertainment through cable. But NASCAR streaming + a Netflix/Hulu service would suit all my needs for much much MUCH cheaper.
 
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