Formula 1 moving from NBC to ESPN in 2018

Football chief spells out why F1 fans are ‘switching off’
Arguing that the relatively level playing field in payments has contributed to making the Premier League exciting, where it’s quite common for a Crystal Palace to beat a Manchester United or an Arsenal on their day, Parish said: “It has to stay competitive. Nobody wants to watch someone destroy a club 7-0, it’s not intoxicating.

“Take F1 for example. The big teams got all the power, demanded more and more money. And now there’s a spectacle where there’s one or two teams with a chance of winning a race, and people are switching off.

“If we make it less interesting…it is not in the long term benefit of the league.”

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/football-chief-spells-out-why-f1-fans-are-switching-off-1010013
 
Zerkfitting said:
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.
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I think that is why this particular agreement will work out well for F1 in America. ESPN/ESPN2/ABC is a much more prominent family of networks to casual sports fans than NBCSN/CNBC/NBC. For hardcore fans, $10/month or so for commercial-free coverage and your pick of onboards and camera angles is a bargain.

Haven't seen it confirmed yet, but I've read rumors that NBC will be involved in the F1 TV operation in some capacity and Will Buxton is likely to be involved as well. I'm leaning towards giving it a go once the season rolls around.
 
shark77 said:
I’ll try it.
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Me too. Price is reasonable, though obviously more so during the months that have 3 GPs as opposed to 1 (August). I'm curious about the "commercial-free" aspect. Does this truly indicate uninterrupted green-to-checkered coverage? That is a big value to hardcore viewers. I'm sure all of us who have streamed sports events have experienced live streams that go to a blank screen during TV commercial breaks. Will the announcers on the international feed this service is using keep calling the race while the TV viewers are watching ads?
 
gnomesayin said:
Me too. Price is reasonable, though obviously more so during the months that have 3 GPs as opposed to 1 (August). I'm curious about the "commercial-free" aspect. Does this truly indicate uninterrupted green-to-checkered coverage? That is a big value to hardcore viewers. I'm sure all of us who have streamed sports events have experienced live streams that go to a blank screen during TV commercial breaks. Will the announcers on the international feed this service is using keep calling the race while the TV viewers are watching ads?
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FWIW, SuperView (Aussie Supercars stream) in years past has gone straight through the domestic commercials on FOX Sports/Ten/7/whatever channel the race is on that day. They'll go silent for a few seconds (probably as bumper music is playing domestically) and then go back to commentary for the international audience.
 
If that's the case and all it takes to make the commercial breaks go away is an average of about $4 per race, along with all of the other goodies, I'm in.
 
And for what it's worth, I recall the off-the-air portions of the Rolex 24 stream went all the way through the night without interruption. We got Rooftop Ray's images all night and the uninterrupted commentary from the European feed.
 
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I think being able to view onboard video from every car is definitely worth $10 per month. I just hope the video quality is good and lag-free.
 
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Marcingak said:
I think being able to view onboard video from every car is definitely worth $10 per month. I just hope the video quality is good and lag-free.
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I must be the only guy with little appreciation for on board video. I 'get' it if there's replay footage of an incident in front of or directly involving the driver, but otherwise I don't see the appeal. It offers a very limited view of what's going on. I want to see as much of the field as possible.
 
Probably a good idea of what the full season will look like. A couple of practice sessions streamed live like NBC did, with a practice, qualifying, and the race all on linear TV.

 
Sounds good to me. I just wish ESPNEWS would stick strictly to covering sports news.
 
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