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Ah! lol Gee I thought Mercedes was German through and through. Shows what I know lol. I guess BMW is Australian in the end? lmao!

Indeed it does; even the production team who pop up from time to time on the web and on a few of the programmes seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves even though they're the ones getting dragged out of bed at 4am to get pre-race features finished (I assume)...



One thing that many are overlooking at the moment is all the additional stuff that they're providing. Decent commentary from the 5Live crew for the practice sessions where ITV's was commentary-free; multiple ways to watch - BBC1 + Legard/Brundle and BBC1 + 5Live team available on cable (or is it?), Freeview and the web; the race-long in-car stream on the web (and very occasionally on Freeview if there's no other sporting event on); realtime text commentary on the web. And then there's the blogs and columns (of which Jake's and Martin's are particularly good). Oh, and the post-race forum too which stands on its own as a decent programme (Martin's ice cream moment being a particular favourite of mine).

I've watched each race this year with the BBC1 coverage on the TV, the in-car stream and the FOM live timing screen next to it on a laptop. I think I need more eyes

My only complaint is Legard's incessant use of "HE'S PUSHING ON!", but I guess everyone has a tired old cliche they use too often. JA had several!

STV News in Scotland is reporting that Setanta are likely to be heading off-air at midnight tonight.

Do they carry F1 anywhere?

Ireland, but I don't think they are the only broadcaster there?

Ireland viewers get Formula 1 via Setanta Ireland...

...GP2 and DTM are of course on Setanta, both of which will be affected.

They're not taking any new subscriptions today due to "technical difficulties."

Setanta, the Ryanair of the television world. Won't be missed.

The majority of the country has access to cable/satellite - after all that's how Setanta is carried - so the BBC coverage will be available.


Having both BBC and Setanta, I watch the Beeb. Setanta has a rubbish commentary team - apart from Gary Anderson who doesn't get to say all that much though.

No more GP2 though.

Hopefully someone clever at Eurosport or MotorsTV can renegotiate the rights.

Ok the novelty of Brawn winning has worn off. I'm bored with F1 again. Some kind of challenge to Button would be nice, even from his team mate!

Looking at the viewing figures on BARB the viewing public seems to agree with you. Spain and Monaco are a no show in the Top 30 compared to last year.

Could you give us the figures? I keep getting a survey which I'm too lazy to fill out...

Not surprised. Where is the racing, where is the overtaking (as promised)??

Exactly. It's not just Brawn's domination, it's the ugliness of the cars. 200 MPH snowploughs that can't overtake? And Jonathan Legard's disgustingly boring, confusing and tedious commentary? Understandable.

I have to say I'm enjoying Moto GP a whole lot more so far this year.

The Spanish GP got 3.51 million viewers last year and Monaco got 3.98.

The only thing is that the BBC gets higher viewing figures overall compared to ITV so an F1 viewing figure that would feature in ITV's Top 30 wouldn't necessarily appear in the BBC Top 30.

The Today programme broadcast an interview with Button this morning. There's a video of him accepting the journalist's challenge to a race, and an audio clip of the interview below that:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsi...000/8092649.stm

Perhaps my ears are playing up, but I'm sure he thinks the last round of the championship is in Aberdovey - that's going to come as a nasty shock to him.

Do you know this year's figures?

Murray Walkers reviews are quite enjoyable.

He still makes me laugh, good on ya Sir!

"Button has won 6 of the 7 races so far, and some still call it boring. (turn and face the camera with a shocked expression) BORING! Not for me!"

Will post figures shortly.....

Agreed, and not only that, but he's into it and committed to making good TV in a professional way. Witness less on-air silliness with EJ, now DC just kind of rolls his eyes, looks away, etc. Why bother when the man, given all that rope, is doing a fine job hanging himself?

@Ross, I actually posted the figures a few weeks ago, but here goes again:

- Australian Grand Prix comparison
- Malaysian Grand Prix comparison
- Chinese Grand Prix comparison
- Bahrain Grand Prix comparison
- Spanish Grand Prix comparison
- Monaco Grand Prix comparison

I haven't yet got the Turkey figures.

On the whole, ratings are up.

Thanks for that. So, apart from Monaco, which was broadcast in the middle of a heatwave in the UK, the viewing figures have been up?

So much for the naysayers in this thread.

Correct. Qualifying has seen the biggest increase, mostly up by at least 30% on the ITV days. Race is only up by about 10%, but when you factor in the adverts ITV had, it'd come out that BBC is around the same as ITV for race ratings, probably a tad higher.

Biggest Improvements - Qualifying
150% - Turkey GP 08/09
82% - Spanish GP 08/09
62% - Bahrain GP 08/09
58% - Australian GP 08/09
54% - Monaco GP 08/09
48% - Chinese GP 08/09
12% - Malaysian GP 08/09

Biggest Improvements - Race
27% - Malaysian GP 08/09
25% - Bahrain GP 08/09
12% - Spanish GP 08/09
07% - Australian GP 08/09
04% - Chinese GP 08/09
-09% - Monaco GP 08/09

Turkey last year for whatever reason was very low (probably mini-heatwave), race only had 2.64 million, so I suspect the improvement should be about 30% for the race. In fact, Turkey has never done very well in the calendar - I guess the fact that it was in August didn't help matters.

Classic British Grand Prix Choices:
- 1981
- 1987
- 1998
- 2003
- 2008

Thanks for that DMN, I do wonder how the figures will go for the rest of the season given the lack of a truly competitive title challenge.

I don't think British viewers will mind a regular British winner.

It was garanteed that viewing figures would be bigger since the BBC bought the rights back, but the novelty will soon wear off. The British GP ratings will probably be near it was last year, but from there on I expect figures will start going down.

Just reading that made me laugh.

Tough year,so far...six of the seven people I'd invited over to watch the race dozed off within two laps of the Button overtake,and the other one only stayed awake because he was a Button fan.Never missed a single minute of any GP myself,over the past fifteen years or so,but I guess it can get rather boring,at times...

There is something very soothing about the sound of F1 cars as piped through a TV on a sunny afternoon.

I fall asleep regularly!

Ive found I cant watch motorsport sitting on the couch, I take a nap regardless. Even during something short like MotoGP. I always sit in a chair because it's not comfortable enough to doze off on.

You know the dozing off is probably an age thing, and not a boring F1 thing?

Does anyone else download The Chequered Flag podcasts? I'm finding them really informative, and often the driver interviews are quite different to the ones previously heard on the TV or radio.

I end up getting distracted by something else and only glance at the telly when the commentator raises his voice, meaning something interesting may have happened.

What do you do if he raises his voice for no apparant reason?

...Which is what JL seems to do a lot.

"COMING DOWN THE HILL!"

Er.. OK, Jonathan, now let's not all get excited.

I feel bad for those who'll have to listen to him as the cars go through Eau Rouge ;

"UP THE HILL! BRAWN from.. BRAWN... GOING UP THE HILL!"

Sorry.

Anyway ; Good to see Ted Kravitz has come back to his blogging days at ITV, now on the BBC :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/f1mole/2009/06/...ish-gp-fro.html

Good to hear from Ted!

Ted doing main commentary. You never know!

Good pitlane reporters and journalists do not make good commentators regardless of your opinion. I don't need to provide you an example seeing as there already has been one clear example.

One example does not make a rule.

Ted seems pretty level headed, and he has a rockstar surname which always helps.

What BS.

I didn't say it was a rule... just that good pitlane reporters aren't exactly good commentators - what's so invalid about that?

It's a generalisation, that's what's wrong. You can't say that all pit-lane reporters would make bad commentators.

He didn't say all.

No, there hasn't.



Nothing invalid about that.

The invalid thing is you just dont know.

Didnt say some either.

Yes there has.


(no there hasn't, yes there has, no there hasn't, yes there has.....)

SO! About those podcasts...

I am really the only person here who tunes in? Because if I am, I'm going to give 5 Live a call and get them to personalise them for me. More Jenson less Rubens, that kind of thing.

I get them, have just been too busy with exams to listen to them recently. They're a good listen, lik the forum for the radio.

Interesting to see that my suggestion that Ted would be good doing main commentary instead of Legard is saying "This comment has been referred to the moderators" and has been stuck like that for hours.