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F1 produces its own TV footage?


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#1 ronsingapore

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 06:08

F1 produces its own TV footage? and then sells them to media comglomerates and broadcasting companies?

 

is this a common practice in motorsports and in other sports? I think NASCAR does the same thing too....

 

How do they apply for it and how does it work in an international/global context?


Edited by ronsingapore, 23 December 2014 - 06:10.


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#2 Tourgott

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 06:34

A few years ago the operator of the Grand Prix (e.g. RTL in Germany) produced the TV footage for the world. Because of this the coverage sometimes was very based on the local drivers/teams.


Edited by Tourgott, 23 December 2014 - 06:35.


#3 Dan333SP

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 07:20

A few years ago the operator of the Grand Prix (e.g. RTL in Germany) produced the TV footage for the world. Because of this the coverage sometimes was very based on the local drivers/teams.


I was under the impression that this was still the case in Japan, or at least it was until recently. I remember the coverage of the Japanese GP being fixated on Sato when he was still racing, even if he was poorly placed with better battles ahead.

#4 fZero

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 08:47

I was under the impression that this was still the case in Japan, or at least it was until recently. I remember the coverage of the Japanese GP being fixated on Sato when he was still racing, even if he was poorly placed with better battles ahead.

 

I think it is. I watched Russia in a sports bar in Tokyo this year and they had both the Japanese coverage and Sky coverage playing. The Japanese coverage was definitely different. The Sky coverage turned out to be a pirate feed off the net and it dropped for the last 1/3 or the race :rotfl: so all we had was the Japanese coverage.



#5 IMOA

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 09:21

Bit of a coincidence, I watched the Sochi race at Legends this year as well

 

I chatted to one of the cameramen at Suzuka a couple of years back and he was part of the travelling F1 production crew so I'd say it's been produced by the F1 team in Japan for a little while as he did say he'd been doing the camerawork in japan for a few years.



#6 SanDiegoGo

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 09:27

the track could still have separate camera positions for NHK. the japanese like to do things their own way.


Edited by SanDiegoGo, 23 December 2014 - 09:28.


#7 TennisUK

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 09:30

Suzuka was one of the last to be produced by FOM I believe. Fuji TV doing the coverage was why it was the earliest race to be shot in HD as Bernie didn't want to pony up for HD cameras until everyone in the industry had been doing it for some time...



#8 nmansellfan

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 09:40

Not sure how accurate this list is (this is Wikipedia) but scroll down to the 'World Feed Producers' section to see who produced the feed for each race this year.

 

http://en.wikipedia....ne_broadcasters

 

I seem to remember that Radio Tele Montecarlo had produced the Monaco GP feed since the first broadcast in '55, rather than since 1990 on that list.


Edited by nmansellfan, 23 December 2014 - 09:40.


#9 loki

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 09:59

Monaco is still not an FOM broadcast, it's the only one.  in the US many motorsports produce thier own broadcasts including Indycar.  IMS Productons was spawned from the 500 and has become a respected player particulary in the college sports broadcast realm (they provide services for the networks that broadcast the games). NASCAR doesn't produce thier own broadcasts.  Next season it's split between Fox and NBC.  Each will use thier same respective crews and equipment for each race they do.  Most of the smaller motorsports, the Lucas Oil series in particular, of which there are many of many different racing types has not only in house production but also owns MavTV and is making it into a motorsport channel.  It's become common over here for the sports that aren't mega popular to produce thier own programs and in some cases even buy the airtime to show them.



#10 Rob

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 10:04

Wasn't it the advent of the Bernie-vision digital channel that saw the introduction of the single feed?



#11 fZero

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 10:12

Bit of a coincidence, I watched the Sochi race at Legends this year as well

Ha! Cool coincidence.



#12 Incast

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 11:35

As stated above, FOM provide the World Feed for every single Grand Prix apart from Monaco - I believe the unique nature of the Monaco commercial agreement prevents them doing so here.

 

Since I don't think it's well documented, I'll give a brief history of how we got to FOM producing below.

 

The FOM team started out as a FOCA TV unit in the 80s and early 90s, they would supplement what the local host broadcaster (e.g. BBC for the UK, CBS for the USA etc) provided. Often this would be additional pit lane material and 1-2 extra angles around the track, which would appear in FOCA highlights packages.

 

FOCA also introduced and managed onboard cameras for the cars, sharing these with the host broadcasters.

 

In the mid 1990s as the sport was booming Bernie Ecclestone saw an opportunity to create a pay per view service on digital television. The service with the rather clunky title of F1 Digital+ was launched on a trial at the 1996 British Grand Prix to German viewers. It fully launched in 1997. This service provided full FOM coverage of each race complete with their own track cameras and complete onboard access. A large number of streams were produced:

1. Super Signal - Essentially the pay per view world feed combining all of the below

2. Track A - Track coverage of the leaders

3. Track B - Track coverage of those behind

4. Onboard - Onboard Mix

5. Pits - Pit Lane Channel, including extended replays and interviews

6. Highlights - Rolling Highlights

 

From 1996 until 2002 therefore you had 2 broadcasts from each race, one from the host broadcaster which the vast majority still watched and one from F1 Digital+. The pay per view service though was a commercial failure, casual fans weren't sufficiently bothered by the better coverage to pay for it. When it finally launched in the UK in 2002 (its final season) it barely made any impact on ITV's viewing figures. The only region it enjoyed anything approaching popularity was Italy where it was getting around 500,000 viewers a race, but rampant piracy through cardsharing didn't make it particularly profitable.

 

F1 Digital+ was closed in 2002 and a large proportion of the FOM TV staff were made redundant. A skeletal team continued into 2003, largely to support the German broadcaster Premiere who continued F1Digital+ 'Lite' with just the World Feed, Onboard channel and Pit Channel.

 

During this period there was much discussion within the paddock on what to do. To those who viewed F1 Digital+, including all of the pit lane, it was clear that one direction team was a huge leap forward and beneficial for the sport. However, as always, no one could agree on who would pay for it.

 

Three options were on the table from what was shared at the time:

1. Resurrect F1Digital+ into an FOM Permanent Feed (eventually chosen)

2. Contract to the ITV team to become the permanent host broadcaster

3. Contract to the WIGE team (responsible for Germany and Austrian host feeds) to become the permanent host broadcaster

 

Eventually Bernie went with Option 1, but it took a few years to get in place. From 2004-2006 FOM would primarily cover the fly away races, whilst the existing host broadcasters covered Europe. The revolution finally happened in 2007 when before the season FOM took control of most rounds, with only Japan, Brazil and Monaco holding out. FOM took control of Brazil 2008 (just in time for that epic title decider) and Japan in 2012.

 

A single FOM host feed has undoubtedly been beneficial to Formula 1. Their coverage is far better than the individual host broadcasters. However, the concerning trend in recent years is that - as far as I can tell - their remit has changed. In the early years of operation they followed the F1 Digital+ model of best possible coverage. Nowadays, the angles and direction seems heavily focused on displaying trackside and CGI advertising.


Edited by Incast, 23 December 2014 - 11:37.


#13 SenorSjon

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 13:28

Jup, last couple of years it is only an advertising block with camera's panning to places no-one drives, but a lot of CGI-advertising takes place. Clear examples are the infield of Brazil and the hairpin at Canada. It looks very weird when the camera is panning in the opposite direction the cars are going, just to get some more Pirelli/DHL/Emirates/Rolex shots. They also stopped conveying the speed of cars on the screen. It looks so slow on TV.



#14 noikeee

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 13:44

They also stopped conveying the speed of cars on the screen. It looks so slow on TV.

 

We're getting way off topic, but this is SO true.



#15 jonpollak

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 18:08

lol@ Incast explaining his specialist subject.

#16 SophieB

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 18:27

lol@ Incast explaining his specialist subject.

 

It's a good thing. Like being at a party with Mr Gillette and him overhearing someone idly chatting about razors (to borrow Wodehouse's lovely image.)



#17 Disgrace

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 20:18

However, the concerning trend in recent years is that - as far as I can tell - their remit has changed. In the early years of operation they followed the F1 Digital+ model of best possible coverage. Nowadays, the angles and direction seems heavily focused on displaying trackside and CGI advertising.

 

Not just that, but what I suspect is guarding the best camera shots for the end-of-year review. For instance, we have never seen to this day the onboard of Kimi Raikkonen's Silverstone crash from his own car. Another example would be Massa's spin at the Nurburgring in 2013 - the only onboard replay of that we saw was from Alonso several cars back.



#18 Incast

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 21:01

Not just that, but what I suspect is guarding the best camera shots for the end-of-year review. For instance, we have never seen to this day the onboard of Kimi Raikkonen's Silverstone crash from his own car. Another example would be Massa's spin at the Nurburgring in 2013 - the only onboard replay of that we saw was from Alonso several cars back.

 

I don't think so - the revenue they get from the season review is negligible. The reason why we don't sometimes see onboards is that they can only receive about 8-10 onboards simultaneously. There's a feature on Ted's notebook where he shows all the raw onboard feeds (somewhere on youtube, maybe someone can dig it up). 

 

Onboard is an area of chronic under-investment. They are still using standard definition widescreen units (upgraded in 2009). Think about this for a moment, I bet you have a smartphone with a 1080p camera, in fact you may even have a 4k camera nowadays. In addition, your camera in your smartphone can record your video content into solid state storage, another thing the T-Cams cannot do - despite being much larger than smartphones! It is bordering on silly if they aren't revamped for next season, but FOM usually lag behind on things like this - consider that HD broadcasts only arrived in 2011.


Edited by Incast, 23 December 2014 - 21:02.


#19 SenorSjon

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Posted 23 December 2014 - 21:15

There is no reason those T-cams are the size they are anymore. Indeed, using mobile phone camera's could grant us way better views from inside the airbox, at the teatray, etc, etc. Even MotoGP has better camera's (rotating and gyroscopic). They also can track another bike and aren't dependant on human input. I found it very tedious slowly watching the camera panning around on the WIlliams.



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#20 loki

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Posted 26 December 2014 - 01:49

The problem with Bernievision F1Digital + was it was 20 years ahead of its time.  Back then the market wasn't ready. It's ironic that FOM were one of the first to do that sort of thing but then were so slow in the HDTV uptake.  Once bitten, twice shy I suppose.

 

Over here that sort of thing is more or less normal now with all the big sports and many of the smaller sports using it.  I don't know how well it would play in Euro/UK based on the blowback from the Sky deal but over here we've not only been paying for TV but paying for TV with commercials for sometime. 



#21 loki

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Posted 26 December 2014 - 01:54

There is no reason those T-cams are the size they are anymore. Indeed, using mobile phone camera's could grant us way better views from inside the airbox, at the teatray, etc, etc. Even MotoGP has better camera's (rotating and gyroscopic). They also can track another bike and aren't dependant on human input. I found it very tedious slowly watching the camera panning around on the WIlliams.

The reason they don't use the newer gear is likely the same reason they didn't go to HD until later.  The old man just doesn't want to spend the money.

 

These guys are considered the kings of in car camera broadcast.  http://www.broadcastsportsinc.com/



#22 SenorSjon

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Posted 26 December 2014 - 13:13

The problem with Bernievision F1Digital + was it was 20 years ahead of its time.  Back then the market wasn't ready. It's ironic that FOM were one of the first to do that sort of thing but then were so slow in the HDTV uptake.  Once bitten, twice shy I suppose.

 

Over here that sort of thing is more or less normal now with all the big sports and many of the smaller sports using it.  I don't know how well it would play in Euro/UK based on the blowback from the Sky deal but over here we've not only been paying for TV but paying for TV with commercials for sometime. 

 

They keep trying it. I don't know the sale figures, but the soccer channels are hardly earning a crumb here (the Netherlands). Soccer rights just getting sold and sold to different companies each time, each thinking there is money to be made. But, frankly, most of them don't bid the second time around. Few people want to spend 10-20 euro on a TV-channel a month.

Sport1 has the F1-rights, but bar some three months for 5 euro action, hardly anyone takes it. I tried it via such a discount, but you only get the race and practice. No history whatsoever. Just a blank screen when there is no racing.

 

But getting back on topic. The feed is getting quite poor lately.



#23 chunder27

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Posted 26 December 2014 - 13:36

I think most motorsport is trying to get away from using host feeds

 

Usually because the hists dont want to pay and Bernie can charge a huge amount for the coverage and also get in the sponsporship, If you look now there are hardly any new sponsors, it is the same few at every race, you do not get regional sponsors as you used to because they (Emirates, rolex, HBC, etc etc) have paid a substantial amount up front I expect.

 

What amazes me is that stuff like MotoGP, SBK and the like try and do the same, there just isnt the market which is why their coverage gets pushed around different channels as companies buy it, find out it gets no viewers and push it away again.

 

AS I said before, PPV will only really work in this country with football, EVERY other sport can not sustain it.



#24 SanDiegoGo

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Posted 26 December 2014 - 13:58

Not just that, but what I suspect is guarding the best camera shots for the end-of-year review. For instance, we have never seen to this day the onboard of Kimi Raikkonen's Silverstone crash from his own car. Another example would be Massa's spin at the Nurburgring in 2013 - the only onboard replay of that we saw was from Alonso several cars back.

 

rosberg overtaking hamilton at the hairpin in canada finally made an appearance as the the race director missed it. the season review showed a helicopter shot of the pass.


Edited by SanDiegoGo, 26 December 2014 - 14:00.


#25 ronsingapore

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Posted 31 December 2014 - 05:57

As stated above, FOM provide the World Feed for every single Grand Prix apart from Monaco - I believe the unique nature of the Monaco commercial agreement prevents them doing so here.

 

Since I don't think it's well documented, I'll give a brief history of how we got to FOM producing below.

 

The FOM team started out as a FOCA TV unit in the 80s and early 90s, they would supplement what the local host broadcaster (e.g. BBC for the UK, CBS for the USA etc) provided. Often this would be additional pit lane material and 1-2 extra angles around the track, which would appear in FOCA highlights packages.

 

FOCA also introduced and managed onboard cameras for the cars, sharing these with the host broadcasters.

 

In the mid 1990s as the sport was booming Bernie Ecclestone saw an opportunity to create a pay per view service on digital television. The service with the rather clunky title of F1 Digital+ was launched on a trial at the 1996 British Grand Prix to German viewers. It fully launched in 1997. This service provided full FOM coverage of each race complete with their own track cameras and complete onboard access. A large number of streams were produced:

1. Super Signal - Essentially the pay per view world feed combining all of the below

2. Track A - Track coverage of the leaders

3. Track B - Track coverage of those behind

4. Onboard - Onboard Mix

5. Pits - Pit Lane Channel, including extended replays and interviews

6. Highlights - Rolling Highlights

 

From 1996 until 2002 therefore you had 2 broadcasts from each race, one from the host broadcaster which the vast majority still watched and one from F1 Digital+. The pay per view service though was a commercial failure, casual fans weren't sufficiently bothered by the better coverage to pay for it. When it finally launched in the UK in 2002 (its final season) it barely made any impact on ITV's viewing figures. The only region it enjoyed anything approaching popularity was Italy where it was getting around 500,000 viewers a race, but rampant piracy through cardsharing didn't make it particularly profitable.

 

F1 Digital+ was closed in 2002 and a large proportion of the FOM TV staff were made redundant. A skeletal team continued into 2003, largely to support the German broadcaster Premiere who continued F1Digital+ 'Lite' with just the World Feed, Onboard channel and Pit Channel.

 

During this period there was much discussion within the paddock on what to do. To those who viewed F1 Digital+, including all of the pit lane, it was clear that one direction team was a huge leap forward and beneficial for the sport. However, as always, no one could agree on who would pay for it.

 

Three options were on the table from what was shared at the time:

1. Resurrect F1Digital+ into an FOM Permanent Feed (eventually chosen)

2. Contract to the ITV team to become the permanent host broadcaster

3. Contract to the WIGE team (responsible for Germany and Austrian host feeds) to become the permanent host broadcaster

 

Eventually Bernie went with Option 1, but it took a few years to get in place. From 2004-2006 FOM would primarily cover the fly away races, whilst the existing host broadcasters covered Europe. The revolution finally happened in 2007 when before the season FOM took control of most rounds, with only Japan, Brazil and Monaco holding out. FOM took control of Brazil 2008 (just in time for that epic title decider) and Japan in 2012.

 

A single FOM host feed has undoubtedly been beneficial to Formula 1. Their coverage is far better than the individual host broadcasters. However, the concerning trend in recent years is that - as far as I can tell - their remit has changed. In the early years of operation they followed the F1 Digital+ model of best possible coverage. Nowadays, the angles and direction seems heavily focused on displaying trackside and CGI advertising.

 

thanks! NASCAR does their own production too, right? NASCAR Images or was it NFL Films of Nascar?



#26 loki

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Posted 01 January 2015 - 08:00

thanks! NASCAR does their own production too, right? NASCAR Images or was it NFL Films of Nascar?

No, NASCAR has the host network provide the coverage but NASCAR contracts the infrastructure.   A company called NEP provides the support infrastructure that consists of 20 or trucks for all the networks that was designed specifically for NASCAR events.  My understanding is the NEP contract is with NASCAR Productions.  The networks then bring their own announcers, director, producers, key camera and audio and other techs.  Contract labor is used for the rest of the techs.  Each network controls the content, when the commercial breaks happen and directs the broadcast.  There is also a shared pool truck that also provides content to the other broadcasters and for some non US markets the US feed is redistributed.  It's quite a bit different than FOM where in this case the network has direct control over what goes out but the infrastructure is provided by NEP via a deal with NASCAR.

 

Here is an NEP press release from a couple years back

http://www.nepinc.co...supports_nascar



#27 ronsingapore

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Posted 02 January 2015 - 06:34

As stated above, FOM provide the World Feed for every single Grand Prix apart from Monaco - I believe the unique nature of the Monaco commercial agreement prevents them doing so here.

 

Since I don't think it's well documented, I'll give a brief history of how we got to FOM producing below.

 

The FOM team started out as a FOCA TV unit in the 80s and early 90s, they would supplement what the local host broadcaster (e.g. BBC for the UK, CBS for the USA etc) provided. Often this would be additional pit lane material and 1-2 extra angles around the track, which would appear in FOCA highlights packages.

 

FOCA also introduced and managed onboard cameras for the cars, sharing these with the host broadcasters.

 

In the mid 1990s as the sport was booming Bernie Ecclestone saw an opportunity to create a pay per view service on digital television. The service with the rather clunky title of F1 Digital+ was launched on a trial at the 1996 British Grand Prix to German viewers. It fully launched in 1997. This service provided full FOM coverage of each race complete with their own track cameras and complete onboard access. A large number of streams were produced:

1. Super Signal - Essentially the pay per view world feed combining all of the below

2. Track A - Track coverage of the leaders

3. Track B - Track coverage of those behind

4. Onboard - Onboard Mix

5. Pits - Pit Lane Channel, including extended replays and interviews

6. Highlights - Rolling Highlights

 

From 1996 until 2002 therefore you had 2 broadcasts from each race, one from the host broadcaster which the vast majority still watched and one from F1 Digital+. The pay per view service though was a commercial failure, casual fans weren't sufficiently bothered by the better coverage to pay for it. When it finally launched in the UK in 2002 (its final season) it barely made any impact on ITV's viewing figures. The only region it enjoyed anything approaching popularity was Italy where it was getting around 500,000 viewers a race, but rampant piracy through cardsharing didn't make it particularly profitable.

 

F1 Digital+ was closed in 2002 and a large proportion of the FOM TV staff were made redundant. A skeletal team continued into 2003, largely to support the German broadcaster Premiere who continued F1Digital+ 'Lite' with just the World Feed, Onboard channel and Pit Channel.

 

During this period there was much discussion within the paddock on what to do. To those who viewed F1 Digital+, including all of the pit lane, it was clear that one direction team was a huge leap forward and beneficial for the sport. However, as always, no one could agree on who would pay for it.

 

Three options were on the table from what was shared at the time:

1. Resurrect F1Digital+ into an FOM Permanent Feed (eventually chosen)

2. Contract to the ITV team to become the permanent host broadcaster

3. Contract to the WIGE team (responsible for Germany and Austrian host feeds) to become the permanent host broadcaster

 

Eventually Bernie went with Option 1, but it took a few years to get in place. From 2004-2006 FOM would primarily cover the fly away races, whilst the existing host broadcasters covered Europe. The revolution finally happened in 2007 when before the season FOM took control of most rounds, with only Japan, Brazil and Monaco holding out. FOM took control of Brazil 2008 (just in time for that epic title decider) and Japan in 2012.

 

A single FOM host feed has undoubtedly been beneficial to Formula 1. Their coverage is far better than the individual host broadcasters. However, the concerning trend in recent years is that - as far as I can tell - their remit has changed. In the early years of operation they followed the F1 Digital+ model of best possible coverage. Nowadays, the angles and direction seems heavily focused on displaying trackside and CGI advertising.

 

Just to check, the only existing host broadcaster left is in monaco, correct?



#28 Incast

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Posted 02 January 2015 - 09:50

Just to check, the only existing host broadcaster left is in monaco, correct?

 

Correct.