F1 goes to Sky sports

[Adam43]

I'm looking forward to more legend programmes, especially with Nigel Mansell. If that 1986 tyre blowout story is anything to go by I expect his charisma to shine through.

[Knowlesy]

So the reason for the giant microphones becomes clear.

Look how they line them up when all three presenters are on screen together, much like Costa line up your lid so everyone can see the logo on your cup. Shameless.

As said, the actual racing coverage is lovely but they really couldn't have been any closer to the BBC if they tried. It is literally exactly the same coverage and, if they really are spending half a billion pounds over the next few years, then I am bewildered.

I do much prefer Damon to EJ though. Love the man to the point of homosexuality. But I did think when Perez sneaked past them: "you know, EJ would have grabbed him for a 'quick word with the BBC'" I mean obviously the interview would have been awful, but...

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I'm looking forward to more legend programmes, especially with Nigel Mansell. If that 1986 tyre blowout story is anything to go by I expect his charisma to shine through.

On track, a bubbling cauldron of excitement, passion, drama and emotion.

Off track, a Brummie.

[Adam43]

At one point Martin's said "skyspor" and Damon's said "tsF1HD". This demonstrates that they are the nasty channel.

I agree the format is like the beeb. They have more resource and that shows, but essentially they have continued a winning formula. The BBQ are the best at these kind of things, undoubtedly. sky is going to have more resource (a win), but the beeb is naturally good at this. In their sports coverage this resource helps them and I'm always surprise how the quality is closer to BBC than ITV. Actually it is no where near ITV. Thank goodness.

[Knowlesy]

Well indeed. Sky have always known what they are doing with sport, nobody can deny that.

I wasn't using the mic thing against Sky, it was just something that amused me and one of those slight niggles to be poked fun at.in my eyes.

I bear no grudge to Sky, more with the BBC who, for all the good they do, are a pack of clowns when it comes to their committee decision making.

EDIT - disastrous spell correction by phone.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

On track, a bubbling cauldron of excitement, passion, drama and emotion.

Off track, a Brummie.

All the excitement with Nige is on the track.

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

I wasn't using the mic thing against Sky, it was just something that amused me and one of those slight niggles to be poked fun at.in my eyes.

Yes me to, hence the impression of a trade union leader.

[Rennen]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

If only we all had rich racing drivers to pay our way!

Don't be silly...He lives in England and pays his Taxes! Actually you'd have thort he could have got me (an OAP now) a special deal! Nope! Just shows how much I love the Sport, trained several drivers and have to pay to watch em!

[MagnetON]

Originally Posted by safc_fan89

- "Sky Pad"? There's not really any need for a cheap-looking touch screen where you can speed up or slow down the footage.

It's a normal sized iPad 3, Ant & Dec, sorry Georgie, are just short! :P

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by MagnetON

It's a normal sized iPad 3, Ant & Dec, sorry Georgie, are just short! :P

Georgie actually used to go with Dec. Before accidentally seeing a picture of them together I assumed she was tall!

[chunder]

Rather enjoyed the Beeb short and sweet coverage.

Quite why SKY need 15 presenters and hangers on is beyond me. Pinkham is there coz she once dalied with royalty, thats all. Quite why you need two for every job is pathetic and typical Skya nd Bernie, they all ahve passes and mainly because they paid more for it than anyone else.

I really do hope it bails, as from what I ahve seen it is nothing special at all, not like BBC managed when they came back a few yeasr back.

I expect before long it will be PPV anyway, at least some of it will.

[Knowlesy]

When we had a PPV option in 2002 it was excellent. For me that is the best setup, free coverage and the option to pay for the next level on a PPV service (which incidentally was better than what Sky is offering at this moment in time).

I paid for F1 Digital without complaint. So none of this nonsense about not being a real fan.

[Pingguest]

Originally Posted by Super Hans

I enjoyed the coverage. Ant must be pleased to be working alongside Georgie Thompson - she makes him look really tall!

The Georgie Thompson the female in the footage below?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMEln...ayer_embedded#!

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by safc_fan89

- "Sky Pad"? There's not really any need for a cheap-looking touch screen where you can speed up or slow down the footage. That can be done off-screen and would look more professional and less ITV.

It does help as you don't need to do the editing before the analysis. This helps them get the pole lap analysis done so quickly after it. Sky started this. If ITV do it then it is them trying to be like sky. When they did it in the RWC it was pants-o-rama.

[Knowlesy]

The touch screen stuff is very good. Gary Neville works it like a boss on Monday Night Football.

[rocketcar]

Sky have done a half decent job as I will explain... but there is room for improvement.

On the plus:

• They had a live presenting team for the practice sessions (inc' brundle), practice was in HD.
• The skypad however much I hate the name is a good piece, just wish they just show us the video soley on the skypad a bit more rather than show it with the two presenters next to them.
• Croft and Brundle is an excelent partnership.

On the downside (and why I still am likley to watch bbc f1 when they have live races):

• Simon lazeyby (or what ever his name is) asks stupid questions, or questions that arent questions and uses them basically to say to another person "speak for a bit about f1".
• Simon also makes footballing refrences to much... I cant stand football and hate how corporate "sky sports" is infiltrating this sport.
• Georgie Tompson is a waste of sky's money, she knows very little about f1 and shouldnt be presenting show on it and her presence at the skypad is worthless - that feature is bascially ant davison talking and he does a stella job at it!
• Adverts in practice means it is not uninterupted coverage, but there are no adds inbetween qually sessions so can't complain.

And after watching the BBC's "highlights" attempt this afternoon its not a bad attempt.

• Their analysis and discussion post qually was far superior to Sky's as Jake is an act that sky simply cannot match and DC is onpar with Brundle.
• Gary Anderson is a real match for Ted and in my opinion a bit better as he really knows his stuff!
• Although they should have reduced the pre-build up features with jenson and the other pointless ones to have a piece on rule changes/ drives and circuits as well as one on practice so far. That could easily be possible before qually in the 15 mins they set aside.

...rant over haha

[strider]

Originally Posted by Pingguest

The Georgie Thompson the female in the footage below?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMEln...ayer_embedded#!

Yes, that's her.

After a couple of days I have very mixed views about Sky's efforts, but I'll defer a full comment until after tomorrow.

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

The touch screen stuff is very good. Gary Neville works it like a boss on Monday Night Football.

Gary Neville is the Martin Brundle of football coverage. He is *that* good. And I'm a Liverpool fan.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

I've seen all the coverage so far except the F1 Magazine show.

From a Race analysis point of view there is no need for Georgie Thompson at the Sky-pad, Ant knows his stuff and doesn't need a stooge feeding him lines.. He's wearing an earpiece and has a director to do this.

Also in the FPs, they initially ran teams intro bumpers when going down to Martin in the pits...THat didn't work, especially when you can hear cars on the track in the background

Speaking of hearing cars on track, if we are going to "Ted cam" in the pitlane, can we have the world feed on PIP.

[Alfaholic]

On the scrolling display on my DAB radio "David Croft and the team..." were shown as the presenters of the Radio 5live show. Seems like the BBC are saving even more money by not paying for new text displays to be written.

[gregc]

Some thoughts on the BBC coverage having just caught up with the first 15 mins that I missed earlier on (I remain a Sky refusenik...)

I know it's not really important, but the new title sequence is a massive improvement - sets the mood so much better having bits of old footage from various F1 eras.

In general, having the qually shown as highlights actually worked much better than I expected - in some ways it feels a tighter show, the balance between build up/on track action/reaction is good, in fact I'd almost go as far as to say better in some respects than a live show. I may, of course, be completely rethinking that after the first live BBC show.

On the commentary side, it's odd (for me anyway) to hear Ben's voice over something other than touring cars but that aside, good stuff. The partnership with DC needs a bit of time for them to gel completely I think, but I'm pretty happy with the comms. Not 100% sure about Gary Anderson in the pitlane, but he's a new name and voice to me so I'll need a few race weekends to get used to him - a very different style to Kravitz, but does come across as extremely knowledgable.

Other than that it was pretty much business as usual BBC F1 - which is a compliment as far as I'm concerned. Jake remains, for my money, the perfect frontman, DC just keeps getting better (the odd mispronunciation aside...) and as for EJ - well, I don't have a major problem with him unlike some, but I can't say I really missed him...

Overall, I'm happy with what the beeb have done with the highlights show, at least for qualifying. From what I've read here I don't feel like I'm missing a great deal by not having Sky, certainly nothing that could come even close to justifying £500 plus a year. It remains to be seen what the race highlights show is like, but based on today I'm optimistic.

[Mr V]

Can't wait till something happens live, someone who watched it on Sky posts a thread and the BBC lot are up in arms about spoilers!

[Raspberry]

Lazenby is working his way up to banality slowly, I see.

To Martin Whitmarsh "Are you excited about the upcoming season?"

Seriously...this is Football level (and yes, I am always moaning about it on there too) interviewing.

I just wish for someone to reply to questions of that ilk & genre with "Seriously? That's the best you could come up with? To the CEO of a multi-million dollar outfit? (in the above instance, obvoc)"

[dsg]

Who is the "shouty" guy alongside Brundle making me miss DC?

[strider]

It's David Croft and he's a pain in the butt. You're by no means the only person to have made a remark like that. He's not on radio now and we can see what's happening for ourselves.

[Born Racer]

I think he's alright. He doesn't have the insight DC does, but he has Legard's delivery without his shouty voice timbre.

No driver interviews yet? Come on Sky. We saw BBC's Lee McKenzie interviewing Grosjean and we've not heard from him, nor any other retirees.