Any news on NBC Sports plan for F1 coverage?

This makes no sense unless they did no commentary on the delayed Q session an so have nothing else to air. If so its a major fail.

 

Yeah, WTF is up with that? The dvr didn't cover the whole Q last night because of all the rain delays and I figured that even down there Q had been postponed until Sunday morning. So today I set the dvr to record the replay of Q this afternoon ET since it was clear that it had been delayed and I saw that it had recorded a soccer match instead.

Now I'm hoping to watch the Q before the actual race so where the hell is it?????

At least I have the end of Sebring to watch.

 

Since the "Countdown to F1" show is only 60 minutes and there's only 25 minutes of qualifying to show I'm thinking (hoping) they will show it during the extra 30 minutes in the 90 minute qualifying coverage that's supposed to be airing now. We'll know in 36 minutes.......

 

With Q1 out of the way they only need an hour for Q2, Q3 and interviews. Probably thought they could fill the extra 30 minutes with something F1 related instead of an infomercial.

Jeez, you're an excitable bunch...

 

Beat me to it. But I'm guessing it starts in 5 minutes.

 

Finally.

 

Aha! The "side-by-side" PIP they use for Indycar, for some of the commercials.

But does that seem like a *lot* of commercials, to anyone else?
Speed used to break away for just about two laps.

Anyone figure out how long NBCsp was on PIP?
(My eyes aren't up to reading the lap counter on that little screen. )

Anyone also notice that the "top three" didn't update, after Massa pitted? (Oops)
They had it fixed for the next break.

 

I may be in the minority here but I was fairly impressed with their coverage this weekend. The rainout during Qualifying made it difficult to keep their broadcasting schedule and I think they did fine considering it is the first for NBC.

I am just happy that they are broadcasting them live, and not taped delay. I think they will get better as the season progresses.

 

It was not impressed but not disappointed

On one hand, pretty much the same a Speed.

On the other hand, I did like the side-by-side commercials BUT I wish they had done it for the entire race. I don't get why some where and some where not. Still, better than Speed who would never do it.

I liked the race recap right after. They did a good job of covering the award ceremony and I liked the post race interviews, even those farther down the grid.

What I hope is that they add more innovation into the race coverage and integrated internet coverage.

The tape delayed quali was a huge downer though. In their first big test of covering a live race event, they failed.

Still, not a bad start given that the F1 live following is us on Fchat and about 82 other guys in the US .

I liked the look of the sets and the space they have available. Hopefully Matchette will be able to travel to a few team HQ's and get some inside tid bits for future broadcasts.

 

Those side-by-side are "sponsored" so it looks like they could only get some sponsors willing to do it.

Firestone sponsors all of the IndyCar Non-Stop breaks, I believe, which is why all IndyCar commercial breaks are in the Non-Stop style.

They did have a pre-existing contractual sporting event running at the same time as the revised qualifying session, so I can understand why they pushed it back to just before the race coverage.

If SPEED still had the contract and say it was Happy Hour at Bristol when qualifying resumed at Melbourne, you know SPEED would not have pre-empted NASCAR for F1.

 

Anybody else catch Diffey's comment that Bob Varsha will take his place next week for Malaysia due to him covering the Indy race? Does that mean that their Indy commitments supersede their Formula 1 commitments?

 

I think NBC did a decent job, thanks to having most of the Speed announce team. I am very thankful they didn't try to use some of their own....

 

I think that was a huge advantage for them -- having most of the same crew that had years of practice at Speed.

I am thankful there was no commentary by Keith Olberman:

"You -- Stefano ---are no race engineer or "principle" anything. You sir are not the legal authority nor have the moral authority to tell anyone anything other than "please get the car washed". You sir -- and I use the term "sir" lightly -- are no Enzo."

 

I've noticed that a few Indycar breaks aren't side-by-side, either.

The delayed qualifying is rough on scheduling. Remember the Indcar race that got deluged out until the next day?

Having the quali repeat worked out for them. Even if it wasn't live, they managed to air it anyway.

I'll tentatively rate them as no worse than Speed.
Possibly a bit better. And it's their first attempt.

 

I thought they did a decent job for a first time out, but they do have some minor bugs to work through with the new team.

Apart from the ones noted above, they also need to practice running through the starting line up. The folks changing the graphics at the bottom of the screen apparently forgot to push the button a few times, so Hobbs and Marchett were talking about guys 2 or 3 rows further down, then they 'fast forwarded' through a few. Initially seemed to throw the in air guys as they wre waiting for the graphics to change.

The audio feeds needed to be a bit better managed as well. A few times we were hearing the audio from pit lane during an on board shot, and a couple of times we had both at the same time, while the guys in the booth were trying to talk over them. My hearing isn't what it uses to be, so at times I found it almost impossible to make out what they were saying. (Turning up the volume didn't help, it just made everything louder and I still couldn't make out what they were saying.)

All in all, I give them a thumbs up. Just a few growing pains and 'new team' glitches to iron out.

 

I don't think he did, but he did talk to a Ferrari guy before the race.

We'll see going forward, but perhaps it was not done due to the qualifying and race in the same day.

 

Oh yeah.
Not only heard that but I also heard a nationwide groan.

Cowards left that little gem for literally the last second.

 

I was relatively pleased. The side by side was great, although it would have been better if all commercials were side by side. I'm not going to be greedy though, I appreciate what we can get. Same goes for the delayed coverage of quali 2 and 3. They made an effort, more than Speed would have done. The new set is nice as well. Shows they put some money into the broadcast.

The weak link to me is Diffy. I typically don't like his completely fake hyping of every little thing, but he seemed toned down today and did a nice job. Hobbs and Machett were spot on as usual, they make a great team.

For the first race out of the box, I'm pleased. Well done.


Mark

 

Diffey took over this year for Bob Jenkins, who retired as chief announcer for NBCSN's IndyCar races at the end of last season to care for his wife (who passed away late last year).

I thought Varsha didn't go to NBCSN because he's under contract to SPEED, but I guess SPEED is willing to loan him out.

 

Varsha attended a media gathering at the Risi Competizione transporter in the Sebring
paddock Thursday evening and told us he's planning to fill in for Diffey on a few occasions
when their schedules conflict with other events.

He said that his calendar is full this year between covering ALMS, GrandAM and the
Barrett-Jackson auctions.

BHW