ESPN/Sky vs. NBCSN poll

USA TV viewers, what are your opinions of the 2018 broadcasts on ESPN/SKY vs. NBCSN in previous years?

 

The team at SKY is really knowledgeable, especially analysis by The Ant and Paul di Resta(when I can understand him). I always enjoyed Hobbo and Matchett(not Diffey) but their act got a bit stale. Time to move on.

 

Not a fan of the SKY broadcast team. Ant and Paul DiResta add some value, but Croft and Brundle (and the broadcast in general) is the LH show. Understandable given that it's a UK team and LH is the hometown favorite, but annoying when you're looking for unbiased coverage of all the teams. And Croft is a bit over the top with his coverage. I liked Hobbs and Matchett, Diffy was ok. Would much prefer to have them on the coverage, possibly aided by someone Ant/DiResta like in the pits.

 

The Sky/ESPN commercial free coverage (Thanks Mothers!) is far superior- and I liked Hobo and Matchett. Yes the LH fan club vibe is a little hard to stomach at times but that is up to another team to shut that up. If I could add just one thing to the coverage it would be a more mechanical point of view like Matchett's.

 

I agree the ESPN commercial free coverage is great, far better than missing 25% of the race on NBCSN. I'm curious if that will continue this year, or if it was just a stop-gap from ESPN last year because so many people were complaining about their coverage the first race. And I agree a more technical/mechanical commentator would be a nice addition. I don't think the LH show will stop even if LH is losing. The Sky broadcast is the UK broadcast, they're always going to be on the side of any driver from the UK and/or team from the UK. It's the same with any other sport in any other country or city, and you can't really fault that. The Italian broadcast team favors Ferrari. I'm sure the Dutch broadcast team is all about Verstappen. If there was a US-based F1 broadcast team and a US driver, I'm sure the same thing would happen. At this point I'd much prefer a non-biased broadcast group, even at the expense of some commercials.

 

SKY is 100% better across the board. No commercials, announcers who are actually at the race, and giving multiple stories and points of view. No one is perfect and Brundle is not the guy for the pit walk...it is just not his thing. But he has more F1 seat time in a car than all the other announcers combined and so when he discusses the track he really knows what he is talking about. This is all so much better than NBCSN. It's been along time but only the old original SpeedVision was as good as SKY...at least in my memories. And yes I'd pay to have SKY's commercial free coverage.

 

ESPN/SKY because of the knowledge (PdR) and commercial free when compared to NBCSN or SpeedVision.

The only gripe I have with ESPN/SKY is like either a practice or 2 or qualifying are "locked" or like the last 2 GP's practices and qualifying were also "locked."

"Locked" meaning you had to have ESPNHUD or some other form of ESPN.

 

After the first race I liked sky well enough. I think I watched more races this year than I have in a while but not due to the broadcast, it was more about the racing. There were some good ones this year. Kept me coming back but really had nothing to do with the announcers etc.

 

I like the lack of commercials. It was really nice.

However, the broadcast team all have stale personalities and I could never really understand them clearly.

 

SKY/ESPN a 1000% improvement.

Though, with NBCS as the benchmark, it really wasn't difficult to do.

BHW

 

I love Hobbs, met him several times and I admire Matchett, met him as well and read both of his phantastic books. So clearly I'm a fan of them. In addition NBC got rid of Varsha a while ago, which helped things greatly.

That said the Sky team is simply more knowledgeable. I'm stunned by Brundle's insightful comments and I like Gordon Ramsay as his co-commentator (I know it's not Gordon, but he sounds just like him). And you can't beat commercial free anyway.

 

This year 2018 ESPN vs last year 2017 NBC

I watched the entire 18 season on ESPN. com. Practice 1 2 3, qualifying, race.
NBC did not broadcast all seasons.
On ESPN.com the pre/ post race shows are not shown as far as I can tell and that
if not a deal breaker to my vote.

My vote ESPN is better.
(Commercial free is even better)

 

Right. That's why I said in post #1 "USA TV viewers, what are your opinions of the 2018 broadcasts on ESPN/SKY vs. NBCSN in previous years?"

 

I have to admit to growing tired of NBCS F1 coverage a few years ago. Leigh Diffey
was the real reason. The worst, the absolute worst! I'd rather listen to fingernails on
a chalkboard than Diffey's nonsensical ramblings.

I actively searched out an alternative and found SKY's live streaming broadcast on the
Internet and never looked back.

Now, with SKY broadcasting on ESPN, no need to go on an Internet search for the races
again. It's awesome. Hopefully, this reflected in the form of improved ratings in the U.S.
for F-1 this year.

BHW

 

I like Sky's coverage better as a whole, they are actually at the race and no commercials for us. Jenson Button should do the pit walk next year....

 

While I liked Matchett and Hobbs, they got a bit tiring. Croft and Brundell can be annoying with their LH love affair, but it's something I can live with, because as a whole, the broadcast crew if much more knowledgeable and they are at the race. Their post race is phenomenal. And Mothers sponsoring the race for no commercials is icing on the cake.

 

Interesting. I don't see the so-called Hamilton bias you and others have mentioned.

Also, I don't watch the post-race. The minute I see the finishing order I turn off the TV. If I've watched the race intently, which I do, I don't see what a post-mortem adds.

 

The British motorsport media are inherently biased towards their home drivers. Of course, like
politicians, they have to play to their base that are paying the bills. So, British broadcasters will have
an emphasis on Hamilton just as German broadcasters will have an emphasis on Vettel, etc.

The British have raised it to an art form though. Remembering back to 2000 when Audi Sport came
to the ALMS and the in-team jockeying for media attention was high. At the Texas ALMS round, Biela
and Pirro won overall with McNish and Capello in second. But the headline in the very British Autosport
magazine in giant black font across the top of two pages read, "McNish Finishes Second at Texas!".

I'd be hard pressed to remember a time when the headline read who finished second and completely
ignored the winning team. I may relate this did not go down well within the Audi Sport team but
it illustrates how nationalism comes into play in racing. And, since the British invented motorsport
media (a-hem), they've got a corner on the market.

But, in the end, it all comes down to who's looking at the advertising.

BHW

 

Any news yet about 2019? Is ESPN committed for coverage next season with Sky?

 

But I do. The Sky team is enamored with Hamilton, no doubt. Not that this bothers me one bit.

 

I had no big problem with the NBCSN team. I thought they were all fine. And I think the fast talking Will Buxton did a better grid walk than Martin Brundle.

The commercials made the broadcast unwatchable though, except as a taped experience. Thank you Mother's Products for 2018!

I think both the Sky and the old NBCSN teams sometime miss the evolving action because they're so geared to needing to chatter to fill air time. What's wrong with some silence (as evidenced in older broadcasts). Minimal commentary and more focus on the sounds of the in-car would be a preference for me. Throttle control, steering input, and more focus on the evolution of an overtake, which often takes several laps to set up, than the repetition of the last 5 seconds of the "event". Maybe more focus in interviews about how a driver/team set up a situation rather than just the moment.

I thought the Sky pre-race shows often stumbled. More technical insight would improve it, as well as ditching the supposedly famous non-racers on the grid.

I felt sad for Johnny Herbert and Martin Brundle with the buffoonish stunts that Sky seemed drawn to. Aside from the fact he didn't barf, MB's helicopter ride at the USGP was a distracting bore. And JH's ride with LH could have been interesting and insightful re how a top driver approaches unfamiliar conditions in an unfamiliar car, but it just turned into silly wahoo-ing. I'd really like to see Aston or Mercedes use those promos to let the drivers talk about the tracks, rather than doing outlandish burnouts and spins.

 

I for one would like to see Buxton back and doing the grid walk. He seemed to get much better participation that MB does.

 

I agree and apparently so do quite a few others. Brundle is fine as an in race commentator. But Buxton seemed to put a ton more energy into the grid walk.

I guess we can't have everything . . .

 

Interesting...I thought it was just me thinking that Buxton did a better job. I didn't like him much at first, but he grew on me after awhile.

After watching the pre- and post-race Sky interviews this year, I always felt like the drivers were annoyed talking to Brundle or anyone else from Sky...as if they really didn't like them at all, but tolerated them because they had to. Whereas over the past few years the drivers seemed much happier talking to Buxton.