Normally, when a broadcaster is granted the rights, they pay for it. So this would be strange given that NBC was paying for it. Unless Liberty felt they could either 1) do a better job 2) get a bigger audience or 3) thought they could make more money this way there would be no point in switching. It seemed to me NBC didn't give it up. I think when Liberty stepped in they wanted a different direction or maybe more cable subscribers. Its no secret ESPN has been in trouble for some time.
It's sort of an open secret that Liberty wants access to Disney's developing streaming platform (I can't recall the name) to use as a conduit for F1 and God-knows what other media stuff they're planning. The Disney streaming system is rumored to be the most powerful by far, in whatever terms such things are measured. Apparently Liberty did not want to upset Disney by continuing with ComcastNBCUniversal as they are going to be a big competitor to Disney in the streaming business. So they made a somewhat unorthodox arrangement for 2018 just as a place holder until they get what they really want. Consequently it won't surprise me if this is the only season we'll be getting Sky.
^Well the problem is who is getting all the blame now? Liberty or ESPN? Its not Liberty. Its damaging the ESPN brand and credibility. So, they will have to do something.
In my opinion they both deserve blame, but mostly Liberty. After all, it's their product that's suffering. But I have to say I'm not at all surprised that Liberty puts the interests of its viewers behind corporate expedience. It won't hurt ESPN's brand that much simply because of the relatively minute number of F1 fans in the U.S.
ESPN says they didn't intend to cut off the end and apologized for it, the late start and badly timed ads. https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/espn-apologizes-live-broadcast-errors-1019008/?s=1
LOL! They cut off the F1 anchor mid sentence shortly after podium interviews to broadcast a rerun of a basketball documentary at 3AM ET? What a joke! I liked ITV's broadcast at the end of the V10 era...some here may not have, but at least compared to this it was great.
What all of this demonstrates is that ABC/Disney/ESPN and the American market consider F1 to be an extreme fringe sport, an oddity, a curiosity that is to be used as filler but not an interruption to any other sport, even a rerun. At least NBC went to the trouble to have their own (no matter what you thought of them) announcing and production crew. And they protected the time slot. Shame on ABC/Disney/ESPN, and Liberty for the shoddy and disrespectful approach to F1.
No they didn't. They only apologized for the technical issues at the start. I have yet to see ESPN acknowledge that they screwed up on the commercials, which alone ruined the whole race. I hope they fix that next time. But I doubt they will.
A series of '70s Polaroid snapshots shown in sequence would have been better than ESPNs effort today!! Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
One thing I liked about Matchett and Hobbs is that they had no sacred cows. They called it like they saw it and weren't concern with hurting anyone's feelings.
This was an absolute disaster. They couldn’t have screwed it up worse if they tried. One idea: Somehow ESPN and others are able to show every random soccer match uninterrupted, so why can’t they do F1 the same way? If they insist on using a broadcast that is designed to be aired without commercials, they simply must fix this. Sell some banner ad space to place along the info graphics, just like soccer, and let the damn race go uninterrupted. Otherwise, hire an announcer crew like NBC so they can catch us up after the breaks. Now, is there any way for US residents to subscribe and stream any of the British channels such as Sky or the BBC? I’d much rather watch it that way than continue to subject myself to this ESPN garbage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
There are conflicting stats, from 1 in 7 to 1 in 5, on the number of US households who have "cut the cord" from cable to streaming video. So Liberty will obviously be looking to tap the streaming market. But, in the US, any technical change will create a war of the lobbyists and a battle for regulations to protect the old or the new. So Liberty likely would prefer to let the Disney conglomerate fight that battle for US screens. Look what happened in music sales: record stores gave way to music downloads until countered with music subscription streaming. (What notably didn't much happen was giving artists direct access to the market.) We're in the throes of the same kind of battle royale (nudge nudge) over video delivery. And governments still want some say over what people can watch. Remember that trope curse about "living in interesting times"?
I dearly miss the NBCSN team. They really understood the US audience, I felt, and they knew how to talk among themselves while at the same time making you feel involved. I actually don't mind Sky's coverage, but man was that ever a crap show by ESPN and Liberty Media. The entire pre-race was a disaster and the commercial breaks could not have been more ill-timed. One of the breaks continued well into the restart after the safety car! It's pretty clear that ESPN has a pre-programmed commercial ad bot that just runs a 4-minute block and that there is no one controlling this mess.
Afterall, they can show an entire MLS game and only go to commercial at the half... This. You're talking about how "fringe" F1 is... well insert "LeMans" in there, and we're the lunatic fringe. Fox's coverage is so bad that you're changing channel every couple of hours, and the start of the race one year was pre-empted for most by Division 5 college baseball. they were like "yep, start of the race will be on FS2" which no one has. My fear is that with the streaming services (HULU, SlingTV, etc), is that data caps will become much more prevalent except for the streaming service of the internet provider you're on. Insert net neutrality statements...but that's off topic. I'm glad I didn't up my service to acutally HAVE ESPN as a channel. I have no use for it because I just don't like football. I'll look forward to the next broadcast to make a choice about how i'll want to watch F1...there's probably a replay on youtube by now. sjd
When will the FIA/F1 streaming service be ready? I keep getting emails saying it is on the way with great preview video but why would you miss the first race of the season? MotoGP has an outstanding streaming service, with a huge archive of historical video. It ain't cheap but I guess it is where I will be going if and when F1 starts their service. I gave up on ESPN years ago when they became the football (U.S.) network. You wait all winter and get this?
If Liberty MEDIA cannot ensure a proper coverage in their own backyard ,how on earth can they possibly sort out the massive problems facing F1 ? Not at all confident myself.
I’m hoping soon. Apparently they privately beta tested it yesterday but it smells to me like they are having trouble delivering either the software or the server capacity. I’m guessing ESPNs performance yesterday just increased their baseline bandwidth requirements for the US. I wonder how many people they think the will need to stream to in the US. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The commercials are almost certainly programmed in advance and controlled by computer, not a human being. It's a cost saving. Why pay somebody to sit in a control room for hours, making decisions about when to insert a commercial break, when you can do it much more cheaply simply by having somebody program it from his desktop? It's F1 coverage on the cheap.
What I missed was the insight that Matchet and Hobbs provided. They actually said some meaningful things throughout the race and pointed things out. The inter-personal banter was entertaining as well. This group just seem like guys who like watching a race but really have nothing of substance to add... at all. The sound was horrible... you couldn't even hear the cars and the way the commercial just came up was odd and irritating as well. I echo everyone's thoughts there. It was awful.
This I was yelling at the TV. The commercial breaks were super long and then you're lost when they come back. The worst coverage of an F1 race I have seen. I was super disappointed in ESPN.
