ESPN / Sky coverage (spoilers)

The redistribution on ESPN's part demonstrated a total lack of effort. Some techie in Bristol just linked to the Sky transmission and pushed the commercial button every few minutes. When the time was up, they flipped the switch and moved on.

 

I cant believe the negative comments here. I have been watching F-1 since the 70's - when you only got Monaco and Watkins Glenn - and then only a very abbreviated show... I thought the coverage was very good, way better than NBC's commentary.. ( sad to say ). both Brundel and Croft were very smooth and good on what is going on, they know the drivers and teams - and they are there in person so have the latest. Always like Ted Kravitz so I think it was great.

ok so some parts of the editing for US TV was a bit clunky - but no where near as bad as those that commented here. If F-1 was a huge draw in the USA - it would have the commensurate TV coverage and production facilities and budgets... its not.

 

That is a great point, if Formula 1 was already big in the US then ESPN would have done more.

 

The broadcasters are a complete joke. Why did they not hire last years if a mystery. ESPN screwed up the scheduling of the Qualifying so that Georgia watchers did not see the show. Disappointed

 

Yup. Google any F1 chat thread or just Google ESPN F1 coverage. There is nearly universal agreement that it just plain sucked.

 

This is exactly it. I'm sure it doesn't cost ESPN very much to relay the feed and hire some dude to cut to commercial. The whole arrangement just screams "cheap".

 

I drive by ESPN in Bristol about twice a week. It is a big place. The parking lots used to be full. Now, they are less than half full.

 

Total let down. They just went to commercial without any warning, terrible. The Sky team was no better than the NBCSports team, just the same

 

They don't have a dedicated broadcast crew because they bought the whole package from Sky...because they're doing the whole thing on the cheap. Having their own commentators would mean also mean a big support team as well.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2018/03/26/how-espn-saved-4-million-on-its-formula-one-broadcast-deal/#55f3908cbcbd

They are getting it on the cheap alright!
Forbes is reporting that ESPN is getting F1 for free

 

I have watched since the 70's as well but if you didn't notice it is almost 2020! That's nearly 50 years of advancement in technology! I didn't mind the commentators, I minded the commercials, and the randomness of them and then the length! It was bad that you would see all this stuff going on during the commercial yet couldn't hear what was going on then they come back and don't fill you in. I get what was going on but this was lackluster to say the least. With my crappy technology at my house I could have done the same exact program. But this came from ESPN!

In case you didn't notice I do blame ESPN for putting something so sloppy on the air.

 

The problem isn't Sky. It's that we're not getting the part of the show they do best --- the extensive coverage they do before and after each session. That's where they shine the most.

 

I agree, the ESPN editing was amateurish (extensive list of problems already discussed), but the actual race commentary from Brundel and Croft was a vast improvement on the garbage we got from NBCSN last year.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

It was Garbage! ESPN sucks. I started watching F1 2-3 years ago. I actually like Hobbs and Machett, Now i'm really disappointed in myself when they had a broadcast from Chicago that I had a chance to see. Obviously it will never happen again.
I can't see how they plan to get new viewers, because this one will probably not be tuning in anymore. At least NBC put out a ton of money and made a very worthwhile effort to show F1. Can't say the same about ESPN.

 

What sucked about Sky's coverage? Seemed good as usual to me?

I did hear ESPN's coverage wasn't very good.

 

ESPN carries the Sky feed this season. It's the same coverage except for the commercial inserted by ESPN.

 

And the completely screwed up audio mix that was unintelligible!!

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So ESPN has the Sky commentator crew and all?

Maybe the commercials is where the difference is.


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Yes. ESPN simply carries the Sky feed and inserts commercials.

 

At least you Americans can now understand how partial to Hamilton British coverage is

 

So maybe you all should do what I was forced to do on Sunday: turn off the sound and watch closed captioning.....

 

I've always downloaded Sky coverage here in the U.S. because it's so much better than what we had. It's partial to Hamilton for sure but I can deal with it.

 

Yep. Same here, and it's Hammy-centric, for sure, but not really so much more than NBC was. People bash Sky for that but seem to forget how NBC kissed Lewis's ass, and NBC doesn't even really have a reason to do so in the first place.

 

I heard an interview last year where Will Buxton said that NBC had told them to focus on Lewis to help grow the interest in F1 for NBC.

 

I can actually understand that. Lewis is more interesting and relate-able to the younger fans then Vettel or . . . . really anybody else on the grid. Kimi? You and I like him but he's barely understandable to most as well as not saying to much to quote in the first place. Max? Maybe . . . he's got youth on his side and a bit outspoken. Other than that . . . . So, I can't blame NBC for trying to give exposure to the most "marketable" guy on the grid.