Buxton grid walk = win ESPN vs NBCSN = push, no difference to me, they all scream, can't get drivers right and have personal biases However, the WIN goes to Mothers Polish for commercial free viewing!!!!!!!!!!! WIN WIN WIN!!!!!
I always watched the entire pre-race with Buxton. Whomever the guy is now, I dont care for him and as a result fast forward through most of the pre-race.
I like the commercial free format of the Sky feed, plus they air way more F1 content than NBCSN. That and I couldn't stand Diffy as an announcer. His mispronunciation of names was the worst, open top of his over sensationalized commentary. Matchett and Hobbs where cool, and very knowledgable, I do miss their commentary.
I prefer a mix of the two. During the actual race I think Sky is a little weak, I prefer Hobbs & Matchett, but the stuff pre and post race Sky does is great of which most you have to find on Youtube before the take it down due to copyrights.
The Sky team apparently does not believe in silence. There's rarely a millisecond when somebody in the group isn't bloviating. The guy who "calls" the race seems to using the broadcast to entertain himself....
In Canada we have sky coverage broadcast by TSN which is like your ESPN. During commercials which there aren't many, they show the race in a small box so you can still see whats happening like pit stops.
The biggest thing, as pointed out, is that the SKY crew are actually at all the races in person rather than being in a studio in Charlotte (or wherever). This in itself lends a far greater perspective to events as they happen and they seem to get direct access to the major players and they may regularly interview team principals and drivers on site as events unfold. The grid walk features are a good new wrinkle. Buxton was okay at it with his out of breath fan boy like questioning but (notice) he usually interviewed the same people at every race, for some reason Flavio Briatore always seemed to be on his list. I was not really a fan of Martin Brundle, his promise to the British media that he'd win the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans for Toyota being one of the reasons, and he seems a bit stiff in this role of grid walker. Again, Brundle seems to usually grab the same people each race so it really comes down to alliances. His attempt to speak with Massa who was working in the same capacity for Brazilian TV on the grid at Abu Dhabi was rather embarrassing. However, in the booth as a commentator, Brundle is good and lends true driver's perspective to events. Croft may be a bit over the top dramatic (and let's face it loud) at times but he shares the stage well with the others and as a team, they work well together. The change from NBCS to SKY here in the U.S. is a major step forward. Diffey is definitely not missed. Hobbs was 40+ years removed from being an F1 driver and Matchett was likewise 20+ years removed from being a crewman. Diffey was the one who brought the whole NBCS deal down though. His wild on air diatribes OvErprOUncIng everything (HOndEr instead of Honda, hEAh instead of here, etc.) and his annoying way of paraphrasing driver quotes as though they were made to him directly were tiresome. His baiting of Hobbs and Matchett with pronouncements "I had dinner with..." when he really ATTENDED a dinner for (insert name here) always fell flat and you could almost see Hobbs and Mactcett looking at each other rand rolling their eyes like "Oh no, not again...". Near the end, Hobbs and Matchett were openly goofing on Diffey during the broadcasts and it was obvious neither of them liked him. Diffey come across like a star struck fan boy who'd do the job for free if they'd just give him access. His low point had to been at the Indy Car race at Barbour when he got the opportunity to interview Alonso and he continually interrupted Alonso during each and every one of his answers. Let's hope NBCS has enough sense to keep Diffey out of the IMSA events next year. BHW
Sky should try to remember they are not broadcasting exclusively to Elton fans, their bias is embarrassing as you’d get the impression anyone in Britain is a fan of the numpty, but that’s very very far from the truth. Forza Ferrari..... the only racing team and car marque that matters. Italia forever It’s easier to apologise than it is to ask permission
I agree that Sky tends to demonstrate a bit of LH bias at times. That being said, I just watched the latest Formula E race (FS1 replay via FoxSportsGo App)...it made me appreciate the areas in which the SkySports product is superior. And as previously mentioned, the commercial-free ESPN airing of F1 is significant. I had to laugh as the Formula E race went to commercial 4 times for a 45 minute race.
ESPN reports F1 ratings are up across the board in 2018. Think the reason SKY highlights Hamilton has been covered in this and other threads ad nausea. Do we honestly think for one minute that German TV doesn't do the same thing with Vettel or Finnish TV doesn't do the same thing for Bottas? More eyes on F1 in the U.S. this year, this experiment seems to have worked. https://racer.com/2018/12/17/espn-cites-f1-tv-audience-growth/ BHW
The thing Sky need to rememberers is they are broadcasting for a large part of the world, so their bias should be tempered. Here are plenty of English non-Elton fans
Actually they do realize that they have a global audience, hence the Hamilton bias: He has fans worldwide.
And, among active drivers, he's easily the most accomplished. It only makes sense that any broadcast outlet would pay attention to him. I'll say it again - I don't see the Hamilton bias that others mention. For a guy that's nearly always at the front, he gets the coverage he deserves. So, even if you have a Ferrari bias, which I do, I don't see how one could criticize the attention he gets in the media.
I think it is an overall British bias, but ESPN is really only using Sky’s feed so it is no surprise. Sky shows far less British bias than BBC ever did, Murray always thought Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell were gods held back by their poor machinery and the evil opposition. I think Sky does a good job, but the commercial free is the biggest improvement. Not missing Diffey at all. Now if the racing were just better and the PUs did not suck so much...
14% bump in viewership of qualifying. Interesting. With the ease of access via ESPN (live or replay) and a SkySports product that newcomers can find entertaining, not completely surprising.
I like Hobbs. That was the only thing on NBC I liked. Everything else pretty much sucked. They had a commercial every 5 minutes and then had stupid videos they would play of other stuff "coming up" or whatever. I like it's commercial free now. I like that they extend the post race recaps with interviews. I can't understand half of what the British say though. Its better with closed captioning on.
Funny I don't see a Hamilton bias. Vettel and Ferrari have just been screwing up. Hamilton wins a lot of polls and races. What are you supposed to do? Talk about how well Stroll did in 18th? The BIAS was for Alonso --- and it was the same at NBC.
I know what you mean. It's very disconcerting when the announcers use the driver's actual names instead of "The #4", "The #24", etc. BHW
Buxton just had so much energy. His enthusiasm was contagious. You could tell he was truly ecstatic to be doing what he was doing! I think he realized how lucky he was and was truly appreciative of the opportunity he was given.
ESPNSky was commercial free as a mea culpa for the technical and scheduling screw-ups of their first race. As far as I know they will go back to commercial interruptions again next season. Does anybody have any information to the contrary?
I liked the Sky/ESPN coverage of the race, but when FP and Q went to ESPNU and ESPNews, not so much. Who the heck subscribes to those channels?
The thing I hate the most is when TV commentators use the full name of driver and car to comment: "And here is the German Sebastian Vettel on his Ferrari making a pass on Fernando Alonso in the McLaren-Honda." All there doing is filling airtime with vastly redundant information we know already. What I would like the announcers to do though is repeat whatever the drivers said on the intercom. For the life of me I can barely understand those comments.
