ESPN takes over broadcasting in 2018

Honestly, I'm not sure what happened with Bisignano.

I may speculate, however, that he of the upturned collar and smarmy attitude, was somehow tied with the production company and sponsors that brought the F1 deal to ESPN at the time. He was most certainly tied with Senna, either as an English speaking PR representative or with one of Senna's personal sponsors which makes sense as he got his F1 "in" working with sponsors at the time until he hooked up with ESPN as their pit lane reporter.

That Bisignano disappeared from the scene after ESPN's sudden mid-season split with F1 and didn't reappear
with subsequent US F1 broadcasters indicates he was somehow connected with ESPN at the time. Until the "Senna"
movie came out, he had all but become invisible in the business. A lot of these behind-the-scenes commercial guys
keep a hand in the game one way or another.

This wasn't an unusual arrangement at the time as Paul Page was part of the ownership of the production company that televised CART. Therefore, no matter what network CART was on, Page was always the play-by-play guy no matter how dreadfully awful he was at it, he bought his way into the deal and I suspect Bisignano had a similar type arrangement
with ESPN.

I did a quick Google look up and found a video on YouTube of Bisignano promoting the "Senna" movie so it's quite
likely he was a co-producer of that train wreck as well.



BHW

 

This!!!

I turned on NBCS during the lead-up to one of the recent F1 races, as for some reason the SKY live streaming was down,
and tapped in just as Buxton was on one of his breathless word salad rants. If you didn't know any better, you'd swear
he was a complete mad man the way he was raving on and on, either too much Red Bull, or he's just such a fan boy
that he loses his situational awareness.

Either way, all of the NBCS four need to be out and replaced with new blood.

BHW

 

The way I remember the first ESPN go around: they got F1, people who didn't have ESPN begged their cable companies to carry ESPN, when those requests slowed down they moved F1 to ESPN2, so people had to start begging again to have their companies carry ESPN2. When that slowed down they let Speedvision take it.
Hopefully Univision's keeping it. Less commercials, and I don't listen to the commentators anyway.
Now if we can only get rid of 90% of the FIA cameras in pitlane.

 

That sounds right.

ESPN made a right mess of F1, relegating it to third rate status, then as you point out, off ESPN to ESPN2 which practically
no one got and then, boom, nothing. No warning, no apologies, nothing. Then, they literally replaced live F1 broadcasts
with golf and bowling highlights from the 70s, which must have been huge ratings grabbers.

I was so incensed that I got someone on the phone at ESPN in Bristol and the ******* was literally laughing at me on
the phone. Really? There was also a big blow up about it on the racing boards on CompuServe which nearly everyone
in the business monitored, including Paul Page.

So, I wrote Bernie Ecclestone personally about the situation. I received a letter back from Bernie's office expressing
their disappointment with ESPN and how the U.S. market was/is vital to the growth of F1, all this. I've got that note
around here someplace, it was signed by THE MAN. The point was, Bernie was none too pleased either as ESPN
broke their contract.

Along with Speedvision, seems to me FOX Sports 1 & 2 were in the mix too. It seems we Amerikun racing fans
are always being treated like proverbial red headed step children, especially when it comes to F1 and sports car racing.

I sure as **** ain't jumping through any more hoops to watch F1. If Liberty gets smart, they'll do their own in-house
live streaming broadcasts the way Le Mans does.

BHW

 

that dude is incredibly annoying

 

The "Biz" was a former racing driver from the late 60's to mid 70's when he went into marketing for various oil companies in the racing world and became good friends with Marlboro executive John Hogan who did racing sponsorship for Phillip Morris in Switzerland. The guys who started ESPN needed an on the ground American - and that is how Biz got into broadcasting - and as he was located in Europe and had Access to the Paddock he got the job of reporting ... unfortunately he was not a reporter and was more of a Gossip guy. He was married to a really pretty Italian girl, and lived in Italy when in Europe, and Colorado in the USA. He was not much of a producer, but good at the marketing part... but not on camera.

 

Yeah, I seem to remember Bisignano being one of these guys that, no matter what the subject, would always make
the conversation about himself. The prep boy with the 80s upturned collar and attitude that was so what F1 didn't
need in the U.S. at the time.

Fact was, for a while when ESPN started showing F1 in the early 80s, it was on a tape delayed basis so we would see
the races a week or so after they happened. The announcing was first rate and the production was slick and very well
edited and I actually preferred this to the live broadcasts when they started. The only issue then was we never knew
when the races would be aired, most times they got relegated to 3:00AM time slots or in the middle of weekday afternoons.

At least it beat the ABC Wide World of Sports coverage which would likewise be a week or more after the event and then
they'd split the coverage and we'd see half the race on Saturday and perhaps see the second half the next Saturday.

Imagine if this was the case (say) in Europe, Japan or Brazil. It would be revolution!


BHW

 

I ran into him a couple of times in Europe and then again in Detroit... he was arrogant to say the least. He had connections that part is clear. I said hi to him at Monaco in 87, and he just looked at me and walked away. two weeks later saw him again in Detroit I was hanging out at the Ligier pit and I got to walk away from him... telling the guys there that he was a American a hole... in French!

 

I believe they only covered Monaco, and it was usually shown 1 to 2 weeks later, heavily edited and sharing a 90-minute program with at least one other sporting event. It wasn't much, but it was exciting enough because it was all we got! My first memory of the coverage is of Bandini's Ferrari on fire in 1967.

 

Bien fait!

 

Why would you think ESPN will find someone better?

 

Oui il ete un leche cue!

 

They also used to show The USGP edited about a week or two later.. usually... I remember because I used to watch for where we were standing.

 

PLEASE tell me Leigh Diffey is gone.......

 

OK....Leigh Diffey is gone.

 

Yay, small victories. Really curious who ESPN will use and if it will be acceptable.

 

If it gets worse I won't care as I wasn't watching (N)othing (B)ut (C)rap anyway.

If it gets better, perhaps I can follow F1 via TV.

I shall be hopeful until results justify or dash those hopes.

 

The way things are going in Bristol, they may have to buy coverage from the UK, because there may not be anybody working at ESPN.

 

I also have to say, my biggest feed against NBC's F1 coverage is the way they cut away from the feed for things not related to the race.

Loooooooonnnnngggg F1 on NBC intro's with shots in slow motion. Do those for pre shows or post shows, just get to the race!

Then a segment on some landmark that may be in some other city than the track, just get to the race!

Then they do a segment on a racing driver's pet dog. Seriously?

Why couldn't they just do that stuff some other time, and uh, cover THE RACE THAT IS GOING ON!

Good bye NBC.

 

I hated them switching channels, one week NBC Sports, next week CNBC, and then just NBC for live broadcasts. Just pick a channel and go with it.

 

Days like this and every Saturday for that matter are full of college football on ESPN2 all day, so what in the hell is ESPN going to do then, piss off the college football fans which probably draw more ratings than F1. I got a bad feeling about this, F1 will probably be bumped to some weird ESPN network nobody gets. Granted for us in the USA most races are past our bedtime, but still.

 

Call him a cab.

 

What's the worst that could happen.... Darryl and Michel Waltrip doing the color with Jeff Gordon providing the 'technical expertise' from the generic cut away F-1 car? The lights are out---Boggity, Boggity, Boggity let's go racin boy's

 

I think with a network that didn't chain them down in what they said that would definitely not be the worst that could happen.

 

There are of course other 'options' if you want F1.Some work some don't.