ilko

You can't watch live on iPlayer. It is delayed and available only for a week. So in the end you're better off getting the HD torrent.

No idea what the Sky coverage will be in terms of access to their site, but I know there will be HD torrents of that too.

Nordschleife

As best as I understand

to watch BBC coverage get a UK proxy server and use iPlayer. This worked well earlier this year from Whistler BC.

For Sky, its a little more complicated. In general you are not allowed a Sky subscription without a UK address and only one subscriber per address (multiple decoders are catered for but must be on same phone line). So you need to find somebody with a Sky Sports HD subscription, to get the F1 coverage and who is not going to ever want to use more than one IP device to watch channels supplied by Sky. Then you must register your IP device as this subscriber's second IP device or get the subscriber to do so) see http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/sky-go/ . To be on the safe side I would at least use a proxy server when first accessing the service from my IP device, so I at least looked as if I was legitimately in the UK.
Devices supported include iPad, iPhone (3GS and above), Xbox 360 (Xbox LIVE Gold subscription required), PC, Mac and selected HTC and Samsung smartphones: HTC Desire, Desire S, Desire HD, Incredible S, Sensation and Samsung Galaxy and Galaxy S II.

BBC will be rebroadcasting the races it doesn't broadcast live. Based on what I have seen so far, BBC has more poise.

Despite having a plethora of Sky decoders and internet connected TVs as well as iPad, mac and PC devices, I have no spare capacity for others to piggyback.

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car_slave

I've found that the live coverage is very popular and often overloads their network. BBC pre show is the best! The recorded stuff is available and they have a nice highlight show.

Nordschleife

from the BBC web page

F1 ON THE BBC IN 2012
All the grands prix will be shown on BBC television
Ten will be live - China (15 Apr); Spain (13 May); Monaco (27 May); Europe (24 Jun); Britain (8 Jul); Belgium (2 Sep); Singapore (23 Sep); Korea (14 Oct); Abu Dhabi (4 Nov); Brazil (25 Nov)
The remainder will have extended highlights - Asian time-zone races will be shown at 2pm; European time-zone races at 5.30pm
All races will be live on Radio 5 live and the BBC Sport website
The website will have live video of the races that are live on TV and live audio and text commentary for all races


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Nordschleife

I have not had a problem in Europe or the UK - so if you are having problems it is more likely to be an Akamai issue (like why should they aggregate streaming delivery in markets that the stream is not supposed to go to).

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car_slave

That's been my experience in the US over a paid proxy. Could just be my proxy - could be me not tuning in early enough. Anyhow, I got a bunch of "Please try again later" messages.
As an expat I get a lot of pleasure from my UK TV access - live F1 or not

Nordschleife

I have found that the quality of paid proxy servers varies greatly. My proxy server is run by a company that also does 'stuff' for the BBC (and Arsenal and Private Eye and Disney and Debenham) but they don't offer proxy services commercially, you wrap that up in the configuration of one of your servers. It is possible that I get access to a high quality link to the iPlayer servers (I wonder that Jobs/Apple didn't sue the Beeb over that name (or perhaps they did and I missed it)). I do make a point of logging in well before the pre-show starts.

Last season I used an iMac with a big screen and ran the broadcast screen, the timing and the lap positions in separate windows, on a separate screen I ran the other timing screen windows - I found that I was consistently ahead of the commentators and it was the same as being on the wall but without the telemetry from the cars(which is like a drug).

This season I have several Sky boxes and IP aware televisions as well as a mixture of PCs and macs(2560x1440), all running a minimum of 1920x1080, apart from the wretched iPad..... I can see myself wasting weeks working out the best possible set up.... Sadly Sky rarely 'floats my boat', but that may just be cultural.

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Porsche917K

Wow! I'll just come to your house for the races. I'll bring the beer...

Nordschleife

check with Vasek and Larry first

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Phokaioglaukos

(Times BST/GMT as in effect)

Australia Melbourne
18 March 6am
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 2pm

China Shanghai
15 April 8am
Live Sky & BBC

Malaysia Sepang
25 March 9am
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 2.45pm

Bahrain Sakhir
22 April 1pm
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 5.30pm

Spain Barcelona
13 May 1pm
Live Sky & BBC

Canada Montreal
10 June 7pm
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 10.30pm

Monaco Monte Carlo
27 May 1pm
Live Sky & BBC

Europe Valencia
24 June 1pm
Live Sky & BBC

Britain Silverstone
8 July 1pm
Live Sky & BBC

Hungary Budapest
29 July 1pm
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 5.30pm

Germany Hockenheim
22 July 1pm
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 5.30pm

Belgium Spa
2 September 1pm
Live Sky & BBC

Italy Monza
9 September 1pm
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 5.30pm

Singapore Marina Bay
23 Sep 1pm
Live Sky & BBC

Japan Suzuka
7 October 7am
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 2pm

Korea Yeongam
14 October 7am
Live Sky & BBC

India Delhi
28 October 9.30am
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 2pm

USA Austin
18 November 7pm
Live Sky Highlights BBC, 10.30pm

Abu Dhabi Yas Marina
4 Nov 1pm
Live Sky & BBC

Brazil Interlagos
25 November 4pm
Live Sky & BBC

Phokaioglaukos

In 1992, when BSkyB launched its deal to broadcast live Premier League matches, the tone of the promotional strategy was typically bombastic. We were promised a “whole new ball game” to justify the expense of subscribing to a service that had formerly come for free albeit with limited scope. The advertising blitz to accompany the birth of its new bespoke channel, Sky Sports F1, which shares the rights to 10 grands prix with the BBC and will show the other 10 exclusively live, reflects a more sophisticated approach to seduction.

Of course it stresses passion, range and innovation but also emphasises continuity, familiar faces and voices. In the three years since recapturing Formula One from ITV the BBC has expanded the audience for the sport and won a Bafta for its coverage. Revolution is not on Sky’s agenda. It certainly does not want to scare the horses, particularly given the opposition that greeted the announcement of the deal last year, and all races will be uninterrupted by adverts. Instead it trumpets the enhancements in breadth, analysis, gizmos, graphics and the technical aspects of production, recognising that the BBC does a stand-out job but determined to refine it further.

Five recruits from the BBC television and radio teams have been appointed to the seven-strong presenting lineup. Martin Brundle reverts to race analyst and co-commentator after a year in the lead role, allowing him to restore the grid walks to their former length without the requirement to dart for the box afterwards. It is good news for fans of the pre-parade lap drinking game. Brundle will play his part in getting viewers wrecked by interviewing plutocrats with cheesy grins and glamour ****** whose hats use up more material than their dresses but will doubtlessly refrain from asking the drain-the-whole-bottle question regarding Bernie Ecclestone’s mutation into Andy Warhol.

Further raids on the BBC’s talent has garnered Ted Kravitz and Natalie Pinkham to scoop the stories from the pitlanes and Radio 5 Live’s race team David Croft and Anthony Davidson. Croft takes the lead commentator’s role where his forte is the convivial and passionate style he employs to convey the drama of each race. Davidson’s strength is analysis and he has been furnished with a host of graphical features which will complement his recent cockpit experience in explaining technology and tactics.

Chief among these is what Sky calls “a virtual render” of the McLaren MP4-27, a 3D hologram which puts to shame the quaint, flickering one of Lord Olivier in the musical Time. It is a key feature of the channel’s flagship Friday night magazine programme and gives Kravitz and Davidson the ultimate toy to showcase their expertise.

The mistake made by the network’s football shows in its early years, rampant neophilia breaking the thread with the past by focusing predominantly on developments since 1992, was not repeated when it won sole rights to English cricket and the Formula One Show maintains the links with the sport’s heritage in Steve Rider’s series of interviews with “legends”.

Sky Sports News will be used to extend the buildup over the week preceding each race and the post-race dissection will be lengthened far beyond the time it takes Brundle to demolish his customary ice cream. But the significant changes for those who just tune in for the races and have the requisite kit are that each will be broadcast in high definition and in 5.1 surround sound which transmits engine noise with an intensity bettered only by being in the stands.

Among the nine red button options on “Race Control” are a choice of four driver cams, Sky’s own pitlane feed, a timing screen, driver tracker and a Twitter aggregator with dedicated hashtags for each grand prix.

Having agreed to share the rights to cut its costs, the BBC will show 10 races live and broadcast 90-minute highlights of the other 10. The poaching of its talent confirms the excellent service it has provided over the past three years and the challenge now is to maintain those high standards with a modified cast. The retention of Jake Humphrey, Eddie Jordan, David Coulthard and Lee McKenzie suggests that the BBC’s strengths – wit, insight, charm, inside knowledge and a sense of fun – have not also departed up the A4 to Isleworth.

Jordan’s cushion-cover shirts, idiosyncratic delivery, knowledge, bluntness and badinage have made him a uniquely engaging principal analyst, the genuine star of the BBC’s production. He will be joined this year by a pair of interesting recruits, Ben Edwards as lead commentator and Gary Anderson, the former technical director of Jordan, Stewart and Jaguar, as technical expert.

Edwards’s appointment has been greeted warmly as long overdue recognition for a broadcaster whose work in A1GP, Champ Car and the British Touring Car Championship vividly captured his excitement and sound judgment while Anderson’s work for the BBC’s website has been shrewd and enlightening. His pen and paper approach to deconstructing the MP4-27 did not have Sky’s pizzazz but he explained the complexities of the design to make it intelligible to those whose mechanical skills do not extend much beyond changing a windscreen wiper.

Radio 5 Live has taken the biggest hit from defections, losing both Croft and Davidson, but the station has gone for a safe choice in James Allen, ITV’s former lead commentator, to call the races and the intriguing selection of the 21-year-old Jaime Alguersuari, who drove for Toro Rosso from 2009-11, as summariser. That Formula One works so well on radio seems a paradox but the descriptive verve required for a narrative without pictures offers a fresh perspective on proceedings.

Ultimately, whether your viewing begins with The Chain on the BBC or Sky’s Just Drive, with the obvious caveat that you have to pay to access the latter, the offerings of the rival channels should guarantee breadth and depth on a trailblazing scale.


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Sound and vision
Who has what and how to follow
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Sky

• Sky Sports F1 will show all races, qualifying and practice – live, channel 408.

• Also available on Sky Go and Virgin but not BT Vision.

• Free to Sky Sports 1 & 2/HD customers.

• Sky HD is from £30.25 a month (existing customers can upgrade from £10.25 extra a month), Sky Sports is from £40.00 a month (upgrades from Sky basic, £20 a month).

BBC

• Ten races live on BBC1: China, Spain, Monaco, Europe, Britain, Belgium, Singapore, Korea, Abu Dhabi and Brazil.

• Extended highlights of all other races, start times (subject to change) 5.30pm for European time zone races, 2pm for early morning races, 10.30pm for American time zone races.

• All content also available via iPlayer.

• Live commentary of every race and qualifying coverage on Radio 5 Live.

Theme tunes

• Sky: The new boy, Alistair Griffin, left,Just Drive

• BBC: Tried and tested, Fleetwood Mac, The Chain

Nordschleife

Having watched both Sky's and BBC's Melbourne Qualification packages, I must say that the BBC was infinitely more assured and interesting. However, Sky has Brundell which may mean that the Sky race coverage improves.

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PS chav Brits will almost certainly prefer Sky