Flying Finn

Hang on... I know F1 isn't very popular in US but 262K viewers?! Or 518K for that matter?

Is than 262,000 viewers?! Holy hell, if that's what it is, I don't understand why anyone would bother broadcast F1 at all.

Just for comparison, in Finland with about 5 million population, has over million viewers average with about up to 2 million some times.

multi21

I believe that's household units. So figure 1-5 watching per unit? Still, pretty low for sure. Everyone I know recorded it including myself. NBC SN is really an obscure channel something similar to the Outdoor channel.

For us diehard F1 fans, we'll research to find it, but probably not the same for the casual fans.

A lot of guys on his board will watch the BBC feed online.

FGL28

The guys who watch BBC are totally hard core. I think for the first timeout they were very good. Remember it is a new corporate culture so there are going To be some hiccups and a learning curve. I do like somethings, like split screen during commercials and the multiple replays. Things I do not like, they tiptoe around Bernie a little, the preface is **** poor, for now. I MISS Varsha, wifey misses Varsha. We should send Hobbie a couple of bottles.

Flying Finn

OK, while still very small number, makes more sense.

Agree with everything, even here on racing forum among F1 fans there's been some posts asking what channel will the F1 be on (seems some folks have never heard of google...) so it's a good indication what's going on.

I'm on the border of going the BBC internet route although NBC coverage was a positive surprise (I wasn't expecting much), IMO the main issue was the pre-race just being some general crap, with really nothing actually giving any info that might've happened just before the race etc. and also them not adapting to the change of qualifying, I was expecting them to do a live broadcast but instead they were showing soccer.
My biggest positive regarding the broadcast was that it seemed it was less "F1 for dummies" type of stuff than before, I was expecting a ton more even though at Speed it was really horrible to have to listen every friggin' time them going through the whole rule book in a way that even my 10 year old would think it was way too stupid. Every friggin' time...

Looking forward to the next weekend.

multi21

Agreed that NBC did a good job out of the box and I'm sure it'll get better. What I would change is the utilization of Will Buxton more. I'm not a big fan of Buxton, but you have 3 guys in a studio in the US and one guy, boots on the ground at the site of the race, get him to get some insight into what is going on, more stories, less fluff. The bumping into people on the grid was missed this last time out but in defense of NBC, the whole qualifying on the morning off may have thrown them for a loop especially their first broadcast ever of F1.

Flying Finn

+1!

I still can't believe they don't send those guys to all the races, doing that stuff from studio is really pathetic...
Apologies for another Finland reference but if a tiny country like that can afford to send the whole crew (2 or 3 announcers and Mika Salo as an F1 expert and also, those races that Keke attends, he is commenting too) to all races (the advertisement money must be peanuts when compared to US, even with the small US viewer numbers), surely the folks here can afford it too.

reno808

I love the PIP.

Cris Brady

I thought NBC did an okay job for their first time out. As for the pre-race show I didn't miss it. I grabbed a torrent of The F1 Show from the UK and was happy watching it in place of that. I agree, the Brit coverage is much better, but I had better things to do at 1am in the morning like sleep! That's what TiVo is for.

disasterman

I am surprised that nobody mentioned the in car shots of one car with the sound from another of course completely out of sequence. this happened several times during the broadcast. The play by play is breathlessly excited all of the time and leaves little time for the backround from the experienced other chaps, especially Hobbs.

multi21

The multiple engine noices was mentioned in another NBC F1 thread, probably a 1st time broadcasting error they will have fixed by this weekend.

Finn, guaranteed, if the US had a WDC, F1 would be bigger than it is here and the suits would pay for the broadcast team to go over there. They're basically modeling after SPEEDs coverage right now.

IIRC, Machett actually lives in France and flew to North Carolina every other week for the race broadcast in the studio. NBC would be wise to at least have him and Buxton on site for the European leg of the races since he lives there.

MikeJim

I hope you all understand that Formula One Management (FOM) controls the broadcast video and sound (the "world feed"), which is then supplied through the Eurovision satellites network (EBU) to broadcasters who provide commentary and distribute the feed in the broadcasters region.

The production arm of FOM is based at Biggin Hill Airport, Kent, for easy travel of the equipment needed to broadcast the race. Individual licensed broadcast arms (NBCSports) can then insert replays, pre-packaged features, and on-site reporters.

The audio screw up on the Australian race was the fault of FOM, not NBC.

Here's where F1 is shown around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...V_Broadcasters

In most countries it's pay-per-view.

DB_NC_95C2

Read "NO ANGEL" bio of Ecclestone, it's fascinating

I'm up to 2007 when Spoonface punted Villeneuve at Jerez

Kein_Ersatz

BBC America should negotiate for the right to rebroadcast the BBC (or Sky) feed. Bernie should like the idea of a British invasion of british TV into the colonies.

Ritter v4.0

Is this a Danica plug in disguise?

The only thing better about this year so far is that KR finally won a race. I see a lot of equivalents but pre-race is **** poor and did they ever show quali?

Flying Finn