Sky Sports F1 coverage in upcoming races

[Murdo+q]

Why has sky f1 moved their presenters to a studio in London?

I pay my subscription for trackside commentary, this is not value for money sky??

Moderator note: Amended title to better reflect query.

[SKY1992bf]

@Murdo+q  To cut down on costs 

they are doing it for the three races furthest away from Europe     (Australia, China and Japan (the next three races))

they still have an onsite presence with Martin Crofty Racheal and  Ted out in Australia 

[Bigolbear]

Watching  the Australian F1 show and the AI studio it sucks Anthony on the sky  board won't be interviewing the drivers about there lap. Why different presenting every race. It's become sterile. And very disjointed.  

[MarkGoldsmith · Accepted solution]

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@Bigolbear wrote:

Watching  the Australian F1 show and the AI studio it sucks Anthony on the sky  board won't be interviewing the drivers about there lap. Why different presenting every race. It's become sterile. And very disjointed.  

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So Sky will be presenting from the London studios for the next 3 fly away races. (Australia, Japan and China).

Sky aren't unique in doing this with Channel 4 also taking the same approach and presenting from the UK, with only a reduce presence at the circuits.

The reasons for this is to reduce the carbon footprint of the broadcasters and help the broadcasters and F1 meet their net zero targets. 

Dare I say they probably enjoy the additional cost savings it makes and I'm sure the presenting teams prefer being able to spend more time at home that have to fly out for these long distances races.

It wouldn't surprise me if over time we see more of this and it isn't just for the long flyaway races.

[Fro9]

How to ruin f1! We paid to watch live TV, not from a studio! What are the women wearing? It's not a nightclub. It's okay. I suppose it's okay. They don't want fans anymore. Such a shame it was much better with presenters at the track! Shame they won't listen to the fans

[jgwilliams]

I am cancelling my subscription. Sky sports is seen as the 'premier' sports platform and we also pay a premium price for that. I appreciate the carbon neutral approach and also new technologies meaning people don't need to be there. But this weekends coverage now feels just the same as channel 4 and other less comprehensive providers.

remember sky sports F1 is a brand in its own. It has the rights to F1 because of its 'extras' I can see F1 actually looking for a new broadcast partner as the whole experience is not very good this weekend and I will be switching off for Japan and China also now.

please reconsider this, you have the best presenters and have lead the way previously 

[Daniel0210]

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@jgwilliams wrote:

please reconsider this, you have the best presenters and have lead the way previously 

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@jgwilliams 

Sky won't respond to your post on here. It may be better to email the Viewer Relations Team at viewerR@sky.uk

[TimmyBGood]

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@jgwilliams wrote:

 I can see F1 actually looking for a new broadcast partner  

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Given Sky has a contract up to 2029, that seems unlikely. Past that point it's quite possible that Liberty Media won't be looking for television partners at all and use their own streaming platform instead.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/12692873/sky-sports-to-remain-home-of-formula-1-until-2029-a... 

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@jgwilliams wrote:

I am cancelling my subscription. Sky sports is seen as the 'premier' sports platform and we also pay a premium price for that. I appreciate the carbon neutral approach and also new technologies meaning people don't need to be there. But this weekends coverage now feels just the same as channel 4 and other less comprehensive providers.

remember sky sports F1 is a brand in its own. It has the rights to F1 because of its 'extras' I can see F1 actually looking for a new broadcast partner as the whole experience is not very good this weekend and I will be switching off for Japan and China also now.

please reconsider this, you have the best presenters and have lead the way previously 

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You do realise that F1 are actively encouraging their broadcast partners to become carbon neutral.

At some races the broadcast team of F1 TV has previously been stripped back with production and commentary coming directly from the UK with only 3 or 4 presenters/reporters being on-site.

Personally I don't see the need for an entire presenting line up of analysts, reporters, commentators and presenters all being at the track, there is little value to it. You only need 2 or 3 to be able to get interviews and do the in-depth reporting of paddock stories.

[jgwilliams]

And this is why I rarely post....

As I said I appreciate the carbon neutrality but progression isn't going backward. F1 is like a World Cup every other weekend. Its the spectical, studio coverage isn't same. Its a festival event and its also a multicultural festival. The coverage in the studio isn't the same and myself personally are cancelling as I might as well watch highlights on channel 4 as it's not as emersive / entertaining and what I paid for and I'm sure F1 owners will consider that in the contracts next time as someone else will step up. 

The CO2 Impact of a couple of people isn't on the radar of even the smallest nations. It isn't even a paperclip counting exercise. CO2 can only be fixed by industry / technology at the mass scale in the grand scheme. I won't be thinking I watch sky because of the green logo. I will be watching the best coverage and this weekend seeing the best presenters in a studio isn't as good.

The future isn't about trying to dodge environmental issue by people not getting on a plane and associated CO2 for a couple more years to delay the same climatic change conclusion. It's simply finding solutions to eliminate or capture it. The  media / entainment should entertain and although they have a role to promote such important causes, they should do it through entainment and it isn't as good in my opinion.

Having worked in F1 myself, I can tell you the family feeling within the pit is only picked up by being there. I can say especially in Australia, Japan and the 1st time back in China for a long time it is really important to be there for those culture's. If I wanted basic coverage I wouldnt pay for subscription TV.

F1 already through its industry / technology does more for the environment than anyone really knows that's being progressed into road cars. It needs to continue to grow and that's a package of things including emersive coverage to promote it which this weekends coverage doesn't sadly although it's a good attempt due only to the quality of the presenters.

that is my opinion

[Fletch_al]

I agree. You miss the buzz of the paddock. If I wanted channel 4 style I would watch channel 4. I pay for sky (a cost which has gone up).

If its a case of reducing the carbon footprint then reduce the number of presenters on a race weekend. Do we really need 8 at every race? They can still present trackside with fewer presenters.

[Annie+UK]

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[tarbat]

If this switch to a studio based presentation team is driven by carbon footprint, it's odd that the F1 TV PRO presentation team are all (except Sam Collins as usual) at the track. Laura, Lawrence, etc, as well as Alex Brundle trackside are all at the circuit. I do prefer the atmosphere that comes across from a presentation team at the track. The bit when Fred Vasseur and Ariana Bravo got attacked by a bird was classic!

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@tarbat wrote:

If this switch to a studio based presentation team is driven by carbon footprint, it's odd that the F1 TV PRO presentation team are all (except Sam Collins as usual) at the track. Laura, Lawrence, etc, as well as Alex Brundle are all at the circuit. I do prefer the atmosphere that comes across from a presentation team at the track. The bit when Fred Vasseur and Ariana Bravo got attacked by a bird was classic!

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I wonder if they just do the cutbacks on different races.

i know in previously seasons there have been some races where the world commentary feed done by F1TV has had one if not both the commentators based in the UK rather than at the track.

To be honest I think it makes sense doing it but perhaps they shouldn't just chose the races by their distance from Europe. Personally I think a lot of tracks have quite a soulless feel/atmosphere in particular the Middle East based races but Australia really does always have a buzz similar to silverstone, monza etc.

Perhaps in future seasons they will review which races they do the studio based approach for, just to ensure that the ones that do actually have a good atmosphere is presented from trackside.

Personally I don't mind them doing this for Japan or China as I doubt they would have the same level of atmosphere.

also whilst im sure the eco reasons are the primary factor I'm sure they are quite happy with the cost savings it must bring as well.

Trying something difference for a few races a seasons to me if a good thing. The F1 coverage has got rather stale and barely changed in any significant way over the past several years so at least it gives it a different feel and does allow them to experiment with different graphics and augmented reality stuff.

Studio presenting seems to be becoming more the norm for sports as opposed to being pitch/track side. A lot more football coverage comes from studios rather than pitch side presenting now, and we have even seen with things like the olympics of coverage predominantly coming from the UK. I would expect this to be different for Paris just due to its location but certainly for more non-European based bigger sporting events the switch has happened.

[nigea99]

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@MarkGoldsmith wrote:

Studio presenting seems to be becoming more the norm for sports as opposed to being pitch/track side. A lot more football coverage comes from studios rather than pitch side presenting now, and we have even seen with things like the olympics of coverage predominantly coming from the UK. I would expect this to be different for Paris just due to its location but certainly for more non-European based bigger sporting events the switch has happened.

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The new Studio based coverage for F1 also prompted to remember some of the coverage of the last Summer & Winter  Olympics on the BBC  which, as you say, was  linked from the UK - with some  commentators also based in the UK. 

By both the Studios & some commentators being based in Salford this allowed the commentators.to then provide analysis in person later (for example the commentor for the Skateboarding   able to give more insight to the way this sport has taken off  -similar regarding some of the Snowboarding)

One problem I notice with Studio based Sports coverage is that  I find is that sometimes the directors (or others) try to be too creative.

Back to the Olympics coverage I remember some highlights programmes (or maybe just the link programmes) where the director (or someone)  just could not leave the 'wide shot' alone and had the (obvioulsy remote controlled)  high up camera continually movng left & then back right (albeit reasonably slowly)  almost making viewers dizzy when a still wide shot (or just occasional movement)  would have sufficed.

I think the new F1 studio based coverage could fall into similar traps of trying to be too creative,  if they are  not too careful  but it may just take time to establish what works for both the preenters and viewers