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According to tweets posted on COTA's Facebook page, Will Buxton has been signed as part of the broadcast team for NBC Sports Networks F1 coverage.

He seems enthused about it, ans says that the network has big plans.

Hate to be a killjoy, but we heard the same things in the UK from the BBC team when they took over coverage from ITV. And again from the Sky team when they took over the main coverage from BBC.

Although it must be said that the BBC coverage was loads better than ITV, and Sky coverage was getting better towards the end of the season, once they found where they wanted to be.

But here's hoping you get better coverage in the US next season and it pull's in more viewers and creates new fans. *insert beer glass here* (why don't we have a beer glass smiley?)

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That's brilliant news. Will Buxton is one of my favourite commentators, and I thought he did a brilliant job along with Jerome D'Ambrosio on GP2. I think he's got his head screwed on, and he always has interesting and insightful stuff to say, and isn't afraid to say it i.e. the whole Red Bull are killing the feeder series view.

I think it's a good move for the new F1 coverage team. It's taken me awhile to get used to his high-energy manner, but I really respect his passion for F1 (the final Debrief on Speed was interesting to me that he went off the map with his most memorable moment... it was Damon Hill's move to Arrows and 2nd place in Hungary in 1997, paraphrasing showing the belief Hill had in himself and what he could do in a bad car.)

And moreso, I've come to appreciate that he will actually ask what's on his mind when conducting his interviews from the grid, rather than just making some very polite comment and hold the microphone so whomever he is interviewing and letting them say whatever it is they feel like saying at the moment. I think Peter Windsor became more of a PR guy who just gladly took whatever sound byte was offered. (I thought it was pretty ballsy of Buxton starting his interview with Bernie Ecclestone in Istanbul in 2011 with "please tell us this isn't going to be the last time for this great circuit..." ... We're not talking some team manager, we're talking BE, and he puts him on the spot like that.

I can only hope that with a new setting the others on the broadcasts will step up and offer us more than they have. I like that Hobbs can be pretty frank about driver mistakes and not try to cover for them, but I do feel like he's mostly 'been along for the ride' and I'd like more from either Hobbs, or someone else who will offer more depth... I think Matchett could offer a lot more from the technical side if the director figures out how best to utilize him.

But really my hope is the move to NBCSN will put some energy into the broadcasts, and maybe that and not being filler between Speed's "NASCAR" coverage, will cause them to try to elevate F1 coverage here beyond simply seeing it as just being enough to give us all the races, qualy and most practice.

I hear ya. Nobody ever says "I just got a job with the people who took over from my old employers. It's probably gonna be worse than before, but hey at least I have a job."

Then again I think Will could be enthusiastic about having his wisdom teeth pulled, and it's easy to get caught up in it when you're already hoping for more than Speed offered.

The BBC were infinitely better than ITV, and Sky have proven to be far more comprehensive than the BBC, and have continually improved throughout the season. The BBC, from the ten or fourteen or whatever of their broadcasts that I've seen, seem to be going downhill.

Great news for Will. Even though I'm not based in the States, he's great on Sky's GP2 and GP3 coverage. Very pleased with this news.

I think the forum is based out of Bahrain or something like that.

This is good news and I'm looking forward to NBCSN's expanded coverage, as well as the broadcast team actually being allowed to be on-site for the broadcasts.

I'm sure the first year will have some hiccups, but hopefully they will be remedied quickly as the season goes along and NBCSN will be willing to listen to its fans and deliver.

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At first I thought it said Button not Buxton

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I hadn't heard the bolded part before. If true that would be great!

David Hobbs mentioned it when he spilled the beans at the FOTA Fan Forum in Austin. Others have also hinted/stated as such on various media platforms.

The way Hobbs put it is that they're going to try to have local presence where it makes sense. So for the first year, it might be limited to the Americas and maybe some of the European races, but I doubt they will fly halfway around the world to cover the races in Asia.

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Good, one of my favourite pundits!

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Hopefully, this would open the possibility of more programing around the race, with a bit more analytic approach, than the most 'puff' 30 minutes before roll off. If they are on-site with more access, perhaps some more post-race coverage beyond what's packaged by F1, with the chance to pursue top storylines beyond the podium, as well as maybe replacing the 'debrief' type program that would be run on Saturday nights typically with some analysis from on-site about what to expect after the 3 practices and qualification in terms of set ups, strategies, storylines that have developed over the 2 pre-race days.

I'm a realist, I don't expect the type of expertise or depth that might be part of a European broadcast where the audience is huge and more developed. But I hope, with fingers crossed, that the new network will try to elevate things rather than just trying to replicate what Speed did. (Of course, if they will only be on-site for races in the Americas and Europe, that will be down to just 3-4 races in a few years with Bernie getting his way with a race in every Pacific rim nation and completely gutting the Europe part of the calender since I guess Thailand is next in 2015, and I'm guessing Indonesia in 2016, Phillipines 2017, Myanmar in 2018, and Vietnam in 2019 or something along those lines unless the current Euro sites start offering Bernie blank checks for sanctioning fees because nothing beats a huge check and empty stands in a "new market" which would be more accurately described as a "non market.")

I know there are a lot of American viewers who have tuned away from domestic broadcasts since long ago, but I'm cautiously optimistic that with a new network and more access/opportunities, they can turn some/many of those viewers back to the domestic broadcasts. As if this wasn't obvious, but it all boils down to how much NBCSN is going to get out of the money they invest in, and if the American viewership continues to ignore local broadcasts, I see no way in hell they would want to commit to renewing the contract when that time comes, nor will they want to sink a lot of money into sending these guys to the races beyond the Americas and Europe.

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My hope is that they'll try to get drivers to do interviews on the morning, and late night shows of the main network leading up to Canda, and Austin at least. Also covering at least highlights during the nightly sports reports would help drive viewership to the coverage of the races I would think.

Great news. While at first I had a difficult time adjusting to his style as opposed to Peter's, he really grew on me in the worst way and it was because of his genuine love and enthusiasm for the sport and all it's feeder series and it was quite evident he knows a whole lot about pretty much everything motorsport. His excessive hand gestures and bounciness still bug me but the wealth of information and DGAS attitude when conducting interviews is really fantastic for the fans. He asks tough questions most people don't dare ask and he usually gets the answers. Just wonderful to hear he's staying on as part of the team!

I'm sure Bob is cringing knowing that the guys will be trackside covering the races as he is a huge fan of the sport and I can only hope he is released from Speed so NBC can snatch him up. Unless Fox plans on showing 24-hour coverage of the Barrett Jackson auctions I don't see much of a reason for them to keep Bob imprisoned like that.

Can't wait to see the new broadcast in 2013 and I sincerely hope the intro is as kick ass as the original Speedvision intro was prior to the crappy 2012 intro which lacked excitement and emotion. And Will, please remind Diffey to Shut the hell up when the lights go out! LOL

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All I can say is YES!

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Keep in mind Speed gets swallowed up and regurgitated into some new national Fox Sports Network at some point during 2013.... so there really will be no reason for it to employ Bob Varsha since he's not a NASCAR guy and I expect very little else of Speed's programming to find a place on that network which will be used mostly for additional slots for Fox's major properties, MLB, college football, etc (minus NFL which it can't move games to its cable channels.) I expect Barrett Jackson won't get 24 minutes, not to mention 24 hours, on the new channel. Since Fox does carry NASCAR, I expect that portion of Speed's coverage will remain, though probably also cut back in favor of non-auto programming.