planetf1.com

I would dispute that info because just in NCAA Basketball alone ESPN ratings are quite high and NFL coverage is still among the best and they do the entire day and it pulls in ratings. NBA coverage took a while to get close to NBC good but it's come pretty close in recent years. Initially it felt like high school gym basketball in terms of picture quality and camera angles/positioning. TNT is the best NBA broadcaster ATM and has been so for a few years but I would prefer to not have to watch the almost WWE nonsense between the other 3 guys since Shaq joined the team.

Disney now owns Marvel and Starwars and ILM which they added to the Disney name and they also own Pixar so even if ESPN was somehow as unprofitable as they are claiming the network is, it would matter little to nothing for any entity looking to buy Disney and their umbrella of companies.

Our main concern is that they put together a proper broadcast team to best showcase F1 both on home soil and abroad so as to further strengthen and grow viewership and the fanbase. If they get that right I'm sure we'll all be satisfied. Just please, Please PLEEEEEEASE No Diffey!

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HAMILTON :: ALONSO :: VETTEL :: RAIKKONEN :: RICCIARDO :: VERSTAPPEN
BOTTAS :: MAGNUSSEN :: OCON :: SAINZ :: PEREZ :: VANDOORNE :: HULKENBERG
GROSJEAN :: GASLY :: ERICSON :: LECLERC :: STROLL :: SEROTKIN :: HARTLEY

Yeah, apologies. For some reason I missed that post when scrolling through them all

All you have to do is listen to the financial analysts explain why Disney is under performing the market so bad. The answer is always the same, ESPN. What ESPN paid to get college sports and NFL and NBA games is simply staggering. Their costs are exorbitant. You are right, Disney has a lot of well performing assets, but those are dragged down quarter after quarter by ESPN.

I dont recall the numbers but ESPN subscribers are down several million this year alone. A lot of the push towards cord cutting is by people who have zero interest in sports (like me F1 aside).

Agreed, no Diffey!! Bring back Varsha!

I'm a little leery of this, but that's probably because the few times that I have attempted to watch something on EPSN it's turned out to be pre-empted partway through by (of all things) college football. Granted, they're probably paying a lot more for F1 rights than they did for WEC rights, and an F1 race isn't six hours long... but I'm still somewhat concerned. Hopefully over nothing!


NBC also hasn't broadcast as many of the sessions as Sky has, or had as extensive of pre- and post- race coverage for anything but the US Grand Prix. Sometimes even the one practice session they do broadcast gets cut short. If they start broadcasting all of the same stuff, I would say that it would be a huge upgrade. I don't care all that much between the broadcasters, from what I've seen -- both teams have their pluses and minuses -- but getting more coverage would be great.

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Pick 10: 1 win, 8 podiums | 2016: 22nd | 2017: 21st | 2018: 3rd |
[size=85]Top Three: 9 wins, 26 podiums | 2016: 9th [6th] | 2017: 16th [6th] | 2018: 4th [4th] |

ESPN and the rest of the Disney companies have been on a cost cutting path for the past several years. I felt when they had F1 before, their heart and soul weren't in it - the final years the coverage was very uneven. Hope there will be improvement in 2018.

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The biggest benefit I can see from this is the added exposure F1 could get if ESPN starts covering it during Sports Center. NBC dropped the ball by not making sure that they covered F1 on their primary network news broadcasts. Had they done that it might've improved the viewership of the races and improving their return on the investment in the contract.

There are plenty of NFL and NBA fans who don't watch baseball so see the summer as a time where there's not much of interest during the spring and summer. If there's stories about F1 during their primary sports news show it can garner at least some casual interest that turns into regular followers.

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{Insert clever sig line here}

Channel 10 has decided (without notice) to just drop the last two GP it was to show live this year in Australia after Singapore - sigh - channel 10, home of anti-motor sport it seems

I would also hope if ESPN would bring FIA Formula 2 coverage as well.

And furthermore: Get Danny Sullivan to the broadcast booth with Bob, Dave, and Steve.

Not only that, but why have we had Diffey on Indy car and NASCAR broadcasts? I'd go along with a Varsha, Hobbs, Matchett & Sullivan team with Danny doing the pre-race grid visits. I'd be real grateful to Disney for that!

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Forza Ferrari
WCCs = 16
WDCs = 15

Squeak! Make sure they know their decision isn't universally loved.

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DIffey confirmed via twitter he's not going to ESPN so most of you will be happy about that.

Not sure Danny Sullivan would be all that tho.

This will be interesting. Will ESPN make a mockery of F1 like they are with all the political garbage going on right now? They try so hard to be politically "Correct" and now dwelling on all the issues with the American Flag and politics that many people are just getting tired of it all. Sports use to be our escape from the crap in the word and bring people from all race, color, religion and political background together to root for your team. Now sports viewership is going way down because we are tired of it. They also have let a TON of people go because they are losing viewers to those that are saving costs by "cutting the cord". ESPN isn't just firing the highly paid people, but they are afraid to fire a lot of females and minorities for the fear of how it will look to the public.

That being said, I have no idea who I'd favor. I out of all of them, I like the technical insight of Matchett. Diffy is OK and Hobbo is good (reminds me a bit of Gomer Pyle). I like short segments that feature Sam Posie, but who knows how his health is. I'd love someone with recent F1 racing experience. As much as I like Nico, he may be a bit dry. How about Alex Zanardi? I love that guy, but to some he is a bit hard to understand. Not exactly a "success" in F1, but certainly a hell of a driver and understanding racecraft.

They're saying they won't be using ESPN commentators on their broadcasts.

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On Twitter, follow me @GPAmericas for all the latest breaking news and current photos...

I be more than thrilled if they'd just re-transmit Sky's coverage.

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On Twitter, follow me @GPAmericas for all the latest breaking news and current photos...

BIB… Sam Posey is to F1 what Larry Merchant is to Boxing…

A wealth of knowledge about a vast array of things, particularly literature and they ALWAYS seek to take the long way to get to, well…
right where they were standing to begin with! Doh! LOL

ESPN has been hiring nothing but women and minorities for quite a while now, and RATHER unqualified ones who literally SIT and do nothing but listen to better qualified people speak, so I don't understand where you got that from.

Even now, Frog-Face Jemele Hill who is in hot water and currently suspended from ESPN, over some VERY ignorant comments STILL has not been fired!
If those comments were made by a male employee they'd have long been handed their walking papers! ESPN not wanting to hire women is a thing of the past, but contrary to popular belief, it wasn't because they were afraid of how it would affect viewership, it was because there were EXTREMELY few female sports journalists that were elite enough to fit in with their already stacked lineup, which was indisputably the very best in the world. However, the moment they learned about these unicorns they scooped them up. And the people who had the biggest issues accepting them were some of the existing male broadcasters who THOUGHT these women were out of their league, but after just a few weeks they realized those women were indeed as good and even better than some of the males and it turns out they were/are among the very best to EVER work for the network. Linda Cohn and Hanna Storm… I don't see how anyone can say ESPN is hesitant to hire women today when they did so decades ago. And for the very first X-games ESPN2 hired a completely unknown personality (to the rest of the world) named Suzy Kolber who anchored the entire 2 week block of extreme sports and she was magnificent, and that was in 1995.

I don't think a network of such prominence would be going backwards on these practices, especially since they were among the very first to be bold enough to feature women broadcasting on predominantly all-male professional sports.

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HAMILTON :: ALONSO :: VETTEL :: RAIKKONEN :: RICCIARDO :: VERSTAPPEN
BOTTAS :: MAGNUSSEN :: OCON :: SAINZ :: PEREZ :: VANDOORNE :: HULKENBERG
GROSJEAN :: GASLY :: ERICSON :: LECLERC :: STROLL :: SEROTKIN :: HARTLEY

the espn schedule for next year shows 16 races on espn2. 16. they aren't going to promote it.
i do not get espn2, nor will i upgrade my television package to get it. 16 races on espn2, looks to me, like they just want to get the few hundred thousand f1 fans to pay extra for espn2

Yeah, they're both ignorant blowhards who can't keep their opinions to themselves...

The other races will likely be broadcast on ABC.

ESPN2 is now pretty much standard with most basic cable or streaming packages so check with your service provider to see if ESPN2 is indeed not included in your current package.
I have kids and in order to get the kids' channels you usually have to be in the mid-tier packages so I'm already paying for channels I don't ever watch that are included in the package, but that's the only way to get the kids channels.

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HAMILTON :: ALONSO :: VETTEL :: RAIKKONEN :: RICCIARDO :: VERSTAPPEN
BOTTAS :: MAGNUSSEN :: OCON :: SAINZ :: PEREZ :: VANDOORNE :: HULKENBERG
GROSJEAN :: GASLY :: ERICSON :: LECLERC :: STROLL :: SEROTKIN :: HARTLEY

... I'm not seeing how it's ignorant to call the President exactly what he is. Inappropriate; quite possibly, unwise; definitely. But not ignorant.

Unless you actually believe she was suspended for her tweets about the NFL, in which case I can't help you.

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PICK 10 COMPETITION (4 wins, 14 podiums): 3rd in 2016
TOP THREE CHAMPIONSHIP (No Limit Excedrin Racing): Champions in 2015 & 2018 | 2nd in 2017
AUTOSPORT GP PREDICTOR: 2017 USA & P-F1 Champion | #2 in the world in 2017

If I am not mistaken, I believe that their opinions are why they are on the air to begin with. Posey is usually not the "play-by-play" guy, but there to add his input to the broadcast as he does have an extensive racing background. He is paid to give his OPINION.

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Forza Ferrari
WCCs = 16
WDCs = 15

Ya, we are actually in agreement. I wasn't referring to the qualified ones (the ones you mentioned) rather the unqualified, which are plenty. Wont get into names and details, but just watch ESPN and it is obvious that some good talent has been let go and that they are afraid to fire certain demographics due to political reasons.

I'm more than a little dated by knowing who this was.

As for the US coverage change, I hope, here in Canada, that the change forces TSN, who's partly owned by ESPN, to up their game a bit. Currently TSN just show the Sky feed but the don't pick up the F1 report and we still don't have any home grown weekly F1 show(s).

Still don't know why the US doesn't gravitate more to F1.

Several reasons

Time zones: There are only 4 races in the western hemisphere, anything else is around 2am or 6am to watch

Poor exposure: The sport doesn't merit front page space on websites or newspapers. Also when other racing series were growing (ie NASCAR & Indy) we could get results same day on TV, but for F1 results, we often had to wait until Road & Track came out with the race coverage two months after the race.

Lack of self-Promotion by F1 itself: F1 has done virtually nothing to promote the sport in the US/North America. Instead, they bitch because the race venues don't do it all for them. Even in the rural cities of the farm belt, it is not all that uncommon to see a NASCAR racer on display (they actually used to carry the cars around from town to town to promote the sport, and of course, the sponsor) I know of no F1 car that has ever been shown here in the state of Nebraska for example.

Over protective of their drivers: It has gotten a little bit better, but not much. For the most part the drivers are kept away from the public. making the sport's "snobbish" reputation even more so. That makes it hard for the fans to really relate to them. Most of the drivers are not household names as it is. There is a reason why drivers like to vacation in the USA... Schumi and Hamilton both liked it because of they were virtually anonymous. There was a story that Schumi even stood in line for a chance to get a ride in a NASCAR racer and was never recognized. If F1 wants to grow the sport, they need the exposures of its big starts.

Assh0les like Bernie playing games with venues, over-charging venues and then insulting not only the venues, but the cities and in one case the entire female fan base, both existing and potential.

Multiple choices for the race fans: Fans here have many choices on where to spend their racing entertainment dollars... all of them cheaper than F1. They can watch NASCAR with "stock" cars called Chevy, Ford or Toyota (as opposed to Ferraris, McLarens, Mercedes, Renault, et al). They can do the Indy series where they are powered by Chevys and Hondas. NHRA drag racing on a major scale. On top of they the still share the kinds of racing series so popular in other parts of the world, such as sports cars, dirt tracks, and hill climbs to spend their entertainment money on.

F1 cannot just sit back and wait for the fans to embrace them, they have to court the fans. They have to learn the term "fan friendly" and work for it. Thus far they have not shown much willingness to learn from the others and that is too bad. However, I do see hope with the new owners. Liberty seems to understand the value of the fan quite a bit more than than money grubbing weasel bernie.

There are more reasons, but that is a start.

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Forza Ferrari
WCCs = 16
WDCs = 15

Diffey: No Hobbs or Matchett for 2018:

https://twitter.com/leighdiffey/status/ ... 7075997696

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On Twitter, follow me @GPAmericas for all the latest breaking news and current photos...

I know not everyone will, but I'll miss them. Ah well. At least we'll get commentated FP1 and 3 if we get the Sky feed.

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PICK 10 COMPETITION (4 wins, 14 podiums): 3rd in 2016
TOP THREE CHAMPIONSHIP (No Limit Excedrin Racing): Champions in 2015 & 2018 | 2nd in 2017
AUTOSPORT GP PREDICTOR: 2017 USA & P-F1 Champion | #2 in the world in 2017

DATE TIME (ET) RACE NETWORK
March 25 12:55 a.m. Australian Grand Prix ESPN2
April 8 1:55 a.m. Chinese Grand Prix ESPN2
April 15 10:55 a.m. Bahrain Grand Prix ESPN2
April 29 8:55 a.m. Azerbaijan Grand Prix ESPN2
May 13 7:55 a.m. Spanish Grand Prix ESPN2
May 27 7:55 a.m. Monaco Grand Prix ESPN
3:30 p.m. Monaco Grand Prix ABC (re-aired)
June 10 1:55 p.m. Canadian Grand Prix ESPN
June 24 7:55 a.m. French Grand Prix ESPN2
July 1 7:55 a.m. Austrian Grand Prix ESPN2
July 8 7:55 a.m. British Grand Prix ESPN
July 22 7:55 a.m. German Grand Prix ESPN2
July 29 7:55 a.m. Hungarian Grand Prix ESPN2
Aug. 26 7:55 a.m. Belgian Grand Prix ESPN2
Sept. 2 7:55 a.m. Italian Grand Prix ESPN2
Sept. 16 7:55 a.m. Singapore Grand Prix ESPN2
Sept. 30 7:55 a.m. Russian Grand Prix ESPN2
Oct. 7 12:55 a.m. Japanese Grand Prix ESPN2
Oct. 21 2:55 p.m. United States Grand Prix ABC
Oct. 28 2:55 p.m. Mexican Grand Prix ABC
Nov. 11 10:55 a.m. Brazilian Grand Prix ESPN2
Nov. 25 7:55 a.m. Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ESPN2

this is direct from the espn web site.
edit....i fully realize f1 is a niche sport in the states, and like someone above posted, we had to wait for our car magazine to show up once a month to get even a small amount of information on f1 races. my local newspaper had a list of results on monday and that is all we would get. liberty going with espn 2 will make a smaller audience even smaller. many of us have decided the days of paying for cable/satellite packages that require us to pay for hundreds of channels we never watch are over. plenty of time over the winter to find out if there is another way to watch the race i guess

Might want to check, but iirc if you have ESPN, then you should be able to stream races via espn3

I saw the ESPN2 thing a few days ago and was surprised that all races wouldn't be on ABC or ESPN. Get ESPN 2 so that isn't going to kill me but just a little bummed that the sport is ESPN2 level according to ESPN execs.

The ESPN2 thing doesn't bother me. At least it's consistent instead of moving it around all over the place like NBC did.

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{Insert clever sig line here}

There is truth in that as I have missed a few F1 races because I could not find the network they were on. Very frustrating.

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Forza Ferrari
WCCs = 16
WDCs = 15

Wow...this is a big change for F1 fans in the USA. I too will miss both of them. They have been the voice of F1 for more years than I can remember.

Not a good move for trying to improve Formula One viewership in the USA IMO.

Races only on ESPN2 will dramatically lower F1 viewership in the US. This is a horrible move for F1 and surely a sign of even more declining popularity of the sport. Neither Hulu or Sling TV carry ESPN2.

Cord cutting is the hot trend now and F1 is going out of its way to become unavailable to these cord cutters.

LOL
Had to log out of Twitter in order to see it on account Diffey blocked me a couple years back because he can't take critiques well and the moment you say anything that isn't praising him to the moon he'll block you.
Good riddance of him in F1 but I will miss Hobbo & Matchett, but most of all Will Buxton who hasn't been confirmed to not being part of the broadcast.

_________________
HAMILTON :: ALONSO :: VETTEL :: RAIKKONEN :: RICCIARDO :: VERSTAPPEN
BOTTAS :: MAGNUSSEN :: OCON :: SAINZ :: PEREZ :: VANDOORNE :: HULKENBERG
GROSJEAN :: GASLY :: ERICSON :: LECLERC :: STROLL :: SEROTKIN :: HARTLEY

She wasn't suspended for her tweets about Trump alone, but her Donald Trump and Jerry Jones tweets are all you'll be able to dredge up now so that's all everyone thinks her suspension is about. She had a few moments prior to those tweets which she KNEW were against company policy and still posted publicly because she seems to think that being a black woman somehow gives her a bit more leeway than anyone else.

If you watch sports talk shows and follow ESPN consistently you'd know what an unqualified moron she is. Personally I've listened to Mike & Mike from day one, 17 years ago (so thoroughly devastated Disney killed it to create 2 new shows) and since she began to guest on the show last year, WHEN she's offered commentary that was on the money, it was literally verbatim, word for word what other people have stated earlier. Most of the time however, when she's trying to offer her "expert analysis" of sports, it has been a bit off the mark. The His & Hers show she does with Michael Smith is one of the absolute most unwatchable things on TV today aside from Colin Cowherd and Skip Bayless, both of whom speak as if they were addressing mere peasants, and Bayless was caught stretching the truth on more than one occasion. Those 2 make sports sound like a political debate rather than entertainment while they are in fact talking sports!

ESPN was originally the Entertainment and Sports Network because they featured questionable "sports" programming like the WWF, but later dropped everything that wasn't a true sport and changed it's moniker to The Total SPORTS Network, and that's what it should be. And given they are one of only 2 channels that exist to cover sports exclusively, the coverage should be the very best across the board, regardless of age, race, or sex, and the ONLY criteria for hiring and retaining personnel should be how good they are, not what demographic spots need to be filled. If that means it has to be exclusionary, so be it. Maybe that makes me a supremacist too. LOL

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HAMILTON :: ALONSO :: VETTEL :: RAIKKONEN :: RICCIARDO :: VERSTAPPEN
BOTTAS :: MAGNUSSEN :: OCON :: SAINZ :: PEREZ :: VANDOORNE :: HULKENBERG
GROSJEAN :: GASLY :: ERICSON :: LECLERC :: STROLL :: SEROTKIN :: HARTLEY

I'm not saying ESPN2 is ideal, but you think having the races there will dramatically lower viewership vs having them on NBCSN almost every race? I don't.

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On Twitter, follow me @GPAmericas for all the latest breaking news and current photos...

NBC dropped F1 because they couldn't get exclusive rights, and ESPN stepped in - so I guess ESPN isn't getting exclusive rights either. If that's the case then the US market should be seeing some over the top subscription or races streaming through youtube in the very near future.

I agree but I don't think it will be through youtube. Disney just bought MLBAM, which is huge for streaming possibilities.

_________________
On Twitter, follow me @GPAmericas for all the latest breaking news and current photos...

liberty stated yesterday they are looking not their own streaming service for next season. i will stay tuned to see how this plays out, and how much it cost

http://www.racer.com/more/viewpoints/it ... ans-for-f1

not one answer from the espn guy. a bunch of "i don't know"


http://www.racer.com/f1/item/145924-hob ... g-farewell

hobbs' last broadcast and a bit more info on the "deal" liberty gave espn. espn is not going to do anything for the fan, nothing. they got the broadcast for free, are having no studio show.

streaming only looks like what liberty wants in the usa in the near future. not sure if that will be good or bad for anyone in the states looking to watch the races.