ESPN USA F1 Coverage

[flashman]

I loaded the “Watch ESPN” app on my Roko last night. Hopefully I’ll be able to watch more of practice.

Paul Erlendson

Good to know that is an option. I'll have to load it on my Roku.

Thanks, Paul!

Cameron

[M.Chriss]

Just watched P1 on ESPN3. Sky TV broadcast. I enjoyed it, thought it was good. Miss Hobbs and Machet. Maybe we will get them on NBC Indycar next year.

[Dino]

I watched practice on my Android TV on the ESPN app, it looked really good. The livery on the Alfa/Sauber doesn't look really good in the daylight. bleh.

[atlantakat1]

I miss Hobbs and the boys. End of an era.

But Sky coverage is clearly much deeper, comprehensive and informative for a hard-core fan.

Can you imagine NBC beginning their coverage of P2 of the first race of the year with a five minute piece on the politics of renegotiating the Concorde Agreement?

[PJE]

Practice 2 was scheduled to be aired this evening on ESPN2 and of course college baseball game went long. So, I shifted to my Roku and am watching through the app.
Since I rarely watch any F1 coverage live, I might not even bother to record anything to my DVR but just go directly to the app. Commercials are still there but you can fast forward just as if you recorded it.

Paul Erlendson

[Seiiki]

No more David Hobbs and Steve Matchett?!

Correct. I spoke to Will Buxton at the US GP last fall. He seemed genuinely gutted that NBC had lost the contract and the entire gang will be replaced by the Sky team feed.

He also suggested that the amount of coverage would be reduced -- time will tell if that is true.

I for one will miss Hobbs and Matchett in particular but also Leigh Diffey and Will. Listening to them was a very familiar ritual although I suspect the Sky coverage will be very good (and perhaps even better for a sophisticated F1 viewer).

An unfortunate hallmark of ESPN coverage back in the early 90s was race coverage being delayed or shifted to other channels based on other events running long. And I remember one particularly awful year when the Australian GP was not shown in favor of a re-run of an Iron Man competition.....

Correct! Buxton is now the official 'reporter' for Liberty Media for their live and online coverage. ESPN just contracted out to Sky Sports.

In Canada where I live we got TSN who followed Sky. So we get FP2 live, Qualifying, Pre-Race and Race coverage.

Not exactly the complete 'full-meal' deal such as exclusive coverage from everything but still, that's enough.

[Seiiki]

Looking ahead at ESPN2s schedule come Saturday night, college hockey is on before the race so that's good because the only thing those guys respect less than auto racing is hockey ( if Vegas don't care, why should they?). However, there is a 30 for 30 on at midnight and I wonder if they'll delay that should the race go long.
Glad to see there are others here who hate ESPN as much as I do. Thought I was the only one .

Vegas is doing really well in their first season of the NHL. They just might win the Stanley Cup from their consistency. From an outsider point of view, they seemed to have quite a good fan support locally.

[bossy122]

Looking ahead at ESPN2s schedule come Saturday night, college hockey is on before the race so that's good because the only thing those guys respect less than auto racing is hockey ( if Vegas don't care, why should they?). However, there is a 30 for 30 on at midnight and I wonder if they'll delay that should the race go long.
Glad to see there are others here who hate ESPN as much as I do. Thought I was the only one .

Vegas is doing really well in their first season of the NHL. They just might win the Stanley Cup from their consistency. From an outsider point of view, they seemed to have quite a good fan support locally.

I meant the gambling community doesn't care so much about F1.....certainly not in amateur basketball month.

On another ESPN note, I was shocked to see they actually named Michael Schumacher as ( I think) #5 "dominant athlete" of the last however many years. Though they put him behind Jimmy Johnson, I was quite surprised that they remembered auto racing exists.

[atlantakat1]

Very first broadcast on ESPN2 - Practice 3 - last night and ESPN showed it on a different channel than scheduled so I end up with DVR of a bizarre roundtable about anything but F1.

Not a great start.....

Having said that, the detail and depth of the Sky coverage is almost overwhelming. These guys know their stuff. I love the micro analysis of what the drivers are doing in every corner.

[Starr]

Well, I think I'll have to stay with my Spanish friends to follow F1 this year. I don't understand much what they say but all info I need are there on the screen. Also, I like that there's no cut for commercials, they split the screen and you can still see the race.

Cheers,

Starr