Marussia Yet To Sign Commercial Agreement With Bernie Ecclestone
Marussia have apparently yet to sign the commercial agreement with Formula 1’s Commercial Rights Holder, with only one week remaining until the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone negotiates the commercial agreement with the varying teams, but Marussia have allegedly yet to sign.
The commercial rights deal entitles the eleven Formula 1 teams to a share of the sport’s revenues, and although an agreement has not yet been met between Mr. Ecclestone and Marussia, the Anglo-Russian outfit will still be able to partake during the season-opener in Melbourne. The major worry is largely for Bernie Ecclestone, who would theoretically be unable to film the Marussia cars out on track without the team’s signature on the agreement.
“It’s getting pretty close now,” explained Marussia’s team principal, John Booth to ESPN. “Nothing is signed yet, but it’s getting pretty close now. No [it’s not vital for Marussia ahead of Australia]. It’s vital for Bernie because he won’t be able to film us without it.”
The remaining ten teams’ on the grid have already signed the agreement, therefore permitting their cars to appear during the coverage of the opening race weekend in Australia. Should Marussia fail to sign the agreement prior to the Australian Grand Prix, Bernie’s FOM could find themselves in tight situation as they would be unable to broadcast images of Marussia until the agreement is signed.
Picture Copyright © Marussia F1 Team
FOM Fail To Show Force India During Qualifying Broadcast
After qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, it became apparent that Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM Television company, who are in control of the F1 world TV feed, failed to show a full shot of a Force India car during the session. This has aroused suspicions, after Force India failed to make an appearance during FP2 on Friday.
With controversy surrounding the running of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Force India decided to pack up early on Friday and therefore not run during the second practice session, with the team wishing to leave the track in daylight hours. This came after four Force India members’ got caught up in protests on Wednesday night as they traveled from the circuit to their hotels in Manama.
During qualifying, the Force India of Paul di Resta was the first driver out on track in both Q1 and Q2, yet images of the Scot were never seen from the FOM. Paul di Resta even set the first timed lap of both Q1 and Q2, yet still the FOM failed to pick up on the teams actions on track. This has created suspicions as to whether F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who owns the FOM (Formula One Management) purposefully instructed the TV Director to not show any of the Force India’s throughout qualifying, after they made international headlines after failing to appear in practice two through safety fears.
With many picking up on the absence of a Force India on their TV screens across the globe, Bernie Ecclestone has insisted it was not deliberate: “Nobody cares if someone is 9th or 11th,” he explained to Reuters. “Only the people that are watching a particular team. I spoke to our people and they were more or less concentrating on who was going to be on pole, rather than somebody going to be 10th.”
The team themselves have remained silent on the situation, with Paul di Resta declining to comment, stating that he had read various comments on Twitter. With a 57-lap race ahead of them tomorrow, one would imagine the cars’ would undeniably be seen during the TV coverage of the race.
In qualifying, the only shot of a Force India was whilst onboard with Mark Webber as the Red Bull flew past Paul di Resta in the dying seconds of the session. Whether this is pure payback from not running in FP2 on Friday or not, it will be interesting to see whether the Force India’s make it onto the TV during the race later today.
Picture Copyright © AFP
Today I appeared on the BBC show World Have Your Say which was broadcast live. I was debating whether or not the Bahrain Grand Prix should go ahead, and was joined by other’s from across the globe.
Enjoy
Video Copyright © BBC
Virgin Media To Broadcast Sky Sports F1 HD
It was announced today that the new dedicated F1 channel, Sky Sports F1 HD, will be broadcast on Virgin Media. The channel will be made free to existing Sky Sports package customers on Virgin TV, the same deal that exists for Sky Sports package subscribers on Sky TV.
With Sky Sports and the BBC sharing the broadcasting for this coming seasons races, its was unknown whether the new dedicated channel was to be broadcast on other TV platforms such as Virgin Media and BT, with fears that subscribers to Virgin Media and BT Vision might well miss out on the new channel, with no option except to either switch to Sky TV or rely on BBC’s coverage of 10 races live and the rest being shown in a delayed highlights format.
Although there has yet to be word on whether BT customers will receive the channel, it is now officially confirmed that Sky Sports F1 HD will be available to existing Sky Sports subscribers on Virgin Media. This means Virgin TV customers won’t miss a single lap of the 2012 season, so long as they pay or are currently paying to receive the Sky Sports package consisting of channels already available on Virgin Media.
The new Sky Sports F1 HD channel will launch on March 9th, one week before the season opening Australian Grand Prix.
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2012 Formula 1 Broadcasting Schedule Announced
After the announcement earlier today regarding the new Sky Sports F1 HD channel being launched in March, next seasons BBC/Sky broadcasting schedule has been announced. This comes after Sky and the BBC agreed to a new broadcasting deal from 2012 – 2018 that sees Sky show all 20 races live on their new channel whereas the BBC will show the full live broadcasts of only 10 races and delayed highlights of the others.
Today the BBC, who this weekend will broadcast their final race as the sole UK broadcasters of F1, announced which races they will broadcast live and in full next year. It is yet unknown who will commentate for the BBC or Sky however there are rumors that Sky have signed current BBC commentators’ Martin Brundle and David Croft for their coverage next season.
The BBC will begin their live broadcasting of F1 next season with Round 3 of the Championship with the Chinese Grand Prix, followed by the Spanish, Monaco, European, British, Belgian, Singapore, Korean, Abu Dhabi and Brazilian Grands Prix. The BBC will also broadcast all the Qualifying and Practice sessions live from these particular events. When the BBC are not broadcasting live races, they will instead show delayed highlights of 90 minutes duration on BBC One and BBC One HD as well as 120 minutes worth of highlights for early morning races such as Japan and Australia. They will also broadcast a 75 minutes delayed highlights show of the Qualifying sessions with Practice sessions not receiving any form of highlights.
Sky Sports F1 HD, however, will broadcast all the Races, Qualifying sessions and Practice sessions live and will become the only channel in the UK where you will be able to watch every session of an F1 weekend live and in HD all year round.
The 2012 Broadcasting Calendar in detail
Malaysian GP – Sky
Chinese GP – BBC & Sky
Bahrain GP – Sky
Spanish GP – BBC & Sky
Monaco GP – BBC & Sky
Canadian GP – Sky
European GP – BBC & Sky
British GP – BBC & Sky
German GP – Sky
Hungarian GP – Sky
Belgian GP – BBC & Sky
Italian GP – Sky
Singapore GP – BBC & Sky
Japanese GP – Sky
Korean GP – BBC & Sky
Indian GP – Sky
Abu Dhabi GP – BBC & Sky
United States GP – Sky
Brazilian GP – BBC & Sky