TBK-Light.com

The BBC is keen to build interest in all the drivers on the grid, not only reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, when it broadcasts its first live Formula One race from Australia next month.

Mark Wilkin, producer of BBC's TV and online coverage, says that the build-up to both qualifying and the race will give them the opportunity to put the spotlight on the other drivers.

"During that hour of build-up time on the Saturday and Sundays, the last half-hour before the race is sacrosanct and it's going to be live, or very nearly live," said Wilkin. "We will be having all the build up you would expect and that will include some grid walks from Martin Brundle.

"We've also got and hour-and-a-half of feature material to do on Saturday before qualifying and before the pitlane opens on Sunday. It's into that period that we want to put the personality pieces.

"We want to personalise these guys because we don't know who they are. The British public knows who Lewis Hamilton is now, but there are 17 other drivers that we need to get to know as well."

Wilkin also believes that the coverage must strike the right note in informing the viewership about what is a highly complex and technical sport.

"We need to de-mystify F1 as well," he said. "There's a lot of jargon and we take a lot of assumed knowledge. If we don't watch out, we can switch people off. So there will be plenty of those stories, as well as track guides, some history and some perspective as well."

The BBC is also planning to integrate some 3D graphical devices during its extensive post-race analysis, which will be accessible through the "red button" on digital TV.

The BBC is keen to build interest in all the drivers on the grid, not only reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, when it broadcasts its first live Formula One race from Australia next month.

will include some grid walks from Martin Brundle.

The only cause for worry right now is the wording of there Interatice feeds:



That seems to indicate that the only 3 feeds avaliable will be:
1 - World-Feed
2 - Multi-Screen (World-feed, OnBoard & Timing)
3 - Highlights

Going by the wording it sounds like the Onboard & Timing feeds may not be avaliable seperately which would be hugely dissapointing if this is the case

That guy used a whole load of shots from my 2008 highlight clip.

But yeah, cool attempt at an intro.

:D

BBC confirm return of The Chain

By Edd Straw Wednesday, February 25th 2009, 11:16 GMT

The BBC has confirmed that it will use the iconic Fleetwood Mac song The Chain as the theme for its Formula One coverage this year.

Since the BBC announced last March that the sport would be returning to its schedule for this year, fans have been calling for the song, recorded in 1976, to make a return. At yesterday's media launch of the corporation's F1 coverage, The Chain revealed that it had opted to revive the iconic theme.

"There has been one enormous issue on all the message boards and that was the question of what music we are going to use," said a BBC spokesman. "Whether it's a surprise or not, we'll leave for you to decide."

The revealing of The Chain drew applause from legendary commentator Murray Walker, who was attending the launch and will play a part in the BBC's coverage

Matt Millington ? Interactive TV editor


Well, it's encouraging to see so much interest in the red button and online offerings! There are a fair few questions about the onboard/in-car stream, so I shall answer those first. Our stream will offer a split-screen composite which will include the main network coverage, the on-board coverage and a ticker-style leaderboard, the exact design of which is still being finalised. Our rights agreement prevents us from offering any extra data over and above the leaderboard.

The reason we have opted for this combined feed over a full-screen onboard stream is that we believe that it will make for a more watchable experience. Sticking simply to the onboard would give little idea to the viewer what is happening in the rest of the race. Our experience of similar offerings with other sports is that viewers quickly tire of 'restricted' views and tend to revert back to the main coverage. However, we note the interest in a full-screen option of the onboard and will review our position after the first few races.

In anticipation of responses asking why we cannot offer both options on the web, we are restricted to the number of streams we can offer at the start of the season, although we hope to extend the number of streams later on in the season.

Live coverage of all practice sessions will be made available on all platforms, with commentary supplied by the Radio Five Live/Sports Extra team. Radio Five Live commentary will also be offered as an option for qualifying and main race. Highlights will of course be made available after the race on the red button and online. If space permits we will also aim to offer full replays on the red button. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer coverage of the support races.

On race day, Freeview viewers will generally receive the onboard composite with alternative commentary, plus the rolling highlights, but we will occasionally have to drop the rolling highlights if it clashes with other events.

Shame BBC aren't covering the support races, at one point it sounded like the BBC were going to be covering every single piece of on-track activity.

Ouch ITV.