ESPN, Sky Sports join forces for F1 2018 World Championship

[sagi58]

... On TSN we got to see the restart including two complete laps before the restart. So obviously ESPN is running more ads in the States than TSN is in Canada.

And, I thought they cut away to commercials too much?
WoW!!

[myownalias]

On TSN we got to see the restart including two complete laps before the restart. So obviously ESPN is running more ads in the States than TSN is in Canada.

Maybe it was just my perception, but it seemed like there was an ad break every 4 - 5 minutes under normal racing conditions, and when under V/SC conditions, it was more like < 90 seconds and missed the restart. C'mon Liberty, I can't wait to give you my $12/month for the streaming service, time to roll it out, the US won't be attracted by wall to wall adverts.

[overboost]

ESPN apologizes for Aus, but not for the right thing!

https://www.racefans.net/2018/03/25/esp ... omplaints/

“We deeply apologise to Formula One fans for the technical issues that caused them to miss the first 20 minutes of the pre-race show for the Australian Grand Prix,” said ESPN in a statement.
“We are sorry that our first F1 telecast did not go as smoothly as we would have liked but we are taking steps to prevent those same issues from occurring in the future. We thank the fans for watching and for their incredible passion for Formula One.”

[darwin dali]

Right - forgot to add that (the missing pre-race coverage) to my initial post of complaints.

[myownalias]

Right - forgot to add that (the missing pre-race coverage) to my initial post of complaints.

Yup, I had the same experience and even tweeted @ESPN about it, I was thinking that the race coverage would also be compromised, which it wasn't, at least not in that way, it was compromised in lots of other ways. Let's see if ESPN respond to the criticism in a positive way for the Bahrain GP.

[darwin dali]

Ok, now ESPN went to the other extreme and did not a single commercial break during the entire race -
I love ESPN
Let's see how long this lasts...

[sagi58]

Good that they're listening!!

[myownalias]

Ok, now ESPN went to the other extreme and did not a single commercial break during the entire race -
I love ESPN
Let's see how long this lasts...

I guess that I must have gotten the re-run on my DVR, then; that had ad breaks, but they 'paused' the race, so I didn't miss anything. I didn't get to watch the race live as someone destroyed my cable box in my lawn, looks like a car left the road and plowed into the cable box and electrical box, guess I should count myself lucky that the electric didn't go out!

[darwin dali]

Following the uproar over its coverage of the season opener, ESPN is to broadcast its F1 coverage ad-free for the remainder of the season
Pitpass.com

"Shambolic" doesn't do justice to the American broadcaster's coverage of the season opener, with fans taking to social media to vent their frustration over endless ad breaks and no updates on what they'd missed once coverage resumed.

"We deeply apologize to Formula 1 fans for the technical issues that caused them to miss the first 20 minutes of the pre-race show for the Australian Grand Prix," tweeted ESPN in the midst of the broadcasting debacle. "We are sorry that our first F1 telecast did not go as smoothly as we would have liked but we are taking steps to prevent those same issues from occurring in the future. We thank the fans for watching and for their incredible passion for Formula 1."

Now, ESPN, which gets F1 for free and uses Sky Sports' coverage, has announced that following fan feedback after Melbourne the remainder of the year's races and qualifying sessions will be shown ad-free, as was the case in Bahrain.

"We intend to present the F1 races in this way for the balance of the 2018 season," said Burke Magnus, ESPN executive vice president, programming & scheduling. "F1 fans are passionate and we listened to a lot of feedback from them, the fans are very informed and the feedback we received was both polite and constructive. It helped us.

"We don't have a completely finished product but we're very happy with the way the changes after Australia were received. We'll continue to keep working to make it better for the fans."

The news comes 24 hours after it was revealed that Mothers Polish is to be the presenting sponsor for the remainder of the season's coverage.



Thank you ESPN and thank you Polish mothers

[myownalias]

At least for this season, I won't need to get the F1 streaming service; and props to ESPN for taking the financial hit not showing advertising.

[darwin dali]

At least for this season, I won't need to get the F1 streaming service; and props to ESPN for taking the financial hit not showing advertising.

I'm pretty sure the Polish mothers sweeten the deal with lots of pączkis and babkas