USA fans: say goodbye NBC, hello ESPN

[Moose]

Nothing to do with US, just a question.
Were you satisfied by NBC commentators? I watched once via livestreaming, and I thought they were unbearable.

Well, let's just say that if the objective is to attract younger viewers, these guys aren't gonna do it.

If the objective is to attract younger viewers, then sticking it on ESPN, which you can't get without a cable subscription, is a terrible plan.

[Cannonballer]

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/10/fo ... n-in-2018/

I for one pray ESPN will have the sense to remove commercial breaks.


Yeah right.

I doubt they will remove the commercial breaks entirely either, but it isn't impossible. Soccer games (football matches) in the US don't always have commercials. The trends seems to be toward no commercials. Well except for NBC. which is the worst offender, putting commercials in the middle of Olympic Soccer.

The commercials, at least on NBC, are so long and poorly timed they make following the race difficult. Perhaps ESPN could come up with some less intrusive commercials that would not be so disruptive.

[giantfan10]

ESpn will air ALL practices and qualifying sessions live. I read that in the official press release. That alone makes the move a win for me.....there will be more eyes on each broadcast too ... before F1 moved to NBCSN i didnt even know that NBCSN existed....this is a win for US viewers as far as access to the sport.

[kptaylor]

Just a quick note for giantfan10 and any others. If you really want to watch FP1, FP2 & FP3 (in addition to quali & the race), NBCSN streams it on their online app. It's also on their Roku app and probably other streaming device apps. I watch it on Roku all the time!

Agree ESPN has an opportunity to step up the quality of the broadcast with more technical analysis and insights. NBCSN treated every race as if all listeners are new to the sport. That gets old very quickly...

[zeph]

If the objective is to attract younger viewers, then sticking it on ESPN, which you can't get without a cable subscription, is a terrible plan.

Well, you can't get NBCSN without a cable subscription either, so they're not losing any potential viewers as far as that is concerned.

And like giantfan10 said:

... before F1 moved to NBCSN i didnt even know that NBCSN existed....

Same here. I never knew about NBCSN until they got F1.

[ClarkBT11]

In America, can't you find UK channel 4 online or an app on a tablet that gets UK channels? You could watch practice and full race without the adverts. They don't show all the races, but watching adverts while the race is on would get on my nerves, big time.

[TAG]

Out of Curiosity is Channel 4 the same people that do the commentary on the F1 Live App? I spend a good portion of my watching with their audio and the world feed we get from NBC Sports. Especially during the commercial breaks which go on for five minutes a pop.

[Moose]

If the objective is to attract younger viewers, then sticking it on ESPN, which you can't get without a cable subscription, is a terrible plan.

Well, you can't get NBCSN without a cable subscription either, so they're not losing any potential viewers as far as that is concerned.

Sure - I'm just pointing out that if their goal is to get anyone under 30 to watch this, the key is to be able to watch this on an {Apple TV | Roku | Google TV | PS4 | ...} without having to get some weird cable box thing and pay hundreds of dollars a month for things I'll never use.

There's also a secondary part of viewing on that type of device more appealing to anyone in America - most F1 races start at 5am US west coast time, and 8am east coast time. Most people want to time shift this stuff. Being able to just start the stream whenever you want is super important in the US.

[ClarkBT11]

Out of Curiosity is Channel 4 the same people that do the commentary on the F1 Live App? I spend a good portion of my watching with their audio and the world feed we get from NBC Sports. Especially during the commercial breaks which go on for five minutes a pop.

That's BBC radio 5 live mate

[TAG]

That's BBC radio 5 live mate

Thanks, they're better than what we've got on NBC Sports IMO.

[lks]

Hope someone else hires Will Buxton, it would really be a shame to loose him as an F1 reporter on the grid.

[notsofast]

NBCSN treated every race as if all listeners are new to the sport. That gets old very quickly...

Before NBCSN it was Fox.
Before Fox it was Speed TV.
Before Speed TV it was ... wait for it ... ESPN.
They've had the same formula for over 20 years. It's incredibly annoying.

ESPN needs to accept that they themselves are new to the sport, and hire F1 experts from abroad who can do proper commentary. Either that, or just re-broadcast Sky-F1. That's what TSN in Canada is doing.

[ClarkBT11]

That's BBC radio 5 live mate

Thanks, they're better than what we've got on NBC Sports IMO.

They're better than ch4 IMO as well. Not only do they describe the race accurately because their listeners can't watch the action Allan MCnish gives a good insight to the driving/strategy and James Allen has good knowledge of F1 history/news headlines.

Try this link to get UK TV channels this race is highlights of qualifying 1pm UK time. I'll be listening to the qualifying on the F1 app because I haven't got sky.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&sourc ... 5VixOKrk6n

[Maritimer]

Here in Canada we get the races on TSN, who are partners with ESPN. I Always thought it was strange they didn't broadcast in the States

[Mad_Scientist]

As a US viewer... I cannot WAIT to set up an IP proxy, overseas banking account, and stream Sky in 4k to my living room. NBCSN was horrible alot of times, and I highly doubt espn will be any better. Not to mention that you cant get all the channels unless you have sky (onboard channels, pit lane channels, etc) at least I have never seen them available on the roku app, and I never watch F1 live.