USA fans: say goodbye NBC, hello ESPN

[Radley]

NBC did so many things wrong. The audio truly sucked. Having the sound of the track at "1" and Leah Diffy at "10" doesn't cut it. Most races my surround speakers never came on. The only time my sub would come on is for the commercials. NBC would stream FP1 & 3 on the internet and whenever I looked at it, it started late or never came on. Where I live most races start around 4 am so I'm depending on my DVR to record the races. If the race ran long, NBC would switch channels for the podium & post race. I never saw a single commercial for F1 on any channel. Since I was recording the races, I can say without exaggeration that the average of on track action was 4.5 minutes before 4 minutes of commercials.

I remember ESPN doing F1. Their commercial breaks were real short. Look, ESPN put NASCAR on the map. They advertised it constantly.

My favorite announcers was when there was a break between ESPN and Speedvision. The races were picked up (here) by the regional Fox Sports channel on a delay. The team was Derrick Bell and John Watson! Man, were those guys tough. They called out Michael Andretti saying instead of hopping on the Concorde as soon as his car died or crashed he should have put a cot up in the back of the factory.

[TAG]

I'm gonna miss Will Buxton, really hoping they'd keep him but given the financial issues at ESPN I doubt we'll get anything more than just the world feed.

[strad]

Will Buxton is one thing I won't miss.
At first I thought he was better but then his ego took over and he turned into the worst.
I honestly think the only thing he has going for him is that he is better than Peter Windsor.
Also we could do a lot worse than the world feed.

[SoCalWJS]

I've read that ESPN will use the "World Feed" in order to do it as cheaply as possible. There will be little or no pre or post race show.

I've only seen the NBCSN coverage, or before that, the Speed Channel coverage. What is the "World Feed" like?

On a separate note, has anybody heard anything about the rumored Internet Feed? Hoping it's not too expensive and covers all sessions on a streaming basis (that is, I can watch it whenever I want. I like to sleep in )

[dren]

Will Buxton is one thing I won't miss.
At first I thought he was better but then his ego took over and he turned into the worst.
I honestly think the only thing he has going for him is that he is better than Peter Windsor.
Also we could do a lot worse than the world feed.

Buxton went the other way for me. At first I thought he was a massive D-bag, but he really is that energetic about F1. I warmed to him over time and grew to like and respect his enthusiasm.

[dren]

I just canceled my cable and added Hulu live TV to my Hulu subscription. It's still in beta form. I'm not sure if you all have Hulu outside of the States, but it's a streaming subscription package similar to Amazon Prime. I get cloud DVR support. The ESPN channels are part of the channel package. You can use it to log into any ESPN streaming feed, too. It's about $40/mo.

[Tifosi01]

I don’t have access to ESPN through cable TV, only their streaming services through their app and I’m very concerned for the up coming season. If you’ve ever tried to watch anything on ESPN’s WatchESPN app, like Monday Night Football or the College Football Playoffs, you’ll know how unwatchable their app is. Search #watchespn on twitter to see the mountain of tweets about extreme buffering and freezing. Also ESPN doesn’t seem allow you to watch replays of past sporting events like NBCSN did.
Perhaps F1 won’t be as bad since it’s not ESPN hosting the stream but I’m bracing for a much downgraded experience than past seasons.

[Zynerji]

I use the ESPN app a lot to watch football on my 7" tablet and I have had zero issues, on 200mb WiFi or 4gLTE.

[Tifosi01]

I use the ESPN app a lot to watch football on my 7" tablet and I have had zero issues, on 200mb WiFi or 4gLTE.

Perhaps it works better on a small screen but I’ve never been able to use their app on a TV without lots of buffering, dropped resolution or freezing

[Zynerji]

I wonder if it is the app itself? I have made a few android apps with my children, and you "build" it to work on certain versions of android. If your tv manufacturer modifies the android that they install on their smart tv, it can break or give issues when the app runs.

PS: I use a Nexus7-2013 tab with 1900x1200 resolution. Even being a small screen, it works better than 1080p resolution flawlessly for me.

[Tifosi01]

Interesting, I’m using their app through my Roku. The iOS version works some what better but still has all the same issues as viewing through my Roku, just slightly less frequent. I’m on 100mb and my Roku is hard wired and has no problems streaming 4K on Netflix and Amazon. I’ll have to do a bit of investigation for another solution.

Also have you been watching big games on your tablet? Like MNF? That’s the one that gives me the most problems.

[NathanOlder]

Will Buxton is one thing I won't miss.
At first I thought he was better but then his ego took over and he turned into the worst.
I honestly think the only thing he has going for him is that he is better than Peter Windsor.
Also we could do a lot worse than the world feed.

Will Buxton wasn't great, but the guy that replaced him on the F2 and GP3 was worse! He struggled to pronounce so many driver names it is unreal!

[Craigy]

Will Buxton is one thing I won't miss.
At first I thought he was better but then his ego took over and he turned into the worst.
I honestly think the only thing he has going for him is that he is better than Peter Windsor.
Also we could do a lot worse than the world feed.

Buxton went the other way for me. At first I thought he was a massive D-bag, but he really is that energetic about F1. I warmed to him over time and grew to like and respect his enthusiasm.

I've met him a few times, he is a friend of a friend.

Of all the F1 pundits, he's by far the most savvy. He can go stat-for-stat with Karun Chandok, but chooses not to because it isn't all that entertaining.

He really is an enthusiast. I hope 2018 turns out well for him.

[strad]

He was fine until he let his ego get out of hand. imo
He began thinking he was some kind of star.
But to each his own. You like him fine. However then next guy would have to be very bad to be worse.
I really don't care how savvy he is if he is so off-putting that viewers and the people in pit lane don't like him.

[dans79]

I'm gonna miss Will Buxton, really hoping they'd keep him but given the financial issues at ESPN I doubt we'll get anything more than just the world feed.

it looks like Will found a job.
https://f1broadcasting.co/2018/01/21/ne ... es-closer/

Despite no official announcement, yet, Formula 1’s over-the-top service continues to move forward in the background. Former GP2 commentator and NBC pit lane reporter Will Buxton is all but confirmed, alongside a line-up that may feature James Allen, Johnny Herbert, and Rosanna Tennant.

One early left-field rumour was that Allen and Herbert would form the commentary team, but recent suggestions indicate that FOM will take the Sky Sports F1 commentary, made up of David Croft and Martin Brundle.

A survey distributed by Hall & Partners on behalf of Formula 1 last weekend suggested that only five countries will have access to the live over-the-top service at launch. They are USA, Mexico, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. You can add Spain and the rest of Latin America to that list based on more recent rights announcements.