Formula E - TV coverage

Formula E - TV coverage

Author
Discussion

SunsetZed

Original Poster:

2,493 posts

178 months

Thursday 11th January
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Sadly it seems that the coverage has left free to view TV and gone to TNT Sports, I can't even see that the highlights are available for free, does anyone else know if they are?

realjv

1,147 posts

174 months

Friday 12th January
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Looks like Formula E has hidden itself behind a paywall everywhere which isn't going to help viewing figures. Maybe they will post the races on Youtube or similar a week after the event, we'll just have to wait and see.

SunsetZed

Original Poster:

2,493 posts

178 months

Friday 12th January
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Yeah that was my thought as well.

MitchT

16,271 posts

217 months

Friday 12th January
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Never knew when it was on anyway - the publicity was very poor. Same goes for that female F1 support series that replaced W Series. Apparently that happened last year. I knew it was in the pipeline but I didn't know it had started.

Sandpit Steve

11,418 posts

82 months

Friday 12th January
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MitchT said:
Never knew when it was on anyway - the publicity was very poor. Same goes for that female F1 support series that replaced W Series. Apparently that happened last year. I knew it was in the pipeline but I didn't know it had started.
“F1 Academy” was the junior ladies’ race series. It was deep in the undercard on domestic race weekends in Europe, and not televised at all bar a three-minute highlights programme for each race posted online the following week. Talk about how not to do it. I only knew it was on at all because I went looking for it.

This year will be better though, as they’ll again be mostly F1 support races, so the full live TV crew and media will be there, and the drivers are being sponsored by the F1 teams.

As with FE, get these niche events live online for free somewhere, if terrestrial TV doesn’t work out for them. Youtube gets some quite big audiences for live events - if the promoters and competitors market it properly. They’re both aiming for non-traditional audiences, so make the most of non-traditional media to spread the word around. FE has possibly the best driver lineup outside F1 and Le Mans, so why make it so difficult to watch?

flatlandsman

764 posts

15 months

Friday 12th January
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I would imagine that BBC etc were paying initially, they did not get a viewership so the rights holder just pitched to someone else who would pay for it, TNT seem flush with cash right now so they stumped up the cash. Cant say I have ever watched it, but it clearly was not bringing in viewers on free to air channels or they would have carried on paying for it.

or alternatively as is usually the case the rights holder just upped the price and free to air, said no thanks we don't need it anyway. Bye

AlexRS2782

8,180 posts

221 months

Saturday 13th January
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A bit of a detailed write up from December '23

https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/2023/12/13/form...

flatlandsman

764 posts

15 months

Saturday 13th January
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So, pretty much what I said then, no viewers and they needed to make money so flogged it to whoever wanted it most, which seemed like nobody!

97k viewers for a live sports event is pretty awful really.

These people just struggle to believe that nobody really wants to watch this.

GlobalRacer

335 posts

21 months

Saturday 13th January
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Where it needs to be is on YouTube for all countries. It's never going to have mass appeal in the age range that still watches traditional TV and a lot of the younger audience don't have access to TNT.

Then you get the outliers like me who refuse point blank to pay for anything that has advertising and sponsorship so these will be the first FE season that I haven't watched.

MitchT

16,271 posts

217 months

Saturday 13th January
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flatlandsman said:
I would imagine that BBC etc were paying initially, they did not get a viewership...
They'd have stood a better chance of getting a viewership if they'd bothered to tell people it was on!

robscot

2,506 posts

198 months

Saturday 13th January
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Thought I would give it a whirl… but its a bit st

Speed Badger

2,961 posts

125 months

Saturday 13th January
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Might be a silly question, but why aren't the Formula E cars insanely fast by now? I mean, if the new Hyundai Ioniq N has 650 bhp, why are they still plodding around looking slow with 450 odd, when they only have to run for 45 mins or so?

robscot

2,506 posts

198 months

Saturday 13th January
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105 mph top speed there?

It was not a good watch, only fun bit was DC wondering wtf was going on.

GlobalRacer

335 posts

21 months

Sunday 14th January
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Speed Badger said:
Might be a silly question, but why aren't the Formula E cars insanely fast by now? I mean, if the new Hyundai Ioniq N has 650 bhp, why are they still plodding around looking slow with 450 odd, when they only have to run for 45 mins or so?
No point in throwing power at them on the sort of tracks they race on plus it's all about developing recharge technology and the software to make that as efficient as possible. If you want speed and nothing else other race series are available.

Puddenchucker

4,474 posts

226 months

Sunday 14th January
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GlobalRacer said:
Speed Badger said:
Might be a silly question, but why aren't the Formula E cars insanely fast by now? I mean, if the new Hyundai Ioniq N has 650 bhp, why are they still plodding around looking slow with 450 odd, when they only have to run for 45 mins or so?
No point in throwing power at them on the sort of tracks they race on plus it's all about developing recharge technology and the software to make that as efficient as possible. If you want speed and nothing else other race series are available.
This ▲▲▲
If all F1 tracks were like Monaco the design of the cars would be somewhat different to what they are now.
And part of the ethos of Formual E is energy management & regen.

Also, what would the range of a 650hp Hyundai Ioniq N be when driven hard on on track? [Rhetorical question]

poosemon

284 posts

207 months

Monday 15th January
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Would of had myself down as a advocate of FE in past seasons.

Genuinely didn't know it was season kick off this weekend! Will have to see if i can find highlights anywhere

CanoeSniffer

941 posts

95 months

Thursday 18th January
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I followed Formula E pretty closely the last couple of years, however the move to paywall coverage surely won’t work out. They must be crazy to think the product has that kind of appeal yet. I do have TNT sports for football but on principle I won’t be going out of my way to watch FE this year- I only watched the Mexico race because I was already sat on my arse in front of the telly with the right channel on having just watched the football, and they got exactly what they deserved for their first paywall race- a complete snoozefest. Anyone who paid to watch that must have been livid!

Edited by CanoeSniffer on Thursday 18th January 22:44

Puddenchucker

4,474 posts

226 months

Friday 19th January
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CanoeSniffer said:
I followed Formula E pretty closely the last couple of years, however the move to paywall coverage surely won’t work out. They must be crazy to think the product has that kind of appeal yet. I do have TNT sports for football but on principle I won’t be going out of my way to watch FE this year- I only watched the Mexico race because I was already sat on my arse in front of the telly with the right channel on having just watched the football, and they got exactly what they deserved for their first paywall race- a complete snoozefest. Anyone who paid to watch that must have been livid!
Same here. As a racing series it has been gradually getting better season by season.
Since F1 went on to Sky, Formula E and BTCC were the only racing series that I watched every race live. There's not even any decent highlights available that I've managed to find - just less than 5mins on the Formula E website.

Now it will be just BTCC and the odd one or two F1 or MotoGP (British GP) that get broadcast live on "free" TV that I'll watch.

ajprice

29,347 posts

204 months

Monday 22nd January
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Formula E YouTube live streamed the practice and quali, then there's a 5 minute highlights video of the actual race. My last hope was that ITV 4 would have a midweek highlights programme as they do for MotoGP and WRC, but I didn't see anything and nothing comes up on ITV X. I'm not getting a TNT subscription, I used to have BT Sport through PlusNet for £10 monthly, that's gone now that it's TNT.

cliffords

1,867 posts

31 months

Monday 22nd January
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I think the fact the highlights are shown in 5 mins says it all.
It's deadly boring, it needs a huge format change to give it any interest, like adding big V12 engines perhaps.