• The new Sky Sports F1 channel will also show GP2 and GP3 live. The two feeder series to Formula 1 run for the most part parallel to the main championship, with GP2 having 12 rounds and GP3 just the 8 rounds. Each weekend features two races, both of which will be live on the new channel. There is no news on fellow support series Porsche Supercup, so that is expected to remain on Eurosport.

• Sky have also confirmed that their Formula 1 magazine programme with Georgie Thompson and Ted Kravitz will be shown weekly.

• ITV are expected to release football commentator Peter Drury and co-commentator Jim Beglin after Euro 2012 this summer. Former Irish international Beglin has been steadily phased out of his duties over the last couple of years as Andy Townsend has become more prominent, while the decision to drop Drury is more surprising. With ITV’s Champions League coverage moving to Tuesday nights, it means number 1 commentator Clive Tyldesley can easily do that match before travelling to wherever for a Europa League game on the Thursday. As the channel will still need more than one commentator, they could still keep Drury on as a freelancer unless he moves to another network full time.

• Sky Sports will show the Tony Bellew v Danny McIntosh fight for the British Light Heavyweight title after promoter Dave Coldwell won the purse bids and joined forces with Matchroom Sport to provide a TV date. Bellew (right) is signed to Frank Warren Promotions, who are a major player behind the rival BoxNation channel. After the announcement this week, Bellew said: “It’s a dream come true to be back on Sky Sports.” Don’t think his promoter will be too chuffed after hearing that.

• The Super League season starts this weekend. The early list of live matches on Sky can be seen here.

• Interestingly, from May Sky will be showing their secondary live match per round on a Monday night rather than a Saturday evening. This is down to the channel wanting more live sport on a Monday once the football season has ended during the summer. The now-traditional Friday night slot will stay untouched.

• Two of England’s rugby matches in the Women’s Six Nations will be shown live on television this year, with a third available online with a free, legal stream. First, on the 25th February the game against Wales will be on the BBC red button at 6.15pm. On the 11th March, England’s trip to France will be on the Sky Sports red button service at 12.45pm, while their final match against Ireland will be live on the RFU website on the 17th March at 2pm.

• Bad news for BT Vision subscribers after it was confirmed the new Sky Sports F1 channel will not be coming to the platform. Earlier this week it was confirmed that the station will be coming to Virgin Media, but those with BT Vision will have to rely on the BBC’s coverage of 10 live races, and extended highlights of the rest.

• Premier Sports have announced another batch of live Blue Square Bet Premier matches running through until April. All the top sides are in action as they battle it out to reach the Football League, including the potential thriller between Wrexham and Luton on the 7th March.

Fri 17 Feb	Southport v Grimsby Town	19:30	Premier Sports
Wed 22 Feb	York City v Gateshead	19:30	Premier Sports
Wed 7 Mar	Wrexham v Luton Town	19:30	Premier Sports
Fri 9 Mar	Kidderminster Harriers v Fleetwood Town	19:30	Premier Sports
Fri 23 Mar	TBC	19:30	Premier Sports
Fri 30 Mar	Luton Town v York City	19:30	Premier Sports
Tue 10 Apr	Fleetwood Town v Wrexham	19:30	Premier Sports

 

• Welsh language channel S4C have confirmed their live Welsh Premier League fixtures for February and March, with all four title contenders in action, plus a Welsh Cup quarter-final.

Sat 4 Feb	Bangor City v Prestatyn Town	15:45	S4C
Sat 11 Feb	Aberystwyth Town v Carmarthen Town	15:45	S4C
Sat 18 Feb	Llanelli v The New Saints	15:00	S4C
Sat 25 Feb	Welsh Cup quarter-final	TBC	S4C
Sat 3 Mar	Bangor City v Neath	15:45	S4C
Sat 10 Mar	Bangor City v The New Saints	17:15	S4C

 

• Premier Sports have renewed their deal with BriSCA F1 to show highlights of the national stock car series for another two years. Coverage of all 24 rounds will be shown every Tuesday night at 9pm, starting on the 3rd April, and concluding with the season finale on the 20th November at Belle Vue.

• Finally, this weekend sees the start of the Africa Cup of Nations. Every match will be shown live on British Eurosport, with daily highlights and occasional live action available to most of the country on ITV4. Ghana and Ivory Coast go in to the competition as favourites, but will face strong opposition from the continent’s best.

Damon Hill has joined Sky Sports as an analyst on their Formula 1 coverage.

The 1996 world champion (right) will be a part of half of the 20 races on the new Sky Sports F1 channel, including Australia, Bahrain, Monaco, Britain, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, India, USA and Brazil.

The channel launches on the 9th March, a week before the start of the season in Australia, and Hill joins a line-up that includes fellow former drivers Martin Brundle and Anthony Davidson.

Virgin Media have confirmed that the new Sky Sports F1 channel will be coming to the platform-but seemingly not in high-definition.

It will be added to the Sky Sports package available to subscribers, ending months of speculation as to whether Virgin customers would have access to every race live. However, the press release makes no mention of the HD channel being available, suggesting that will remain exclusive to Sky customers.

The channel will be launched on the 9th March, a week before the start of the 2012 season, and will show all the sessions from all 20 races live.

The BBC have confirmed their presentation team for the 2012 Formula 1 season.

Most of it was already known, with lead commentator Martin Brundle leaving for Sky Sports, to be replaced by Ben Edwards. Edwards has commentated on F1 in the past for Eurosport and the short-lived F1 Digital+, but is most known among British fans for his work on ITV’s British Touring Car Championship coverage.

The other major addition to the team is Gary Anderson as a technical analyst. Anderson is best known for his two spells as a car designer for Jordan, but also conducted a similar role for the Stewart team, that later evolved in to Jaguar. In recent years he has written on the technical side of the sport for Autosport magazine, as well as working as a co-commentator and pundit for Setanta Sports and RTE in Ireland. His addition makes up for the loss of Ted Kravitz, who has also joined Sky in a similar role.

Elsewhere, the rest of the crew remains the same. Jake Humphrey will still present, though will miss a race or two with the Olympics, with Eddie Jordan as the main pundit. David Coulthard reprises his analyst/co-commentator role, while Lee McKenzie remains as a reporter.

The changes to the presentation team comes as a number of the crew have left for Sky, who will broadcast all 20 races from the 2012 season, while the BBC will only show half.

The full BBC line-up:

Presenter: Jake Humphrey

Pundit: Eddie Jordan

Commentators: Ben Edwards and David Coulthard

Technical Analyst: Gary Anderson

Reporter: Lee McKenzie

 

Ben Edwards

Edwards replaces Martin Brundle, who has moved to Sky Sports, and will be the voice of the corporation’s 10 live and 10 highlights races in the new year.

He last commentated regularly on F1 during the 2002 season on the ill-fated F1 Digital + channel, although is no stranger to UK viewers having commentated on the British Touring Car Championship since then.

Edwards is also the ‘go-to’ man when motor racing championships are looking for a commentator, having led the world feed for A1 GP, FIA GT1 World and GT3 European Championships and Superleague Formula over recent years.

But this will be his first chance on the world’s most popular form of motor sport in front of a mainstream, terrestrial audience. Having been overlooked for the role at least three times in favour of other men, he must have been wondering if this opportunity would ever come.

Sky Sports have confirmed their presenting line-up for the 2012 Formula 1 season.

As expected, current BBC Radio 5 Live commentator David Croft switches to Sky alongside the already-confirmed Martin Brundle in the box, although Anthony Davidson will reprise his 5 Live duo with Croft during practice sessions.

It appears that Brundle and Davidson will work as studio pundits on the sessions they are not commentating on, perhaps alongside someone to be named at a later date, or a rotating extra analyst.

Current rugby union host Simon Lazenby will be the main presenter, while reporting duties will be covered by Ted Kravitz, who also makes the switch from BBC’s television coverage to Sky, and Natalie Pinkham, who conducted a similar role for 5 Live in 2011.

Martin Brundle leads Sky's F1 coverage

Sky’s press release seems to suggest their coverage will be very much the ‘Brundle Show’, with him featuring across all three days of a race weekend in the pit lane, paddock, and obviously in the commentary box. He is a huge coup for the broadcaster, so it is understandable that they have gone all-out to feature him as much as possible.

Elsewhere, Kravitz and Georgie Thompson will front a new F1 magazine show. Thompson has previous motor racing experience from presenting the ill-fated A1GP series on Sky between 2005 and 2009, and was rumoured to be a possibility as the main host this time. Also, Steve Rider will host a series of interviews with F1 legends to be shown on the new channel.

Sky will show all the sessions from all 20 races on the new Sky Sports F1 channel, which will be available at no extra charge to their sports pack or high definition subscribers. No news is forthcoming on whether the channel will be available on other platforms such as Virgin Media, but rest assured you will hear about it on tellysports as soon as anything is confirmed.

With Croft, Davidson and Pinkham all leaving Radio 5 Live, they will need a completely new broadcast team for next season, which could perhaps signal the return of Jonathan Legard to F1. He commentated for them between 1997 and 2004, before moving to television for 2009 and 2010. After being unpopular with viewers (and seemingly Brundle), he was unceremoniously axed for the most recent season, but could make a surprise return back on the radio next year.

The announcement also leaves the BBC short of on-air staff for its television coverage. tellysports awaits confirmation of their line-up for 2012, and will have all the information as soon as possible.

Sky Sports F1 confirmed line-up:

Presenter: Simon Lazenby

Commentators: David Croft, Martin Brundle (qualifying and races) and Anthony Davidson (practice sessions)

Reporters: Ted Kravitz and Natalie Pinkham

Formula 1 commentator Martin Brundle has announced he will leave the BBC to join Sky Sports ahead of the satellite broadcaster’s foray in to the sport next season.

He told the Sunday Times: “In 2012 I will be working with Sky Sports F1 television.

“The fact that their newly-announced and dedicated F1 channel will have no in-race advertising was a key factor, but most importantly I need to commentate on every race live. Recorded and delayed sports television doesn’t give me the adrenalin fix I crave.

“There will also be more airtime for the technical features I so enjoy crafting. It’s been a privilege to be part of the BBC team, but now I have a new motivation and challenge.”

Brundle, who is a former winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours race spent 12 years in Formula 1, became a co-commentator when ITV picked up the F1 rights in 1997. He then moved to the BBC along with the coverage in 2009, before moving in to the lead commentator’s chair this season.

His partner for 2012 has not yet been confirmed, but Brundle is expected to move back in to the c0-commentators seat alongside David Croft.

The news comes on a busy weekend for Sky at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where they also announced the launch of a new dedicated F1 channel.

In a busy weekend of news for 2012 Formula 1 broadcasting, Sky Sports announced the launch of a dedicated channel to the sport for next season.

Sky Sports F1 will be on air during all 20 race weekends, and will contain uninterrupted live coverage of all the race sessions in high definition, along with analysis, highlights and support programmes. These include a legends interview show presented by former BBC and ITV presenter Steve Rider.

The channel will be available free to all Sky subscribers who take either the sports package or HD package, with no news yet over whether it will be coming to Virgin or other formats. Presumably under OFCOM regulations, it will need to be made available to other providers with an extra fee.

The new channel confirms the speculation that Sky would be putting the F1 on a separate channel next season, although it was rumoured to be a more general motorsports channel that would incorporate the broadcaster’s portfolio of racing rights including Speedway, Indy Cars, plus highlights of Nascar, DTM and the FIA GT1 World Championship.

However, nothing has been confirmed regarding the support championships to F1 being shown on the new channel. GP2, GP3 and the Porsche Supercup have most recently been televised by British Eurosport, but their contract expired at the end of 2011 and no news has been forthcoming of their destination for 2012. The lack of a mention of them in the recent press releases suggest that at this point, Sky will not be showing them.

All in all, the announcement has been a bit underwhelming, especially when the channel will only be on air for a short period on race weekends. It was an opportunity for Sky to increase their motor racing portfolio, but they do not seem to be interested in that and more focused on Formula 1 itself. This does mean though that the F1 will be a big priority event for the broadcaster, and will not be shunted around the schedules (or even behind the red button) on busy weekends.

As for the on-air talent for the channel, the only confirmation is Martin Brundle, who said at the weekend he will be leaving the BBC for Sky. Meanwhile, Radio 5 Live commentator David Croft has left the station and is expected to sit alongside Brundle in the Sky commentary box, while their current rugby union presenter Simon Lazenby should move across to cover F1.

The BBC have decided on their 10 live Formula 1 races to be shown during the 2012 season, as well as their broadcasting format.

A deal signed earlier this year with Sky means that the BBC will only show 10 live races until 2018, while satellite broadcaster Sky will show all 20. The BBC had the first three choices on races they would like to show and picked Monaco, Silverstone, and the final race of the year in Brazil. After that, Sky chose three races they would like exclusively live, and the process repeated.

The BBC’s selection means they will show the first two races of the season in Australia and Malaysia delayed, and have live coverage of a few of the typically ‘dull’ circuits, such as China, Barcelona, Valencia and Abu Dhabi.

The BBC’s 10 live races for 2012 are:

• 15 April: China
• 13 May: Spain
• 27 May: Monaco
• 24 June: Europe
• 8 July: Britain
• 2 September: Belgium
• 23 September: Singapore
• 14 October: Korea
• 4 November: Abu Dhabi
• 25 November: Brazil

Sky will show all 20 races, with the following 10 exclusively live on their new Sky Sports F1 channel:

• 18 March: Australia
• 25 March: Malaysia
• 22 April: Bahrain
• 10 June: Canada
• 22 July: Germany
• 29 July: Hungary
• 9 September: Italy
• 7 October: Japan
• 28 October: India
• 18 November: USA

For the next section detailing the BBC’s coverage, I will list them in bullet points for easy-reading. No official news yet as to the BBC’s presentation team, although Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard are still contracted for 2012, while current lead commentator Martin Brundle has signed for Sky. Keep checking tellysports for any further updates.

BBC’s 10 live races:

• Coverage will stay as it is now, with all practice, qualifying and races live in their entirety
• The F1 forum will remain for an hour of post-race coverage after the main show has gone off air
• All races will have a one hour highlights programme on BBC Three later that evening
• All sessions and races starting before 10am will have a full re-run later in the afternoon

BBC’s 10 non-live races:

• 90 minute highlights for European timezone races, beginning at 5.30pm
• 2 hour highlights for early morning races, beginning at 2pm
• No news yet on highlight timings for the late races from Canada and the USA
• 75 minute highlights of qualifying sessions at 5.30pm for European timezone sessions, and 1pm for early morning sessions