Jake Humphrey, the BBC’s Formula 1 presenter, has promised the broadcaster will maintain the same level of quality in its programming as seen over the previous two seasons, despite losing the exclusive rights to broadcast all 20 races live.
In a deal agreed last season, the BBC has relinquished its rights to broadcast the sport exclusively on free-to-air television, instead opting for a shared deal with subscription service Sky.
Sky, which will soon launch Sky Sports F1 – a dedicated channel for the sport – will show all 20 races live, whilst the BBC will only show 10, with the remainder shown in an extended highlights package seveal hours later.
Despite the deal leaving a bitter taste in many fans mouths, Humphrey is adamant that the BBC will do its best to cater for those without Sky.
“I know people are not over the moon about suddenly having every race live on pay-per-view television but it was either the deal that we have or no F1 at all, so I am grateful that we will still get the chance to be at every race,” he said whilst onstage at Autosport International.
“Quite often when we had the early morning races our viewing figures were higher for the re-runs and there are quite a few early morning races where we’ll have a re-run at 1400 and it will be two hours long and so we’ll pretty quickly get into the racing.
“After the race we are going to do an F1 Forum whether we are showing the race live or not. We will still do exactly what we do now.
“We will try and offer as much as possible. I think it will be different, but it will still be really strong output,” he added.
Humphrey also insists that because the BBC will continue to have an audience reaching into the millions, the teams will continue to welcome them into their garages and the drivers will still find time to talk to both the BBC and Sky.
“I think the teams realise that they have to speak to the media and Sky will do hours and hours of coverage and they will do a stunning job because they produce good sports content.
“[But] we will still be the channel with the millions of people seeing those sponsorship deals on television and because of that there will be an onus on the teams to make sure we get that access.”
