US broadcaster ESPN has apologised to its viewers after several technical glitches hit its first Formula 1 telecast.
ESPN has replaced NBC as the sports broadcast partner in the United States for the 2018 season, but issues plagued its first broadcast, prompting fans to take to social media to vent their anger, leading the media giant to apologise.
ESPN blamed "technical issues" that meant 20 minutes of the promised pre-race build-up was missed, with a static shot of Turn 9 shown on the screen for five minutes before cutting to an episode of sports show E:60.
Although eventually rectified, viewers also complained of poorly timed advertising breaks. With ESPN carrying the UK’s Sky Sports F1 feed, it has no control over replays and commentary and as such, if action is missed during ad breaks – of which there aren't any on Sky – then viewers aren't provided with a recap when the break has ended, leaving them in the dark.
This happened with Romain Grosjean's retirement, which caused a Safety Car, and then again during the race restart, both of which weren't broadcast due to poorly timed advertising breaks.
That was followed by an abrupt end to the broadcast during Sky's post-race analysis whilst presenter Simon Lazenby was mid-sentence.
ESPN issued the following apology, promising steps would be taken to ensure the problems weren't repeated during future broadcasts.
"We deeply apologise to Formula 1 fans for the technical issues that caused them to miss the first 20 minutes of the pre-race show for the Australian Grand Prix," read a statement.
"We are sorry that our first F1 telecast did not go as smoothly as we would have liked but we are taking steps to prevent those same issue from occuring in the future. We thank the fans for watching and for their incredible passion for Formula 1."
