Channel 4 Takes Over Formula 1 Coverage from the BBC

[Alianora La Canta]

Channel 4 have made an investment into Whisper Films. The latter is a production company owned by Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and former BBC F1 producer Sunil Patel. I guess that's 2/3 of the presenting team decided!

[Scott]

I thought Humphrey was with football now.  Did BBC also cut that coverage?

[John S]

I thought Humphrey was with football now.  Did BBC also cut that coverage?

Jake left the BBC to take up a role at BTSport who have been buying up a lot of Football and other sport for staggering sums.

BTs the main landline/internet provider in the UK and are trying to combat SKYs meteoric rise to be biggest media supplier in Britain by offering TV services with pay Sport coverage alongside internet access down their landline infrastructure.

All the telephony providers now see a bundled package of Internet + Phone + TV/Film + Mobile(cell) phone as the holy grail.

[Alianora La Canta]

Jake Humphrey has two jobs - presenting football on BT Sport and co-owner of production company Whisper Film. It's in the latter capacity that I expect him to do Channel 4 F1 coverage. It would also not surprise me if this was the prelude to a Channel 4/BT Sport split of coverage in 2018 (as distinct from the BBC/Sky split that previously reigned, or Channel 4/Sky that exists now).

Football coverage mostly got cut by the BBC last decade (one such cutback was what enabled them to get the F1 coverage when ITV bailed out in order to buy Champions League coverage). The two parts the BBC still has are partial coverage of the two big international tournaments (the Euros and World Cup) and "Match of the Day" - a highlights show covering the best bits of all English League football (and, in Scotland, Scottish League football too). The latter will survive any number of cutbacks - even if the entire Sport department was canned, they'd find a way to fund it through "Entertainment" or something, because it's that much of a lynchpin for part of its audience.

[Ian]

BT Sport is the best one for rugby, loads of it. 

[Irisado]

Channel 4 have made an investment into Whisper Films. The latter is a production company owned by Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and former BBC F1 producer Sunil Patel. I guess that's 2/3 of the presenting team decided!

I'd say that's pretty conclusive.  We now just need a formal announcement.

Eddie Jordan gets a lot of stick for his presentation, but his voice overs for the BBC's introduction sequences and his predictions about driver moves were spot on.  My view is that there's a lot to be said for retaining the BBC's presentation team to as great an extent as possible.