BBC Confirms Broadcast Schedule

The BBC has announced that it will broadcast all Formula One sessions - including free practice - both on television and online this year.

Confirming details of its plans for 2009, the return of F1 to the BBC is being used as an opportunity for the corporation to step up coverage of the sport.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the BBC said that the races and all qualifying sessions other than Brazil will be broadcast on BBC One. For Interlagos, BBC Two will show the fight for grid positions on the Saturday.

Practice sessions will be available via the 'red button' interactive service, or can be watched through the BBC's website.

The BBC has also promised to allow fans to customize their viewing experience - with the choice of three different video streams. There will also be options for split-screen action; a live leaderboard; in-car cameras and a choice of commentary.

SOURCE: Autosport

BBC UPDATE

 TELEVISION COVERAGE

Every race and qualifying session will be shown live on BBC One, with the exception of qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix on 17 October, which will be shown on BBC Two.

All races and qualifying sessions that finish before 1000 will have a full repeat on either BBC One or Two later that day.

There will be a one-hour evening highlights programme at 1900 UK time on BBC Three for all races except Brazil.

Full schedule of BBC TV F1 coverage.

The BBC's red button interactive TV service will broadcast live coverage of all on-track sessions - Friday and Saturday practice, qualifying and race.

There will be an additional interactive analysis programme following on from the end of the BBC One coverage of each race.

On race day, viewers will be able to choose from three different video streams.

These will be: the main network feed with a choice of commentary from BBC One and BBC Radio 5 Live; a split screen comprising the main network feed; an in-car camera feed and leaderboard; rolling highlights.

Radio 5 Live will again be providing extensive coverage and live commentary of all on-track action - on 5 Live on 909 and 693MW and 5 Live Sports extra on digital radio.

David Croft will be the commentator, with former F1 driver Anthony Davidson as the expert analyst and Holly Samos as pit-lane reporter.

The station will continue with its half-hour 5 Live Formula One show on Friday evenings during race weekends.

It also has the Chequered Flag Podcast which is available after every race and features interviews with all the main players and in-depth analysis.

The BBC Sport website will carry live all BBC One, BBC Two and red button coverage of F1.

There will be multiple live video streaming, which will mirror what is available on the red button.

For the first time, video will be available in high quality, enabling viewers to watch on the internet near-television quality video.

In addition to the live text commentary and news and analysis which was already a feature of the website, there will be a number of new features for 2009.

These will include: extensive post-race video highlights; video race reviews by Murray Walker; interactive circuit guides; several blogs, including a diary-type F1 mole; columns; and comprehensive results and statistics.

The new-look BBC F1 website will be launched in the run-up to the season.

Mobile users will be able to access the latest news, insight and results.

Lewis Hamilton starts his defence of the drivers' title he won in dramatic style last year in Melbourne, Australia, on 29 March.

We will provide further details of our coverage plans closer to that date.

BBC SPORT 

Have you bought yourself an External Hard Drive? Can get a 1TB one for about £90 off of Amazon which'd probably be really useful (Not really sure as to how much space the footage takes up, so dunno if that'd be big enough, however I'd hazard a guess at it being substantially enough).

I do like the fact BBC have improved their game massively. I mean it didn't get much love when it used to be on the Beeb (Qualifying sessions weren't always shown), but they've seen what ITV did with it and saw how popular it became with them, and so this time around it's getting maintime airing on the top channel. Not to forget, they've added in the free sessions now - something that ITV could've easily done using ITV2, 3 or 4.