Originally Posted by HANDJFAN:
“It's interesting that you've posted this because I was thinking previously that TS would love to get the F1 commentaries. They already do Moto GP, and the BBC aren't really that committed to F1 considering they've let the TV coverage go. It wouldn't surprise me if full F1 coverage ends up on TS eventually.”
I'm not sure about that. Covering Formula 1 live and on-site would be extremely costly, you have to send a commentary and production team overseas 20 times each year, so there is a massive amount of resources you have to put into travel expenses before you get to anything else. Would the amount of advertising and sponsorship revenue a commercial radio station can generate from F1 coverage justify this expenditure? It would be a much more costly project than, say, covering the British & Irish Lions tour this summer, where the bulk of their expenditure will be spent on sending a team out to one country for a six-seven week period, so lots of internal travel but done on a concentrated basis.
In contrast, I think MotoGP is actually a very sensible pick-up for talkSPORT 2 - they are taking on-site commentary on all the races, but they are directly picking it up from the existing television international feed. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a small demand for MotoGP radio coverage, given that for many years it received live free-to-air coverage from Channel 5 and then the BBC, but is now behind a paywall on BT Sport, so part of the following the sport developed in this country now may be unable to watch it live at all, while for F1 fans at least some races are live on Channel 4 with them also televising prominent highlights shows.
I suppose if talkSPORT ever went in for Formula 1, they could look to cover it like that, by simulcasting the Sky Sports commentary (a plausible option when the NewsCorp takeover is complete). But I don't see it myself, simply because the FIA would want to have Grand Prix commentaries prioritised on their main analogue station rather than talkSPORT 2 and many races would clash with talkSPORT's live Sunday 1.30pm Premier League commentaries. I also feel that Radio 5 Live, if not BBC TV, are quite committed to Formula 1 - especially so in the years since the BBC first lost some TV rights to Sky. They tend to prioritise Grand Prixes ahead of live football on Sundays, and I think this commitment is a big part of the reason why the Sunday 1.30pm package was one of the Premier League packages that changed hands when they lost exclusivity over the league's national radio rights.