BBC Sport F1

BBC Sport F1 was the British Broadcasting Corporation's Formula One coverage for the United Kingdom. It aired half the races live on television and all the races live on the radio. Extended highlights were shown for the races it did not air on television live. In seasons with an odd number of races, the number of races aired is rounded down (i.e. nine races in a nineteen race season). On 21 December 2015, the BBC confirmed that they had ended their six-year deal with Sky Sports F1 early, giving the television rights to Channel 4, although BBC Radio 5 Live will still broadcast Formula One races until 2024.https://www.sportindustry.biz/news/bbc-secures-uk-radio-rights-f1
==History==
===The Early Years===
The British Broadcasting Corporation first began televising Formula One during the 1950s in which it provided reviews and highlights of various races within the Formula One seasons. Full F1 races only began to be broadcast during the 1960's and were never displayed live. Full race coverage usually consisted of generally only the British Grand Prix and the Monaco Grand Prix and occasionally the season opener or season finale.
It was not until the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix in which the BBC broadcast the first live Formula One race to British audiences. The race, however, was marred by the death of Roger Williamson which naturally acted as a detractor from the sport which was considered by the majority of people at that period of time as rather unpopular and an extremely deadly sport.
Viewing numbers began to increase during the 1976 Formula One season after the titanic duel between Britain's James Hunt and Austria's Niki Lauda for the championship. The season saw the first time in which Murray Walker, the future broadcasting legend fronted a Formula One season full time providing the commentary for both the full races and those only broadcast as highlights.
Towards the end of the 1979 Formula One season, Walker was joined in the commentary box by the Formula One World Champion James Hunt. Walker and Hunt initally had a turbulous relationship but the two eventually developed into a strong team who provided excellent Grand Prix coverage in which the duo single handedly attracted a large viewing base for Formula One within the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the BBC used the ending of Fleetword Mac's "The Chain" for the intro.
==Commentary Line-Up==
Role 	Name 	Duration
Anchor 	Steve Rider 	1990–1996
Anchor 	Jake Humphrey 	2009–2012
Anchor 	Suzi Perry 	2013–2015
Anchor 	David Coulthard	2014–2015 (Highlight races only)
Pundit 	David Coulthard	2009–2015
Pundit 	Eddie Jordan 	2009–2015 (Live races only)
Pundit 	Allan McNish 	2014–2015
Pit Lane Reporter	Jonathan Palmer	1990–1993
Pit Lane Reporter	Tony Jardine 	1993–1996
Pit Lane Reporter	Ted Kravitz 	2009–2011
Pit Lane Reporter	Gary Anderson 	2012–2013
Pit Lane Reporter	Tom Clarkson 	2013–2015
Paddock Reporter 	Lee McKenzie 	2009–2015
Lead Commentator 	Murray Walker 	1976–1996
Lead Commentator 	Jonathan Legard	2009–2010
Lead Commentator 	Martin Brundle 	2011
Lead Commentator 	Ben Edwards 	2012–2015
Co-Commentator 	James Hunt 	1979–1993
Co-Commentator 	Jonathan Palmer	1993–1996
Co-Commentator 	Martin Brundle 	2009–2010
Co-Commentator 	David Coulthard	2011–2015
Analyst 	Allan McNish 	2014–2015
==See also==
*Sky Sports F1
*Channel 4 F1
*ITV-F1
==Notes==
Category:F1 on TV