01/05/2018
NEWS STORY
It began peacefully enough... but that was to soon change.
At 07:03 (BST) we received the following from a regular reader in the US.
"Neither I nor my friends can find quali scheduled anywhere on ESPN. Or indeed anywhere else," wrote Paul.
"Please would you ask your US based friends if they have any insight."
In our efforts to assist Paul, we emailed a couple of regular readers in the US.
One, Kathy, replied: "I've already been in touch by email with ESPN they are useless.
"Basically they said it is what it is. I'll forward you my results.
"My brother said quali is listed on ESPN 2 at 09:00 this morning but it isn't on my guide.
"I'm furious. I'm recording every ESPN channel at 09:00 anyway. Only thing actually on schedule is FP3 at 06:00.
"And now the race is showing up on Sunday."
Shortly after, the following post appeared on our site in reaction to the FP3 times.
"Well, here it is 0800 on Saturday morning in the USA and I have no ESPN coverage of the first practice sessions unless I watch on my phone. Qualifying is coming up in less than an hour and there is NO television coverage of that either. Thanks ESPN, you are killing this sport in the US.
"Maybe if F1 had tried to have an auction for the coverage in the US we would be able to view races on a channel that would devote time and resources to the broadcast (like NBCSN did). Instead, we have to watch on small screens and hunt through numerous channels offering ping pong championships and other sports that very few people care about.
"I am now looking forward to seeing what F1 offers in the way of viewing at the Spanish Grand Prix.
"If that doesn't work, there will be one less F1 fan (me) and I'm sure many others are feeling the same way.
"ESPN is making a mockery of this sport here!!!!!!!"
By which time, Twitter, as the Daily Mail likes to claim on a daily basis, was in meltdown.
Kathy takes up the story...
"As I mentioned Friday, going off the schedule ESPN published before the season started I set my alarm clock. I was checking my recording schedule and realized there was no qualifying on it. I began looking for it on the ESPN channels and it wasn't listed anywhere. I knew when it should be on and which channel but SEC Stories was scheduled. I had emailed ESPN as I couldn't get on their live feed for FP1 which I subsequently missed - yet I knew my brother was watching it.
"To explain, I usually watch FP1 and FP2 on my iPad because out of all the ESPN channels I get I don't get ESPN3. After watching everything since Melbourne on my iPad I couldn't get on the site for Baku FP1. I emailed ESPN about the problem (this is Friday am) When I heard back from them (I'd already resolved it myself) I emailed them back asking about qualifying as it wasn't on the schedule for Saturday. They then sent me an email showing practice and quali for F2 & F1. That's when I knew that twitter was going to blow up Saturday since Directv listed qualifying as a documentary. Most people like I do record everything F1. That meant no one at least with Directv would get quali unless they were home like me checking every ESPN channel at 09:00 on Saturday morning.
"From the start of FP3 (the only practice televised over here) at 06:00 Twitter started going crazy on @ESPNf1. It began with people not being able to find practice and most realizing there was no listing for qualifying in two hours.
"ESPN, on seeing this was getting out of hand, responded to @ClairRAVER with what I took to be a snarky email with a copy showing quali 'as advertised'.
"That's when things went ballistic, since people were tweeting what the TV listings were actually showing in that time slot.
"I actually had Comcast customer service contact me and ask me to dm them with my account number and phone so they could help me (@comcastcares). I had to tell them I was with Directv not them. At this point cable companies were involved and trying to help their customers out!! It was insane.
"It lasted all through qualifying as fans were trying to tell everyone what ESPN channel it was broadcasting live on (ESPN2), even though it said something else. I've attached a picture of the session on my TV alongside what info the ESPN guide actually said. (Right)
"People are so angry. They feel ESPN is in cahoots with F1, Chase Carey et al and that this whole fiasco was a set up so we'd be forced to buy the online streaming service.
"One lady from California told me she'd already received an email from F1 encouraging her to be one of the first sign up for it.
"As the day wore on and some tweeted that ESPN had been given the coverage for free, things got even worse. The bitching and cursing continued until well after midnight! Like I said F1 fans over here got WOKE!
In the midst of all this, poor old Paul had been in touch again.
"While ESPN made no announcement that they would 'air Azerbaijan qualifying it is in fact showing as I write (8:30 Central) under the title "SEC Stories". Of course if they show it with a different title the DVR will not record it. I missed all Q1 and a bit of Q2. This is a very clever way of concealing the event from potential viewers."
In a follow-up, he wrote:
"Later, and with a slightly cooler head, I realize that this glitch is possibly a result of DirecTV making an error in their listings, or did ESPN give them the wrong information? Who knows.
"What I do know as a customer is if I have a problem there is no one who I can contact at ESPN, DirecTV, or any Formula 1 organization, in order to complain (provide customer feedback).
"I have no idea what the rest of the United States have experienced but most of my immediate circle of friends did not see quali."
In the wake of the fiasco that was Melbourne, where US fans were subjected to endless ad breaks and no updates on what they'd missed once coverage resumed, the broadcaster issued a grovelling apology, assuring fans that its coverage would be ad-free for the remainder of the season.
"We intend to present the F1 races in this way for the balance of the 2018 season," said Burke Magnus, ESPN executive vice president, programming & scheduling. "F1 fans are passionate and we listened to a lot of feedback from them, the fans are very informed and the feedback we received was both polite and constructive. It helped us."
Clearly not, for judging by the reaction of fans on social media over the weekend, ESPN wasn't listening.
"We don't have a completely finished product but we're very happy with the way the changes after Australia were received," added Magnus, who took to Twitter himself at the height of the storm on Saturday. "We'll continue to keep working to make it better for the fans."
Whether ESPN, with which F1's commercial boss Sean Bratches spent 27 years of his career rising to the role of Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, receives F1 for free is in many ways immaterial, however, the fact that fans are now openly questioning whether the company's poor performance is a deliberate attempt to force fans to subscribe to F1's own new streaming service quite another.
For far too long F1 fans in America have been given a bad deal, sadly, despite their intense loyalty to the sport, things don't appear to be improving.
Note: Some of the tweets referred to are shown in the accompanying gif which can be accessed by clicking on the image at the top right of the article.