The BBC is in the process of drawing up a shortlist to fill that vacancy.
In a groundbreaking but controversial deal, the BBC and Sky Sports will share
the rights to Formula One between 2012 and 2018 with the pay-TV broadcaster
screening every session of each grand prix live on a dedicated channel.
The BBC will broadcast half the races live, with the rest in extended highlights
programmes.
With their respective line-ups now all but complete, focus is turning to the
coverage itself and questions have been raised in recent days about the
amount of access the two broadcasters will have to the drivers, particularly
McLaren’s British world champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
The BBC has been used to getting plenty of face time, and has done an excellent
job with it, but unless teams such McLaren agree to double the amount of
time they make their drivers available to British broadcasters – which is
unlikely – the BBC will have to find a way of dividing its current access
with Sky.
Sky is paying more money, has a larger production staff and budget, not to
mention twice the live races, so it will be interesting to see whether it
tries to demand more access.
There is speculation that British-based teams such as McLaren and Red Bull may
still prefer to make their drivers available to the BBC since their sponsors
rely on ‘eyeballs’.
The BBC averaged between four and six million viewers per live race this year.
It is unclear what kind of viewing figures Sky can expect. Estimates range
from around 500,000 to one million per race.