Formula 1 to take over TV coverage for Monaco GP

Formula 1 will be producing the TV coverage of next weekend's Monaco Grand prix for the first time in the iconic event's long history.

Until now, the world feed coverage for the race has been provided by local station Tele Monte Carlo, a holdover from the old practice of each Grand Prix being handled by the local broadcaster.

In the 1990s, free-to-air broadcasters ITV, RTL, and Rai produced the British, German, and Italian rounds respectively, allowing local hosts to place emphasis on the home drivers with more screen time.

• Read also: Mercedes committed to running upgraded W14 in Monaco

But in recent years F1 has developed its own broadcast facilities at Biggin Hill, initially for the F1 Digital+ service in 1996 providing an enhanced multi-view service while local broadcasters had a limited number of cameras.

From there, F1 centralised the world feed production in-house and removed local control ensuring fans received a consistent product regardless of the race weekend.

Local broadcasters like Sky Sports F1 still provide coverage for domestic markets with surrounding features and analysis. The UK broadcast is often shared by in other international markets.

The Japanese Grand Prix was the penultimate race to relinquish the local control in 2011 after the arrangement with Fuji Television ended.

The last exception has been Monaco, which has used its pre-eminence among F1 venues to insist on retaining the local aspect of the television rights.

But with all spots on the annual F1 calendar under intense pressure, Monaco has now had to fall into line and relinquish its opt-out in order to ensure the sport continues to return to the principality.

According to Britain's Mirror newspaper and Motorsport Broadcasting, Formula 1 will take over the coverage this year after complaints in recent years that the Monaco race has looked amateurish on TV compared with other events.

The experience af F1 and Sky Sports at the other 21 races means they can provide a more polished, professional product compared to a local station covering just one weekend a year.

In 2021, the Monaco was criticised for switching from a thrilling battle between Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly up Beau Rivage to Massenet.to show Lance Stroll running wide at the Swimming Pool.

Viewers complaining that the director didn't understand F1 sufficiently to decide what was the best action to show, and that it was time to bring in a team with greater experience and knowledge.

This change means that this is the first time in the history of the championship that F1 has been directly responsible for the coverage of all of the races on the calendar.

It should mean that there should be new and revised cameras angles to showcase the speed of the cars and make the on-track action in Monaco more thrilling.

And the Automobile Club of Monaco (ACM)'s contract extension to host the annual May race will also ensure that F1 will be coming back to the principality until at least 2025 after signing a new three-year deal last year.

Teams are already on their way to the south of France having packed up their equipment and cars from the flood-hit Imola paddock following the cancellation of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

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