Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremySmith
So Mike with all due respect to you, your not really a fan of F1 then as you have not watched a race in 4 years, I believe that if people are real fans they will pay to watch the racing.. The BBC was never free to air ever as you pay a yearly license fee, a tax in another words ..
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I would have never have described myself as a fan of F1, or anything else for that matter. I was just a "passionate" follower of motorsport in general, went to see F1 races in many countries as well as spectating at many other motorsport events. And I religiously watched F1 on TV from the very early days with Raymond Baxter, I think it was, doing the voice-overs.
As to the argument about the TV licence in the UK, it is really a red herring as you still need to pay it if you just watch subscription only services; it is not a fee (or a tax) to solely watch BBC programmes. So, as far as we are concerned in the UK, all terrestrial TV is considered to be FTA.
But I repeat, the reason that I, along with many other ardent followers of F1 in the UK, stopped watching the races on the TV is because Mr Ecclestone broke his word to us, namely that all F1 races would always continue to be live on what we consider to be FTA in the UK for as long as he was in charge of the TV rights. He went back on his guarantee to the British public, and the figures show that audiences are diminishing, and in the UK it's certainly largely because only half the races can be seen live on FTA.