Quote:
Originally Posted by chillibowl
Mike offered more of breakdown on what the costs are and while 18/mos just for the F1 channel (which of course requires one to first buy a basic package - which it must be said provides a lot of other content as well) does seem on the surface high...but $10 per race, in relative terms, is a fair amount to pay for several hours of original content.
|
But it's not $10 per race. It's a minimum payment of £40 (52USD, 66CND) just to get F1. That's without any other addon packages. Cable is not a requirement to watch UK TV - we have freeview services, which involve a simple £10 box that you plug into your wall. There is no subscription cost. To go from that, to watching F1, is £40 a month. £40 a month is £480 a year. On a 20 race calendar, that's £24 per race weekend.
Or I can buy WEC, get 8-10 races that are 6 hours each, plus the Le Mans 24 for £40 for the entire year (£4-8 per race depending on calendar). Or I can watch ELMS for free. Or IMSA for free. Or Blancpain for free. Or Creventic. Or BTCC. Or...I think you get my point.
"Is a fair amount to pay", is of course objective. To some it is, to others it is not. To me, it's insulting. I will pay for a product, but I won't pay well over double the cost of any other series to watch it. And frankly, the Sky product isn't as good as the BBC product was a few years ago. So now I have to pay AND get a worse product. I don't see what's too fair about that in all honesty.
Also, a lot of channels (Eurosport, for example) offer the ability to subscribe to the channel online for a reduction in cost. About £10-£15 a month IIRC. That is 3 channels, for less than 1 F1 channel, and doesn't include the need for the basic package of £22 a month. So...value for money?
If you use Virgin Media (the only real competitor to Sky in the UK), you get shafted even more. The F1 channel does not come as a stand-alone and you must get the base package, plus the entire Sky Sports package, at am cost of £32. So that £40 has become closer to £60.
None of this includes the UK TV license, which is a lovely ~£150 a year on top of all this.
I'm failing to see the value for money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b00gYutqcdo
F1 forced me to go embrace other motorsports, partially due to the restrictive nature of watching the series. As someone who is not well off, and does struggle by every month, I feel unwanted by F1. The sport has placed itself above me, and does not want my business. It actively goes out of the way to keep the price artificially high by refusing to offer services that other TV channels offer at significantly lower cost. It is restrictive, elitist and significantly more expensive than any other motorsport to watch. Whilst some can justify paying for it (and that's fine - pay what you want for something you enjoy), it is a bit insulting to suggest that it is "fair".
Maybe I'm just being a bit of an arse here, but I do consider myself a long term F1 fan (not as long as many here, but 1993-now is not bad IMO), and yet I find myself completely unaware of F1 races at weekends now because it's shut me out. But it's not a problem - I'm engrossed in this completely free HD stream that ELMS is providing for me to watch, on the world's biggest streaming platform. And when that's done, I'll stick on IMSA. And I'll appreciate these for the extra effort they put in to make the sport accessible to me. I don't want to play the "I'm not watching anymore" card, but I do think it's important this side is voiced.