F1 goes to Sky sports

[andy666]

Lets keep this thread going as long as possible, what other way do we as fans have to express our opinions ? I would love it if Bernie, the Beeb and the phone hacker had a look at this forum ! (well we can hope) How did it feel when you got mugged Mr Ecclestone? Now you know how F1 fans feel

[medius]

If Sky got NASCAR back, then it might be worth taking out a subs. But unfortunately, F1, Indycar and Speedway isn't enough to be worth it.

[LandieLad]

Probably a silly question but how did the television rights end up in the hands of one person / organisation ?

[Sodemo]

I know that "F1" as a sport isn't on the "gold list" or whatever its called (the sporting events that are protected), however I was under the impression that the "British GP" as a one-off event was. I believe though, that assumption by myself is wrong. There is no protected status of F1 on British free-to-air TV.

Anyway, I hope its a terrible failure and everyone involved loses a shed load of money.

[Knowlesy]

I do like Sky Sports, they are excellent at what they do.

But I can't afford them for the foreseeable future and I have already kind of tuned out of F1 anyways, so that is one viewer lost for sure. I can imagine this is very common.

So overall, for F1, it is bad news indeed. Still, at least the BBC have their nice and pretty new headquarters

[warweezil]

Originally Posted by jab

However, having said that, I think at least half of the "outraged" people ranting on the net today will probably still watch on Sky (in some way, shape or form)

No option here - poor reception area - especially since the digital rip off was foisted on us.

BUT... I'm on a half price package, its the only way I can do it, and I had to hold out for 5 months with useless reception until Sky made me a 50% off offer to reconnect, when that goes.. Sky goes off again.. and the game starts again. NO WAY will there be any sports package added - ever.

The F1 fan here is also a Moto Gp fan. so allegiance and viewing will concentrate there, but I havent watched a season of F1 since about '05, and only this year enjoyed a couple of races, But I wont bother again except for the BGP (Playing spot the Marshal) as that will be on BBC.

[Oldtony]

Originally Posted by LandieLad

Probably a silly question but how did the television rights end up in the hands of one person / organisation ?

Bernie did a deal with Max Mosley when he became FIA president. It lasts for !00 years rights and he got it for peanuts.
Interestingly Bernie did a similar deal with Gribkowsky to get it back. Now that deal is being investigated for being not exactly kosher. Wonder why the original was never investigated.
We have some very interesting people in F1. And Rupert is another interesting addition.

[Bodysnatcher]

never had Sky, never will have Sky.
What I noticed on the Autosport site was what Martin Whitmarsh said about Sky getting "all the practice sessions and everything else"

So no qualifying on the BBC, and goodbye red button & Iplayer for all of it bar their half share of the GPs? And how will the 1/2 share be decided? Individual bids or turn about based arond the British GP.

[JBT]

Originally Posted by LandieLad

Probably a silly question but how did the television rights end up in the hands of one person / organisation ?

IIRC mainly by Bernie telling the other teams he could get a better deal for them in terms of TV revenue if they formed an association (FOCA).

So looks like we are partially going back to the days of 1978 in terms of UK coverage of GP racing...!

[Flavio Galtieri]

Originally Posted by andy97

To be strictly accurate Murdoch does not own Sky, he is a 39% shareholder & has withdrawn his proposal to take it over fully.

Murdoch effectively runs Sky. He has a minority stake of 39% and non involved shareholders in it for the dividends his strategy provides are the rest.

Any suggestion that he is not in control was quashed yesterday when James Murdoch, still being investigated for corruption and bribery by the Met, FBI and Parliament was unanimously re-appointed chairman. Money talks not morality so no surprise there then.

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

I too hate football and will not pay to line the pockets of the likes of Rooney and I think from my findings many motorsport fans feel the same way with a passionate dislike of football.

Do people honestly think like this?

Could you list all the things you buy and pay for so I can do a moral check for you?

[gregc]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Do people honestly think like this?

In what way do you mean? I won't have Sky at least partly out of principle, I don't see why that should be so surprising.

[Knowlesy]

Well lovely stuff, but again I am sure the people taking the moral high-ground have paid for services or items that have links to some kind of immoral happenings. Your keyboard was probably constructed by slave labour in China or something.

I find it rather embarrassing, but hey-ho. We better not drag this off topic.

[Bodysnatcher]

So, if we have a turn about sytem based around the BBC having the British GP, here's how the 2011 season would have worked with Sky.

live exclusive to Sky
Bahrain * (yes I know it was cancelled, but it should have been there)
Malaysia
Turkey
Monaco
Valencia
Germany
Spa
Singapore
Korea
Abu Dhabi.

so what would us Sky averse fans have missed?

[jondownunder]

A little shocked but frankly, F1 has been up it's own **** for so many years now that it's patently obvious they couldn't give a toss for the fans. Williams' Adam Parr talking to Autosport seems to be backing the poison dwarf and defending this mess. Virtually everyone involved in F1 teams can't see beyond their own little world, utterly missing the bigger picture.

Oh well, plenty of purer, less sanitised and vastly more entertaining forms of motorsport out there to watch still, events you can actually afford to go to in person and where you aren't treated like battery hens and fenced off from access to the paddock and a bunch of prima donna t**ts.

[Knowlesy]

Six pretty awful races!

[Alan Raine]

There's already a petition.

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/keepf1onthebbc

If they get 100,000 it's possibly debated in Parliament

[Bodysnatcher]

aye, Parr's comments seem to be defending his company's bottom line and bugger all else

[andy666]

Good point

[davyboy]

Everyone knows that Bernie's a lying conniving cock... he always has been. But the blame for this lands at the door of the Beeb. They were offered it. They can afford it. They chose not to take it. In fact they chose to back out of it before the end of their contract. If they were beholden to their viewers, they would have had to prioritise their expenditure accordingly in order to outbid Sky. But they're not.

[jab]

Hate to say it but as much as I hate Murdoch, I agree with Knowlesy here. I think Sky will do a good job with it - we may even finally get Ben Edwards. It's more the principle that hurts, and the fact that I only see exclusive Sky coverage as the future once everyone gets used to it being there. The BBC's viewing figures will drop too as a result of this, so it won't last there

And Davyboy, the BBC can't afford it. They've dropped it here - they had an exclusive deal for another year. It was F1 or BBC4 for the chop

[old man]

As I have an extensive Sky package already and have had for years I will obviously keep watching but that does not mean I am happy about it. Sky say they will not show adverts which is a relief, see http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/07/2...-adverts-2012/ but the main reason we have Sky is for the channels that show Sportscar and GT racing and so that the lady of the house can watch some films.
We should keep objecting though and I see that F1 fanatic has a link to FOTA.
BBC could always do a deal to show the new Sports Car World Championship, I suspect they would get that free if they tried, that might just concentrate Bernie's thinking?

[steve_r]

Give Sky live coverage to the Valencia GP

[dyewat808]

Originally Posted by old man

...
BBC could always do a deal to show the new Sports Car World Championship, I suspect they would get that free if they tried, that might just concentrate Bernie's thinking?

Now that would be nice. If the "other half" of F1 did get replaced with something else it would be nice. Highly unlikely, but we can dream!

[safc_fan89]

They will bring back repeats of Murder She Wrote, My Family and other programmes that cost very little or nothing to broadcast. Or they will build another media centre in Aberdeen or somewhere, for no apparent reason.