F1 goes to Sky sports

[Paulaweybridge]

Oh Gee, it's time for Eastenders

Bye for now guys & gals ...

[SWCRacing]

What exactly will Sky be bringing to improve the TV coverage? They will be getting exactly the same world feed as any other broadcaste (produced by Berinie's own FOM TV). Longer pre reace or post race show? They are long enough as it is, and if they put Keith Huewen in the chair they would be appalling!!

The Beeb should bin Wimbledon coverage!! If EVER there was a minority sport, Tennis is it! The viewing figures are lower than for F1, and ahen was the last time anyone British was anything other than an abject failure?? 1976!!!

Crap decision, for crap reasons. Taken by Liberal, politically correct t*ssers!!!

[stylish]

is f1 the only sport the bbc are cutting back on? only just seen the news and it saddens me to say that 2011 will be the last season i watch F1, no way will i subscribe to Sky as i think its a total rip off.

So much for the fans being important, thanks bernie for taking the greatest show on earth away from the masses around the world.

[Fox89]

Originally Posted by davyboy

I'm not sure I can tell the difference between real outrage and spouted outrage. All I can say is that this is a travesty. It's a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham. Now, is that real, spouted or a wolf cry

You mean... a disgrace? :P

[SWCRacing]

Seeing as The Dwarf is now saying that things need to be finalised, as well as saying that the Concorde Agreement doesnt matter as they dont need one, can I suggest that everyone who is furious about this decisoin emails FOTA to register their disgust at the little tw*t's decision?

info@teamsassociation.org

Bet a shed load of emails complaining will focus Mr Whitmarsh and the others?

[DanJR1]

be nice if the BBC took on the WRC properly now but it won't happen

[bjohnsonsmith]

I wouldn't be surprised if some in the BBC see F1 as an elitist, rich man's sport.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I wouldn't be surprised if some in the BBC see F1 as an elitist, rich man's sport.

The champagne socialists there certainly do... and that's most of them.

[safc_fan89]

Originally Posted by Silk Cut Jaguar

Maybe the viewing figures will go down which will in turn have an impact on sponsorship. Maybe. But I guarantee that the increased TV revenue from Sky will keep the teams books in the black..

I doubt it. You know how little of the money from TV deals goes to the teams. We're talking about one country of many. Relatively speaking, whatever the teams stand to gain will be hardly anything as there are 10 teams that might share an extra few million quid or so. Unless Sky have broken the bank to get the coverage, but there would be no need for them to do so as there are no other takers.

[safc_fan89]

The funniest thing is how Bernie and some of the team bosses think that viewing figures will increase as a result of this. You can understand maybe someone from Renault, who may not understand how TV works in this country, but not Bernie and Martin Whitmarsh. Everyone with Sky Sports has the BBC. One of the more amusing things from the quotes today. Bernie must have them all conned.

[Ubique]

Why is this not a surprise?

The Bloated Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a joke with very poor programming and is run by Guardian reading ecomentalists who keep trying to ram their neo-socialist ideology down our throats at every opportunity, I'm not sure if you remember this but BBC News was boycotted by the crews of Royal Navy ships during the Iraq war because all of their reporters were constantly bad mouthing the troops and trying to say that every British soldier was a war criminal. Baring this in mind is it a surprise that they aren't really interested in what they see as a rich mans sport.

I have Sky and wouldn't mind them having F1 if it meant I didn't have to pay the BBC Tax. I only watch F1, Top Gear and Dr Who on the BBC and object to being forced to pay for the other crap that they broadcast.

The BBC are to blame here as they chose to keep minority channels like BBC3 and BBC4 which hardly anyone watches rather than a popular show like F1.

[Paulaweybridge]

I love Motor Racing but also love Tennis and I don't know what I would do during the Wimbledon fortnight if it went to Pay TV.....

We might not have won a title there for years but we have had top players in Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and now Andy Murray who is No 3 in the world.

Some 8.8million viewers watched his delayed match against Ivan Ljubicic on the Friday night – more than a third of all people watching television at the time.

This is what the Evening Standard said tonight.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ve-coverage.do

Originally Posted by SWCRacing

The Beeb should bin Wimbledon coverage!! If EVER there was a minority sport, Tennis is it! The viewing figures are lower than for F1, and ahen was the last time anyone British was anything other than an abject failure?? 1976!!!

Crap decision, for crap reasons. Taken by Liberal, politically correct t*ssers!!!

[Tim Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by MagnetON

Slightly OT but get a hold of the Tom Bower Bernie biography, it's a good read!

Really? I couldn't get past the first 70 pages. The author knows next to nothing about racing and I figured that if he couldn't be bothered to fact check some simple things like race results (or spellings of names!) then the rest of the book be viewed as little more than fiction.

I think the BBC / Sky decision says a lot about two of Bernie's views -

1. what he gets out of any deal is always more important than what the punter wants (that does come across strongly in what I could stomach of the Bower novel) - that includes the teams, sponsors, fans and broadcasters;

and
2. the UK is no longer an important market for F1. It doesn't matter if F1 loses up to 8m viewers / potential consumers, because there's billions in other economies who now have the money to cough up. It's the same as he did with the circuits - the circus goes where the pull (money) is strongest.

How long does Silverstone have the right to host a GP for? What are the chances that the British GP vanishes sooner rather than later because BCE feels that the UK doesn't have a level of interest (TV viewers) to make it viable?

[Flat12-Aircool]

What's surprised me about all this is that I knew a big decision was pending at the BBC about F1, but I thought it was going to be tied in with the future of MotoGP. I thought they were going to have to choose one or the other. But now it looks like we can look forward to watered down coverage of both sports.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by The Real DMN

Final nail in the coffin for me.

Is this going to be the norm? Will F1 return to a level of popularity it had back in the '80s, when it was good?

[Hungary 89]

Only Just heard the news so sorry if some of this is covered elsewhere

Mightily Pi* -Ahem- Annoyed to say the least.

I read Adam Parr's comments saying this is a super expensive sport
so it is reasonable to expect people to pay to watch it

and though I don't like it I can sort of see where he's coming from

But what really gets my goat is the fact that I follow one sport and one sport only and that is the FIA Formula One World Championship but in order to watch the full season I have to pay 30 odd Quid for a sports package that 99.95% of which (sad I know but I did the Maths) I have absolutely no interest in

If they are going to do this (and I'd much prefer that they didn't) I think I'd prefer pay per view.

[Rennen]

When I was a kid the BBC only showed the British and Monaco GPs !

Four separate members of my family won't be paying Sky to view!

I've got an Astra Satalite Dish, so I'll be tuning into RTL Austria instead with the German sound off and Ant & Crofty turned up on Radio 5 Live instead!

[Super Hans]

I'm disappointed because I've really enjoyed the BBC coverage. Will I stop watching F1? No. I think Sky has damaged football, and may also damage F1, but I'll pay my money and suck it up because I don't want to miss out.

[Stefvh]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I wouldn't be surprised if some in the BBC see F1 as an elitist, rich man's sport.

And it is.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Rennen

When I was a kid the BBC only showed the British and Monaco GPs !

If you had to name one man who was responsible for making F1 into a huge global sport where every race and every qualifying has to be on telly otherwise we are outraged. Even practice sessions are expected to be available! Who would you go for?

Stupid dwarf.

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by Stefvh

And it is.

Only if you want to compete. If you want to watch it's no more elitist or expensive than any other sport (or it should be).

[andy29uk]

I wish the BBC would have considered charging, say, £5 to watch each race. I would have been happy to pay that if it meant their coverage could continue.

[Adam43]

PAY FOR IT! Are you joking, why should I have to pay? This sport and that channel owes me.

[Stefvh]

Originally Posted by JamesH

Only if you want to compete. If you want to watch it's no more elitist or expensive than any other sport (or it should be).

On television, yes, not at the track

[herowassenna]

Originally Posted by Fox89

He says "The BBC might yet do the entire race deferred". Now, if they do THAT, and slap their own commentary team over the top, I won't be too upset. Waiting a few hours for a re-run of the race is something I can live with.

Originally Posted by JamesH

to be honest, the BBC coverage is as good as it needs to be for me to watch it.

The BBC also do a lot of stuff on the Red button, which, to be honest, I don't bother with

I record every race on a hard disk recorder. Sometimes an early morning race I may start watching half way through the running of the event and watch "live" an hour after it's happening. If it's a European race and I have dinner invite or a BBQ I'll watch in the evening, usually having avoided the media telling me who won. Either way, I will record the race to DVD afterwards and I'll remove the buildup because most of it is mis-informed opinions. Jake, Eddie and "red bull" DC have their own agendas.
My recording will start with Brundle's grid walk if interesting, but if he's talking to some Sultan or Liz Hurley or Poof Diddy, I just remove it. I will keep all the race and podium celebrations and then just the drivers press conference. Effectively a 3 hour transmission has been reduced to just under 2.
I've watched the highlights programme, sometimes because they don't show the top 3 being interviewed. So deferring the race or giving me highlights doesnt faze me.
I don't know if anyone was a watcher of BBC coverage in the early 80's but Sunday Grandstand started with 5 laps of a race, followed by cricket for an hour, then another 5 laps followed by snooker and you had to watch the whole afternoon to get the race result. In the evening, 45mins of highlights.
I hated ITV because of adverts, but again, I'd start recording the race and watch it with a delay of 45 mins to fast forward through them before editing them to place them on DVD for archive.

I won't pay for Sky. I do not agree paying for Sports channels which are full of Sports that I have absolutely no interest in. Top level tennis, i have watched since the 1980's, World Cup Football and MotoGP, thats it.
I absolutely hate football and can't stomach the World Cup, darts, golf, cricket, swimming, rowing, horse racing.... yawn yawn yawn.
Head over to Sky, but I doubt they would have 20% of the current viewers that the BBC has.

Final point: the cynic in me believes that BE has been working on this for 2 or 3 years. I believe DRS, KERS and Pirelli's custom tyres have been encouraged to raise the casual viewer figures to make F1 more attractive to the Sky business model