uk f1 tv coverage - sky, bbc and ch4

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by gary396

Yep, same here. I was quite happy with the Channel 4 mix of live / highlights (apart from their lad presenter) but I won't go back to Sky on the off-chance of the odd decent race.

I liked the Channel 4 coverage - and I thought Steve Jones was great as the anchor - he kept things moving and controlled the various pundits well. I could happily lose Webber and Wolff from their lineup though (Webber duplicated Coulthard but wasn't as good and Wolff added nothing).

This season I'll watch the Channel 4 highlights on catchup at some point in the week after the race I'd have thought. Not getting Sky.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Greem

Common misconception (not accusing you of this, Mike) on that last bit: you need a TV licence if you watch broadcast TV in any way, shape or form - and that includes via Sky or Virgin, or online using BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, 4OD etc.

Graeme, I had added that bit for those that do not live in the UK, or were unaware of the UK's TV licencing system, in an attempt to demonstrate that we actually don't have any truly "free to air" TV here!

[gert]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

The opposite applies in the UK.

Liberty owns Virgin Media which is forced to buy F1 coverage from Sky, it's major competitor, that now has the sole live broadcasting rights in the UK. And Virgin, to cover it's costs, charges around £24 per month (last time I looked) to get Sky sports coverage added to their subscription package.

I guess that's because Sky had already a contract (with partial or full exclusivity) before Liberty took over F1?

Another thing that seems to happen there is that at least the package that contains F1 (Sky Sports) can be added to the competitor's subscription package (Virgin).
(With extra costs, probably)

Or did I read that wrong?

That is in any case not true over here. Telenet Sports are exclusive to Telenet, there's no way around that.


Like many of you, I'm not changing providers or paying for extra packages (which are not even available) just to watch F1. Or Indycar, which seems to move to Sky too?


As the owner of a satellite dish, I was lucky enough to catch the Channel 4 coverage.
Free-To-Air.
Now I'm left with German RTL Television (assuming they still have the rights), otherwise I'm done too.

[bella]

Originally Posted by gert

Another thing that seems to happen there is that at least the package that contains F1 (Sky Sports) can be added to the competitor's subscription package (Virgin).
(With extra costs, probably)

Or did I read that wrong?

no, you're correct. sky provide their service to virgin. you can also get sky services through a no-contract option either with a set top box or on a mobile device or computer (called nowtv), which works out ok for one-off events.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by bella

no, you're correct. sky provide their service to virgin. you can also get sky services through a no-contract option either with a set top box or on a mobile device or computer (called nowtv), which works out ok for one-off events.

Yes but even that's £8.99 for just a day, £14.99 for a week or £33.99 per month. Although, if you want to watch it on a mobile, it's just £5.99 per month, but I don't know if you could cast that to a TV or monitor.


And for Gert, the cost to a Virgin customer for the Sky sports package is about £24.00 per month on a minimum 12 month contract.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Yes but even that's £8.99 for just a day, £14.99 for a week or £33.99 per month. Although, if you want to watch it on a mobile, it's just £5.99 per month, but I don't know if you could cast that to a TV or monitor.


And for Gert, the cost to a Virgin customer for the Sky sports package is about £24.00 per month on a minimum 12 month contract.

Makes our Foxtel A$25 (about 13 quid) per month Sports multi channel sub reasonable.
For that we get all sessions live and ad free of F1, F2, F3, Moto GP, WSBK, V8 Supercars, plus live Le Mans, Bathurst 12 Hour, All WEC, Indycar, World Touring cars, and many more. We also get delayed BTCC, WRC, Blancpain, DTM. Interestingly they dropped NASCAR form this years broadcasting.
Oh and non Motor Sport included includes live Rugby (enjoying the 6 Nations this month), Cricket from every Nation, our Aussie Rules, English Football and many American Sports I never bother with.

The biggest problem given our time zone is lack of sleep most Sunday nights!

If I had to go to a Sports Bar to watch even half of what I do watch I would be spending way more in the bar, even at one drink per race.


Edit: Two minutes after posting received as email to tell me Indycar is no longer going to be broadcast live, but instead a one hour post race highlights package.
That actually suits me better as now it wont mean a 5.00am watch, and will avoid the hideous amount of US ad breaks the live coverage suffered from. Also we will not have to endure the never ending full coverage of Pace Car interludes. To me its an improvement.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Yes but even that's £8.99 for just a day, £14.99 for a week or £33.99 per month. Although, if you want to watch it on a mobile, it's just £5.99 per month, but I don't know if you could cast that to a TV or monitor.

the mobile thing also doesn't include f1. sadly. the prices you quote also only include sport, it doesn't include any entertainment channels.

they are, however, advertising a f1 season pass for £195, which is actually competitively priced compared to the f1 tv option. if i had £195 at the moment i'd certainly consider it.

[chillibowl]

listening to people talk prices and thinking more about Richard's earlier suggestion about tiered system of basic free and premium service and where i think my price point would be for a premium service like F1 TV Pro.

online content available for streaming now has a pretty standard price point...around CAN$10/month.

Netflix (CAN$10/month with what - 100 hours of new content each month) or Amazon Prime (CAN$8/m also with tons of content plus free delivery).

sports streaming is of course different but by way of comparison the NBA charges CAN$250 per year for its league pass...but they play like 1200 games a year so price per game is a whopping 25 cents!!! great deal but obviously i cant watch that many games so i dont subscribe - cheaper legitimate ways for me to watch fewer games.

in comparison F1's OTT service while still not available in every major market is around CAN$10/month (changes per region apparently) and given we are only talking about 8-10 hours of new content a month that's expensive by comparison.

you could say $1 dollar an hour is very reasonable but online entertainment (from my point of view) actually has a much lower hourly rate and certainly doesnt pay for itself with free delivery!

anyways, beyond FTA vs cable argument, i think there is a another issue altogether not being addressed....that is people expect things to be cheaper on the internet.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by bella

they are, however, advertising a f1 season pass for £195, which is actually competitively priced compared to the f1 tv option. if i had £195 at the moment i'd certainly consider it.

ouch, thats CAN$350! quite a bit more than i thought.

i guess thats reasonable compared to a traditional cable bill and its sports but well outside where others have set an internet streaming service price point imo.

shame because such a price will not discourage piracy.

[wolfhound]

It was Bernie who did the exclusive sky deal for the UK. It happened shortly after C4 took over from the BBC. To me smelled of sky getting in before C4 figured out what they wanted to in the future as they had not had time to work out what the package was worth verses the production costs and audience figures.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by Greem

It's interesting that Sky have an exclusivity clause in their contract, which means Virgin Media have to pay for the Sky coverage despite being a child company of the company that Sky have the deal with!

I'm going to review my Virgin Media package at the end of the F1 season. The Sky Sports side of things is close to reaching the "not value for money" point for me and the family. That said, I watched more live IndyCar than F1 last year, so it might be a reason to keep the sports package...

It has to be remembered that Virgin (Liberty) are only a platform provider in the UK, they do not have broadcast channels or direct production facilities of their own*. All of the content that they have is "bought in" from other sources. Whether that be, channels from Sky, Discovery, UKTV etc or the PSBs BBC, ITV, C4 and C5.

*Liberty as have a 50% shareholding in All3media Group (Discovery own the other 50%), a UK based but global production and digital distribution organisation which itself owns production companies one of those being NorthOne who are no strangers to F1 paddock having been the production company behind ITVs F1 coverage.

[bella]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

ouch, thats CAN$350! quite a bit more than i thought.

i guess thats reasonable compared to a traditional cable bill and its sports but well outside where others have set an internet streaming service price point imo.

shame because such a price will not discourage piracy.

just under a tenner a race, it's not bad at all. course if you have sky already then it's far easier just to add the f1 channel for a tenner a month, but all things considered...

the f1 tv price i've got in my head is the one in france, it might be different elsewhere.

[Sodemo]

I’d say a large portion of the extortionate UK Sky Sports cost goes towards the UK Premier League rights. I think the other stuff costs peanuts to Sky.

Also my friend in Belgium says he gets a complete cable package with movies and sports for around half what we pay in the UK, which goes to show how much Sky rip you off in the UK.

I think my girlfriend pays over £100 a month for her Sky package.

[justracing]

Originally Posted by E.B

Makes our Foxtel A$25 (about 13 quid) per month Sports multi channel sub reasonable.
For that we get all sessions live and ad free of F1, F2, F3, Moto GP, WSBK, V8 Supercars, plus live Le Mans, Bathurst 12 Hour, All WEC, Indycar, World Touring cars, and many more. We also get delayed BTCC, WRC, Blancpain, DTM. Interestingly they dropped NASCAR form this years broadcasting.
Oh and non Motor Sport included includes live Rugby (enjoying the 6 Nations this month), Cricket from every Nation, our Aussie Rules, English Football and many American Sports I never bother with.

I wish! That's incredibly good value.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by bella

just under a tenner a race, it's not bad at all. course if you have sky already then it's far easier just to add the f1 channel for a tenner a month, but all things considered...

the f1 tv price i've got in my head is the one in france, it might be different elsewhere.

£10 a race seems quite a lot. Especially since the F1 paywall pushed me towards GT and Prototype racing, the vast majority of which is completely free online.

I'll have a hard time justifying why I can watch 1 series for £10 a race, or 5-10 series for free.

[S griffin]

Well Bernie just wanted to grab that cash then run off. No money problems during his "retirement"

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

It has to be remembered that Virgin (Liberty) are only a platform provider in the UK, they do not have broadcast channels or direct production facilities of their own*. All of the content that they have is "bought in" from other sources. Whether that be, channels from Sky, Discovery, UKTV etc or the PSBs BBC, ITV, C4 and C5.

*Liberty as have a 50% shareholding in All3media Group (Discovery own the other 50%), a UK based but global production and digital distribution organisation which itself owns production companies one of those being NorthOne who are no strangers to F1 paddock having been the production company behind ITVs F1 coverage.

You may be overlooking the fact that Liberty also owns 100 percent of FOM, who in turn own 100 percent of the production company that actually produces the live feed from all the Grand Prix weekends.

The only non-FOM feeds permitted are from the licenced F1 broadcasters who are allowed to film in the pits/garages/paddock at certain restricted times. They are also permitted to film their pundits, commentators and guests in their on site studio boxes.

[Adam43]

I thought it was interesting that sky managed to wangle the rights to film trackside and the track when Martin is wandering round. Albeit only in practice.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I thought it was interesting that sky managed to wangle the rights to film trackside and the track when Martin is wandering round. Albeit only in practice.

That forms part of the price that the broadcasters pay to FOM for their rights. This would also include the grid walk just prior to the start of the race, which will be filmed by the broadcasters' own cameras, not FOM's (or possibly the broadcasters may pay to use FOM's camera operators; I don't know).

However, in the case of F1, the moment that the race starts, the only feed permitted comes from the FOM's own production team. That is a noticeable difference to, for example, coverage from the WEC or Aussie V8s where the broadcasters are permitted access to the pit's and garages for live filming and interviews during the course of the race.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

You may be overlooking the fact that Liberty also owns 100 percent of FOM, who in turn own 100 percent of the production company that actually produces the live feed from all the Grand Prix weekends.

The only non-FOM feeds permitted are from the licenced F1 broadcasters who are allowed to film in the pits/garages/paddock at certain restricted times. They are also permitted to film their pundits, commentators and guests in their on site studio boxes.

Not wishing to be pedantic but I believe FOM produce the live feed for all GPs bar Monaco. Monaco has always held its own TV production deal and as such it is the only one event on the calendar not produced by FOM. I believe Monaco is produced by the French/Monagesque TMC company, and is a deal going back to the early sixties, and not changed when FOM took over production of the world feed some years ago..

Edit: For my own peace of mind I just did some research to validate my claim after posting. Confirmation is here: http://f1weekends.com/why-doesnt-fom...feed-coverage/

[justracing]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

My fear is that you Viv and bella will just be two of many in the UK, which has, I believe, traditionally been the largest audience centre in the world. China may have overtaken the UK, although I am not sure on that.

I'm in the same brigade not having Sky or or even access to cable and as Peter M. said, I really don't know if I'm altogether bothered to watch F1 anymore. I do have BT sport which was freebie when I moved a couple of months ago but now that Sky have the Indycar coverage as well as F1 I certainly won't take out a paid subscription for a channel which concentrates on a football games in which I have no interest whatsoever. What puzzles me in all of this is that despite the protestations by many people who I know to be hardcore motor racing fans, Liberty are seemingly carrying on blindly when everyone can see that as means of business expansion their mission is doomed to fail.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by justracing

I'm in the same brigade not having Sky or or even access to cable and as Peter M. said, I really don't know if I'm altogether bothered to watch F1 anymore. I do have BT sport which was freebie when I moved a couple of months ago but now that Sky have the Indycar coverage as well as F1 I certainly won't take out a paid subscription for a channel which concentrates on a football games in which I have no interest whatsoever. What puzzles me in all of this is that despite the protestations by many people who I know to be hardcore motor racing fans, Liberty are seemingly carrying on blindly when everyone can see that as means of business expansion their mission is doomed to fail.

You can get the Sky F1 channel without having football channels. An entertainment package is required.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

You can get the Sky F1 channel without having football channels. An entertainment package is required.

Which seems to start at £22.00 per month for a minimum 18 month contract. Then add the £10 per month, also for 18 months, to get the F1 channel.


I think that not many will consider that to be a vital service to part with their hard earned money.


Well, one must remember that some years ago that Mr E said that his target audience were those that bought and wore Rolex watches. It looks likely that he has now reached that goal!

[justracing]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

You can get the Sky F1 channel without having football channels. An entertainment package is required.

££££'s to my way of thinking and as with many other former ardent F1 fans quite frankly I've pretty much lost interest in recent years. There seems to more interest in Hamilton's dog or a driver's lifestyle than racing. I'll happily watch the highlights if available.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by justracing

££££'s to my way of thinking and as with many other former ardent F1 fans quite frankly I've pretty much lost interest in recent years. There seems to more interest in Hamilton's dog or a driver's lifestyle than racing. I'll happily watch the highlights if available.

I didn't know he had a dog.