[Rumours] BBC to drop F1?

[Louis Agilais]

This is a bigger problem than people seem to realize. I actually live in a place where F1 is broadcasted by payTV. 2 consequences:

1 - Only the hard core, addicted fans will pay for it - so, the TV station realizes this quite clearly and ends up doing absolutelly no effort in turning the transmission more pleasant. The result? We've got a deadpan commentator who they don't even send to the location. he is alone sitting on a studio receiving the world feed and he could be transmitting the Royal Wedding that would be the same. Before (for some 10 years now) the public station broadcasted F1 on the main channel at Sundays afternoon with all the ocasional audience that means; it was the only alternative sport (meaning other than football) to get that honour (basketball, tennis, etc would go and still go to our "BBC 2" or "BBC 4")

2 - There's no new fans. F1 has that amazing hability of grabbing people and turn them into fans. No way that hapenning outside a public broadcaster. From an alternative sport with reasonable audience, has turned into a niche sport with an audience increasingly smaller until eventually we all die.

Enjoy it while you can.

[Andy77]

Originally Posted by Mr V

Freesat HD and Freeview HD are free?

Above mentioned HD channels (+NHK World HD) are Free-To-Air TV on Astra 2 satelite at 28.2° east. Plus a galore of free SD channels including all the regional BBC ones. At http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html you can find an overview of all Sat channels at above mentioned Satposition but note that at the bottom of the page there is a colour code which indicates free-to-air and encrypted channels.

All free-to-air SD channels are possible to watch using a simple SD receiver plus universal lnb. For free-to-air HD channels a simple HD receiver such as the Comag SL40HD (it does SD too) is enough in combination with an universal lnb, of course.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by Louis Agilais

This is a bigger problem than people seem to realize. I actually live in a place where F1 is broadcasted by payTV. 2 consequences:

1 - Only the hard core, addicted fans will pay for it - so, the TV station realizes this quite clearly and ends up doing absolutelly no effort in turning the transmission more pleasant. The result? We've got a deadpan commentator who they don't even send to the location. he is alone sitting on a studio receiving the world feed and he could be transmitting the Royal Wedding that would be the same. Before (for some 10 years now) the public station broadcasted F1 on the main channel at Sundays afternoon with all the ocasional audience that means; it was the only alternative sport (meaning other than football) to get that honour (basketball, tennis, etc would go and still go to our "BBC 2" or "BBC 4")

2 - There's no new fans. F1 has that amazing hability of grabbing people and turn them into fans. No way that hapenning outside a public broadcaster. From an alternative sport with reasonable audience, has turned into a niche sport with an audience increasingly smaller until eventually we all die.

Enjoy it while you can.

Somewhat off-topic here, but you've raised a thought that I can't explain, hopefully one of our learned forum visiters will.
I understand that, when I was a youngster, BBC1 was the 'main' BBC TV Channel, and BBC2 was the minority channel, as for a short time, BBC1 was available on the old 405 lines system, but BBC2 was only available on the new 625 lines system, meaning a new TV to be able to watch it.
Now that the analogue TV signal is being switched off, making all British TV reception digital, everyone who can receive the signal will be able to receive ALL of the BBC stations. In that case, why is it still considered important which one of these channels shows which program?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by wnut

You have to pay the licence fee!
You have no choice no matter what is on.
So there is no extracost in watching racing on BBC.
If it goes to pay TV, then you are going to be hit for more money, plus the same BBC licence fee (the sunk cost).

Once you have paid your licence fee anything you want to watch that is actually given to you becomes free. You do not get a discount if there is nothing that you want to watch do you?

Of course there's no discount, though if you buy some of the Sky packages, it works out a little cheaper than buying individual subscriptions for the various channels they offer.

The fact you have to pay a licence fee means it costs to watch TV in the UK, though in the case of the BBC and ITV there is no additional cost to the viewer, which I think is what you are saying.

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by Mr V

Freesat HD and Freeview HD are free?

As Andy outlined, there is no subscription, it is just equipment costs. Freeview HD boxes costs around 50 quid these days. Most Freesat gear these days is HD.

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

Now that the analogue TV signal is being switched off, making all British TV reception digital, everyone who can receive the signal will be able to receive ALL of the BBC stations. In that case, why is it still considered important which one of these channels shows which program?

Because these channels have their own identities basically. DSO won't finish until next year for that matter. BBC Alba isn't available outside Scotland, and there are the other national BBC2s (Wales with the rugby for example).

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

The fact you have to pay a licence fee means it costs to watch TV in the UK, though in the case of the BBC and ITV there is no additional cost to the viewer, which I think is what you are saying.

[EXTREMELY_ANAL]And Channel 4 and Channel 5, plus the plethora of pap on the other Freeview and Freesat channels.[/EXTREMELY_ANAL]

[bella]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

As Andy outlined, there is no subscription, it is just equipment costs. Freeview HD boxes costs around 50 quid these days. Most Freesat gear these days is HD.

if you buy a telly now all are freeview enabled, and some are freesat and freeview hd enabled too. all you need to do is plug it into an aerial or a dish. some are also internet tv enabled, so if your internet connection is stable enough you can get iplayer on hd through your tv as well.

it's services like iplayer (the bbc were pioneers of that really weren't they) that people easily forget too. that's one of the high points of the bbc's service.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by bella

if you buy a telly now all are freeview enabled, and some are freesat and freeview hd enabled too. all you need to do is plug it into an aerial or a dish. some are also internet tv enabled, so if your internet connection is stable enough you can get iplayer on hd through your tv as well.

it's services like iplayer (the bbc were pioneers of that really weren't they) that people easily forget too. that's one of the high points of the bbc's service.

BBC iplayer uses Kontiki, which is a peer-to-peer file sharing programme and it is also used by similar services like Sky Broadband and Channel 4's 4oD. 4oD has been around as long as BBC iplayer, basically since Kontiki became available.

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by Louis Agilais

This is a bigger problem than people seem to realize. I actually live in a place where F1 is broadcasted by payTV. 2 consequences:

1 - Only the hard core, addicted fans will pay for it - so, the TV station realizes this quite clearly and ends up doing absolutelly no effort in turning the transmission more pleasant. The result? We've got a deadpan commentator who they don't even send to the location. he is alone sitting on a studio receiving the world feed and he could be transmitting the Royal Wedding that would be the same. Before (for some 10 years now) the public station broadcasted F1 on the main channel at Sundays afternoon with all the ocasional audience that means; it was the only alternative sport (meaning other than football) to get that honour (basketball, tennis, etc would go and still go to our "BBC 2" or "BBC 4")

2 - There's no new fans. F1 has that amazing hability of grabbing people and turn them into fans. No way that hapenning outside a public broadcaster. From an alternative sport with reasonable audience, has turned into a niche sport with an audience increasingly smaller until eventually we all die.

Enjoy it while you can.

Good points and sums it up quite well. Trouble is I don't think Murdoch will see it that way. His organisation are only intrested in increasing their subsription base and even if they only get 10% of the 6 million audience being qouted for the UK to subsribe, their making more money. Some will already have Sky Sports and I'm sure they'll be hit with a pay per view charge. The advertising they'll be able to sell in the breaks will cover the cost of the TV rights, which if they manage to take the sport over from CVC will I'm sure be very favourable. They have no interest in the soul of the sport or the ordinary fan, they're just interested in money although I've no doubt we'll get a whole lot of guff about how they want to help make the sport better etc etc.

From my point of view if it were to go to Sky Sports, I simply cannot justify the cost at this time. I'm a fan of 30 years and although it has it's problems at the moment I still watch it. Times are hard at present economically and the arrival of my daughter last year has pulled finances even tighter. When I recently added up the monthly cost of having a child and took into account my reduced pay packet (no bonus' and a paycut) my wife's reduced income (now working part time) and the general increases in just about everything, I was shocked at how much our disposable income has gone down. We still have a fair bit of head room but cannot justify another £20 plus possible pay per view charges every month.

Having said all that we've still got the coverage until 2013 and I think this is going to rumble on for the majority of that period. Who knows what will be the eventual outcome, sadly the view of the fans (arguable the people who make the sport what it is) will be completely irrelevant. I'm sure Murdoch will gain some sort of foothold/control as I think he's been agitating for a while now. The only positive I can see at the moment is that some of the old guard may be moved on and some of the constant bickering and politics may be finally put to bed. Maybe that's too much to expect and who knows where we will be come 2014. As Louis says enjoy it while you can.

[bella]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

BBC iplayer uses Kontiki, which is a peer-to-peer file sharing programme and it is also used by similar services like Sky Broadband and Channel 4's 4oD. 4oD has been around as long as BBC iplayer, basically since Kontiki became available.

fair points, though i always found 4od a bit... amateur. it didn't quite look and work as well as iplayer did when it first started out, so i'm thinking it was a pioneer in the "here's the technology, and it's the best out there".

how much more does it cost the bbc to have radio rights as well as tv rights?

also worth remembering that we sell our coverage on to other countries, and the radio coverage is used by the fanvision screens, isn't it? so it's not that they spend all that money on the rights and get no return at all.

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

BBC iplayer uses Kontiki, which is a peer-to-peer file sharing programme and it is also used by similar services like Sky Broadband and Channel 4's 4oD. 4oD has been around as long as BBC iplayer, basically since Kontiki became available.

I don't think iPlayer uses Kontiki any more - just streaming - although could be wrong.

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by JamesH

I don't think iPlayer uses Kontiki any more - just streaming - although could be wrong.

You can download programmes using Kontiki as well.

[fourWheelDrift]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

You can download programmes using Kontiki as well.

Kontiki is peer to peer and was removed when iPlayer abandoned P2P some years ago. Now downloaded programs come straight from the BBC servers (or some ISP cache en route but that's not an issue).

Kontiki was dire and while it was in use I did not download using iPlayer. The new version of iPlayer however is really good.