uk f1 tv coverage - sky, bbc and ch4

[GT6]

I remember watching motor racing when i was young, my parents had no interest in motor racing so would never have paid for it and if todays youngsters never see it then they will never get interested in it so potential fans are lost, not many people can afford to watch F1 at a circuit so television or on line streaming is the only option for them, if it becomes expensive they will go elsewhere. Greed from some executives harms the sport and in the modern world there are plenty of other sports only to willing to jump in and welcome fans. Free coverage to everyone not only draws in the fans it also safeguards the future fan base, look at Boxing once a mainstream sport in the UK and other countries with huge audiences on telly now it hardly gets a mention as it slowly dies as minority interest and it's death is almost entirely down to pay to view. If i have to pay to watch something it only happens if i have a strong interest, but that interest came from a time when it was free to watch todays new fans need to be tempted and without them all sports slowly suffer a gradual demise.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by GT6

i disagree completely, the only reason major sponsors are involved is the coverage that they get in the markets they sell in so with falling audiences and also the narrowing of that audience to the point where only those paying high fees for it then the returns the sponsors will get will reduce the return on that investment. Yes there are sponsors who spend company money for there own reasons but they are small fry now days and will never bring in enough to run a top team. If F1 goes totally pay to view then IMHO it will slowly die

This is exactly what happened to IndyCar. Falling TV audiences and poor track attendance, meant the big sponsors who had formerly been associated with CART, ended up at NASCAR, or retained by the dominant teams, namely Ganassi and Penske.

[Sodemo]

It happened with boxing. Virtually all boxing now is behind a paywall, however there doesn't appear to be the same kind of corporate sponsorship involved with that sport.

[chunder]

The thing about boxing is, it is coming back to a certain extent, PPV is only really for the huge fights, the massive world title fights in Vegas.

You can still access boxing on terrestrial channels and bizarrely live on the radio which is a surprisingly good medium to listen to it in!!

But yes if you want to watch the big stuff live it has been behind paywalls for decades.

Reason? People are happy to pay for it. The Mayweather Pacquiou fight was being sold for over 100 dollars towards the end, so there was a desire and need.

We are cretins for doing things like that, but the fault is largely ours let's face it. if we didn't pay for it, it would die off and come back to terrestrial channels.

[Akrapovic]

https://www.youtube.com/user/Formula1

6 minute highlight videos on YouTube, with a bunch of other content too. Now I don't follow F1 as much as I used to (largely due to PayTV), but this seems like a new approach does it not?

Having events on YouTube does massively increase exposure to younger people, because despite what us oldies think, the younger generations would rather watch YouTube than TV.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

https://www.youtube.com/user/Formula1

6 minute highlight videos on YouTube, with a bunch of other content too. Now I don't follow F1 as much as I used to (largely due to PayTV), but this seems like a new approach does it not?

Having events on YouTube does massively increase exposure to younger people, because despite what us oldies think, the younger generations would rather watch YouTube than TV.

Seems like a good way to generate a younger interest - where a full 2hr race may not appeal, but a short highlights package will.
In time, the interest may develop to a desire for the full length version, and lets face it, probably every incident can be covered in 6 minutes with no need to watch a procession.

[S griffin]

I agree too, nice to see they're starting to go where Bernie refused into social media and getting short clips, which should hopefully get more fans into the sport

[wolfhound]

If I recall correctly sky have exclusive live coverage of F1 in the UK next season. sky did the deal with Bernie shortly after C4 took over from the BBC.

I am wondering how Liberty are going to deal with this in relation C4 (or other FTA channel). C4 are doing a very good job with the 50% of the races they cover live. I suspect some sort of deal will need to be done over the summer months if not sooner if Liberty want to try and grow the sport but what can they offer FTA viewers other than delayed highlights (or even delayed full races)?
The British GP has to be available on FTA televison so there will have to be a deal done for it as well.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

The British GP has to be available on FTA televison so there will have to be a deal done for it as well.

No, the British GP doesn't have to be, it isn't listed as a must be on FTA. It's entirely up to the Liberty if they want to insist on it being Live FTA.

Current listing

Article from February this year

The next FTA package could easily be highlights of 19 + British Live or 18 highlights plus British and final round (even though the title may already be decided).
With Liberty looking to increase the races it could be still 10 live, only out of 25 races. who knows?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

If I recall correctly sky have exclusive live coverage of F1 in the UK next season. sky did the deal with Bernie shortly after C4 took over from the BBC.

Channel 4 publicise their deal as being until the end of 2018. http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/channel-4-becomes-terrestrial-home-of-formula-1

From 2019, it's Sky only. With full British GP and highlights of other races on a free-to-air channel http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35889736

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Channel 4 publicise their deal as being until the end of 2018. http://www.channel4.com/info/press/n...e-of-formula-1

From 2019, it's Sky only. With full British GP and highlights of other races on a free-to-air channel http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35889736

Hopefully Liberty Media will redress that. F1 stands to lose viewers if coverage solely goes to Sky.

[S griffin]

Yeah I hope Liberty see their sense, they've done a good job so far, so hopefully this will be no different

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Hopefully Liberty Media will redress that. F1 stands to lose viewers if coverage solely goes to Sky.

I guess it depends on how people can access the FTA channel being referred to. Terrestrial broadcast is being phased out by streaming and Smart TV's, so perhaps Liberty will take F1 in the UK from being restricted from Youtube, to a free streaming service in less than 5 yrs?

[Mike Harte]

Hasn't Germany announced recently that F1 will no longer be available of FTA, and only on pay-to-view?

[F1Guy]

No free-to-air F1 in UK says Sean Bratches, confirming SkyF1's deal will stay until end of 2014.


Sean Bratches: "That deal is immutable."

"That deal is an agreement that we inherited, and these deals are done between two adult parties at an arm's length distance.

"So my suspicion is that Sky is very happy with that deal and we're going to honour and respect the deals that were in place when we arrived."

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

No free-to-air F1 in UK says Sean Bratches, confirming SkyF1's deal will stay until end of 2014.


Sean Bratches: "That deal is immutable."

"That deal is an agreement that we inherited, and these deals are done between two adult parties at an arm's length distance.

"So my suspicion is that Sky is very happy with that deal and we're going to honour and respect the deals that were in place when we arrived."

Well that means they've gone over their contract!

[billy bleach]

Smug Ted Kravitz gets reamed out by Toto Wolf - best bit of the race!

[Akrapovic]

Really? Seemed like Toto had a face like a slapped arse because someone didn't put a head rest in properly. I think Toto might be a bit upset that somebody could ask them why they can engineer the best car on the grid, but building lego is beyond them.

Teds question of how it happened was perfectly valid. Did it break due to a fault? Was it hit by debris? Did it not get slipped in right? Did Lewis accidentally break it somehow? Toto was just throwing his carbon fibre toys out the aerodynamic pram. Easier to get the toys out when the headrest has already fallen out mind you.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Really? Seemed like Toto had a face like a slapped arse because someone didn't put a head rest in properly. I think Toto might be a bit upset that somebody could ask them why they can engineer the best car on the grid, but building lego is beyond them.

Teds question of how it happened was perfectly valid. Did it break due to a fault? Was it hit by debris? Did it not get slipped in right? Did Lewis accidentally break it somehow? Toto was just throwing his carbon fibre toys out the aerodynamic pram. Easier to get the toys out when the headrest has already fallen out mind you.

I watched C4's coverage and therefore missed all this, so thanks for the summary.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Really? Seemed like Toto had a face like a slapped arse because someone didn't put a head rest in properly. I think Toto might be a bit upset that somebody could ask them why they can engineer the best car on the grid, but building lego is beyond them.

Teds question of how it happened was perfectly valid. Did it break due to a fault? Was it hit by debris? Did it not get slipped in right? Did Lewis accidentally break it somehow? Toto was just throwing his carbon fibre toys out the aerodynamic pram. Easier to get the toys out when the headrest has already fallen out mind you.

I think Toto did indeed Team him out due to "pursuit of the guilty" line of questioning. Kravitz only back pedalled and suggested maybe it was a compnant fault after Toto pointed out that he was not going to sacrifice someone on live TV and maybe Kravitz could see one of his F1 meal tickets vaporising

[Adam43]

Ted never asked him to single someone out! He asked what happened. His "backtracking" wasn't that, just suggesting an alternate hypothesis consistent with trying to find out what happened. Any reaction that Ted had was understandable to the over the top response from Christian.

If Ted had sugar coated it from the beginning that might deserve the meal ticket comment. Even then it would probably be unfair.

I have just watched it. I turned off after the race, but thought I'd see some reaction. The story here is Ted asked a resonable question, Christian over reacted, but was probably worked up after everything that happened in that race.

[Akrapovic]

I'm pretty sure it's a perfectly valid question - why did the headrest come loose and cost Lewis (what would've turned out to be) an easy win? I mean we could return to the glory days of ITV F1 pundits where Mark Blundell would explain why pole position gave you an advantage, and he'd manage it all whilst standing up without dribbling. Only the hard hitting stuff back then.

I'm glad we actually have someone asking real questions, even if it does mean that we get to see the team principles look like a 2 year old that got their dummy taken off of them. Makes a change from FOM selectively playing radios that make drivers look like children - we get to see that the team principles can be just as bad too. Toto could've given the standard of answer of we're not sure yet and we'll need to look at the components, but there was no report of debris or anything from Lewis, but ain't nobody can time for that when you can have a go at a reporter asking you why your team just ballsed it up.

I highlight doubt Teds access is going to be an issue given his job is to ask people questions, and Toto isn't his boss. I imagine Sky will be asking Ted to do more of that, since FOM clearly loves artificial drama to get some talking points. I say Ted earned a bonus for upsetting the big bad Wolff

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I mean we could return to the glory days of ITV F1 pundits where Mark Blundell would explain why pole position gave you an advantage, and he'd manage it all whilst standing up without dribbling. Only the hard hitting stuff back then.

What Hamilton's headrest done did was...

[bella]

not sure about anyone else but i've always found ted's manner to be a bit tabloid and annoying, so perhaps it's more of a straw breaking the camels back affair rather than that being the sole cause of the rant?

[wolfhound]

Originally Posted by bella

not sure about anyone else but i've always found ted's manner to be a bit tabloid and annoying,

That one of the reasons I dislike anything that involves the Murdock organizations and some of them are more than a bit tabloid.