Hi all,
Now a bit of time has passed since the whole F1 2012 BBC/Sky coverage news broke, I've looked into the options.
Sky Sports F1 Channel
Sky will have their own F1 channel, available for Sky and Virgin Media customers. If you have Sky HD then you get it free on satellite with them, if you're on VM then you need to buy the Sky Sports package to get the channel.
RTL Channel on Satellite
For those that don't want Sky/VM, one option I've found is to watch the German RTL channel with the BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra commentary alongside. RTL is free to air and covers both the qualifying and race in full. It is only free for the SD feed and I think it is £100 a year to watch it in HD. To pick up this channel, you need a satellite dish pointed at 'Astra 19.2E'. I gather you should be able to re-align an existing Sky dish to this sat (although some parts of the UK may need a larger dish), assuming you don't use it for normal Freesat channels, or you can purchase a second dish for it. Even with a different receiver box included, the whole install can be done well within a £100 one off cost. The problem when I tried it was the sync of Radio 5 Live being out by a few seconds and also the commentary team on 5 Live isn't as good as before.
RTL tech info - http://www.satmania.com/eng/satchannels/rtl_television.html
Dishpointer - http://fr.dishpointer.com/
List of channels on Astra 19.2E - http://www.satmania.com/eng/satchannels/19_2e/astra_1h/
It is possible in some cases to add a second LNB (the receiver on the dish) to an existing dish, but not tried it myself. The second dish was so cheap I just went for that option. You can also get motorised dishes (or make an existing dish motorised), so with a compatible sat box, it will move the dish to the correct sat when you change channel. Very cool but does cost. A motor was £80 odd from a certain electrical part store.
Someone mentioned on here in the other thread about a Polish channel which shows the F1 as well, which is on a different sat, so might be another option on there (could be HD as well?). I believe this is on a sat which is much closer to the normal Freesat one, so it is much easier to hook up a second LNB to the dish to get this.
Watching Online
If you know someone with Sky, you can use Sky Go to watch via steam on your computer (ideally connected to a TV). There is no extra cost for this to the subscriber.
There are some other steams available. Sldsmkd is compiling a list of them:
RTL Germany - http://www.rtl.de/formel1/livestream/index
RAI TV Italy - http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/diretta.html
Esport3 Spain - http://www.esport3.cat/f1/html/directes/
Watching on BBC
Of course you can watch with the BBC still, however only some races are covered live. You will have to wait for the rerun later that day for the non-live ones.
Now a bit of time has passed since the whole F1 2012 BBC/Sky coverage news broke, I've looked into the options.
Sky Sports F1 Channel
Sky will have their own F1 channel, available for Sky and Virgin Media customers. If you have Sky HD then you get it free on satellite with them, if you're on VM then you need to buy the Sky Sports package to get the channel.
RTL Channel on Satellite
For those that don't want Sky/VM, one option I've found is to watch the German RTL channel with the BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra commentary alongside. RTL is free to air and covers both the qualifying and race in full. It is only free for the SD feed and I think it is £100 a year to watch it in HD. To pick up this channel, you need a satellite dish pointed at 'Astra 19.2E'. I gather you should be able to re-align an existing Sky dish to this sat (although some parts of the UK may need a larger dish), assuming you don't use it for normal Freesat channels, or you can purchase a second dish for it. Even with a different receiver box included, the whole install can be done well within a £100 one off cost. The problem when I tried it was the sync of Radio 5 Live being out by a few seconds and also the commentary team on 5 Live isn't as good as before.
RTL tech info - http://www.satmania.com/eng/satchannels/rtl_television.html
Dishpointer - http://fr.dishpointer.com/
List of channels on Astra 19.2E - http://www.satmania.com/eng/satchannels/19_2e/astra_1h/
It is possible in some cases to add a second LNB (the receiver on the dish) to an existing dish, but not tried it myself. The second dish was so cheap I just went for that option. You can also get motorised dishes (or make an existing dish motorised), so with a compatible sat box, it will move the dish to the correct sat when you change channel. Very cool but does cost. A motor was £80 odd from a certain electrical part store.
Someone mentioned on here in the other thread about a Polish channel which shows the F1 as well, which is on a different sat, so might be another option on there (could be HD as well?). I believe this is on a sat which is much closer to the normal Freesat one, so it is much easier to hook up a second LNB to the dish to get this.
Watching Online
If you know someone with Sky, you can use Sky Go to watch via steam on your computer (ideally connected to a TV). There is no extra cost for this to the subscriber.
There are some other steams available. Sldsmkd is compiling a list of them:
RTL Germany - http://www.rtl.de/formel1/livestream/index
RAI TV Italy - http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/diretta.html
Esport3 Spain - http://www.esport3.cat/f1/html/directes/
Watching on BBC
Of course you can watch with the BBC still, however only some races are covered live. You will have to wait for the rerun later that day for the non-live ones.
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