BBC possibly to drop F1 coverage...

Nick1881 · 29 Jul 2011 at 08:58

I have Sky+HD but no sports package as I don't watch football. I won't be paying silly amounts to watch the F1 either.

No point watching half the races so that's F1 finished for me.

JHeaton · 29 Jul 2011 at 08:58

Wicksta said:
Yeah because top flight football in England died when it moved to Sky didn't it.

On the other hand...

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/image/293314.html

gsf600y · 29 Jul 2011 at 08:58

The commentators make a big difference to the enjoyment for me.
Any word if Brundle will be staying on BBC?

gsf600y · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:00

Nick1881 said:
I have Sky+HD but no sports package as I don't watch football. I won't be paying silly amounts to watch the F1 either.

No point watching half the races so that's F1 finished for me.

Calm down

Just watch half, listen to half, and watch highlights.

ci_newman · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:00

JHeaton said:
On the other hand...

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/image/293314.html

Those figures don't really take into account the last 5 years though. I'm sure there are many more Sky subscribers than 5 years ago and thus their penetration will be greater.

pastymuncher · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:02

This is complete and utter crap!! The BBC had the contract until the end of 2013 so why have we been shafted like this? As far as i am concerned Sky can go to hell. The one sport that i enjoy watching and they take that as well. Sky is too big, too greedy and need their monopoly taking away from them. The only choices we have up here are freeview/freesat or Sky. We need more competition in this sector and maybe then it would be affordable.

Glaucus · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:03

Show your disgust.

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/keepf1onthebbc

It can only help if FOTA kick up a fuss. Not that I expect anything to change

JHeaton · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:04

ci_newman said:
Those figures don't really take into account the last 5 years though. I'm sure there are many more Sky subscribers than 5 years ago and thus their penetration will be greater.

The highest recorded figures on C4 were 8.4m for the final Test of the 2005 Ashes series. Cricket has gotten more exciting since then, yet the highest as of 2009 (I can't find anything more recent, sorry) for Sky was 1.5m. I can't help but fear that F1 coverage on Sky will suffer in a similar manner.

leaskovski · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:05

Im pretty pee'd other at the whole deal even with the fact that I have sky sports.

I wonder what team why will have on sky? Will it be Jake and the boys, or will it be some numpty like Kirsty Gallagher, or who ever the hell it was doing the A1 coverage. Crap!!

DTWD · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:06

But advertisers can buy a slot on commercial channels. They can't on the BBC, the team/track sponsors/advertisers (much like other sporting events but more so in f1 as the cars are covered in then) have the opertunity to "advertise" on BBC. I think that was a nice treat for certain advertisers. So they can pressure the teams who can pressure bernie. Well in an ideal world.

I would love to see the teams order it's drivers not to talk to the sky reporters, but it won't happen.

Glaucus · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:06

Sky confirm advert free, I'm assuming only during race. But still not paying £61 per race.

Tombstone · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:06

gsf600y said:
When you put it like that, there's no way I'll be getting Sky for it. Of course, you could attempt to justify it through all the other content you'd be getting, but if you were not interested in Sky before, you're just tricking yourself.

Yeah thats how I justify my sky subscription, I see it in the same way I do my broadband subscription. I'm not paying a subscription to just look at 1 webpage, its all the other content too. As you rightly say though, if none of the other content interests you then its not good.

Tombstone · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:09

AcidHell2 said:
Sky confirm advert free, I'm assuming only during race. But still not paying £61 per race.

I had half expected them to be advert free during the race, its how they used to cover Nascar too. Now all they need to do is steal some of the BBC presenting team, stick that with their general sports studio features (like the football stuff they introduced which has now become commonplace on other channels, onscreen markers and so forth) and it could be pretty darned good. (apart from the cost for those who havent already got sky)

NathanE · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:10

It was only a couple weeks ago Martin Whitmarsh of FOTA said that the coverage "must remain as free to air".

gsf600y · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:10

I wonder if the BBC will make other F1 cutbacks, not just the number of races?
- Drop Eddie Jordan?
- Replace Brundle/Coulthard with cheap unknowns?

Borrish · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:10

It's not a good start that some of the live races are going to be on Sky but it's not worth getting quite so worked up about it. The BBC can't afford all of the live coverage. This was at least you can watch all of the races on the BBC even if it's just highlights.

The article on F1 fanatic is basically wrong.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9550930.stm
"The BBC will have highlights on TV, online and mobile for any race it is not showing live, and all races will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 live."

I know that they used to show full highlights at a later date so I'd guess that they're simply dropping the live coverage and showing only the full highlights. Seriously hope it doesn't go completely to Sky in 2018 though!

JHeaton · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:12

Brundle doesn't like this news. Can't see him going to Sky, based on this tweet.

@MBrundleF1 BBC/Sky/F1 2012+. Found out last night, no idea how it will work yet I'm out of contract, will calmly work through options Not impressed

Nismo · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:12

Luckily I already have Sky Sports, but I still think this sucks balls :/

Glaucus · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:13

Borrish said:
The article on F1 fanatic is basically wrong.

]

How's it wrong, it says the same thing.
Of course we are going to get worked up about it, losing the only sport I follow.
Half the races isn't good enough. You miss half the action, can't follow the developments and everything else.

Tombstone · 29 Jul 2011 at 09:14

gsf600y said:
I wonder if the BBC will make other F1 cutbacks, not just the number of races?
- Drop Eddie Jordan?
- Replace Brundle/Coulthard with cheap unknowns?

It will be interesting to see if the current presenters will be vehemently against the Sky deal, right up until the moment sky offers them a multimillion pound pay packet to present the sky F1, or whether they will stick to their guns about it