Sky Sports F1 rant (no spoilers)

iamgigglz

iamgigglz

iamgigglz

Associate
Joined
26 Jan 2024
Posts
527
Location
North Yorkshire
Someone fetch me a pillow to scream into.

My wife and I are huge F1 fans and decided to fork out the £20-odd a month for Sports in order to watch it. There have been niggles with it before (missing important action because of focus on the top 3, audio/video out of sync, immediately cutting to football after the first car crosses the line...), but this weekend was a disaster. We sat down on Saturday afternoon to watch the qualifying, which had happened about 8 hours earlier...not available. Just not there. They had:

"Free Practice 1"
"Free Practice 2"
"Quali Highlights: Last gasp pole for <driver 1> and <driver 2> early exit (4mins)"

Great, so not only can I NOT watch the full qulifying session, you've also completely spoiled the outcome. And as of 18:00 yesterday the race still wasn't available.
I know something big happened at the race yesterday - I'll put a tenner on it being mentioned in the thumbnail title when Sky finally decides to make the race available.

We sat and watched Empire Strikes Back instead. First time for my son. I'm just thankful it wasn't titled "Luke discovers Darth Vader is his Father..."
 

Motorsport

F1, Moto GP or any other motorsport.
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

This might be a more appropriate place to post F1 related stuff.
iamgigglz said:
I know something big happened at the race yesterday
Click to expand...
I dont think there was in the actual race, was rather dull. Sorry if I have spoiled that for you.

But yeah Sky Sports F1 sucks, all of the paid options suck.
 
F1 is just pretty dire all round these days. Listening to David Croft's vain but admirably enthusiastic attempts to make F1 sounds exciting is grating. It's amazing how the 'pinnacle' of motorsport continues to be the least exciting motorsport to watch, by a huge margin.
 
NowTV is infuriating in that it only offers live sport or youtube-esque highlights, and although you can rewind the live TV if it's still being broadcast, if the broadcast ends while you're watching it on rewind, it'll just cut you off.

There is still no replacement for Sky Q / Virgin equivalent of having a hard disk to record things to on a schedule that you can watch back later.
 
I really miss F1TV. We used it for years in South Africa - cheap, good quality live streaming will all the extra telemetry, on-board cameras, radios etc. This Sky situation is a classic example of the damage a monopoly can do.
I can only hope Apple's acquisition in the States will have some kind of impact in the UK in the future. I see Sky's exclusive contract is currently set to expire after 2026.
 
Something that's pretty decent about Virgin media, I have to say. I have the F1 in my watch list, so when I have time to sit down to watch the GP (or when I wake up when it's at stupid o'clock) I can just go to the episodes list, pick the GP race (or quali or whatever) and it streams on demand. This works whether the broadcast is still in progress, or it's finished.
 
iamgigglz said:
We sat and watched Empire Strikes Back instead. First time for my son. I'm just thankful it wasn't titled "Luke discovers Darth Vader is his Father..."
Click to expand...
Oh great now you've spoilt Empire Strikes Back for me, thanks /s

As Karl says, I think trying to get yourself onto Q is your best bet of continuing with Sky, any streaming service is a no go for me personally with how I watch shows.

I did think F1TV was available here but if it is I appreciate it may not be as cheap as it was for you in South Africa. There's also a thread on it in the Motorsport section where someone will know better than me.
 
petridish said:
Oh great now you've spoilt Empire Strikes Back for me, thanks /s

As Karl says, I think trying to get yourself onto Q is your best bet of continuing with Sky, any streaming service is a no go for me personally with how I watch shows.

I did think F1TV was available here but if it is I appreciate it may not be as cheap as it was for you in South Africa. There's also a thread on it in the Motorsport section where someone will know better than me.
Click to expand...
Nope, you need a VPN to use it in the UK
 
petridish said:
Oh great now you've spoilt Empire Strikes Back for me, thanks /s

As Karl says, I think trying to get yourself onto Q is your best bet of continuing with Sky, any streaming service is a no go for me personally with how I watch shows.

I did think F1TV was available here but if it is I appreciate it may not be as cheap as it was for you in South Africa. There's also a thread on it in the Motorsport section where someone will know better than me.
Click to expand...

F1TV is available here but only on the lower tier, so no live streaming. You only get the races from 1 Jan of the following year. Maybe I must just boycott F1 for a year and then I can watch the races "live" exactly 1 year behind :cry:
 
petridish said:
Good luck avoiding spoilers for a year :eek:
Click to expand...

Gemini-Generated-Image-g3gjacg3gjacg3gj.png
 
I had f1 TV. Until they cracked down on VPN.

I was happy to pay it. The commentary was good.

Then they did. So I took to the high seas. This means watching 4 hours late. And 9/10 it's sky coverage. Croft does my head in. Like it's as close as I can get to "hate" of someone I personally don't know. :D

There is no way I'd pay:
For a TV licence
For sky
For sky's service to get the f1.

Just for f1.

I do avoid spoilers as I literally watch the race only.

So frustrating f1tv isn't available
 
Last edited:
iamgigglz said:
"Free Practice 1"
"Free Practice 2"
"Quali Highlights: Last gasp pole for <driver 1> and <driver 2> early exit (4mins)"
Click to expand...

How were you accessing it? I've never seen spoilers on either the Now webstite or TV app.

Karl said:
NowTV is infuriating in that it only offers live sport or youtube-esque highlights,
Click to expand...

Dunno when it was added (possibly after their scheduled broadcast repeats?) but the full race is available now, as is every other session of the weekend.
 
I think
Brun said:
How were you accessing it? I've never seen spoilers on either the Now webstite or TV app.



Dunno when it was added (possibly after their scheduled broadcast repeats?) but the full race is available now, as is every other session of the weekend.
Click to expand...
I think for Vegas at least, Channel 4 re-screened it on Sunday afternoon at 2pm, and I think Sky Sports F1 was re-screening it about half an hour ahead of that. I can see the sense in Channel 4 doing it at 2, as most races kick off then and it's when you'd expect it. I think they re-screen a few times before it goes on demand, and doesn't stay on demand for long. I'd like to watch NFL and NBA games the day after, but they don't really cater to that either.
 
Last edited:
The Sky repeats were at 8 and 1.

Karl said:
I think they re-screen a few times before it goes on demand, and doesn't stay on demand for long.
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, every programme of this season's F1 coverage is available on demand.
 
I like my Virgin Media good old set top box. Set to record the series. Always records everything. Can add on additional hours in case live sports events over run. Then I never get spoilers when entering into my shows to watch either. I still tend to watch live where possible as people like to start texts with "Did you see Max won the race again?" etc.
 
Karl said:
I think
I think for Vegas at least, Channel 4 re-screened it on Sunday afternoon at 2pm, and I think Sky Sports F1 was re-screening it about half an hour ahead of that. I can see the sense in Channel 4 doing it at 2, as most races kick off then and it's when you'd expect it. I think they re-screen a few times before it goes on demand, and doesn't stay on demand for long.
Click to expand...
Highlights stay on demand for a week or however long until the next race which is how I watch it I'm not paying for Sky crap.
 
Last edited:
iamgigglz said:
missing important action because of focus on the top 3
Click to expand...
That's down to the FOM director, not Sky. And there's been a LOT of issues with their **** poor job for the last few years.

immediately cutting to football after the first car crosses the line
Click to expand...
I've had Sky F1 for years and never, ever had that. The pre and post show broadcasts go on for literally hours. What platform are you watching on?


We sat down on Saturday afternoon to watch the qualifying, which had happened about 8 hours earlier...not available. Just not there. They had:

"Free Practice 1"
"Free Practice 2"
"Quali Highlights: Last gasp pole for <driver 1> and <driver 2> early exit (4mins)"
Click to expand...
Again, the program list just shows some random driver headshots at most. I assume you're not using a Sky box? Also, why not record the original 4am broadcast and watch it later? That way you're guaranteed no spoilers.

And as of 18:00 yesterday the race still wasn't available.
Click to expand...
As above - record it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom