BBC possibly to drop F1 coverage...

Sone · 18 Jul 2011 at 22:39

nIckEl101 said:
BBC need to try and sell their coverage into other countries!

Don't they broadcast to Australia? Anyone else know where else it is broadcast to?

used to have bbc commentary when i was in Canada on TSN

englishpremier · 19 Jul 2011 at 11:14

Surely 8million viewers a race is more than most their programs get per episode. Granted those programmes are cheaper to buy.

CaptainRAVE · 19 Jul 2011 at 11:20

englishpremier said:
Surely 8million viewers a race is more than most their programs get per episode. Granted those programmes are cheaper to buy.

I think this is the main point - how much does F1 cost per viewer? A lot more than most other shows on BBC I would have thought.

Skeeter · 19 Jul 2011 at 11:22

englishpremier said:
Surely 8million viewers a race is more than most their programs get per episode. Granted those programmes are cheaper to buy.

8 million viewers for 19 shows a year. Its cost per viewer is very high compared to other programs.
Unfortunately it looks like the BBC are simply looking at costs, and not quality. The BBC F1 coverage is of excellent, award winning quality. But the BBC would rather show reruns of Cash in the Attic as its cheaper.

[TW]Taggart · 19 Jul 2011 at 13:28

Skeeter said:
8 million viewers for 19 shows a year. Its cost per viewer is very high compared to other programs.
Unfortunately it looks like the BBC are simply looking at costs, and not quality. The BBC F1 coverage is of excellent, award winning quality. But the BBC would rather show reruns of Cash in the Attic as its cheaper.

The problem is the BBC can't resell the coverage due to the way its funded. if it could then it would be able to at least recoope some of the cost.

visibleman · 19 Jul 2011 at 13:41

[TW]Taggart;19616203 said:
The problem is the BBC can't resell the coverage due to the way its funded. if it could then it would be able to at least recoope some of the cost.

Can they not? I thought they could sell it through BBC Worldwide like they do with a lot of BBC productions.

TFC · 19 Jul 2011 at 13:42

I hate to say it, but I would rather have adverts than no F1.... I just hope they can find a way to cut costs elsewhere and keep us advert free.

Skeeter · 19 Jul 2011 at 13:42

[TW]Taggart;19616203 said:
The problem is the BBC can't resell the coverage due to the way its funded. if it could then it would be able to at least recoope some of the cost.

And that's the crux of the problem. The best and worst thing about the BBC is its licence fee funded. Great because of no adverts, rubbish because they don't have the freedom of a commercial broadcaster.

Crizzy · 19 Jul 2011 at 13:45

It's a crying shame if BBC loses F1. I don't think I have ever watched Channel 5 for anything.

GravyMonster · 19 Jul 2011 at 13:45

Skeeter said:
The best and worst thing about the BBC is its licence fee funded.

Nail. Head. It's the reason why we can't get the iPlayer on the 360.

[TW]Taggart · 19 Jul 2011 at 13:48

visibleman said:
Can they not? I thought they could sell it through BBC Worldwide like they do with a lot of BBC productions.

akaik ww doesnt cover sport and the money from ww sales don't directly fund BBC shows

Guerrilla · 19 Jul 2011 at 13:56

I'm pretty sure BBC1 and 2 are both available in Netherlands and Belgium, or at least they used to be, including the F1 coverage.

They can't be getting that for free surely? And if not why could the channels not be sold to more countries.

Skeeter · 19 Jul 2011 at 14:02

Thats different. BBC broadcasts its own channels in other countries and has partner broadcasters all over the world. What we are talking about here is selling the BBC 'program' separately to completely different companies.

TFC · 19 Jul 2011 at 14:08

Skeeter said:
What we are talking about here is selling the BBC 'program' separately to completely different companies.

Why can't they?, that is a good way to make profit / offset costs and no adverts.

visibleman · 19 Jul 2011 at 14:10

[TW]Taggart;19616416 said:
akaik ww doesnt cover sport and the money from ww sales don't directly fund BBC shows

From what I gather the BBC Worldwide does cover sports, certainly they bought the rights to a few Barbarian games last year. Not sure whether they can wholly fund a production, but they have partially funded productions in return for broadcast rights (I believe they do it with Doctor Who/Topgear etc).

[DOD]Asprilla · 19 Jul 2011 at 14:17

visibleman said:
Can they not? I thought they could sell it through BBC Worldwide like they do with a lot of BBC productions.

Because the FIA own the global rights to it, BBC only have the rights for the coverage in the UK. They can't sell what they don't own.

Same goes for making it available on iPlayer, why would a broadcaster in the US bother to pay the FIA £50m for the rights if their viewer base can just watch it somewhere else for less money? (Oh, and Global iPlayer pilot is scheduled to launch next Thursday but doesn't include sport or streaming live content at the moment).

BBC has had it's licence fee frozen for the next five years which it claims means it is looking at a 20% budget cut in real terms. The BBC has no option but to look at costs, hence they tried to close BBCR7 and turn BBC2 daytime into rolling news, but the trust put a block on that.

[TW]Taggart;19616416 said:
akaik ww doesnt cover sport and the money from ww sales don't directly fund BBC shows

WW cash does fund programmes; the current series of Torchwood is produced directly bt BBCW rather than BBC. Also, BBCW contributed £180m to BBC this year (which considering they only made a profit of £160m shoes you how desperate the BBC is for cash).

Skeeter · 19 Jul 2011 at 14:24

Good point, forgot about the FOM (Its owned by Bernie, not the FIA) ownership of the feed. The only bits of the BBC show that they own are the commentary over the top and all the footage they make themselves that gets wrapped around the race. Live TV footage of the race itself is FOM owned.

englishpremier · 19 Jul 2011 at 14:43

Jph said:
I'm pretty sure BBC1 and 2 are both available in Netherlands and Belgium, or at least they used to be, including the F1 coverage.

They can't be getting that for free surely? And if not why could the channels not be sold to more countries.

Is that not just because the countries are so close to us and our masts are omni directional, so the signal can be picked up? Or if they have satellite then it's easy to get hold of BBC.

Screw it, just let the bbc fail and have the government re-shape the TV industry.

[DOD]Asprilla · 19 Jul 2011 at 14:44

englishpremier said:
Is that not just because the countries are so close to us and our masts are omni directional, so the signal can be picked up? Or if they have satellite then it's easy to get hold of BBC

I think that's pretty much it.

Besides its not BBC who broadcast outside the UK, but BBCW.

Guerrilla · 19 Jul 2011 at 15:09

englishpremier said:
Is that not just because the countries are so close to us and our masts are omni directional, so the signal can be picked up? Or if they have satellite then it's easy to get hold of BBC.

I'm really not sure, could well be!

It would be a real shame to lose the BBC coverage, hopefully they find a way to make more money from it or have the price from FOM reduced but i'm not going to hold my breath for either.