BBC to end Formula 1 television contract early

Europe isn't their primary focus anymore. Developing countries where disposable Income is rising rapidly is who they're marketing to in a big way these days. China, India and the far east.
 
413x said:
Just read that F1 ends being available on terrestrial TV after the 2018 season

So that's the end of that.
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Pretty sad about this. Don't intend on getting Sky just to watch F1 so looks like 2019 may bring an end to my watching of the sport, apart from any highlights that are shown on this new free-to-air channel Sky are talking about.
 
V F said:
That is sad, so is it up yours Europe?
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Previously the Concorde Agreement had certain European races protected. Britain, Germany, France, Italy & Monte Carlo off the top of my head. That expired and wasn't renewed probably five or six years ago, maybe more. Since then Bernie and CVC have asked for more and more money from European races, often not government backed, knowing that there are plenty of government backed circuits with amazing (and amazingly expensive) facilities that have been paid for by governments eager to get some worldwide publicity. Often these circuits get dropped when governments get bored or run out of money and as there's no real history and no fans eager to go to the races they're just not viable. Korea and the Valencia street circuit spring to mind.
 
MissChief said:
Europe isn't their primary focus anymore. Developing countries where disposable Income is rising rapidly is who they're marketing to in a big way these days. China, India and the far east.
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How is that any different to recent years? I remember well the fuss about Zonta in 99 in asia because he drove a 555 car and that was their favourite cigerette brand over an 'American brand' Lucky Strike. They are all over it, like they are Premiership football because it's free and pay nothing for it or rip it off.

They don't need to wee all over Europe to achieve the same goal in extracting money from Asia, it's shown free and they won't extract real money until they have an Asian/Indian F1 champion. I don't see how breaking F1 in Europe/Britain makes any difference to the developing markets. It doesn't matter if it's not a primary focus, other than greed there's no need to pee on your current market. They have always gone on about targetting that market in the same way they have always gone on about America and failed.

I imagine this is the start of the end of F1 in this country and people claim they don't care because of the East, right up until that fails because no one can be bothered with the current state of the sport and it's regulations.

They are welcome to it :)
 
Italy is actually relatively well served for Grade 1 circuits. Monza, Imola and Mugello all meet the specifications. However, Mugello doesn't have the capacity from a parking perspective, and the facilities aren't as plush as Bernie would like. Imola was last raced in F1 in only 2006 and has had a number of revisions since, including entirely new pits and garages installed in 2011. It's really the most ready to take over, but it'd be criminal if Monza went.

If Monza had to be replaced, I'd rather Mugello as it has some properly ace corners and elevation changes that would make for quite a challenge for the drivers and quite a spectacle too.
 
I kept a Sky sub when F1 went to them as it was split 3 ways and we just had a basic package with HD. I couldn't justify the expense when it wasn't being split, and I certainly wouldn't be able to justify subscribing to the sports pack just to see F1.

I watched Australia on Channel 4 partly because I was ill last weekend and didn't fancy prolonging things by cutting my sleep hours drastically short to watch it on NowTV, but I managed to avoid reading the news and stayed off social media until I'd see the qualifying sessions and then the race. If that option goes away then I'd likely look at the dodgy streaming option before just giving up on watching the sport.
 
It is dying in Europe but like said, it doesn't matter.

The drivers will still. Drive
And the teams will too in emerging markets

A great shame but inevitable

I suppose at least now we aren't losing an amazing spectacle. As it seems people are generally agreed it is getting more boring.. And new regs are worse from 2017

Only consolation is that it isn't something amazing being lost!
 
That's the official figures and how they are recorded and published. It's the same for all regular programs or sporting events. It's because you can't tell unique viewers. It could be 20m people watching 1 race each, or 1m people watching 20 races each.

It's irrelivent in terms of this discussion though. It's the ratio of UK to Global that matters. The UK accounts for less than 5% of the global F1 TV audience whichever way you count it.
 
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