BBC to end Formula 1 television contract early

[413x]

If you live football (I don't know how you can ) you get a lot of money's worth out of skys subscription . I can completely see why you would pay.

If you like f1 and maybe a lower formula you have to pay same price. Your cost per hour of entertainment goes through the roof.
I don't really see how it can be worth it for ANYONE to pay as much as sky do for f1

It really seems like pure waste from skys point of view

Obviously sky have viewing figures, subscription figures etc but unless I'm missing something huge, I just can not see how sky justify the cost. Nor do I see the logic in taking it from bt

 

[Skeeter]

Sky have about 10m subscribers, of which about 5m take Sky Sports.

If you take a worst case and assume thats 5m subscribers on the base package (£20 a month) and then 5m with just Sports (£47.50 a month) thats over £4bn in revenue from subscriptions alone!

Viewers are irrelevant to Sky, its Subscribers that they care about (excluding Commercial income which does obviously relate to viewers).

 

[413x]

Sky have about 10m subscribers, of which about 5m take Sky Sports.

If you take a worst case and assume thats 5m subscribers on the base package (£20 a month) and then 5m with just Sports (£47.50 a month) thats over £4bn in revenue from subscriptions alone!

Viewers are irrelevant to Sky, its Subscribers that they care about (excluding Commercial income which does obviously relate to viewers).

But why add f1 which probably doesn't add enough subscribers to cover the f1 costs?
I do understand they want to grab everything, I just don't think f1 rights are worth it I suppose

 

[The_Abyss]

But why add f1 which probably doesn't add enough subscribers to cover the f1 costs?
I do understand they want to grab everything, I just don't think f1 rights are worth it I suppose

Isn't it part of a wider European package of rights, and not just the UK?

 

[MissChief]

AFAIK the announcement only related to UK coverage.

 

[413x]

AFAIK the announcement only related to UK coverage.

So how much did sky pay for UK f1 rights? Just to confirm?


I guess the problem is.. How do you separate new subscribers due to f1 from new subscribers TO sky when the two are correlated?
The only way (and it would probably over Inflate f1 significance) is to look at unique regular viewers.. Over inflated due to the fact that people may well watch it because they have it rather than they got sky for f1

I would love to do my job for a company like sky (statistical analysis) I bet the datasets are pretty impressive!

 

[Skeeter]

About £35m ayear currently, isn't it? The 2019+ deal is presumably more.

 

[413x]

About £35m ayear currently, isn't it? The 2019+ deal is presumably more.

For some reason I thought it was more.
That's what.. 2 pounds of every person in UK
Much more for over 18s
Much more for households
Does seem like a lot to me.

I may plough through a few numbers at some point

 

[reef]

I think the biggest issue with sky is that without any competing channel showing F1 they will just show the barebones which makes it harder to justify the cost. Ive been watching Sky since it's coverage started in 2012 and in recent years it has become worse than ever. The F1 channel used to be full of interesting stuff but its obvious now that they are winding it down ready to be put in with Sky sports at some point. Whether its to do with paying to much for the Premier league or not, they don't even bother with an F1 show now (apart from the day of P1/P2) and the pre/post race shows are very poor.

Im lucky enough to get it on the legacy HD pack but as someone who isnt interested in football I don't think I could justify the cost for what they're offering these days when it inevitably goes to Sky sports only, 4K or not.

 

[Mark365]

If only we could record from Now TV. I would be happy to purchase a 24 hour sky sports pass for race weekends.

 

[EddScott]

Im lucky enough to get it on the legacy HD pack but as someone who isnt interested in football I don't think I could justify the cost for what they're offering these days when it inevitably goes to Sky sports only, 4K or not.

I have the same subscription. If they took F1 away from my HD then Sky would be binned without hesitation.

If only we could record from Now TV. I would be happy to purchase a 24 hour sky sports pass for race weekends.

Can't you watch when you want - i.e. on demand?

I've considered ditching Sky and have NowTV. So on the Sunday I pay for a 24 hour pass, watch Qaully on demand and then either the race live or on demand on the evening (I tend to watch it after my youngest has gone to bed)

 

[Nismo]

If only we could record from Now TV. I would be happy to purchase a 24 hour sky sports pass for race weekends.

Doesn't it show up as a catch-up item on NowTV?

 

[Skeeter]

I think the biggest issue with sky is that without any competing channel showing F1 they will just show the barebones which makes it harder to justify the cost. Ive been watching Sky since it's coverage started in 2012 and in recent years it has become worse than ever. The F1 channel used to be full of interesting stuff but its obvious now that they are winding it down ready to be put in with Sky sports at some point. Whether its to do with paying to much for the Premier league or not, they don't even bother with an F1 show now (apart from the day of P1/P2) and the pre/post race shows are very poor.

Im lucky enough to get it on the legacy HD pack but as someone who isnt interested in football I don't think I could justify the cost for what they're offering these days when it inevitably goes to Sky sports only, 4K or not.

The coverage is the same as its always been? 1.5 hour build up, race, 1 hour post race. 1 hour build up for qualifying and half hour post, and all the practices.

 

[Mark365]

I have the same subscription. If they took F1 away from my HD then Sky would be binned without hesitation.



Can't you watch when you want - i.e. on demand?

I've considered ditching Sky and have NowTV. So on the Sunday I pay for a 24 hour pass, watch Qaully on demand and then either the race live or on demand on the evening (I tend to watch it after my youngest has gone to bed)

I didn't know Now TV had a catch up/on demand service. I have been educated and will be giving it a go over the Russian GP weekend. Fantastic.

 

[Mark365]

Doesn't it show up as a catch-up item on NowTV?

I will definitely be trying Now TV over the Russian GP weekend. This could be a huge saving dew to the fact that the other 99% of motor sport I watch is on BT Sport. The only reason sky is in the house is Formula One.

 

[El_Watcher]

About £35m ayear currently, isn't it? The 2019+ deal is presumably more.

That is the cost they pay for F1 rights, but the actual outlay they spend per year to cover F1 is probably several times that amount, with presenters fees, travel costs, plus production costs for all the little segments they film for each race.

The coverage is the same as its always been? 1.5 hour build up, race, 1 hour post race. 1 hour build up for qualifying and half hour post, and all the practices.

Yes, but there is also the F1 show Friday night, mid week report, plus all the things they made like the interviews with ex drivers and things. I haven't seen a new one of those in ages. Heck, they still show the one with Murray hosted by Georgie "what a pointless waste she was" Thompson

 

[timmeh]

Does anyone watch the F1 channel when there isn't a race on? It'd be nice if it became more of a motorsport channel than a dedicated F1 channel.

 

[MissChief]

Does anyone watch the F1 channel when there isn't a race on? It'd be nice if it became more of a motorsport channel than a dedicated F1 channel.

It has been suggested internally many times over the past few years.

 

[V F]

Maybe most f1 viewers are (were) casual and will watch snooker instead.
F1 is just not as popular to people who are prepared to pay as it thinks it is.

Football gives a lot more competitive content.

I know world wide audience blah blah, but how many of those pay £30 a month.

Sky seem to me to be desperate for content.

Crikey I'm even starting to like football, so f1 viewers get sky , start to like football and move over to BT .... Then don't watch f1.

I find Snooker puts me to sleep but playing Snooker with friends with a full size table is a lot more fun than watching it on TV. Plus I don't know what it is now but John Virgo annoys me. I really liked him on Big Break.

Does anyone watch the F1 channel when there isn't a race on? It'd be nice if it became more of a motorsport channel than a dedicated F1 channel.

Depending what is on I'll set specific programmes to record. Especially if it is Claire Williams.

I do remember during the off season the F1 channel turned into darts.

 

[reef]

The coverage is the same as its always been? 1.5 hour build up, race, 1 hour post race. 1 hour build up for qualifying and half hour post, and all the practices.

As mentioned above, I'm referring to the content on the channel itself outside of a race weekend. Take the review of the year, that wasn't even available unless you had Sky Sports last year as they binned it for the Darts. There's also stuff like the Legends of F1 (as El_Watcher says) and other extra programming that just isn't made anymore.

As for the race weekends, there's more adverts since BBC went, more fillers and less interesting sections in the shows. The majority of it is just the three pundits standing there discussing irrelevant things. The race on Sunday was very busy but little of it outside the first lap was even discussed.

Its a shame as in the first few years it was genuinely good.