BBC to end Formula 1 television contract early
- Thread starter philip2009
- Start date
Soldato
EDIT: waffle
You hit the nail on the head. It's all about the money and I am amazed that some sky customers are still receiving the F1 Channel via the HD Pack deal (well done and fair play to you) I think the F1 coverage will be spread over the sky sports platform and the F1 channel will become a darts channel for darts and a golf channel for the major golf tournaments.
Why would they move it to a premium channel, rather than just rebranding SSF1 into Sky Sports 6?
The F1 channel is now only available with taking the Sports Pack, but they haven't taken it away from us who have it with the HD pack.
Do Sky have a history of moving programming away from cheaper channels onto premium ones that require a further subscription? They move channels about, but I can't remember them regularly moving programming between channels.
Oh and the F1 channel already is the Darts channel. It was rebranded Sky Sports Darts over the winter when they showed the championships.
The F1 channel is now only available with taking the Sports Pack, but they haven't taken it away from us who have it with the HD pack.
Do Sky have a history of moving programming away from cheaper channels onto premium ones that require a further subscription? They move channels about, but I can't remember them regularly moving programming between channels.
Oh and the F1 channel already is the Darts channel. It was rebranded Sky Sports Darts over the winter when they showed the championships.
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For many it will.
Sky Sports package is too expensive, most of the sports on there I have no interest in.
This pretty much.
Don't get me wrong, I do occasionally watch other sports but not enough to want to pay for them.
If they offered Sky Sports F1 as a stand alone deal available on Now TV for a reasonable price I would sign up right away.
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Soldato
Even if they left SSF1 on as part of the HD pack I'd probably still be subbed to Sky. My 12 months ended last month and I was given the option to stay on my package with a 20% discount, or 50% off if I left legacy and subbed to the full sports... making both packages the same price. Can't justify £30+ a month for Sky when I could watch each race on NowTV for a one off cost. Was only paying £16/mo for the convenience of the box.
They did this with WWE. In the early days it was shown on Sky 1 and the big events were on the Sports channels. They then moved the weekly shows to Sky Sports and the big stuff became PPV.
I really hope that motor sports doesn't suffer the same consequences as football in relation to it being spread over various networks resulting in more money. I fear it's already happening. If you want all live F1 quals & races - a Sky Sub is required. If you want NASCAR - a Setanta Sports sub is required. If you want live coverage of MotoGP, Indy Cars, V8 Super Cars, WRC and both Renault 2.0 & 3.5 championships - a BT Sports sub is required. This is only some of the motor sports, but you get my drift. Like a mate said to me not too long ago about football, he said "about 15 years ago it cost something £10 quid a month to watch all your football, now it's about four times that" I think motor sport is heading the same way.
Yet Football on Sky Sports is one of the most watched sports in the world.
The Premiership has NEVER been on free to air TV, yet is the most watched National League on the planet.
Hoping that motorsports doesn't go the way of Football is an odd stance to take, given that precisely 'going that way' is whats made football the massive TV success it it.
Personally I'd quite like the free to air channels making half arsed shows to go and the sports instead move to somewhere like Sky or BT Sport, where they can be well funded and done properly. The Motors TV coverage of most of what they show is just awful, and in rubbish quality. If Sky took on a load more motorsports it would make taking a Sports subscription a lot more palatable.
Feels like BT holds most of it these days.
Sky used to have World Superbikes years ago and Eurosport used to have MotoGP too. Eurosport now have WSBK and MotoGP went to BT Sport after they apparently offered three times what the UK share of the contract for Dorna was.
Sky also used to have NASCAR but viewing figures were sometimes not even into 6 figures so when the renewal came up they declined to bid again.
Bundesliga rights are coming up soon so Sky Germany will no doubt be bidding for that and the matches may even end up on Sky Italy and over here too.
Sky also used to have NASCAR but viewing figures were sometimes not even into 6 figures so when the renewal came up they declined to bid again.
Bundesliga rights are coming up soon so Sky Germany will no doubt be bidding for that and the matches may even end up on Sky Italy and over here too.
I completely understand where you are coming from. Sky are absolutely fantastic at presenting sports, they have taken the premiership brand to a level of which free to air channels can only dream of. In fact if it wasn't for Sky, there wouldn't be too many billionaires buying premiership football clubs. At least when football fans subscribe to Sky, they are getting plenty of matches for there money. F1 fans are forking out £50 per month for two races, the other 99% of motor sport we watch is all on BT Sports. Who knows what will happen in the future regarding broadcasting rights for F1. If it becomes the hottest ticket in sport, it could provide an opportunity for the greedy investors to split F1 in half and sell it in two packages, just like what happened to football. I know Sky have a long term contract, but hey, so did the BBC.
Soldato
Agreed, I only watch F1 on Sky because I got it for free with my original HD pack. If it were to be included in Sky Sports for me I wouldn't bother. It will become like MotoGP which I now follow only via news reports.
Andi.
Yep. I was toying with the idea of Sky and then when they anounced F1 was moving to it that was the bit that convinced me. I wouldn't have got Sports for it.
If Sky managed to get a lot more sports I like then I might consider it. I'd quite happily pay for Sports and BT Sport if it meant I got everything. At the moment though Motorsports is a bit too spread out and full of crap coverage.
On a side note, who owns Quest? I always thought it was a Discovery spin off, but they are showing WRX live and also will have some live Le Mans coverage this year?
If Sky managed to get a lot more sports I like then I might consider it. I'd quite happily pay for Sports and BT Sport if it meant I got everything. At the moment though Motorsports is a bit too spread out and full of crap coverage.
On a side note, who owns Quest? I always thought it was a Discovery spin off, but they are showing WRX live and also will have some live Le Mans coverage this year?