Rumour: BBC looking to end it's F1 coverage deal early

GravyMonster

GravyMonster

GravyMonster

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http://old.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=401996

Motorsport.com said:
British media reports say the national broadcaster BBC is considering abandoning its television coverage of Formula One.

The move, with senior managers reportedly also considering dropping coverage of the famous Wimbledon tennis tournament, is amid the BBC coming under pressure to cut 20 per cent from its budget by 2014.

The Guardian said the BBC, having taken over Britain's F1 coverage from commercial broadcaster ITV in 2009, currently spends 40 million pounds ($64 million) on the sport per year.

The current contract runs until 2014.

A report in the Daily Mail said F1 is a "non-peaktime product" for the BBC, with its cost "seen in some quarters as an extravagance at a time when cuts are desperately needed".

A BBC spokesman said: "We are looking at a range of ideas and it would be wrong to comment on what is speculation."
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The BBC F1 coverage is the best there has ever been. While I wouldn't mind them trimming the coverage slightly, maybe less build up, maybe have 1 group of pitlane reporters cover both TV and 5Live rather than the current setup.

How about axing crappy talent shows? Snooker? Move Only Connect to BBC3 and axe BBC4?

Anything other than having Sky buy the rights please. We'd end up having to pay £15 a race or something knowing Murdoch and his money grabbing shenanegans.
 
They wouldn't trim the coverage, as that means they are getting less for their money - Bernie won't say 'if you cut an hour off, I'll give you £4mil back...'.

Fingers crossed it doesn't go PPV though :(
 
Spunkey said:
How about axing crappy talent shows? Snooker? Move Only Connect to BBC3 and axe BBC4?
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Stuff like that is cheap to produce though, snooker is just a few cameras in a room and a commentating and presentation team sat nearby for a few weeks a year. Talent shows again, cheap to produce and rake in voting money with huge ratings to boot.

Formula 1 gives them maybe a couple of hundred hours sunday afternoon or midnight TV over the course of the year, costs them millions for rights to show it and on top of that requires them to jet an entire production team around the world every 2 weeks.

You can see why the guys in accounts are probably pointing at F1 saying 'well this will solve most of the budget issue'.
 
Hmmm, not long before the season starts and this rumour appears.

I think the main worry for most is the coverage getting taken to non terrestrial TV or even worse (IMO), I gets broken up with damned adverts.

The problem is we've no other way of watching the F1 over here. Whatever channel carries it we WILL watch. You're always guaranteed that audience. I think they would be crazy to even think of moving it on.
 
I said this when they got the deal, they got mugged. Bernie made them think they were win a bidding war and they paid over the odds.

ITV wanted to dump F1 and the sponsors weren't happy with the figures.

Major sponsors don't rush to F1 anymore and the cigerette money largely didn't get replaced. Who wants to pumps 100's of millions into a team to still have a largely uncompetitive series.

That said I can't see BBC dumping it, the feed goes all over the world. I just imagine a reduced fee will be negotiated.
 
I thought there was something about it HAVING to be on terrestrial TV in GB.

I hope it doesnt get binned either way, certainly the best its been since the BBC last had it, and its in HD this year at last!!!

(Must be incredibly expensive though).

Hope the BBC dont ever consider a single pit-lane reporter + one camera to the race, with everyone back at a studio option (would be awful for the viewers, but the amount they would save would be huge)

Cant imagine the BBC ever ditching Wimbledon

I know its a one off, but surely the BBC will rake in millions if not billions from the Olympics next year (Im sure ITV will also)
 
I dont understand, why not cut all the day time crap and run repeats instead. Millions of people watch the F1 on a race weekend, more on the BBC than ITV.
 
Tweaker said:
I dont understand, why not cut all the day time crap and run repeats instead. Millions of people watch the F1 on a race weekend, more on the BBC than ITV.
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Well actually, one of the other considerations is just shutting off BBC2 during the daytime. Which is probably just as unlikely as this.

FrankJH said:
Hope the BBC dont ever consider a single pit-lane reporter + one camera to the race, with everyone back at a studio option (would be awful for the viewers, but the amount they would save would be huge)
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For a second there, I thought you said "one camera for the race", and I wondered how on Earth they'd even be able to do that. :o
 
Are there any reality TV shows they can dump, or maybe a soap. I mean, they are spending over 10billion for the Olympics, why not send a little more to the BBC instead to cover the F1.
 
FrankJH said:
I thought there was something about it HAVING to be on terrestrial TV in GB.

I hope it doesnt get binned either way, certainly the best its been since the BBC last had it, and its in HD this year at last!!!

(Must be incredibly expensive though).

Hope the BBC dont ever consider a single pit-lane reporter + one camera to the race, with everyone back at a studio option (would be awful for the viewers, but the amount they would save would be huge)

Cant imagine the BBC ever ditching Wimbledon

I know its a one off, but surely the BBC will rake in millions if not billions from the Olympics next year (I'm sure ITV will also)
Click to expand...

Nothing here or here about it being "protected" which is absurd.

F1 should be protected in the UK, due to the amount of teams and personnel based there.
 
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