FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[andrew]

My wife and I are both disabled pensioners, we can just manage to pay for SKY's basic package. I religiously watch every formula 1 race when ITV had it, then the BBC. Now for no other reason than the worship of the God "PROFIT", nearly 2/3 of those who follow Formula 1 on TV are being denied the right to do so. If I now wrote as to what I would like to do to Bernie Ecclestone, I would be banned from this site. I am surprised that SKY are not trying to get exclusive rights to the 2012 olympics.

...being denied the right to do so...



You can still watch 10 races live, and highlights of the other 10. I dont think you have a case for the European Courts just yet.....

I can understand derfledermouse's frustrations. We've done pretty well watching F1 without Sky, why do they have to jump on the bandwagon.? Damn Bernie and his greed!!!

Correction - damned BBC and their supposed cost cutting.

Look at it from MrE's perspective. The BBC were offering 2 bags of gold and Sky offered 3 bags. He wouldn't be much of a business man if he took the BBCs offer as he would be failing his investors and thus not doing his job properly.

Besides, it was the BBC that brokered the deal with Sky and presented what was very nearly a done deal to MrE. The blame for this lies soley with the BBC, who have plenty of cash for football and the olympics and the Saturday evening tripe.

[racechick]

Bernie's a greedy git, no getting away from it.

[andrew]

He's a businessman - making huge sums of cash is his job.

[scotty]

The BBC screwed us here, no doubt. They still had one year on their contract FFS... Still, i look forward to watching Sky's coverage, thanks to...hmm.. 'internet resources'.

[racechick]

He's a businessman - making huge sums of cash is his job.

He exploits people, he is corrupt and he tells lies. he may live to realise there is more to life than money.

[andrew]

He's a businessman - making huge sums of cash is his job.

He exploits people, he is corrupt and he tells lies. he may live to realise there is more to life than money.

In my experience (I used to work in property and dealt with some real arrogant arsey bar stewards who make MrE look like a total saint), typical businessman but I don't know anyone who would be any different if they had that amount of cash. When you're a billionaire, you don't have to care what people think. You pay someone to care about what other people think.

[vaptin]

The BBC did have their funding cut; not a lot that they could've done on balance, I would prefer for them to drop plenty of other programs in favour of f1 coverage but they can't just consider f1 fans. They came up with a compromise, that much is clear, trying to "have their cake and eat it".

The real problem (aside from a lack of funding for the BBC), is a lack of regulation of Sky and provision for free to air television. I wonder how Sky would do if they had to compete purely on viewing figures, but they don't, they can get in extra revenue from subscribers. Less people paying more, at the cost of the many who don't have as much money; the crucial issue is that the BBC (and over terrestrial T.V channels) can't suddenly start asking for money (or more money in the BBC's case) from viewers).

It's clearer an unfair tired system (hence hitting competition) with regards to T.V coverage, but in the interest of fairness such a concept isn't entirely unknown. For example broadsheet newspapers stay open even though they have less readers that the tabloids, but the readers of broadsheets tend to be richer hence the broadsheets can charge for more advertising in their paper (and of course charging readers more to buy the paper). The difference with this system, is that the tabloids if they wanted to could put their prices up and make movements towards attracting a more affluent readership. Like I said before, ITV/BBC don't really have this option to compete with Sky.

Regulators at an E.U level have stepped in for consumers with regards to monopolising practices by Microsoft and mobile phone charges aboard, maybe a rich forum member can start lobbying. No idea if this is feasible, the setup and powers of the E.U still remains a mystery to me.

[LewEngBridewell]

My wife and I are both disabled pensioners, we can just manage to pay for SKY's basic package. I religiously watch every formula 1 race when ITV had it, then the BBC. Now for no other reason than the worship of the God "PROFIT", nearly 2/3 of those who follow Formula 1 on TV are being denied the right to do so. If I now wrote as to what I would like to do to Bernie Ecclestone, I would be banned from this site. I am surprised that SKY are not trying to get exclusive rights to the 2012 olympics.

You can STILL watch every race on the BBC. Just not all of them will be live, that's all. I bet half of these people complaining didn't even get up at 5am to watch the live-runs anyway!

[Gibbo]

You can STILL watch every race on the BBC. Just not all of them will be live, that's all. I bet half of these people complaining didn't even get up at 5am to watch the live-runs anyway!

And that's what i will be doing. Although there is BIG a difference between full length races and extended highlights.

[LewEngBridewell]

You can STILL watch every race on the BBC. Just not all of them will be live, that's all. I bet half of these people complaining didn't even get up at 5am to watch the live-runs anyway!

And that's what i will be doing. Although there is BIG a difference between full length races and extended highlights.

Well some races are going to get 2 hour highlights, and some will get 90 minute highlights. As a race lasts for approx 90 minutes anyway, I would assume we won't miss all that much of the action?

[andrew]

You can STILL watch every race on the BBC. Just not all of them will be live, that's all. I bet half of these people complaining didn't even get up at 5am to watch the live-runs anyway!

And that's what i will be doing. Although there is BIG a difference between full length races and extended highlights.

Well some races are going to get 2 hour highlights, and some will get 90 minute highlights. As a race lasts for approx 90 minutes anyway, I would assume we won't miss all that much of the action?

There will be a hell of a lot of pointless and mind-numbing waffle from the so-called expert pundits. There'll only be a about 10 minutes of race coverage knowing how much the BBC loves to ruin things.

[LewEngBridewell]

You can STILL watch every race on the BBC. Just not all of them will be live, that's all. I bet half of these people complaining didn't even get up at 5am to watch the live-runs anyway!

And that's what i will be doing. Although there is BIG a difference between full length races and extended highlights.

Well some races are going to get 2 hour highlights, and some will get 90 minute highlights. As a race lasts for approx 90 minutes anyway, I would assume we won't miss all that much of the action?

There will be a hell of a lot of pointless and mind-numbing waffle from the so-called expert pundits. There'll only be a about 10 minutes of race coverage knowing how much the BBC loves to ruin things.

I'm sure it won't be that extreme...

[andrew]

It is the BBC...........

[LewEngBridewell]

It is the BBC...........

Could be worse... it could be ITV!

[Gibbo]

I'm sure it won't be that extreme...

Yeah i'm sure it wont be too drastic. I suppose we will have to wait and see how much of the 90 minutes are actual race time. I imagine the pre and post race discussions will take up quite a chunk of the time, we know how DC loves to talk!