FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[myownalias]

Thanks for the welcome

I'll stick around on the forum but whether I'll be watching F1 from now on will depend on the quality of continental feeds or torrents I can find. Frankly I've become very disillusioned with the BBC and F1 management as a result of this. Martin Whitmarsh needs a kick up the bum for his involvement in this tv deal fiasco too. None of the people involved have covered themselves in glory and they have certainly not considered the wellbeing of F1. It's a given that SKY won't get anywhere near the viewing figures for F1 that the BBC (it was the beebs most watched sporting content after all) can attract and I suspect SKY will lose quite a bit of money as a result. Personally I hope it falls flat on its face. I shall concentrate on watching this years BTCC races as they are still available on free to air channels thank goodness...

You may be annoyed and disillusioned by the BBC but surely you are just punishing yourself by boycotting the BBC coverage? torrents and European (online) feeds will be disappointing, especially torrents as they turn up 4 - 8 hours after the race and often download speeds are slow initially until more seeds appear, surely you might as well watch the highlights, which hopefully will be 1hr of actual racing! And it could be worse, you could live in America and be stuck with Speed TV coverage (cable pay TV), and four races delayed on Fox TV (free-to-air).

[killem2]

I will be torrenting them as well. I'm in america. If you can, scour.. a certain demon of torrent sites, *wink* wink* their users usually have excellent quality and turn around times. And because of this I don't think it'll be different this year.

[synsei]

To be honest I would rather wait for the torrent to download and watch the whole race than watch the highlights on the BBC. The BBC did a similar thing many moons ago (IIRC it was during the 1980's) and I stopped watching F1 completely and so did many others. Eventually the BBC capitulated when they noted that the viewing figures were slipping away. The BBC can't pull out of F1 completely just now because they are tied into the contract and the Concorde agreement specifically states that F1 cannot be aired solely on PPV. Martin Whitmarsh is heading a push to change the agreement when it is up for renegotiation so that F1 broadcasting rights can be offered solely to a PPV bidder, Ecclestone and the FIA are against this and want to keep the agreement in its current form. As it stands it is the FTA channels that hold all the cards and it is solely down to the BBC that SKY managed to get their foot in the door. This illustrates the depths of the BBC's betrayal. As the current holder of the broadcasting rights they have taken advantage of the situation by selling out in part to SKY. Channel 4 were willing to pay more for the F1 broadcast rights than the BBC. The BBC knew this which is why they didn't contact CH4 about it. For their part SKY are taking a gamble, they are banking on the Concorde renegotiations going their way which will leave them as the sole purveyor of F1 in Europe.

I've attempted to explain the situation as succinctly as possible but politics was never my strong point. If there is anyone out there who can explain this better than I, feel free to expand on this and/or correct any errors

[LRW]

To be honest I would rather wait for the torrent to download and watch the whole race than watch the highlights on the BBC. .......

Torrent? where have you been grandad. Its all about magnet links these days.....

[LewEngBridewell]

I race lasts 90 minutes maximum. Highlights will be 90 minutes minimum. Some folk are acting as though we're going to get to see 5 minutes-worth of racing...

OK, it's not ideal. But it's far from the apocalypse.

[myownalias]

I race lasts 90 minutes maximum. Highlights will be 90 minutes minimum. Some folk are acting as though we're going to get to see 5 minutes-worth of racing...

OK, it's not ideal. But it's far from the apocalypse.

It's going to be a 90 minute highlights program; how much of that 90 minutes will be actual race time? I think it'll be 10 minutes of punditry before the race and 20 minutes afterwards, so we will probably see 60 minutes of actual race footage. Which is not so bad given that probably, for at least 60% of the race, nothing much happens!

[andrew]

I race lasts 90 minutes maximum. Highlights will be 90 minutes minimum. Some folk are acting as though we're going to get to see 5 minutes-worth of racing...

It's the BBC. Unless it's golf, football, ping pong or the olympics, they don't give a thrupenny bit!

[racechick]

To be honest I would rather wait for the torrent to download and watch the whole race than watch the highlights on the BBC. The BBC did a similar thing many moons ago (IIRC it was during the 1980's) and I stopped watching F1 completely and so did many others. Eventually the BBC capitulated when they noted that the viewing figures were slipping away. The BBC can't pull out of F1 completely just now because they are tied into the contract and the Concorde agreement specifically states that F1 cannot be aired solely on PPV. Martin Whitmarsh is heading a push to change the agreement when it is up for renegotiation so that F1 broadcasting rights can be offered solely to a PPV bidder, Ecclestone and the FIA are against this and want to keep the agreement in its current form. As it stands it is the FTA channels that hold all the cards and it is solely down to the BBC that SKY managed to get their foot in the door. This illustrates the depths of the BBC's betrayal. As the current holder of the broadcasting rights they have taken advantage of the situation by selling out in part to SKY. Channel 4 were willing to pay more for the F1 broadcast rights than the BBC. The BBC knew this which is why they didn't contact CH4 about it. For their part SKY are taking a gamble, they are banking on the Concorde renegotiations going their way which will leave them as the sole purveyor of F1 in Europe.

I've attempted to explain the situation as succinctly as possible but politics was never my strong point. If there is anyone out there who can explain this better than I, feel free to expand on this and/or correct any errors

Grrr!! Gone of Whitmarsh even more!! Like you I really hope SKY falls flat. I wont get it...though will watch on someone else's tele.
Do you know if France will be showing the whole lot on their normal tele?

[Cai]

Sky Sports F1 channel has just turned up on my Sky+ menu, and its the only Sky Sports channel that I can view (I only have the basic Sky package, not the sports package).
I know Sky HD subscribers get the F1 channel free of charge this year, but do Sky+ subscribers get the channel too? Or are Sky just teasing me with the channel at the moment, and will take it away once Melbourne gets under way?

[racechick]

The channel goes live on the 9th of March. You dont need the premiersports channel but I thought you did need Sky HD.

[LRW]

Sky Sports F1 channel has just turned up on my Sky+ menu, and its the only Sky Sports channel that I can view (I only have the basic Sky package, not the sports package).
I know Sky HD subscribers get the F1 channel free of charge this year, but do Sky+ subscribers get the channel too? Or are Sky just teasing me with the channel at the moment, and will take it away once Melbourne gets under way?

I would imagine that as soon as the channel launches you will get 'please phone this number to upgrade......' page.

I had the channel on last night. Only for an hour as I dozed on the sofa. Just playing promos, standard skyF1 adverts. But had this sped up camera feed from the Williams garage over the winter, of them building up the car.....

[McLaren]

Sky Sports F1 channel has just turned up on my Sky+ menu, and its the only Sky Sports channel that I can view (I only have the basic Sky package, not the sports package).
I know Sky HD subscribers get the F1 channel free of charge this year, but do Sky+ subscribers get the channel too? Or are Sky just teasing me with the channel at the moment, and will take it away once Melbourne gets under way?

Pretty sure you need to have either sky sports or HD package.Not long to wait friday is launch day

[synsei]

I race lasts 90 minutes maximum. Highlights will be 90 minutes minimum. Some folk are acting as though we're going to get to see 5 minutes-worth of racing...

OK, it's not ideal. But it's far from the apocalypse.

It's going to be a 90 minute highlights program; how much of that 90 minutes will be actual race time? I think it'll be 10 minutes of punditry before the race and 20 minutes afterwards, so we will probably see 60 minutes of actual race footage. Which is not so bad given that probably, for at least 60% of the race, nothing much happens!

If you are happy with this state of affairs then good for you, I am not however. If we just lie down and accept the current situation then should the Concorde renegotiations find in favour of PPV, SKY will take charge of the lot. That will mean no F1 on FTA channels anywhere in Europe. That's fine for all those who can afford the full SKY package but it alienates anyone who can't or won't pay for PPV.

To be honest I would rather wait for the torrent to download and watch the whole race than watch the highlights on the BBC. .......

Torrent? where have you been grandad. Its all about magnet links these days.....

It is true that I'm a grandad and WTH is a magnet link?

Gone off Whitmarsh even more!! Like you I really hope SKY falls flat. I wont get it...though will watch on someone else's tele.
Do you know if France will be showing the whole lot on their normal tele?

I believe so, as are RAI in Italy if IIRC

[LRW]

Torrent? where have you been grandad. Its all about magnet links these days.....

It is true that I'm a grandad and WTH is a magnet link?

See Here - Please note, I do not condone the use of torrents / magnet links to illegally download any form of copyrighted material.

[vaptin]

To be honest I would rather wait for the torrent to download and watch the whole race than watch the highlights on the BBC. The BBC did a similar thing many moons ago (IIRC it was during the 1980's) and I stopped watching F1 completely and so did many others. Eventually the BBC capitulated when they noted that the viewing figures were slipping away. The BBC can't pull out of F1 completely just now because they are tied into the contract and the Concorde agreement specifically states that F1 cannot be aired solely on PPV. Martin Whitmarsh is heading a push to change the agreement when it is up for renegotiation so that F1 broadcasting rights can be offered solely to a PPV bidder, Ecclestone and the FIA are against this and want to keep the agreement in its current form. As it stands it is the FTA channels that hold all the cards and it is solely down to the BBC that SKY managed to get their foot in the door. This illustrates the depths of the BBC's betrayal. As the current holder of the broadcasting rights they have taken advantage of the situation by selling out in part to SKY. Channel 4 were willing to pay more for the F1 broadcast rights than the BBC. The BBC knew this which is why they didn't contact CH4 about it. For their part SKY are taking a gamble, they are banking on the Concorde renegotiations going their way which will leave them as the sole purveyor of F1 in Europe.

I've attempted to explain the situation as succinctly as possible but politics was never my strong point. If there is anyone out there who can explain this better than I, feel free to expand on this and/or correct any errors

Your point about Channel 4 is interesting, did they wish for exclusivity or were they paying to share with the BBC? Presumably Bernie could've played hardball and told the BBC he wanted the extra money from cooperation with Channel 4 and not Sky.

I suppose debating the ethics of the BBC in this case (assuming that Channel 4 were prepare to pay more than Sky for the same deal that Sky and the BBC currently hold) will depend on how far the BBC are suppose to act as an independent competitive commercial company versus a nice altruistic public service broadcaster. Are the BBC really obliged to ensure that F1 remains free to air with Channel 4 even though it could negatively impact on themselves? Another point, I doubt Channel 4 wouldn't show adverts during the races.