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[bud]

Ill be watching it for free, even better yet Ill be watching the British coverage for free. Suck on them apples!

[Jabberwocky]

I blame the money grabbing Bernie. He priced the BBC out of the market. If the BBC are paying what it costs to run a whole TV channel for what it costs to have F1 then you can see how greedy Bernie is

I look at it differently. There is plenty cash for football, antiques shows and show jumping. The BBC for years have been flooding every sports event they cover with far too many presenters and pundits who will be getting a not insignificant salary from the BBC. I'm sure that savings could have been made by the BBC streamlining the coverage of other sports including F1. As for MrE being greedy, well he's a business man and it's his job to be greedy and generate a decent return for F1's investors. Conversly, you could easily argue that the various broadcasters that bid for F1 are part of the problem by not telling him to lower his price. Let's face it, if they all said £45 million is far to much and the highest bid he got was say £20 million then MrE would have very little option but to lower his price. By meeting his demands with what appears to be very little resistance, they let the guy get away with more and more each time a contract is renewed.

I agree with most of your statements however it only takes one media company to say I really want F1 and say they will pay 21M then it would all start again. Media companies want people to watch what they produce and will spend more to get the big deals. So it is there greed as well that is causing the issue.

I can go down my local circuit on most race weekend and spend 10 -15 quid to get in. Wander around the pits and chat to all the teams and drivers. Until it comes to F1, then it is at least 10 times that amount, nope not because the circuit is being greedy, but because they have to pay Bernie to let him say yes to having someone else race there cars at there circuit... I am still not really sure what Bernie provides in all of it

[LewEngBridewell]

Lol who selected boycott the sport???

I'm sticking with the BBC.

I can't afford Sky, so I'll have to make do with what I can get. It's not ideal, but there's no way I'm not following the only sport I'm really really passionate about!

[FRAFPDD]

Ill be watching it for free, even better yet Ill be watching the British coverage for free. Suck on them apples!

do you not have tv licenses in oz for one?

secondly, wont you only get ten races?

[bud]

Ill be watching it for free, even better yet Ill be watching the British coverage for free. Suck on them apples!

do you not have tv licenses in oz for one?

secondly, wont you only get ten races?

Australia's F1 broadcaster is network ten. They have the license to broadcast every race, they use the international feed but use the British commentary. So we get the BBC guys. I assume for the Sky races they will either use that commentary or use their own hosts which I hope they don't, the guys that host the F1 and motogp are alright at hosting but crap at commentating.

[zurich_allan]

I already have Sky sports, so I won't have the problem of debating whether to get it or not. Haven't really thought yet about whether to stick to BBC and watch Sky for the races that they won't be covering, or just to watch it all on Sky. BBC have left a bitter taste in my mouth so I'm loathed to watch them and support their coverage.... but then I actually like their coverage... so I don't know.

What I will say is having watched a few F1 races on Speed tv whilst in the states a couple of years ago, whoever said Speed > BBC coverage earlier in the thread must be seriously mental because it's simply a lie. There's no debate even to be had, Speed's coverage was absolutely rank rotten beyond literally the race itself in comparison to what BBC cover. Must just be patriotism to suggest Speed has the better coverage unless it's changed drastically since 2009.

EDIT: Just re-read the thread and realised the comment was that Speed tv > SKY and not BBC.... which puzzles me even more... can I borrow your crystal ball please?!?

[McLaren]

I'm starting to think i might get sky back again,something I said I wouldn't do.At the end of the day i like F1,NFL,football and test cricket.They keep hassling me to go back to them for half price for a year.

[LewEngBridewell]

The initial outcry when the deal was announced is, as I expected, starting to die down. S*** happens, life aint easy, and we've just got to accept that.

True F1 fans will persist, fight and retain the love of their sport.

[andrew]

I had a discussion with my Dad last night about FreeSat. If I'm earning enough by then, which I hopefully will be, I might get this. It's a one off payment for the equipment which isn't too hefty I believe and nothing else. All I have to do is find a foreign channel that broadcasts F1, turn the volume off and stick on Radio 5, much as I do now only without the aide of a foreign channel.

[LewEngBridewell]

I had a discussion with my Dad last night about FreeSat. If I'm earning enough by then, which I hopefully will be, I might get this. It's a one off payment for the equipment which isn't too hefty I believe and nothing else. All I have to do is find a foreign channel that broadcasts F1, turn the volume off and stick on Radio 5, much as I do now only without the aide of a foreign channel.

Good times.

You and your radio 5 live

I do agree with you, the commentary is great, but I just keep the commentary on the TV.......

[andrew]

Good times.

You and your radio 5 live

I do agree with you, the commentary is great, but I just keep the commentary on the TV.......

The commentary on Radio 5 is superb and you know the result about 3 seconds before the slow pokes on BBC1!

The BBC did initially offer the F1 coverage with 4 options of commentary via the red button - BBC1, Radio 5, CBBC (of all things!) and no commentary and promised that this would be the case for all races. It didn't take long for this to go for a burton with the red button showing a driver tacker map with a tiny little window showing the race. So unless you're watching the race on a cinema screen it's kind of pointless. They didn't think that one through too well!

[Bubbie]

Andrew, if you are not listening to the "world feed" which BBC commentates over, and you are hearing things 3 seconds sooner, do you hear the engine sounds at all, or are they out of synch. Sounds like an interesting way to do things, but would be very disorienting due to what I am used to.

The engine sounds are part of why I love the F1 coverage over any other sort of racing. The audio for the most part on the BBC feed is very well done. They speak over the world feed, but keep it's volume up high enough that the action can be heard. The world feed has excellent audio mixing based on which camera you are looking at.

[andrew]

The entire Radio 5 Live broadcast (commentary and background noises) is slightly ahead of the footage but if you watch with the BBC1 commentary it's all in-sync. It's a bit odd at the start when the commentator announces that their off and the cars are still stationary but it's not too bad. The delay seems to vary from race to race but the biggest delay that I can think of was around 3 seconds.

[Bulletproof]

OK then, apart from a few touchy comments, we have some results in.

38% of people will be watching F1 on Sky, either taking a new subsciption or simply watching it on there current subscription.
23% will stick with the BBC and enjoy half the season in full.
39% are undecided or boycoting

(at 13 votes)

More votes would obviously give a broader base but as it stands these are the results.

Another thing I have been musing about is this,

If the BBC average say 4 million viewers per race and the cost for the season is £45,000,000 then that equates to about £11 per viewer per season. This amount of money is enough for Bernie to be happy.

Now lets take the SKY deal, The standard subscription is £20 a month and with the sports channels that leaps to around £30+ so for the year that's roughly £360, so for an F1 viewer who does not have any form of SKY subscription, to view the entire F1 season will now cost them £360 per season, plus the license fee. On the SKY sub alone thats pretty much a 3000% increase just to watch F1 for one year.

The UK market has never had to pay up front for F1 and with the BBC, £11 per year was absolutely reasonable with ad free viewing, but a 3000% increase to watch the same thing is totally extortionate!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who takes this extra revenue????? Not Bernie.....Not F1....but SKY arhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[LewEngBridewell]

39% are undecided or boycoting

Only one person has actually said they are boycotting, which is a knee-jerk reaction to the decision.

Those who've said they're undecided will still watch and they know it.