FORUMula1.com

[myownalias]

Another petition that can signed here... http://formula1onbbc.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for all the good that it'll do!!!

[Bladesman]

Another petition that can signed here... http://formula1onbbc.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for all the good that it'll do!!!

The question is can we boycott watching F1 altogether?

Id find it difficult to resist watching it regardless of where it is.

[andrew]

You may have lost the F1 BBC but you best leave Have I Got News For You and Top Gear alone!

I'll let you have HIGNFY as it is good and is a lot better without Angus Deyton. Ian Hislop and Paul Merton are a great double act. It's the only satire and decent comedy the BBC has left. Quite depressing when you think of what they had in teh 60's and 70's (Dad's Army, Porridge, Open All Hours, Beachcomber, Q, The Likely Lads, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The 2 Ronnies, Monty Python to name a few that come to mind immediately).

As for Top Gear, they could ditch shortarse and lanky and keep Jame May then add Charlie Cox and Steve Parish, along with some bikes, it would improve a hell of a lot. As it is at the moment it is very expensive. For the amount the BBC spend on TG, I want to see proper car reviews, earth shatteringly funny and witty banter not mindless destruction and some tall skiny idiot having the world's longest midlife crisis in ludourisly expensive sports cars shouting "POWER" every 5 minutes or some loud mouthed vertically challenged twit banging on about Porshas and BM's like they were the greatest contribution to the human race past, present and future. If TG ended now I wouldn't miss it.

The BBC have annoyed me ever so slightly today.

Another petition that can signed here... http://formula1onbbc.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for all the good that it'll do!!!

The question is can we boycott watching F1 altogether?

Id find it difficult to resist watching it regardless of where it is.

Probably not unfortunately. been watching it for as long, it'll become a force of habit kind of thing.

[vaptin]

It's really a refusal to watch the spot on Sky that'll do it.

Make it unprofitable, and I think the sponsors for the teams are the best bet, Sky can easily make money from subscriptions plus advertising. Their after only a fairly small % of the viewers the bbc would attract.

The bad thing is of course, for fans watching the sport, the problem is it'll probably be like the premiership, the money Sky pays for TV rights will far outweigh the amount sponsors will reduce their payments to teams due to lower viewing figures.

Truth is, the bbc are intent on cutting back, for next year the way I see it, their just planning to show qualifying and the races? All the extra stuff is still being scrapped, plus reduced costs from only showing half the races.

The BBC don't have a big pot of money, but they make some from exporting shows like top gear, ok they make money by loaning out their race coverage to other countries, but that's a lot less than selling of broadcasting rights for a show.

[australia99]

terrible news for all fans of the sport.

my big worry for me is down here, we get the BBC feed. what happens for those races that the BBC dont do? are we going to have to put up with the poo that Greg Rust and darryl Beattie come up with? they are the worst commentators ever!!!!

im just hoping the teams use the clause in the concord agreement that F1 must be free to air.

[smokin]

terrible news for all fans of the sport.

my big worry for me is down here, we get the BBC feed. what happens for those races that the BBC dont do? are we going to have to put up with the poo that Greg Rust and darryl Beattie come up with? they are the worst commentators ever!!!!

im just hoping the teams use the clause in the concord agreement that F1 must be free to air.

Ditto for TSN in Canada - they give us the BBC feed. The alternative is Speed whose coverage is dismal.

[jonrola]

This subservience to sky is going to change F1 from an avidly followed live sport to a 'catch up' sport and so lose it's excitement.
Is Bernie not rich enough?? If the drivers agree with this deal then maybe they don't deserve the level of support that fans give them.
I was with sky for 16 years without any problems. I payed by credit card direct debit. Due to fraudulent activity on my card I had to cancel it and renew my credit card account. Due to this fraud and all the hassle it caused getting it sorted sky were unable to get one payment. They ceased my sky service immediately and then I started getting letters from a debt collection agency. After 16 years as a loyal customer sky sh*t on me from a great height.
Rupert Murdoch owns 39% of sky and is trying to acquire the other 61%. He's another person who can't have enough money or power. He wants global domination before he dies (just like a certain Austrian!).
If you subscribe to sky now you have to accept the fact that nearly 40% of your money slides into the sewer rat Murdoch's pocket. If I was giving this slime money I would not sleep easy!

Formula ! (born 1950 - died 2012) R.I.P
Cause of death - GREED.

I don't blame the BBC as their F1 coverage costs a fortune but maybe it would be helpful if they got rid of Top Gear and those three idiots who pretend to be spontaneous, travel around the world, with the associated crew costs, when they could do the same thing in Britain and hold no interest for serious car enthusiasts. Top Gear must be the most expensive non-funny 'comedy' prog on the BBC!

[acosmichippo]

From James Allen:

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/07/e ... y-f1-deal/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My understanding of the crucial clause in the Concorde Agreement is that it says that the Commercial Rights Holder must “avoid” a situation where F1 coverage is “only available on pay TV” in key markets, such as the UK.

Ecclestone may argue that this clause has been respected because all the races will be shown on the BBC, it’s just that half of them will not be live but will be highlights. Either way he is likely to have found a wording which allows this to happen.

The teams should protest this as being "against the spirit of the rule".

I haven't been able to read the whole thread, but just wanted to add to the dull roar. BBC is the only reason I've been able to watch F1 in the US, and their coverage has by far been the best of ANY sporting event I've ever watched. I find it odd that they started airing in 2009, and only two years later find that they can't afford it (on, from what I understand, an INCREASING viewership). Who the F does their cost analysis?

And I've seen it written that the GPs the BBC will be showing will be the actual races only - no practices. But what about qualifying?

It's also a shame that no BBC or F1 guys seem to be taking a stance against this... maybe Clarkson will rant on it a bit this week on Top Gear.

[Crawf]

You may have lost the F1 BBC but you best leave Have I Got News For You and Top Gear alone!

I'll let you have HIGNFY as it is good and is a lot better without Angus Deyton. Ian Hislop and Paul Merton are a great double act. It's the only satire and decent comedy the BBC has left. Quite depressing when you think of what they had in teh 60's and 70's (Dad's Army, Porridge, Open All Hours, Beachcomber, Q, The Likely Lads, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The 2 Ronnies, Monty Python to name a few that come to mind immediately).

As for Top Gear, they could ditch shortarse and lanky and keep Jame May then add Charlie Cox and Steve Parish, along with some bikes, it would improve a hell of a lot. As it is at the moment it is very expensive. For the amount the BBC spend on TG, I want to see proper car reviews, earth shatteringly funny and witty banter not mindless destruction and some tall skiny idiot having the world's longest midlife crisis in ludourisly expensive sports cars shouting "POWER" every 5 minutes or some loud mouthed vertically challenged twit banging on about Porshas and BM's like they were the greatest contribution to the human race past, present and future. If TG ended now I wouldn't miss it.

The BBC have annoyed me ever so slightly today.

Another petition that can signed here... http://formula1onbbc.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for all the good that it'll do!!!

The question is can we boycott watching F1 altogether?

Id find it difficult to resist watching it regardless of where it is.

Probably not unfortunately. been watching it for as long, it'll become a force of habit kind of thing.

If the BBC ditched one of the presenters....the others would follow. And Charlie Cox? Really? He was horrible on the Australian Top Gear. I say leave Top Gear as is. It's not what it used to be, but you can't go changing Top Gear, because it only works with those 3 presenters. They've said once their time is up they won't try and push on with it. You either keep it the way it is or scrap it altogether.
-----
BBC should either show all the races live, or give it off to another FTA network to show.

[f1boy]

Pretty sickened with the BBC over this nonsense. Half the races...........I ask you, who's idea was that, lol. Rubbish!!
I don't have Sky and won't be getting Sky either. A sad day for F1 in my opinion.

Could ITV not have had it first, before bloody Sky???

[AndyF1]

Lol, just got an out of office from Barbera Slater at the BBC:
If you are writing with regards to the recent Formula 1 announcements, please note that you must go through the official BBC complaints process via http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; as BBC Sport are unable to respond to personal email addresses on this occasion.
To do this, they must be getting hundreds of emails.

Also, the guy who emails go to at FOM if you select 'Business' as the email contact is on hols too - what bad timing:
Thank you for your email. I am on holiday until 16th August so will reply when I am back in the office. If the matter cannot wait please send me a text message.
Kind regards,
Alex Wooff
Formula One Management
sadly he doesn;t include his phone number so we can't text him

[MadAL]

What Eccleston lacks in height he makes up for in greed at the expense of British fans.
How can he say the coverage on BBC will be better.
Go back to school Eccleston 50% coverage dont equate.
BRITISH FANS VOTE WITH YOUR FEET.WALK AWAY FROM COVERAGE UNTIL DECISION IS REVERSED, I AM AFTER DECADES OF FOLLOWING F1.
Incedentally what effect will be felt by overseas fans by their TV coverage.

[F1IsInMyBlood]

Ok, people seem to be bashing Top Gear now.

The financials with regard to Top Gear are completley different as this programme is a huge money maker for the BBC, it is sold to over 130 countries. The UK production costs are covered by the fact it makes money, in other words its self financing, so in effect costs nothing to produce the UK show.

The BBC has a remit that it has to be able to produce programmes for all tastes and genres.

The problem lies in the fact that the BBC is extremely wasteful with its spending, in fact it appears that producers and the creative types feel that there is a bottomless pit of money. As has already been said the BBC has this obsession with going into overkill when it covers any event, you just have to look at the number of presenters they send to cover them. An example is thier News coverage, take how they covered this story regarding SKY, because its about F1 they feel the need to send a reporter plus production team to Silverstone to present the news story, another example, BA strikes, they send reporter plus production crew to Heathrow to present the news story just so they can have an image of an airport behind them, just so you know its about aviation, the list goes on and on.........WHY? this can be done with one reporter talking in the studio, and don't get me started on this obsession of having 2 presenters on every show and maybe a 3rd one doing some kind after show. This is the kind of waste you can see just as a viewer, so I can imagine it is 10 times worse behind the scenes.

The BBC can make very simple savings running into the 10s even 100s of millions by quite simply getting rid of all this overcreative

As for Bernie Ecclestone claiming this will increase viewers because around 10million have SKY in the UK, well those 10 Million also have BBC Bernie so how will that increase viewing figures.

In the end this just comes down to money, More for Bernie, More for the teams.........end of. This deal is worth an extra 18 million a year to F1. What you, as the fans think, is irrelevent.

What will be fun to watch is how Jake and Co will spin this over the weekend during the coverage of the GP, knowing full well they will be told to be positive and toe the line, the only one I can see being vocal against it, will be Brundle, who from what I believe is Out of Contract after this year, but then again he might want to position himself for the SKY job, so may toe the line aswell.

Channel 4 didn't offer the big money that SKY and the BBC offered, its that simple.

EDIT: It appears Brundle and Coulthard have sorted themselves out, they have been confirmed to carrying on as commentators for bothe the BBC and SKY.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/07/n ... bc-emerge/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[andrew]

There is a glimmer of hope for us impovrished and/or ethical F1 fans!

According to this report in the F1 Times, all races will be shown in full, only 10 will be delayed until the evening of that particular race day. The descision to show highlights or the race in full is down to the BBC, though MrE would prefer them to show highlights only (makes sence from his point of view - the more folk watch on Sky the more of a return is generated for CVC).

The BBC has already let us UK based F1 fans down once let's hope they don't do it a second time.

I can live with a delay of a few hours. With the likes of Japanese and Austalian GP's, I always know the result before the race so a delay of a few hours doesn't bother me and it frees up the whole day and then there is something worth watching in the evening.

As for Top Gear it is crap but it is addictive crap. I don't want to watch it but I feel compelled to do so for some reason but I much preferred the old version.

[tco]

I have just read in two papers that

a) Channel 4 offered the same mony but Bernie chose Sky
b) BBC executives took Sky reps to a meeting with Bernie.

So it would seem that another free to air broadcaster offered to take on F1 but were rebuffed.

There is a definite stink about this, The discredited News International (part owners of Sky) want to buy F1. This deal can only help with that ambition. Despite Bernie's denials I would not be surprised to see that deal gone through in less than two years. After all Bernie is getting older and will want to op out at sometime.

The teams should be very careful about who owns the sport. Because love him or loath him, Bermie was once both a racer and a team owner, so he has roots in the sport. News International will just was to extract as much money as possible from the sport. This could very detrimental for particpants and spectators alike.