FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[LewEngBridewell]

Bollocks! Damn you Sky.

I cannot afford Sky, I am a young actor in a harsh industry and a recent graduate. So that's Sky completely out of the picture.

As a true and dedicated F1 fan, I will watch what I can on the BBC and then try and get into someone else's house to watch the ones on Sky.

[Ichabod]

Just found this on Autosport.com

Formula 1 teams are to seek clarification from Bernie Ecclestone on the new BBC/Sky television deal amid concerns about the sport moving away from free-to-air television in 2012.

In a shock announcement on Friday morning, the BBC and Sky announced that they would be sharing coverage of F1 in Britain next year - with Sky showing every race on its subscription channels and the BBC showing only half of them.

That move has led to outrage from fans, who are unhappy that they will not be able to follow every race on free-to-air television.

Team principals have also expressed some surprise at not having every race shown on free-to-air television, but they want more details from Ecclestone to find out what the specifics of the deal are.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said that he would seek more information from Ecclestone, especially because he felt it important F1 was not taken off free-to-air.

"As I understand BBC are covering half the grands prix, and Sky are doing every practice session and everything else. It's interesting," he told AUTOSPORT. "I don't think anyone should be immediately reacting to say this is good, bad, or indifferent.

"What we need to understand is whether the large audience we currently enjoy in Formula 1 will be maintained. I think we also need to understand exactly how this is being done."

Whitmarsh said moves to take F1 off free-to-air could be viewed as a breach of the Concorde Agreement, with him claiming that there were clauses in the deal that ties the teams, Ecclestone and the FIA together that guarantees the sport's broadcast platform.

"We've got a range of safeguards within Concorde, and the right thing to do is to explore how the Formula 1 coverage is going to be dealt with in the future, and take a view from there," he said. "I don't know how many homes in the UK have Sky, but it is a pretty high proportion."

Williams chairman Adam Parr said the key was understanding the finer details of the arrangement - because what teams lose in widespread television viewing figures could be gained in an increased revenue from Sky.

"In principle I have no issue with optimising the balance between the revenues that we need, and getting a good reach in the audience," he told AUTOSPORT. "The devil is in the detail.

"I think it is a balance and, without knowing the details, you cannot comment on whether it is good or bad. What I do know is that Bernie is a very passionate believer in getting the broadest audience possible and I think he has almost certainly done this in order to do that. "

When asked what his message would be to disappointed fans, Parr said: "I am sympathetic to them. I understand it is difficult - but English Premier League fans have had that for a while haven't they?

"The one thing I would say, which I have said before, I know that whether you are coming to a race or are watching the sport at home and have to do that on pay TV which seems expensive, people have to bear in mind what it costs to put on this show. It is part of the character of F1.

"For us to design and build the two cars that we will have on the grid on Sunday here, without putting an engine in them, without putting a driver in them, without accounting for the 70 staff that we bring to each race – without all of that those cars cost £2 million. You multiply that by all the cars on the grid and that is £24 million minimum of the costs just to make the parts. That is part of the show.

"It is not a bloke or two blokes with a tennis racket and a pair of plimsolls with zero cost. It is a very, very expensive sport. The best thing we can do for fans, whether they want to come to the races or want to watch it on TV, is to reduce the cost of the sport without spoiling the show."

Parr also pointed out that the Sky/BBC deal was part of a changing media platform – and he drew comparisons between it and the 'freemium' platform of AUTOSPORT.

"I think that media distribution has changed so much, whether you have gone from paper magazines to a combination of magazine and online," he said. "For example, if you are a lover of AUTOSPORT you have a subscription service there as well as a free-to-air element. The whole media landscape is changing so quickly.

"The argument from AUTOSPORT would be: we cannot do this for free. We can get some revenue from advertising on the website, some from selling magazines, but we have to optimise our income – and if you want the really good quality of the coverage that you love it is not free, we have to pay to get people to the events.

"It is a question of degree and balance but also recognising that the way media is distributed is changing. It may well be that the next time around it is not Sky because Google has won the bid and we are all watching it live on the Internet."

BBC commentator and former F1 driver Martin Brundle said on Twitter that he was "not impressed" with the deal.

"BBC/Sky/F1 2012+. Found out last night, no idea how it will work yet I'm out of contract, will calmly work through options. Not impressed," he wrote.

[Flux]

This really does make me very sad, sky programming has never been that great. And the past few years on the bbc have been the VERY best f1 has ever had, and they should be proud about it .

[LewEngBridewell]

This really does make me very sad, sky programming has never been that great. And the past few years on the bbc have been the VERY best f1 has ever had, and they should be proud about it .

[Tony_Donoghue]

I have never felt the need to express my view on a Forum before regarding Formula 1 but this decision to screen half the races on BBC and ALL of them on Sky has made my blood boil. In these difficult times people are being careful spending money only where they need to and reducing unnecessary expenses. Where before I would subscribe to all Sky channels, now I have removed the channels I no longer use and as such reducing my monthly bill significantly. As the only real sport I follow being Formula 1 I had no need for Sky Sports and I certainly don't need to watch the footage in HD as I am perfectly happy watching the BBC in standard definition. This decision to move the coverage to SKY (affectively) will probably mean that I will try and watch those races screened on the BBC but it will not make me re-subscribe to SKY sports - as such will I be so engaged if I can only watch half the races, which races, some being more exciting than others? Likely over time my interest will falter and I will just look to the results on the Internet. It is a shame that this move has not been in line with the concord agreement between the teams and F1 Management and I think they may find that the support for a move to Sky will be less than enthusiastic but I guess time will tell.

Not a great start to my Friday for sure - decision sucks!!!!

[MILLARDSKI]

So Bernie shows he's two-faced again where money is involved. He'll hail this deal as a success because he will dress it up as TWICE the coverage (PLUS of course he makes even more money) ~ but he's disenfranchised those fans who rely on receiving their F1 on terrestrial.

I can't afford Sky and I certainly wouldn't want to line the pockets of the Dirty Digger and his phone-hacking pals anyway.

I'm amazed that all these big F1 teams with backing from their international sponsors/car manufacturers will put up with F1 becoming a minority television sport as it sure as hell will.

I have dozens of friends who are what I would call 'intermittent' fans of F1 who will watch a GP if it's easy to receive. They certainly won't sign up to Sky just to watch the occasional race (Sky is generally for football and boxing fans) and that's a lot of sponsorship exposure that will be lost in the UK.

This is a BAD, BAD day for F1 in the UK.
THANKS A £MILLION BERNIE!

[zweiblumen]

To say that I am angry would be a gross understatement, 2012 will be the first year since I started watching F1 back in the 70's that I will be unable to watch all the races. I do not have Sky, I do not want Sky, I could not afford Sky even if I did want it and I would never subscribe to anything owned by the Murdochs... bar stewards, bar stewards, bar stewards!!!

[F1IsInMyBlood]

My first post on here, I felt compelled to make my point.

First this is a real kick in the teeth to F1 Fans. It just shows how much the old man gives a damn about the F1 Fan. If it wasn't for those that watch F1, then these big companies wouldn't put the money into F1.

All Bernie is interested in is maximising the return for the shareholders of F1. This is only going to work in the short term, as those that follow F1 will go elsewhere over time thus making F1 smaller, but by then it will no doubt be a full "Pay Per View" sport, so all they will do is put the price up.

It also appears that Adam Parr has the attitude that he could care very little for the F1 Fan, he has a "F$*@ You" attitude, but then again he is Williams, which, lets be honest was once a great team but refused to move with the times and is now a struggling mid to back of the grid team that is struggling to survive.

As for Sky, I don't have it, I refuse to pay anything to Murdoch.

Lets see if Martin Whitmarsh and FOTA have the back bone to stand-up and put a stop to this, as I feel F1, with this agreement, has just hit the self destruct button and has just started to travel down a very dangerous road.

One thing is for sure, the F1 coverage should be interesting this weekend. I can see a majority of the e-mails and tweets to Jake being about this.

[vaptin]

NOOOOOO!

Viewing figures are going up and up on the BBC, how the hell is the sport going to attract new fans (in the UK) when it's prohibitively costly on Sky?

Can't afford Sky either, great way to ruin it for thousands of people that want to watch.

Anyone called for a boycott yet? I'm tempted to, make it a massive waste of money for Sky, hopefully seeing it back to free to air.

There's a lot to learn from f1, most of the teams are British based and recruit large amounts of British staff, it really should be considered important enough for public viewing to merit being on the bbc.

Wimbledon and shitty horse racing are mandated I think? What's that all about? The sports that nice upper-middle class people enjoy get coverage.

Failing everything, guess I'll have to convince a local pub to show f1.

Look at how many people have signed up here, just to make a point.

[nish2280]

Wow this really sucks, even though i dont live in the UK i like their coverage which i watch after the race on youtube and whatnot.

[Frontrunner]

I feel bad for all you British folks, just total BS. Hopefully the F1 pay tv trend doesn't spread down to Aus. I complain a bit about the One HD coverage alot about the number of ad breaks it has during races but atleast we get all races and Quali for free, so guess I have to be thankful we get F1 on free to air in the first place.

To One HD: Keep up the great work and thankyou

[BanderaTex]

I like everyone else can't belive this decision - its total BS - and like boxing before I won't be watching.

It just goes to show how 2 faced Bernie is having said "moving to Sky would kill F1" - well its death is certainly close at hand for me - I don't want, nor will I be sucked into having Sky.

I also don't wont to watch half a season, and listening via radio is completly pointless - you never get the feel of F1 by listening.

We the fans keep this sport going - but it seems that we don't count!

[Four mules as one]

I'm worried about what this means for F1 in Australia. I know Ten have new owners in the Murdochs, Packers and Gina Rinehart and even though they are the richest people in Australia they are having massive paycuts on Ten and also One HD. If they have to now buy the rights to broadcast F1 in Australia through Sky will they take it up? We finally get F1 at a reasonable and live time and I'm worried its going to be gone just as quickly as it arrived. Have hardly missed a race since 1990 and am worried that F1's are going to get the chop due to rich fat cats. And if it goes to paytv over here then I'm not getting it cause Paytv here is the biggest load of horsecrap I've ever turned a remote onto. Looks like MotoGp may become my biggest thing to wait for every 2 weeks.

Agree on OneHD. Ads are becoming way too frequent, the last race was terrible when the racing was brilliant and then Greg Rust would cut over Martin Brundle and go to commercial. But I do appreciate what they have done and enjoy the commentary of Rusty, Daryl Beattie and Craig Baird pre and post race. Daryl Beattie in particular should be just be in your passenger seat and commentate as you drive through peak hour. A true Aussie legend.

[LewEngBridewell]

[Mattyp]

This news has actually made me register on these forums to post how I feel about it.

I agree with everyone else in no way will I be paying for Skysports to watch F1 I really love the sport have watched it for around 20 years but I refuse to pay the Murdoch's for the privilege, had they had some deal that meant every race was shown on the BBC but later I could have accepted that but not this.

On top of that wtf is Eccleston thinking, the Murdoch's right now are caught up in the biggest shitstorm scandal over all the NOTW phone hacking stuff how in hell can he think now is the time to announce this? Not to mention the BBC I am disgusted with them for agreeing to this we pay our licence fee's in good faith and I applauded when they got F1 back from ITV and now they betray us?

I guess our only hope is the teams themselves refusing to go through with this, but a faint hope.

I am one really upset fan, right now I watch all the practice sessions, qualifying and races themselves if I cannot keep this level of coverage I will not watch only part of it, I do not say this lightly or overacting but if this goes ahead I guess I will just have to walk away from F1.