Sport The Formula 1 Thread

[McCoy]

However, if all we're getting is a re-hash, but adverts during the pre and post race shows, then Sky can fuck off.

I do think we will get excellent coverage out of Sky. It's their MO to present sports in the best way possible, that's how they get people to subscribe. But it will still be very expensive to follow.

[Dudley]

Rubbish there are no ads in any sport sky show during the action - even in the cricket the ads are only there at end change or break, has been like this since sports started.

You're telling me they showed the Indy 500 without adverts? I'm 99% certain they have adverts during normal Indycar too.

[McCoy]

I reckon Brundle will end up at Sky pretty soon. Lots of money plus the chance to do ALL the races will be very tempting. I suspect a few of the current team will head off too like EJ and Coulthard. They're all about F1 and nothing else so no ties to other existing BBC shows.

Exactly. Why hang around on the BBC to present half a season of a sport you love? It's hardly about the money for people like EJ and Couthard. The BBC might be able to keep Jake since he does other things for them but I suspect Ted will be off to Sky as well.

I don't think the BBC will bother putting much of a show on next year. They'll show the bare minimum they can and cut to Bargain Hunt 2012. No post race access or forum and they will probably get rid of the pre-show stuff as well. They will show the race for two hours and thats it.

It's possible Sky might try and poach them anyway. Come to us to cover every race until 2018, or stay with the BBC with less coverage and be out of a job soon!

Oh I agree. I just think this, more than anything, will mean that the coverage on the BBC will be pretty rubbish from here on out.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

I'm sure something like that will happen. They had a feature a few years ago where you could watch any one player for 90 minutes during a match. They stopped it I think though as it was rubbish.

whaaaaat that sounds amazing. I love that film that just shows Zidane for a match. It makes football look really lonely.

[Shimmyhill]

You're telling me they showed the Indy 500 without adverts? I'm 99% certain they have adverts during normal Indycar too.

They buy the feed from the US as i recall so if it did it was due to this, from some other racing I've seen bought from the us they used to cut to studio to talk while the yanks had adverts.

[Wools]

Great quote from Bernie only 2 months ago.

“They have been trying to buy the TV rights from us for a long time, but we won’t because they are not free-to-air television broadcasters. With their [audience] figures it would be almost impossible for teams to find sponsors. That would be suicidal.” – Bernie Ecclestone, May 2011.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tomcary/100018021/whiff-of-betrayal-in-the-air-as-skybbc-deal-announced-but-is-it-such-a-bad-thing/

[McCoy]

But other than what I suggested, what can they do that the BBC have not already done? Genuine question.

I always think there is room for improvement. More camera angles during the race, practice sessions on TV etc. The BBC have done an excellent job and I certainly think that Sky will match it, if not exceed it. For them it will be all about showing how good a job they can present the F1 so they can argue that they should have the right to screen more sport. Plus, unlike other sports they will be competing for ten of the races against the BBC so they will need to be on top of their game to get viewers for those ten races. When BBC and ITV show the same match then people inherently head to BBC1 just because its the BBC. Sky will want them to watch on Sky and will make every effort to make it so their presentation of Sky is better than the BBC.

Don't get me wrong, the current set up is fantastic and I wish it hand't changed. But aside from the cost problem I do think Sky will treat F1 very well.

[McCoy]

Great quote from Bernie only 2 months ago.

“They have been trying to buy the TV rights from us for a long time, but we won’t because they are not free-to-air television broadcasters. With their [audience] figures it would be almost impossible for teams to find sponsors. That would be suicidal.” – Bernie Ecclestone, May 2011.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tomcary/100018021/whiff-of-betrayal-in-the-air-as-skybbc-deal-announced-but-is-it-such-a-bad-thing/

Well, in fairness the scenario they have negotiated does mean every race will have significant exposure on free to air TV which will appease the sponsors. As a commercial decision I can see the logic behind this decision. Ten races free to air with the rest having significant free to air highlights. It's not so different to countries where the free to air gets the race, just a few hours after the race is shown live commercially.

The highlights on the BBC will still show the sponsors and the brands and may well attract high viewing figures from people who like F1 but find following an entire race quite daunting.

[Yewone]

On the joint televised races the Grid walks could prove interesting.. BBC & Sky fighting for the best interviews (thats assuming the BBC can still be arsed, or afford to send someone out to do them )

[Dudley]

I always think there is room for improvement. More camera angles during the race, practice sessions on TV etc.

The BBC and Sky have zero control over this.

[McCoy]

The BBC and Sky have zero control over this.

See above. It's already been confirmed that German TV stations allow you to choose between two on board camera's compared to the BBC's one. Theoretical there is no reason at some point int he future we could not choose which ever driver we want and follow them for the entire race. Sky certainly have the bandwidth to provide this whilst BBC are always limited by what they can provide using Freeview.

I don't understand your point regarding practice sessions. The BBC don't show them because few people want to watch them on TV. Sky, with all its dedicated sports channels would be able to show them in HD on TV very easily.

I'm not defending the deal, I don't think it is a good idea. But I'm not going completely lose my perspective over what this could mean.

[McCoy]

On the joint televised races the Grid walks could prove interesting.. BBC & Sky fighting for the best interviews (thats assuming the BBC can still be arsed, or afford to send someone out to do them )

Ha. Like the BBC are going to bother sending people to the races. If it is all about cost cutting they will just have people sitting in the studio. They probably won't even send commentators and just get them to commentate from London for something.

Sorry, if I'm been negative, I just feel that the BBC have let us down on this one. They have the money to show F1, they are simply choosing to spend it elsewhere. It seems like there is a specific proportion of the population the BBC love to appeal to, those who like soaps and reality TV shows and other parts of the population, albeit smaller parts, that the BBC feel it is beneath them to provide services for. The BBC are the public broadcaster. Until it starts costing them money. They they prefer to place their money into producing the same shit that the other channels produce all the time.

I can count on one hand the amount of BBC progammes I watch for which I'm expected to fork out £150 for the pleasure, whilst they seemingly produce a million hours of content for the person next door who likes soaps and reality TV. Of course, we're all forced to pay the same amount, no choice there. Torchwood is another example of the BBC stepping back and letting another broadcaster do the work and pay the bills. It's like they are giving up on anything which isn't going to be either a sure fire hit or cost next to nothing to produce. And there is a name for that type of mindset, it's called ITV.

[Wools]

After reading Jake's column in the ES, I'm more confident that I'll be able to watch the F1 season on the BBC.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/article-23974206-jake-humphrey-im-proud-of-the-effort-that-our-whole-bbc-team-put-into-f1.do

As long as they get the good races and keep up the quality between online, TV & Radio, it could be a great season with none of the waffle.

Fuck off extortionate subscription prices, boring races, Tilke circuits and shite, profit run stakeholder companies.

[McCoy]

After reading Jake's column in the ES, I'm more confident that I'll be able to watch the F1 season on the BBC.

In fairness, that article tells us nothing that we don't already know, namely that the BBC will show half the races next year and highlights of the rest. There is no mention in that article that the strong production value we currently see will be maintained. This is probably because Jake doesn't know what will happen next year, where they will be broadcasting from or who he will be broadcasting with. I think there is more than a good chance we'll see Jake sitting in a studio in London next year when he is covering the BBC's races. I hope this isn't the case, but I fear if the BBC are really trying to cut its costs surrounding F1 that it will be the case.

[GwiDan]

I think the BBC is expecting people to switch off from F1 next year - if you can't follow every race that you want to, what's the point of watching any of them. Their senior management will then be able to use low viewer numbers as an excuse for not renewing any contracts they have with the sport the year after.

[gospvg]

I think the BBC is expecting people to switch off from F1 next year - if you can't follow every race that you want to, what's the point of watching any of them. Their senior management will then be able to use low viewer numbers as an excuse for not renewing any contracts they have with the sport the year after.

Yep

[Daley]

For football it is indeed completely pointless; for F1 it would make a significant and positive impact on how the sport is televised.

Yea sure I wasn't meaning to dismiss it, just that it didn't work for football, but clearly it's perfect for F1.

The only thing I would say in defence of Sky is that a few other features as part of the football work really well. They allow you to choose any game to watch on Champions League days and you can set it so it switches games automatically when a goal goes in, not sure how the tech could be used in F1 but they have some good ideas.

The main difference is though that F1 coverage is very good on BBC. When Sky got the football originally, terrestrial football coverage was a disgrace.

[McCoy]

I really do think Sky will do an excellent job with the coverage and with the technological aspects of the coverage. They want all the F1 fans to look and what they are doing and think that it is good enough to get them to subscribe. If Sky get no new subscribers out of this deal then it will have been a massive business failure for them. They need to throw everything they have at F1 since they will be competing with F1 and they will need significant fans to purchase Sky to make them a profit on F1 coverage.

[McCoy]

Snobbery at the BBC?

F1 junked to keep two weeks of Wimbledon?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/29/formula-one-coverage-bbc-sky-share

The loss of exclusive grand prix rights could help the BBC when it comes to retaining the rights to other flagship sports properties such as Wimbledon, the current deal for which runs until 2014. "There will always be events we would want to acquire exclusively. In each individual sport, it's possible to take different approaches," Slater said.

[GwiDan]

Who will be the first major sponsor to pull out because the sport is no longer getting enough exposure in the UK?

[gospvg]

Who will be the first major sponsor to pull out because the sport is no longer getting enough exposure in the UK?

News Corp has a pie in SKY & The Sun

I think it will get enough exposure, just like Football we can now kiss F1 bye - bye

It won't be too long before the new Concorde agreement comes into play & then the Beeb will pull out of all the races.

Enjoyed the last 25 years, thanks for the memories.

I'm now going to take a leaf out of my favourite driver's book (raikkonen) & go eat an ice cream

[Velse]

I don't understand your point regarding practice sessions. The BBC don't show them because few people want to watch them on TV. Sky, with all its dedicated sports channels would be able to show them in HD on TV very easily.

The BBC do show them. There's one on now.

[roskelld]

The more I think about this, the more I wonder why the BBC are bothering at all next season.

The only reason I can think of is that they're allowing the deal to conform with the Concorde agreement, keeping the sport on a free-to-air channel. If that's the case, then there's nothing in it for them at all, it just enables Sky to show the sport. I wonder if Sky haven't paid for the BBC coverage as well to enable the action.

There's no way the BEEB will create a top class production for half a sport, it's pointless. No presenter would want that job, EJ, Couthard, Brundle et al, won't stick around for it, so why bother. It's not going to generate new fans for the sport as the coverage will be sporadic. A fragmented audience isn't a happy one; the people wanting to watch it will have paid up for Sky and will be watching it on there.

[Velse]

Really. Which TV channel should I tune in to see them then? Showing them online is not the same as showing them in HD on the TV which I would wager Sky will be doing.

301 (red button channel).

[GwiDan]

The more I think about this, the more I wonder why the BBC are bothering at all next season.

Speculation - they're under contract for a few more years under the original deal, and pulling out completely at the end of this year will get them sued by FOM for breach of contract. This way, they'll still get to show it at a much reduced rate, and will probably be allowed to withdraw from the sport entirely at the end of 2012 because of some clause in the new contract that lets them if viewing numbers fall below X million.

[McCoy]

301 (red button channel).

Fair enough. Hardly prestige coverage. Is it even in HD?

[McCoy]

In all practicality I'll probably just torrent the 10 races not on BBC and watch them a few hours later, uninterrupted and in decent (SD) quality. Beats streaming, beats a Sky subscription.

In fairness, I can see a few people doing that. People who do that will be seeing the action around the same time the BBC will be showing the highlights.

[JPR]

Fair enough. Hardly prestige coverage. Is it even in HD?

Not HD but it's one of the highlights of the BBC coverage, Croft and Davidson are excellent.

[roskelld]

Speculation - they're under contract for a few more years under the original deal, and pulling out completely at the end of this year will get them sued by FOM for breach of contract. This way, they'll still get to show it at a much reduced rate, and will probably be allowed to withdraw from the sport entirely at the end of 2012 because of some clause in the new contract that lets them if viewing numbers fall below X million.

That's probably right. We know they have a contract until 2012. I still think it's very convenient for Sky that they're showing it, thanks to the fact that if they weren't then Sky wouldn't be able to either. I can't see how Sky haven't somehow sweetened this deal for the Beeb. If not straight up cash, then maybe guaranteed contracts for the production team.

I hope we find out the details beyond press releases telling us how happy we all feel.

[Velse]

Not HD but it's one of the highlights of the BBC coverage, Croft and Davidson are excellent.

And Chandhok occasionally, who sadly I suspect is a better pundit than driver. The red button isn't a prestige channel but the BBC doesn't have a dedicated sports channel to shuffle a schedule around on and they probably prefer not to disrupt BBC1/2 for something of relatively little interest to all but die hard F1 fans.