Keep F1 on the BBC!!

[HibbyScott]

As you may or may not be aware, BBC, SKY and FOM announced a new broadcast deal which would see Formula One move away from Free to air television.

There are multiple problems with this. The first being that despite us as football fans still getting a decent deal from Sky as we would get the football, F1, Golf, anything else that we are interested in, there is the problem that a lot of people are ONLY interested in Formula 1 and related motorsport. This would mean that they would have to pay upwards of £20 a month in order to watch 10 of the races, which is something that a lot of people cannot afford. SKY also have absolutely no experience in handling top level motorsport. They tried to cover NASCAR a few years ago, and interest in that bombed. They are currently covering the IndyCar series in America with very little interest from viewers. The problem with moving motorsport to non free to air channels is that it quickly becomes lost. How many people watch any part of the Le Mans 24hours for example, and this is one of the most famous races in the world!

Away from the problems experienced by the average fan, this may also have a knock on effect for a lot of the teams. Formula One teams rely extremely heavily on sponsorship. If it is taken off Free to Air television then sponsors are not getting the same level of exposure as previously due to less people being able to watch the races. This could lead to sponsors reducing their expenditure on the team, or pulling out completely, putting teams, and overall the sport at risk.

I would ask you please if you have any interest in Formula One at all, to sign the petition available at http://www.petitionbuzz.co​m/petitions/keepf1onthebbc to try to convince FOM that this is not a good idea for the future of the sport. Many young engineers (including myself) were inspired by Formula One on the TV years and years ago. I am now close to achieving my goal, and I would hate for future generations to be denied this inspiration because their parents cannot afford or do not see the value for money in Formula One on SKY

[Gatecrasher]

peronally i would like to see the Sky coverage is like first, i have enjoyed the BBC coverage but i think Sky might go that extra bit further. I know its not ideal for everyone but neither is the way football is shown on TV and footie fans have been getting raped of their cash for 20 years now.

[Jack]

Done.

There was an article in the press recently about the underhand tactics used to get F1 on Sky. Cant say it surprised me very much :rolleyes:

[Jack]

peronally i would like to see the Sky coverage is like first, i have enjoyed the BBC coverage but i think Sky might go that extra bit further. I know its not ideal for everyone but neither is the way football is shown on TV and footie fans have been getting raped of their cash for 20 years now.

As the pictures are provided by F1 TV (or whatever its called) for world wide consumption I don’t think there will be much scope for Sky to do anything, at least during the races.

[HibbyScott]

peronally i would like to see the Sky coverage is like first, i have enjoyed the BBC coverage but i think Sky might go that extra bit further. I know its not ideal for everyone but neither is the way football is shown on TV and footie fans have been getting raped of their cash for 20 years now.


As the pictures are provided by F1 TV (or whatever its called) for world wide consumption I don’t think there will be much scope for Sky to do anything, at least during the races.

Jack is right. All Sky can do is add their commentary over the pictures from the world feed.

The football comparison is somewhat false I find. Yes you have to pay the same amount of money for the football as you would for F1, but a football fan gets significantly better value for money. Sky show upto 5 games over the course of a weekend, plus Champions League games midweek, and the most sought after pre season tournaments. Football fans can watch huge numbers of games pretty much year round. Someone who has no interest in football, rugby, boxing, anything else other than Formula One (they do exist, I know many of them) will have to fork out the exact same amount of money for 10 races between March and November.

I'm not entirely sure how much Sky Sports costs for a year, but I'd guess on average across all platforms about £20 a month? Thats £240 for the year, to watch 10 races (10 will still be shown on BBC, so not counting them for the calculation - £24 a race.) A football fan on the other hand gets god only knows how many games throughout the year.

I was inspired to take up my career path by watching F1 at a time when my parent's couldn't afford SKY, I'd hate to see a future generation of potential motorsport engineers miss out on this.

PS. Martin Whitmarsh has come out and said that this may violate the Concorde Agreement. I think the teams may be preparing something

[marinello59]

Wasn't it reported recently that the BBC were actively looking to dump F1 as part of their cost cutting exercise?

[robinp]

Wasn't it reported recently that the BBC were actively looking to dump F1 as part of their cost cutting exercise?

The bbc want shot of F1 as they cannot afford it - there is no 2 ways about it. Just a shame that they just spent £900m on their move to Salford and spent £17m paying for the rights to an X-Factor copycat show.

[Danderhall Hibs]

I’m sure Sky tried to do F1 a few years back – they had some sort of pay-per-view channel for it. It was around the same time as Premiership Plus was on as well.

I take it there wasn’t enough interest in F1 for them to continue – I wonder what they think makes it different now?

[Golden Bear]

Each to their own, but I find F1 even more boring than cricket. All it is these days is a procession of cars going round a track and the commentators getting mega excited about the pit stops. Whatever happened to the good old fashioned pile ups.

:greengrin

[Removed]

Each to their own, but I find F1 even more boring than cricket. All it is these days is a procession of cars going round a track and the commentators getting mega excited about the pit stops. Whatever happened to the good old fashioned pile ups.:greengrin :agree: I'm happy I don't have sky. They are welcome to F1.

[Barney McGrew]

As the pictures are provided by F1 TV (or whatever its called) for world wide consumption I don’t think there will be much scope for Sky to do anything, at least during the races.

They'll just add adverts :wink:

[HibbyScott]

Each to their own, but I find F1 even more boring than cricket. All it is these days is a procession of cars going round a track and the commentators getting mega excited about the pit stops. Whatever happened to the good old fashioned pile ups.

:greengrin

When was the last time you watched an F1 race? There hasn't been a processional race this season. Been more overtaking this season than I can remember in my lifetime. I would recommend giving F1 another chance. It's far more exciting than you remember it being

[givescotlandfreedom]

I like F1 and the BBC's coverage has been excellent. F1 fans have been well and truly shafted in this. They 'can't afford' to broadcast all the races yet could afford a £900m move to Salford and a £500k studio in South Africa for the world cup and over 300 people sent there!
Just wait to see how much money's pissed away on the Olympics and how much more can be wasted on the same crap reality TV shows and period dramas. It's a shame, we'd have been better sticking with ITV.
What makes it worse is there was a further 2 years left on their initial contract to broadcast all the races but that has been sold out to Sky. This deal also breaches the F1 team agreement that is supposed to guarantee Formula 1 is show on free to air TV in the UK.

[hibsbollah]

Each to their own, but I find F1 even more boring than cricket. All it is these days is a procession of cars going round a track and the commentators getting mega excited about the pit stops. Whatever happened to the good old fashioned pile ups.:greengrinAgree. Worst sport ever.

[ArabHibee]

Agree. Worst sport ever. :agree:Wee bit of rain and the game's up the poley. Bunch of wooses.:greengrin

[Removed]

I don't know what all the fuss is over F1 coverage moving to sky. If I wanted to see a driver do the same thing 78 times before finally finishing I'd watch my wife try to park!

[sambajustice]

F1 is crap. Ideally the BBC and SKY would dump it and it can go get televised on Diva TV with its 300 viewers!