uk f1 tv coverage - sky, bbc and ch4

[Alan52]

Originally Posted by Skam85

I like the Sky commentary team

I like most of them except Croft (all the shouting ) and Kravitz ( not sure if the buffoon persona is by accident or design).
Getting rid of Herbert was a great move.His Brit patriotism was so ridiculous it verged on satire.
Every non British commentator /analyst they use -excepting Patrick of course-adds to the commentary because it lessens the Britishness of the commentary which can be grating for the rest of the world.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I think Sky have wasted their potential and should just give up their coverage of F1

Oh yes, and then how will anyone in Europe and other places watch it? It would appear that only SKY can afford the prices that FOM want to take the feed, and then other broadcasters do deals with SKY to carry highlights and more from them.

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by Skam85

I like the Sky commentary team

The Sky coverage is good, but I prefer Ch4 highlights. The commentators are better and don't get so excited. Much calmer and less useless information.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Oh yes, and then how will anyone in Europe and other places watch it? It would appear that only SKY can afford the prices that FOM want to take the feed, and then other broadcasters do deals with SKY to carry highlights and more from them.

Mike, downunder we fit into your 'other places'..... we rely on the Sky UK coverage which is (purchased from Sky) by our local Live F1(Foxtel) broadcasting rights holder and played live and ad free. We dont get the "red button' facilities that the Sky UK coverage enjoys.... but we do get a complimentary F1TV App from Foxtel which gives similar options of onboard and a choice of the Sky comms or the 'International' comms which tbh I once tried, found to be equally shouty so use the Sky option and suffer Crofty. (With the remote close by to adjust the volume when required.)

[Mike Harte]

And given cost constraints on all British broadcasters, the BBC because of tightening funding allowances and the others because of the downturn in advertising revenues, it is more than highly unlikely that one of them will even attempt to compete with SKY.

Some may dream about the days of yore when we had Muddy Waters and James the Shunt behind just one shared microphone, but those heady days are never going to return.

[EastonNeston]

Having the full weekend coverage of the event is great, you can dip in and out as you want, plus there are repeats of all the sessions if you miss one and want to catch up.
I can live with the comantary from David Croft, what I do not enjoy, and actually find annoying, is the worse than "Alan Partridge" contributions from Kravitz that add nothing to the coverage, and would actually harm the credibility of others in the broadcast team.
Craig Slater, from Sky sports news, does a much better hard hards reporting, and insitefull interviewing job. Ideally he worked full time for Sky F1 while still been able to contribut to the news channel.

[flatlandsman]

Slater is only there to try and bring the sort of football style hard nosed reporter stuff, it is basically an attempt to make F1 appeal and as a rival and colleague to their football coverage, they have people on news 24 hrs a day so someone like him is necessary to dump at Silverstone in the rain etc.

AS I do not really watch it these days, mainly due to Croft's awful commentary, I lose touch with some of it.

But SKY are the only people realistically than cover F1 now, if anyone else did it would be much lower budget and far fewer people.

You have to realise they have now been doing it a long time now and tried a lot of different things, news shows, magazine style shows, features a lot of it has been dropped so they are now doing what that experience and research shows is what you as punters want.

I do wonder if a better lead commentator would bring people into the sport, he really is that bad for some of us older fans. Sadly SKY seem to think he is the dogs wotsits, as does he, which you can tell which makes it even worse.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I don't really mind who does the commentary, as long as it is informative and with good analysis. The problem I have is, I prefer the commentary on C4 but I don't like watching highlights and much prefer to watch the race live. So unfortunately that means either listening to the commentary from Radio 5 Live, which used to be dire, though I hear it has improved, or it's Sky.

I do try to ignore Croft's shouting but it isn't easy. However, if I have to leave the room for anything during the race, that's when he comes into his own as I can still hear what's going on.