uk f1 tv coverage - sky, bbc and ch4

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

The F1 channel is part of the full sports package and not available on its own.

We had ours as part of an HD promo which ended at the end of November, apparently.

Well I assume that because the F1 channel has disappeared from my channel list!!

Looking at the availability on sky it does look like I can now only get it back if I take out the full sports subscription which isn't something I really want to do because I don't want the other channels.

I'm in a bit of a quandary because it doesn't matter who's race commentary I watch (I find Croft deeply dull) but I have enjoyed the sky build ups and 'magazine' programmes.

[bella]

the problem with f1 is that there's too many races to sit down and watch every one of them. and they're at such a productive time in the afternoon too. this is why the radio 5 live coverage is absolutely invaluable, even if it does mean listening to james allen trying to be lyrical about something incredibly banal.

so imo, auntie have hung onto the right bit. the half-arsed tv deal duplicated existing coverage, but the radio is unique and spectacularly useful if you're out and about and want to keep up with things. then you can catch the highlights on normal telly later on in the evening.

i agree with chunty about the magazine and build up stuff being good, and that'll be missed from the bbc. they always managed to extract the best from the drivers they managed to get time with.

hasn't the f1 channel turned into darts or something for the winter?

[pole2pole]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Are Sky subscriptions to the F1 Channel falling?

A lot of my friends who are huge F1 fans have cancelled there Sky subscription dew to the cost. The problem is, in order to get F1 on Sky you have to take a base package and also subscribe to the intire Sky Sports platform. The alternative is those who have there broadband via BT get the BT Sport package free. They have such a portfolio of motor sports and all live coverage too. You can add Sky Sport but not the F1 channel. It's not available.

[pole2pole]

Originally Posted by bella

the problem with f1 is that there's too many races to sit down and watch every one of them. and they're at such a productive time in the afternoon too. this is why the radio 5 live coverage is absolutely invaluable, even if it does mean listening to james allen trying to be lyrical about something incredibly banal.

so imo, auntie have hung onto the right bit. the half-arsed tv deal duplicated existing coverage, but the radio is unique and spectacularly useful if you're out and about and want to keep up with things. then you can catch the highlights on normal telly later on in the evening.

i agree with chunty about the magazine and build up stuff being good, and that'll be missed from the bbc. they always managed to extract the best from the drivers they managed to get time with.

hasn't the f1 channel turned into darts or something for the winter?

Haha you are right!!! SkySportsF1 channel is now the SkySportsDarts channel.

[bardy66]

Originally Posted by pole2pole

A lot of my friends who are huge F1 fans have cancelled there Sky subscription dew to the cost. The problem is, in order to get F1 on Sky you have to take a base package and also subscribe to the intire Sky Sports platform. The alternative is those who have there broadband via BT get the BT Sport package free. They have such a portfolio of motor sports and all live coverage too. You can add Sky Sport but not the F1 channel. It's not available.

Sky F1 is part of the HD package I don't get skysports or Movies but do receive F1. yes I think BT sport is the best package for motorsport fans, but am not sure it is totally free anymore.

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

The F1 channel is part of the full sports package and not available on its own.

I don't have Sky Sports but get the F1 channel in my Sky HD package - it may be that this was an offer for early adopters of Sky HD and is not available as a bundle now.

[bella]

to add another combination into the mix, we get the f1 channel and the sports channels but we don't have hd

[ScotsBrutesFan]

To avoid confusion, the only way to get Sky SportsF1 now and moving forward is as part of the Sky Sports Package (taken with an entertainment - can't be bought on it's own). The Sky Sports Package can be SD or for more money HD.

There were offer packages when first launched giving the Channel as a standalone freebie with full HD, but that HD package has been spit up and so isn't available now either. If you haven't changed you package away from one of those then that's why you still have it.

Source : Sky Staff member on phone.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

ITV also claimed they would be ad-free, and they'd show all qualifying Live, and Free Practice would be viewable too. None of those claims were true.

I'm pretty sure ITV never made any of those claims.
From the very beginning they said there would be breaks, but only five per race, and that they would be shorter than normal breaks.

And they ran five breaks in every race they showed, all of which were either 1m45 or 2m15 (the maximum break length for a programme on ITV is 4m30, with a maximum of 12minutes per hour).

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

BBC was always going to get rid of F1, no matter what happened or how much it cost when management changed hands. There is some sort of fallacy that F1 is not value for money compared to other sports.

Wimbledon

• Cost - £40m
• Viewers - 1.6m
• Cost per head - £25m (!)

F1

• Cost - £55m
• Viewers - 4m (per race)
• Cost per head - £13m per race
• Cost per head - £760k per season

Numbers from Googling. F1 costs a fraction of the Tennis compared to the actual viewers. Yet Tennis was fine to keep? Could it be that the management of BBC just didn't like F1? Because frankly that's how it looks when you compare it to other sports. I wonder if they're tennis fans...

Originally Posted by Adam43

Nice maths. I think your wrong by a factor of one million. However that is for both.

Agree with Adam, your maths is way out. And besides, it's not viewer numbers that matter to the BBC, but cost per hour to produce. The BBC's income doesn't depend on audiences like ITV, C4 and C5, so if nobody is watching, it doesn't really matter.

The BBC was spending £40m per year on Wimbledon rights, plus a further £3m (estimated) on production. On F1 the rights were £15m per year with a further £10m on production.

The cost per hour for Wimbledon is therefore (40+3)/142 = £303k per hour
And for F1 is (15+10)/142 = £176k per hour

You may also want to note that the BBC is paying £1m per hour for 6 Nations Rugby
The new Match of the Day contract, which starts next season, will cost the BBC £1.25m per hour

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Further to my posting above, there are further distortions that need to be taken into account when you compare the two sports' events, and I don't know the figures for these.

The BBC also sells the broadcasts from both F1 and Wimbledon to other countries, and there is a possibility that much of their costs are recovered by those sales. The Beeb will now lose that income stream from F1.

The BBC doesn't sell its Wimbledon coverage overseas.
The overseas rights to Wimbledon are sold by IMG on behalf of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

The BBC also makes no money from allowing foreign broadcasters to use its F1 commentary, because the rights to that commentary belong to FOM.

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Also, Channel 4 started the trend of owning the copyright and distribution rights of the programmes it broadcast. So although Channel 4 does not produce programmes, many are regarded as belonging to it. This is similar to the major Hollywood studios' ownership of television programmes that they do not directly produce.

That was certainly true during the nineties, however a campaign by independent production companies 15 years ago has forced broadcasters to allow the producers of commissioned programmes the rights to sell those programmes in other markets and to online and on demand providers in the UK.

None of this is in any way relevant to F1 though. Channel 4 has paid for the right to take on the remaining 3 years of the BBC's contract. It can't sell F1, and it is extremely limited in how it can use F1 footage (i.e. not at all except in F1 coverage or promos for F1 coverage.)

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

Slightly off at a tangent here but do I remember correctly that Channel 4 were involved in negotiating for the terrestrial coverage but lost to the BBC late time?
If so surely this shows that they have a genuine interest which should hopefully translate into good coverage?

They showed an interest previously, but didn't lose to the BBC, because they never got to bid. The BBC's back door deal with Sky meant that the contract never went out to tender. If it had, then the BBC would probably lost F1 at that point.

[Sodemo]

It certainly seemed as though the ITV breaks got progressively longer as the years went on. I can't be certain, but the first years (1997) im pretty sure they only had three 30 second adverts per break. By 2008 it was something like five or six 30 second adverts.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

It certainly seemed as though the ITV breaks got progressively longer as the years went on. I can't be certain, but the first years (1997) im pretty sure they only had three 30 second adverts per break. By 2008 it was something like five or six 30 second adverts.

It used to be 1m45 worth of adverts, and rose to 2m15 worth of adverts.

[pole2pole]

Just a thought, I wonder how Channel 4 will present F1. Will there presenting team be based at trackside, or in order to save money will they have a presenting team based in the UK with a few key personnel based at trackside, just like what they do in Formula E.

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by pole2pole

Just a thought, I wonder how Channel 4 will present F1. Will there presenting team be based at trackside, or in order to save money will they have a presenting team based in the UK with a few key personnel based at trackside, just like what they do in Formula E.

Who know's, they will use the FOM feed anyway so can do it in the UK. There are plenty of freelnace journo's in the paddick who can be ;bought in' to provide some paddock gossip/insight using local camera crews, so it is quite possible to do a level of coverage without flying a preseting and fim crew around the world.

I am sure that circuit guides, etc can also be bought in or sponsored - bit like the Allianz motorsports programmes.

Personally I only turn on for the green flag lap and off after the chequered flag so not interested in all the preview and pundity, so they can save on all that as far as I am concerned!

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by pole2pole

Just a thought, I wonder how Channel 4 will present F1. Will there presenting team be based at trackside, or in order to save money will they have a presenting team based in the UK with a few key personnel based at trackside, just like what they do in Formula E.

Isn't FE done as a World Feed single production, that ITV get the driver interviews from, plus a couple of pre-recorded exchanges with the world feed reporter.

C4 will need a trackside crew of some description at every event, so probably cheaper to hire and fly them, rather than risk local crews.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by pole2pole

Just a thought, I wonder how Channel 4 will present F1. Will there presenting team be based at trackside, or in order to save money will they have a presenting team based in the UK with a few key personnel based at trackside, just like what they do in Formula E.

Following on from that, as they've bought up the BBC's contract will they use the BBC's team?

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Following on from that, as they've bought up the BBC's contract will they use the BBC's team?

It would depend on who were on Fulltime BBC contracts and who were on F1 contracts.

Suzi Perry and Lee McKenzie are both on a Full time BBC Contracts,

Clarkson is a freelance journalist, Gow does other channels, Formula E as an example.

DC and EJ will be on F1 contracts.

Ben Edwards is the interesting one, he refused the BBC years ago because they wanted him exclusive, at a time he was working on A1, still had ties to BTCC, Eurosport, voice overs for the FIA Porsche highlights packages. I believe this was I addition to he and his wife running there own small business.

[BSchneiderFan]

If I had my way C4 would hire Lee MacKenzie to front their coverage. I was disappointed that the BBC chose Suzi Perry over her when Jake Humphreys left. But she may be tied to the BBC.

DC is doing some work for the new Top Gear - does this suggest he won't be part of Channel 4's plans?

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

...

DC is doing some work for the new Top Gear - does this suggest he won't be part of Channel 4's plans?

I heard of DC's involvement in the new Top Gear just after hearing that the F1 coverage had been sold to Channel 4.
"I wonder if that's his consolation prize/BBC's way of keeping DC busy until his contract expires?" was what I thought.

[BSchneiderFan]

Maybe, maybe. Good news, as far as I'm concerned, as he'll be good (as will Sabine Schmitz). Chris Evans, however...

[Mike Harte]

Don't forget that the new Top Gear is being produced by Chris Evan's production company, not be the BBC. That would usually mean that anyone appearing would be contracted to do so by the production company, not the broadcaster.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Don't forget that the new Top Gear is being produced by Chris Evan's production company, not be the BBC. That would usually mean that anyone appearing would be contracted to do so by the production company, not the broadcaster.

Channel 4 doesn't make its own programmes, which was part of its remit when it was set up and therefore commissions its programmes from third party production companies.

[pole2pole]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

If I had my way C4 would hire Lee MacKenzie to front their coverage. I was disappointed that the BBC chose Suzi Perry over her when Jake Humphreys left. But she may be tied to the BBC.

DC is doing some work for the new Top Gear - does this suggest he won't be part of Channel 4's plans?

I think Suzi Perry will return to the bikes. DC is good , I would like to see him move to Channel 4. If the series run of Top Gear continues with the same amount of episodes in recent years, then that shouldn't hold back DC. Lee MacKenzie is very good too and what about Susie Wolff? Now retired from driving, possible TV career?

[djinvicta]

We could be unlucky and get James Allen and Ben Edwards...
Imagine the excited screaming contest..

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

We could be unlucky and get James Allen and Ben Edwards...
Imagine the excited screaming contest..

Jonathan Legard and James Allen!

[Paradise City]

DC has signed up to do Top Gear hasn't he? Unlikely to see him at Ch4. Wonder will Jordan make the move? He probabily will.