uk f1 tv coverage - sky, bbc and ch4

[chunder]

As fans you DO have a choice

If you all start the sheep herding and just pay for it relentlessly like Hindu cows, it will just carry on getting more expensive. Move around to different companies meaning you have to sub to different ones too.

If you don't and you fall away in your droves they will have to do something about it.

You have to understand these sports are sold like milk is to supermarkets. If you can make a series sound amazing, cretinous tv companies will get sold down the river just like granny with her fake PPI claim does every day.

They are sold on figures that don't add up, ratings that are make believe and numbers that are thrown at people to make it look like an unreal deal!

If the series booms like MotoGP has, you get a good deal like BT did, if it flops like speedway or WRC, then you get a dud that gets passed around like a poor relation.

It is up to us as fans to not pay, or suffer the consequences.

We were not consulted in this route, it was just decided by FOM, Dorna, IMG or whoever needed to make more money, and the only way they could was to sell the rights to people. The figures were fine, ratings were fine, just they weren't making enough money from the host tv company, so they put it out to tender. We were not asked, we are being asked to pay for their greed, that's all.

Time to put a stop to it once and for all.

[Sodemo]

Thats very true. If the first "pay per view" boxing events of the mid 90's had flopped, then we wouldn't have had to put up with it, however enough people with more money than sense was willing to fork out for the "event" and a precedent was set. If everyone had voted with their feet and refused to buy it, it would have died a death and the sport would still be on either pay channels or free to air TV.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

It's arguable that the tech within the available sat boxes wasn't quite mature enough, as only the Main channel and not the Multiscreens were recordable, and If I remember correctly it was massively over priced at over £10 per race.

Isn't £10 a race cheaper than now? If I was to pay for Sky, I'm pretty sure it'd cost more than £20-£30 a month to get it. If I get each race individually through NowTV, it would cost £7 just for the race, without practice and qualifying. A pass for the whole weekend would cost £11.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Isn't £10 a race cheaper than now? If I was to pay for Sky, I'm pretty sure it'd cost more than £20-£30 a month to get it. If I get each race individually through NowTV, it would cost £7 just for the race, without practice and qualifying. A pass for the whole weekend would cost £11.

It was over £10 per race, I can't remember if that was Sunday only or that price included Sat qually as well. I'm pretty sure it did not include practice sessions.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Isn't £10 a race cheaper than now? If I was to pay for Sky, I'm pretty sure it'd cost more than £20-£30 a month to get it. If I get each race individually through NowTV, it would cost £7 just for the race, without practice and qualifying. A pass for the whole weekend would cost £11.

Don't forget that this was 20 years ago, so £10 was a bigger deal than now. And as a Virgin Media customer, adding the sports package - just to get the F1 channel, because Sky do not seem to supply it as a standalone channel - would cost me an extra £31.75 per month. And no way is that value for money, as none of the other sports channels are of any interest to me.

[Mystery]

I watch other channels other than just F1 or indeed just sports so I'm not paying £x just for F1. I'm paying for a whole TV service enormously better than the tripe Channels 1 to 5 trot out as alleged "entertainment"

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Don't forget that this was 20 years ago, so £10 was a bigger deal than now. And as a Virgin Media customer, adding the sports package - just to get the F1 channel, because Sky do not seem to supply it as a standalone channel - would cost me an extra £31.75 per month. And no way is that value for money, as none of the other sports channels are of any interest to me.

I'm in the same boat as you. Virgin Media customer, with fantastic internet for a cheap price. I'm certainly not able to afford £30 a month for F1. Does that make me less of a fan? I don't think so, despite some comments made here. Fans not being able to afford the coverage is a reflection on the series, not the fans.

To put £30 in perspective, the entire WEC season (9x6 hour races, plus the Le Mans 24) is £40. Blancpain is free for the entire year. Creventic is free for the entire year. BTCC is free on ITV4 (also available online on ITVs website). ELMS is free, IMSA is free (outside the US), etc etc. These series are no where near the scale of F1, so obviously could never charge what F1 does. But if you want to know why I now watch other series, but can only dip into F1, there's the reason why - I simply cannot afford or justify the money for it, when literally every other series I'm interested in is cheaper by a magnitude of 10, or free.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

It was over £10 per race, I can't remember if that was Sunday only or that price included Sat qually as well. I'm pretty sure it did not include practice sessions.

The channel around 2002 - ish did include practice. I watched a Malaysian GP, I think 2002, including practice sessions. I don't know about earlier or later though.

[Adam43]

IIRC it was later than 1996. Around 2002 as mentioned as I was still a student. Multi screen and £10 for each race including practice. I liked it. About half way through the season there was a 'season' discount making it cheaper. I got sky because of it (had cable before).

[S griffin]

Definitely was 2002, just before Bernie closed it down due to lack of interest

Of course anyone remember when you could watch the entire weekend on Eurosport?

[Mystery]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Definitely was 2002, just before Bernie closed it down due to lack of interest

Of course anyone remember when you could watch the entire weekend on Eurosport?

Ahhh the good old days back when before Bernie's pension fund wasn't the prime motivator behind most F1 decisions.

[Paradise City]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Of course anyone remember when you could watch the entire weekend on Eurosport?

Ahh, yes. And even the frequent euro-trash ads were amusing and different.

[Adam43]

Or the four hour season review programme they did! When did that stop? Was 1996 the last season?

[S griffin]

Yes in 1997 ITV made sure they got exclusive rights, as they were afraid when they went to their adverts, viewers would switch to Eurosport and not come back

[Sodemo]

Those ITV adverts bloated from 3, 30 second ads to about 6-7 by the end of their contract. Funnily enough I watched a race in Italy in about 2003 and they only had a single ad break of 20-30 seconds then back to the race. Maybe had a handful during the whole race.

[JABWOA]

Originally Posted by Mystery

Ahhh the good old days back when before Bernie's pension fund wasn't the prime motivator behind most F1 decisions.

His pension fund was never the issue, that was the divorce and keep the daughters happy fund that did the damage.

[F1Guy]

Sean Bratcher, F1 commercial boss, has announced that Liberty Media are currently looking into ways fans would be able to pay to watch F1 qualifying and races using the internet.

Sounds like a move in the right direction. Apparently to be introduced as soon as pre 2018 season.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

Sean Bratcher, F1 commercial boss, has announced that Liberty Media are currently looking into ways fans would be able to pay to watch F1 qualifying and races using the internet.

Sounds like a move in the right direction. Apparently to be introduced as soon as pre 2018 season.

I'd rather they looked into ways fans would be able to not pay to watch F1 qualifying and races using the internet.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

I'd rather they looked into ways fans would be able to not pay to watch F1 qualifying and races using the internet.

i feel like that trade off would include a lot of commercials.

which isnt so bad...a free version with ads with an option for a 'premium' subscription without ads is pretty much the prevailing model for app based distribution. its important to have both imo.

i am curious to see what they would do for commentary though.

[NaBUru38]

Commercials? Cars with logos are commercials themselves.

If I were Red Bull, Mercedes or Martini, I would want as many viewers as possible.

[S griffin]

Sponsors will be unhappy if there are too many unable to pay to watch them

[Akrapovic]

A preimum online subscription without ads would be a lot cheaper than the premium TV subscription we have at the moment.

[chunder]

Sponsors know the deal before they get involved, they know that F1 is behind a paywall and likely to be behind an ever bigger one in the future.

So it's up to them if they think they are getting a good or bad deal.

The sport is rapidly losing fans, so that is more of a worry than anything else, I think the sort of deals that are done by major F1 sponsors, tv coverage is not that pivotal, it is tie ins, advertising away from actual racing channels, media, social media that is the big thing. Networking really.

[GT6]

i disagree completely, the only reason major sponsors are involved is the coverage that they get in the markets they sell in so with falling audiences and also the narrowing of that audience to the point where only those paying high fees for it then the returns the sponsors will get will reduce the return on that investment. Yes there are sponsors who spend company money for there own reasons but they are small fry now days and will never bring in enough to run a top team. If F1 goes totally pay to view then IMHO it will slowly die

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by GT6

i disagree completely, the only reason major sponsors are involved is the coverage that they get in the markets they sell in so with falling audiences and also the narrowing of that audience to the point where only those paying high fees for it then the returns the sponsors will get will reduce the return on that investment. Yes there are sponsors who spend company money for there own reasons but they are small fry now days and will never bring in enough to run a top team. If F1 goes totally pay to view then IMHO it will slowly die

I totally agree with this. I'm sure that I'm not alone in this but I will certainly stop watching if the TV coverage goes completely behind a pay wall and would guess that I've watched at least 80% of F1 races shown on TV here over the last 45 - 50 years...