BBC / Sky Sports

[forty-two]

you might imagine that Sky viewership is greater among the wealthy, but what I do know is that If I walk down my street, I see perhaps one in 30 houses with a Sky dish, but if I take a walk around one of the local "council" estates, I see a much higher percentage.

It appears that it's not so much about disposable income here, but more about the cards one is dealt in life.

Don't get me wrong, I am a closet socialist, and in favour of sharing the wealth around, but when you have a properly developed society, you will always have those who are taking advantage of the system.

I'm happy to pay my taxes to support both those who need it and the few who take the P*&s but the supposition that posession of a sky subscription means you're likely to fork out for a new car/tv/tyres/computer/mobile etc. as a a result of watching F1 is ill founded, at least here in the UK.

For what it's worth, I COULD afford a Sky subscription, but being a man of principle, I am willing to cut off my nose to spite my face, and refuse to pay Murdoch's evil empire a single penny, so 2012 will be RIP F1 for me.

[forty-two]

Plus, it feels a little bit personal for me:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcawnRIyeok[/youtube]

Playing this was the first time my, at the time unborn child (now four and heavily into F1) kicked for me to feel.

Fantastic bit of music, and it evokes exactly the right emotions for F1 for me.

Bet Sky try and pinch it!

[forty-two]

And now Ladies and Gentlemen, Conway Twitty:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2aeRg_yMSE[/youtube]

But sign here:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/57

[mcdenife]

42 wrote:
I don't expect people in the rest of the world to understand this fully, but here in the UK, anyone who has any kit which can receive a live TV signal via any means (cable, sky or an antenna plugged into a TV card on a PC) must have a TV license. This money goes to the Beeb, and frankly for the money they charge, the output is pretty darn good. Saying that you don't watch BBC channels is no excuse, if you have the kit, you must pay or break the law.

The money doesnt all go to the BBC, some goes go to any terrestrial tv channel that broadcasts public info content, effectively all of them, ie ITV, C4, C5, etc get some share of it.

[gridwalker]

The money doesnt all go to the BBC, some goes go to any terrestrial tv channel that broadcasts public info content, effectively all of them, ie ITV, C4, C5, etc get some share of it.

Not true. Although some of the funding goes to independent production companies that also produce material for commercial ventures (alongside some infrastructure that may be used by multiple channels), 100% of the license fee is used for projects that benefit the BBC and any additional benefits for independent television producers are incidental.

A breakdown of how the per-month cost of a license is spent can be found here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/licencefee/

[Richard]

42 - this is for you ... a man with a one track mind, giving it all, living it , you want it all.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOdWxf1tRmI[/youtube]

... and this is for FOM ...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0xc7TD6s7A[/youtube]

Now take a deep breath, pause, exhale, relax, let the tension go ....

... feel better?

[GSBellew]

Rich is right here, but what some, including the person who started the petition on the HM Gov website seem to have forgotten is that showing races on BBC, ITV, Ch4 or Ch5 or indeed the tens of channels on Freeview is not Free to Air, it requires a subscription, it's called the TV license.

I don't expect people in the rest of the world to understand this fully, but here in the UK, anyone who has any kit which can receive a live TV signal via any means (cable, sky or an antenna plugged into a TV card on a PC) must have a TV license. This money goes to the Beeb, and frankly for the money they charge, the output is pretty darn good. Saying that you don't watch BBC channels is no excuse, if you have the kit, you must pay or break the law.

The UK is not unique in regard to the Television License, we have the same system in Ireland with the money going to state broadcaster RTE to fund TV & Radio.

The thing is these channels, despite us having to pay for them the same way you pay for the BBC are still free to air not subscription channels, the license fee is effectively a tax on having reception equipment as opposed to a subscription, this is why the channels do not need to be decoded to view as they are free to air non subscription channels.

[Ray]

You can call me all manner of names, I deserve it. I will admit freely that I torrent the BBC Formula 1 coverage. Not regularly, and I'm not lying about doing it infrequently (honest), but I do torrent a few of the very exciting races or if I have seen something particularly interesting in the BBC build up. The US obviously can't get the BBC race coverage, or the buildups obviously, so I torrent what I actually want to see rather than doing it for every race. Over the last 3-4 seasons I've grabbed maybe 8-10 races of torrenting. That's it. IF the BBC would send the exact same coverage they provide in the UK for a fee I would pay for it in a heartbeat. That's not hyperbole, I would seriously pay for the privilege to watch BBC coverage. Now, I'm pretty sure that I'll get some angry comments about torrenting races, I do it for Top Gear as well and every episode (even they know a well known site that distributes it), and I understand anyones potential anger. I don't torrent the races very often and I would willingly pay for it if I had a way to do so. The coverage the BBC provides is simply outstanding.

[ringo]

Well welcome to the non british citizen club.
I watch their feed on speed or TSN. I don't really miss much on speed, as i toggle between both during commercial breaks.
Speed has decent commentary and grid walks, and the intros are more dramatic and americanized. BBC has better post race content which TSN doesn't show if the air time is up. Any how i'm satisfied as long as i can watch every single race live.

I don't like watching sports when they're not live. It takes away 80% of the excitement.

If i get the sky feed on one of my cable channels i'm good. If i can get it else where, wink wink, i'm fine.

@42 F1 is a blue blood sport. It caters to the rich. The masses just fill the stands and to be in awe of what they can't acheive.

[Ray]

I don't like watching sports when they're not live. It takes away 80% of the excitement.

I agree, I don't like to watch them (in full) if they aren't live. I think I've got everything SpeedTV has broadcast over the last three years. Practice, qualy and the races. I don't do it so much to watch later, I usually record them as I watch, but I like to keep them for historical purposes. Weird I know, but it's really cool to go back and watch a race a couple years after the fact.

[raymondu999]

It should be noted first that I mean absolutely no disrespect by this post.

I live in Southeast Asia. Here, if I want to get F1 coverage, I go with Rupert Murdoch's Star group. Star Sports to be exact. That's in Standard Definition, so if I want to get F1 in HD, I have to get the more expensive premium sports package to get ESPN HD. They have absolutely no one stationed where the action is; and so what we get for a "pre-race show" is a mini talkshow in their studio; and the random feature taped with a driver, which doesn't come often. I would be alright if we had say the BBC team doing a similar talkshow; but this is with Alex Yoong. Someone who never even, IIRC, scored a point in F1. Gary Anderson's alright (he's the analyst in the commentary "box" as well) and Steve Slater (the anchorman, the "Martin Brundle" of it, as it were, and biased too) is what I get.

For the race commentary, you can tell that what they do is sit their two guys in front of a big TV screen, and call it as they see it on the FOM world feed. You don't get any of the on-track insights such as if it's raining at Turn 1 but bone dry at Turn 10. Gary Anderson, again, is fine as the analyst, and Steve Slater is quite knowledgeable, but he admits that he is biased.

Not only do I pay for this relatively half-assed job, but I get commercials to boot! Not to mention the commercial timings are programmed and not free flowing. So we could see someone just coming up on the inside of someone else, shaping up for a pass that can be cut back by the other person for a repass in a wonderful on-track battle, and we cut to a commercial. Even when the race is on; 30% of it the race image is reduced to a "PIP" kind of thing where the race takes up 70% of the screen, and rolling ads take up the other 30%.

All that. And it's not free. So I am very very sorry, and again, I don't mean any disrespect, but shouldn't people stop complaining already? I mean, don't get me wrong. I would love to have the BBC pre-show and all as well. But it's like complaining about having a Jaguar rather than a Rolls, when there are people out there who are driving Fiats!

[i70q7m7ghw]

42, I don't disagree with anything you wrote. But, I think the point you make about the international vs the UK audiences is relevant within the UK as well. Sky provides a far more targeted, and I imagine wealthier, audience than the BBC.

Since I've been accused recently of repeating myself, I dare not. I quote, instead...

I disagree, I would say most who have SKY sports in the UK are paying for it on benefits, they are probably the same people looting the shops in London right now.

[i70q7m7ghw]

It should be noted first that I mean absolutely no disrespect by this post.

I live in Southeast Asia. Here, if I want to get F1 coverage, I go with Rupert Murdoch's Star group. Star Sports to be exact. That's in Standard Definition, so if I want to get F1 in HD, I have to get the more expensive premium sports package to get ESPN HD. They have absolutely no one stationed where the action is; and so what we get for a "pre-race show" is a mini talkshow in their studio; and the random feature taped with a driver, which doesn't come often. I would be alright if we had say the BBC team doing a similar talkshow; but this is with Alex Yoong. Someone who never even, IIRC, scored a point in F1. Gary Anderson's alright (he's the analyst in the commentary "box" as well) and Steve Slater (the anchorman, the "Martin Brundle" of it, as it were, and biased too) is what I get.

For the race commentary, you can tell that what they do is sit their two guys in front of a big TV screen, and call it as they see it on the FOM world feed. You don't get any of the on-track insights such as if it's raining at Turn 1 but bone dry at Turn 10. Gary Anderson, again, is fine as the analyst, and Steve Slater is quite knowledgeable, but he admits that he is biased.

Not only do I pay for this relatively half-assed job, but I get commercials to boot! Not to mention the commercial timings are programmed and not free flowing. So we could see someone just coming up on the inside of someone else, shaping up for a pass that can be cut back by the other person for a repass in a wonderful on-track battle, and we cut to a commercial. Even when the race is on; 30% of it the race image is reduced to a "PIP" kind of thing where the race takes up 70% of the screen, and rolling ads take up the other 30%.

All that. And it's not free. So I am very very sorry, and again, I don't mean any disrespect, but shouldn't people stop complaining already? I mean, don't get me wrong. I would love to have the BBC pre-show and all as well. But it's like complaining about having a Jaguar rather than a Rolls, when there are people out there who are driving Fiats!

We are choosing to do something about it in our country, what you choose to do is up to you.

[Richard]

I think the consensus here is that the BBC coverage is very good. I wonder if they fully exploited the potential for syndicating the coverage? Does Bernie get more fees by fragmenting the market, ie he wants broadcasters to pay as much of their budget to FOM rather than send some of their budget to the BBC?

[skyhater]

in france and germany you must also pay to operate TV receiving eqipment

as I see it , the BBC have been broadcasting F1 at a quality superior to that available elsewhere , and fans in the UK are loath to lose that ; they don't have to subscribe to SKY to watch the 'missing ' GP's , a cheap satellite dish /receiver pointed to france or germany coverage will provide , and you will know most of what the commentary is about even if you don't speak the language , and hopefully radio 5 will be there to assist

what I object to is that the BBc will spend huge sums on yet more junk programmes of which there is already a plethora , and yet F1 with it's huge viewing figures is to be cut back ; with regard to SKY subscribers , if you travel about a lot , as I~ do , you will see that the poorest areas are the ones with the greatest preponderance of SKY dishes