Sky Sports F1 HD

[timd]

Not on virgin media
skys way to try to nick customers. Happens with all the new channels.

Watching it right now and actually it is upscaling pritty well so SD is not too bad. (because they didnt give sky hd )

[NathanOlder]

Sky are paying big money to put this channel together, so i dont see why Virgin should get it full stop.
Like i said a few pages back. All the stuff you get for just £1 a day is amazing!
Many HD channels and the best F1 content EVER!

The 2 hour show has just finished, and a very good start! Rollon tomorrow, and sunday where ill be watching season reviews from 88,89,90 & 91

Sky =D>

[ESPImperium]

I pretty much aggree as Sky have a production budget 20 times on what BBC had for F1. If i was a sky executive id have made damnd sure that Virgin Media and BT Vision did not get it. But due to EU competision laws they have to give them something, so have given them the SD viewing. The execs at Sky could have gone and just given Virgin and BT a channel withot all the extras on it and just given them the races only.

Its outstanding value i think, for £1 a week.

People will piss and moan about having to pay that little extra for F1HD, but remember F1Digital+ used to cost £12 a race. Dont look a gift horse in the mouth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F1_Digital%2B

[timd]

I think the first show was good. I think as a virgin subscriber paying the extra that sky customers do of £8 quid but lets say £10 is no problem.

I still say denying Virgin customers the service Sky customers get, not forgetting that whilst the parent company may be the same the broadcasting and production wings of sky are seperate is anti competative. I live in central london, in bloomsbury. Because i am not a multimillionair i do not own my roof. So virgin is my only choice. Because of that i pay £22 a month extra. I dont have any choice. They are waging a war much like they did with the whole sky atlantic thing and they take it too far.

Sky F1 seems like a great channel and well put together. No problem. If you think Skys motivitaions and intentions along with news corperation's are anything other than a perfect posterchild of what is wrong with media today. Your missing the picture.

"Taking it too far" should be on their tombstone.
The high up just dont know how to play nice.

(fair enought ive had a few many beers right now but i will still stand by my point tomorrow )

[Just_a_fan]

Its outstanding value i think, for £1 a week.

It's not £1/week if you've got to go from Sky-free to Sky in order to get it. If you're buying Sky just for F1 then it's £18/race! Those of us who have lives away from our TVs don't see it as good value at all! Especially when you add the BBC-tax on top. That takes it to £27/race to have Sky and still pay the Govt to keep the Beeb in fancy biscuits.

Last year, F1 cost me £145/year with 100+ channels thrown in. This year, the full season would cost £505 with 100+ channels thrown in. See why some of us don't see that as a great improvement in value?

[WhiteBlue]

Its outstanding value i think, for £1 a week.

People will piss and moan about having to pay that little extra for F1HD, but remember F1Digital+ used to cost £12 a race. Dont look a gift horse in the mouth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F1_Digital%2B

I agree entirely from a German point of view. I pay €34 per months for Sky Sport HD and Sky Movie HD. If I split that 50/50 for the two uses I get out of it I pay roughly €202 for F1 HD per year. It breaks down to just €10 per race weekend for the total coverage of every session (3 practise, 1 qualifying and the race) without interruption by advertising or the mind numbing commentary of Kai Ebel. I do get analysis after each session and very exhausting post race coverage including press conferences and podium celebrations. I can - due to my particular installation - record all sessions on hard disk and even get an additional channel by using my included GO option. Quite a reasonable deal. I cannot even visit one GP for the money I spend in three years on my TV deal.

We have TV tax in Germany as well but the public television has never endeavoured to cover F1 live. It has always been on advertising funded private TV. So with respect to F1 our TV tax is sunk money anyway. And I think that it would be appropriate to see that equally in the UK. You are legally obliged to pay the tax whenever you own a TV set. It has nothing to do with a choice of content. So it is sunk money anyway the moment you buy yourself a set and connect it to the power supply.

[NathanOlder]

Its outstanding value i think, for £1 a week.

It's not £1/week if you've got to go from Sky-free to Sky in order to get it. If you're buying Sky just for F1 then it's £18/race! Those of us who have lives away from our TVs don't see it as good value at all! Especially when you add the BBC-tax on top. That takes it to £27/race to have Sky and still pay the Govt to keep the Beeb in fancy biscuits.

Last year, F1 cost me £145/year with 100+ channels thrown in. This year, the full season would cost £505 with 100+ channels thrown in. See why some of us don't see that as a great improvement in value?

Most of us have lives away from TV, but not as many have lives away from Formula One. And the coverage sky will be broadcasting this year will blow away anything BBC have ever done. £1 a day, for that your get over 250 SD channels and over 20 HD channels. and for a further 3p a day, you can add Nat Geo , Nat GEo Wild, History, Discovery, Eden,Animal Planet, Bio, Crime Investigation, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon & Disney Channel.

All of that, along with the best F1 coverage of all time! just over £1 a day.

Anyway gotta go, got a few jobs to do before i sit back and watch the 1988 season review at midday today.

[ESPImperium]

Its outstanding value i think, for £1 a week.

It's not £1/week if you've got to go from Sky-free to Sky in order to get it. If you're buying Sky just for F1 then it's £18/race! Those of us who have lives away from our TVs don't see it as good value at all! Especially when you add the BBC-tax on top. That takes it to £27/race to have Sky and still pay the Govt to keep the Beeb in fancy biscuits.

Last year, F1 cost me £145/year with 100+ channels thrown in. This year, the full season would cost £505 with 100+ channels thrown in. See why some of us don't see that as a great improvement in value?

Most of us have lives away from TV, but not as many have lives away from Formula One. And the coverage sky will be broadcasting this year will blow away anything BBC have ever done. £1 a day, for that your get over 250 SD channels and over 20 HD channels. and for a further 3p a day, you can add Nat Geo , Nat GEo Wild, History, Discovery, Eden,Animal Planet, Bio, Crime Investigation, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon & Disney Channel.

All of that, along with the best F1 coverage of all time! just over £1 a day.

Anyway gotta go, got a few jobs to do before i sit back and watch the 1988 season review at midday today. :D

I aggree that most of us do have a life away from TV, but for the sport i do watch, Sky Sports is a must as i watch alot of football (My team is near the top of the football adjenda at the moment) and i watch alot of Tennis due to my parents playing it to a high county level and due to the Andy Murray factor as well. Not to mention other sports we watch, or have on in the background

Sky Sports is a must for me. Also the extras such as The Discovery channels and Nat Geo i enjoy as well.

I Do not have the movie channels as id rather buy the movies i actually want to watch on Blu Ray, so this cuts down the cost of Sky.

I do not take in the TV Licence as we all have to pay that no matter what.

I do feel for the people who cant get Sky for F1, however the BBC have still got half a season, and due to cost cutting they have sacrifised F1 for keeping Wimbledon for 2 weeks every summer as BBC were given the ultimatum F1 or Tennis. As Tennis has the greater and wider appeal they have kept it. Also, the ammount the BBC are paying for the Olympics this year ment cutbacks as well for the next decade on other sports.

Personally i feel the problem with the BBC is its charter, not allowing programmes to be sponsored as if they were allowed to have F1 sponsored they could then afford it, just about. That would then mean they could get a sponsor for other programmes they also do as well.

[NathanOlder]

Well put, I also have to Sports pack for the football, sadly my beloved Blackburn are not doing so well, but F1 season looming, footballs put backstage. Still, I love all things Motorsport, and with F1 channel, Eurosport & Motors TV , Sky is a must. If i had to cut back, Sky Sports pack would go. This year, I will be following F1, GP2, GP3, Indy Car, Nascar highlights (thanks to sky) Moto GP, Moto2, Moto3, World Superbikes, British Superbikes, World Touring Cars (thanks to Eurosport) WRC and AMA Superbikes (thanks to motors tv)

All for £1 a day, most in HD! Happy Days.

[beelsebob]

Its outstanding value i think, for £1 a week.

It's not £1/week if you've got to go from Sky-free to Sky in order to get it. If you're buying Sky just for F1 then it's £18/race! Those of us who have lives away from our TVs don't see it as good value at all! Especially when you add the BBC-tax on top. That takes it to £27/race to have Sky and still pay the Govt to keep the Beeb in fancy biscuits.

Last year, F1 cost me £145/year with 100+ channels thrown in. This year, the full season would cost £505 with 100+ channels thrown in. See why some of us don't see that as a great improvement in value?

Most of us have lives away from TV, but not as many have lives away from Formula One. And the coverage sky will be broadcasting this year will blow away anything BBC have ever done. £1 a day, for that your get over 250 SD channels and over 20 HD channels. and for a further 3p a day, you can add Nat Geo , Nat GEo Wild, History, Discovery, Eden,Animal Planet, Bio, Crime Investigation, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon & Disney Channel.

All of that, along with the best F1 coverage of all time! just over £1 a day.

Anyway gotta go, got a few jobs to do before i sit back and watch the 1988 season review at midday today.

Given that I only actually get anything I care about on 10 days a year, that's £20 a day... And that's pretty expensive entertainment.

[majicmeow]

So for those of us outside the UK, we cannot get Sky SPorts at all. Does FOM have any details about how to watch F1 in countries like Canada? Speed Channel is useless unless they use the BBC/Sky stream, but isn't available online.

Are we still stuck having to rely on a proxy server to watch F1? If so, does anyone have a recommendation for a good pay proxy that is reliable?

thx!

[Just_a_fan]

Given that I only actually get anything I care about on 10 days a year, that's £20 a day... And that's pretty expensive entertainment.

Which is my point. I don't want/care about all of the other stuff Sky have on - I don't have time to watch the stuff carried by Freeview as it is. Add another bunch of channels and the situation doesn't improve.

I would only be getting Sky for F1 and that's it. So it's £20 each for a 90 minute race every other weekend. That is not good value and certainly way off £1 per day...

Ah well, I guess the dog will enjoy the extra time available for walks on Sunday afternoons...

I was tempted to write an open letter to each of the British-based teams and, more importantly, any British-based sponsors they might have. I was going to point out to the sponsors that I wouldn't be watching their expensive advertising hoardings half of the time. But I figured that life is too short and they probably wouldn't care anyway...

Sky is only £1/day if your life revolves around your TV. For the rest of us, Sky is much more expensive. Think I'll just use the money to put fuel in my car and drive that around instead...

[NathanOlder]

I dont believe for 1 minute that someone only has 90mins every 2 weeks to watch tv. If that were the case, you wouldnt bother with a TV licence as, that would still be no value for money, for (in previous years 16 races) a season.

[Just_a_fan]

The point is that the only thing that Sky does that I would watch over what I already watch on Freeview is F1. So the full cost of Sky's package has to be put against F1 because it is the only extra that the subscription would be being paid for. Thus it is not £1/day.

If we only had the old 5 channels that we had before Freeview then it would be worth subscibing to Sky for the extra channels.

I had hoped that Sky might make the races available online for a per-race fee, say a fiver. Would probably pay that. Just can't justify paying the extra £30/month on top for a service we just won't get value for money out of. The online service appears to be for those who have the full subscription - I doubt they'll make it available on a different price plan because of the risk of undermining the existing system.

I was always a supporter of the BBC model of being a publicly financed news service. But the whole F1 debacle shows the reality that the Beeb is now a publicly financed company. They should be cut off from the public purse and the TV license fee scrapped. If they want to play at being a company making money, let them do so. Sink or swim.

If I wasn't already paying the TV fee then I'd be more inclined to give Sky some cash. But I'm not prepared to pay for the same thing twice.

[NathanOlder]

Fair enough, I understand your views.

I hope the BBC still do a decent job for the people without sky, I feel that the cuts will have a big effect though. Only Time will tell, Im sure it will be fantastic viewing on either channel aslong as a Brit wins the title