Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
The doom and gloom is massively overstated. The EPL has been effectively locked behind the Sky paywall since 1992 and you would be brave to suggest that this has been an overall bad decision both from a revenue and popularity standpoint. F1 has been a popularity decline for a long time now, it would be disingenuous to suggest this is because it's being increasingly locked behind a paywall.
You can go to any number of pubs in the UK and watch football on Sky though. Go to a pub and try asking them to show F1 whilst you have a pint. Isn't going to happen, same with cricket. I've been in a pub watching ashes cricket when someone has walked in and asked for the footie. Gets switched over straight away even if it's minor game. Football has a special place in the hearts of the semi-literate masses in the UK.
I have considered the NowTV route. Will have another look at it perhaps.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
Cold Fussion wrote:The doom and gloom is massively overstated. The EPL has been effectively locked behind the Sky paywall since 1992 and you would be brave to suggest that this has been an overall bad decision both from a revenue and popularity standpoint. F1 has been a popularity decline for a long time now, it would be disingenuous to suggest this is because it's being increasingly locked behind a paywall.
Well I will just watch the highlights on Channel 4 then if indeed anyone even shows them. No doubt SKY will also use this to push their rip off service called NOW TV where you can buy a single event like the a Grand Prix and stream it for about £10 and boast about how you dont have to subscribe. I would rather stop watching than pay that.
Formula 1 is losing TV viewers already in the UK with the SKY deal AND a terrestrial viewer channel showing ten live races. Cant see many channels fighting to pay millions to show highlights. This may well be the final nail in the coffin for F1 TV viewing figures.
"In times of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act" .. George Orwell
F1 is not as big a sport as football, also if you want to watch a football game you could go to a match for as little as what it costs for a month of subscription. Living in a championship side town, most games are not televised and people keep up by going too the matches. Given this is not possible with F1 due to them being spread all over the world, the only way to keep up is watching on T.V and maybe attending British GP which in any case is extremely expensive.
The switch from free to air to only Pay TV will make many viewers switch off. Yes some will pay, some will go to streaming services to watch, but a very good proportion will switch off. As people arent following the races on T.V they will have little appetite to keep up with whats going on by attending the races, or will instead of paying £250 to attend BGP spend that money on subscription.
I see eventually this leading to the British GP being dropped due to financial issues & falling visitor numbers due to general lack of appetite.
It still confuses me why Sky will not offer a F1 weekend pass or F1 an on-line weekend pass.
What I find most disturbing about this, is that the UK essentially represents the largest community that watches F1. By going all exclusive, you are forcing them to pay to watch. Some will, some will not and it will ultimately lead to less fans, not more. How will the sport ever grow, if you are practically forcing people to pay first, then watch?
If I was in the UK and wouldn't have the ability to pay for Sky, either because I'm not interested in anything other than the F1 coverage or couldn't receive it, you'd lose me as a fan. This surely can't be the way forward. Then you add the decline of the sport in general and this deal just seems like some people have realized it is going down the drain, so might as well milk it for all its worth while you can. What a damn shame.
And even if Channel 4 or others cover highlights - which serious fan watches highlights? Perhaps only those with no other option, but sooner or later, being limited to watching those highlights means that they too will probably stop watching. I probably would. Watching sport hours after it took place is not really attractive.
As I said, this doesn't affect me, given I don't live in the UK, but I do follow the english channels when they have live broadcasts, but I feel this deal could have a bigger impact world-wide than just local.
Not for nothing, Rosberg's Championship is the only thing that lends credibility to Hamilton's recent success. Otherwise, he'd just be the guy who's had the best car. — bhall II #Team44 supporter
It all looks like a last throw of the dice by Bernie. He's just looking to wring whatever he can out of F1 before he and CVC depart. I expect to see F1's rights sold in the next year or two.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
It seems to me that one race in Channel 4 couldn't possibly know the viability of airing their coverage.
With this in mind they couldn't make a competing offer.
I feel that if Bernie had waited until the end of the season Channel 4 would have been able to make a decision and possibly retained their 10 live races.
So what does this mean for anyone in the world trying to watch who does not have access to SKY? For example, everyone outside of Europe? Are we completely out of luck, or are we going to have local channels re-broadcasting the Sky feed like TSN does right now in Canada?
I'm just a bit confused by the "no other terrestrial channels" part...
majicmeow wrote:So what does this mean for anyone in the world trying to watch who does not have access to SKY? For example, everyone outside of Europe? Are we completely out of luck, or are we going to have local channels re-broadcasting the Sky feed like TSN does right now in Canada?
I'm just a bit confused by the "no other terrestrial channels" part...
Calm down. It simply means that for the UK only, Sky has the sole right to broadcast F1. If you life outside the UK and any of your 'terrestrial' channels, the channels you can receive on your TV, have a contract in place, they will broadcast F1. For instance I life in Belgium. Telenet broadcasts it through their pay channel, and LaUne or LaDeux channel it free-air. I also receive the German RTL, which also also broadcasts F1 free-air.
I have just calculated via the Sky choose a bundle app and found out that it will cost me £47.50 per month to watch live F1 action when channel 4 lose their broadcasting rights in 2019, with the installation costs too that will be £580 for the year to watch 21 race weekends, or about £28.00 per race. The week passes are £10.99 so that would work out a little cheaper, but you would need a decent internet connection.
I guess I will have to have a long hard think about this before 2019, you never know Sky may split F1 away from the other sports channels and offer it a little cheaper by the time 2019 comes around, they could also increase their prices too of course.
This was always going to happen, and eventually it will lead to even highlights going off terrestrial tv (Bernie likely only allows them now in order to pretend to fulfill the legal obligation to screen races for free in the UK).
As I said in the original BBC thread, the trouble is 1 person paying £400+ a year to Sky is worth more than 10 people watching the BBC or even Channel 4 with ads. If even 20% of the fans who currently watch it for free switch over to Sky (and for all our grumbling it's likely to be a fairly high percentage who do) then why do they care if the other 50%, 60%, even 70% or 80% switch off? Sky will still make more money, and so will CVC.
Long term it will kill the sport of course (look at other countries already mentioned, and if F1 loses England it loses its core audience), but since when has any of F1's commercial arm cared about the long term? These are the people who threaten the Italian and British GP's because Russia and the Emirates will offer them more money after all.
I wonder if the timing is an intentional middle finger up at the drivers given their press release, or if they were going to announce it anyway and genuinely don't notice or care what the drivers say.
I think it is time a new racing series, outside the control of F1 and Bernie, should be started, I remember years ago this was suggested but nothing came of it.
