BBC / Sky Sports

[wesley123]

It's part owned by News Corp/Int. and the chairman of BSkyB is James Murdoch, so it's under american control to some degree.

Says enough haha

[snorri788]

I think that I'll just buy the games for my PlayStation and declare the winner that way.

Bernie you have ruined F1 for me

[Richard]

Sky is only 39% owned by Murdoch. He wants the rest so he can exert total control. There are concerns that this will impact on media plurality because a dominant position in the market would allow Murdoch to hoover up all the goodies, leave the low value stuff to the others, and he can hold viewers over a barrel to empty their wallets for the stuff that used to be free to air.

This apparently is a good thing. We, the viewers, should be grateful for being allowed to pay more for the same content.

[Giblet]

I haven't been following this story. Can someone break it down for those of us not in the EU?

In Canada, we got the feed from BBC/ITV played on TSN (The Sports Network) live, or slightly delayed on SpeedTV (enough to render the live timing useless) with a some slightly more annoying yet still competent announcers.

So, since BBC covers the race, does this mean they will no longer cover it and a new commentating crew? Some races with Legard, Brundle, Coulthard, and Jordan, and others with some new boys?

I just don't get it, and Bernie needs to understand the few hundred million of us on this side of the Atlantic barely know what Sky TV is, as we've never had to care until now.

[munudeges]

Sky is only 39% owned by Murdoch. He wants the rest so he can exert total control.

He wants the rest because News Corp is in trouble. Newspaper circulation is forever declining and he simply doesn't understand the advertising driven revenue Google generates. He wants people to pay to log in and read The Times.

Therefore he needs easy cash cows - Sky is one he is already involved in and he's eying up the cash pile that Bernie seems to have amassed. He has no interest in F1 whatsoever, just the apparently nice cash cow Bernie sits on.

[Muulka]

I don't get why people hate Murdoch (I have no idea if that's spelled right lol). His company did some awful, abhorrant things, but is the general responsible for the soldier who does awful, illegal things? No. And it's the same in a big company like this. If his grilling at that commitee was truthful, he simply was not told about anything that was going on, even when his subordinates knew. They are to blame, not Murdoch.

There, now that I've got that off my chest, on to F1

Personally, I was dishartened simply because of the plurity of adverts you would expect Sky to have during the races, and TBH I wouldn't really mind the odd one- Eurosport's coverage of motor racing is very good, and the ads rarely impact on my enjoyment of the racing. Personally we have Sky TV in my house, and really, after having it for a while, you really can't live without it! I couldn't live without my endless repeats of Top Gear on Dave, and my family enjoy the football immensely.

I don't see why people here shouldn't have to pay when pretty much everyone else around the world does, although that suggestion about the BBC having limited coverage of all GPs was very good. Keeps everyone happy.

And TBH I think that Sky would look at getting some of the current commentators in, as they are really quite superb.

[jddh1]

I haven't been following this story. Can someone break it down for those of us not in the EU?

In Canada, we got the feed from BBC/ITV played on TSN (The Sports Network) live, or slightly delayed on SpeedTV (enough to render the live timing useless) with a some slightly more annoying yet still competent announcers.

So, since BBC covers the race, does this mean they will no longer cover it and a new commentating crew? Some races with Legard, Brundle, Coulthard, and Jordan, and others with some new boys?

I just don't get it, and Bernie needs to understand the few hundred million of us on this side of the Atlantic barely know what Sky TV is, as we've never had to care until now.

You shouldn't be affected. FOM manages the TV feed, which BBC, Speed and others broadcast. Whether BBC or SKY broadcast it in the UK, either TSN will work out their own deal or they won't broadcast it and you will be watching on Speed. If I'm wrong let me know.

[munudeges]

Those prices are pretty much the same as what we pay in the states.

Yep, and look at the state of F1 and other racing coverage there.

[munudeges]

His company did some awful, abhorrant things, but is the general responsible for the soldier who does awful, illegal things? No. And it's the same in a big company like this. If his grilling at that commitee was truthful, he simply was not told about anything that was going on, even when his subordinates knew. They are to blame, not Murdoch.

I think other events, the Channel 4 programme the other night and the fact that Rebecca Brooks, the editor of a small part of his organisation, became close to him and the Chief Executive of his whole organisation tells you that assumption that he knew nothing doesn't add up.

Personally we have Sky TV in my house, and really, after having it for a while, you really can't live without it! I couldn't live without my endless repeats of Top Gear on Dave, and my family enjoy the football immensely.

Dave is a free channel.........and this is starting to sound like an advertisement.

I don't see why people here shouldn't have to pay when pretty much everyone else around the world does

Everyone else pays because the TV coverage is woeful and it has to be made up for, and you're still paying to watch 150 mph billboards. That's how the commercial side of the sport started.

And TBH I think that Sky would look at getting some of the current commentators in, as they are really quite superb.

The latest rumours are Tony Jardine and John Watson. The cheapest muck you can get your hands on.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Personally we have Sky TV in my house, and really, after having it for a while, you really can't live without it! I couldn't live without my endless repeats of Top Gear on Dave, and my family enjoy the football immensely.

Dave is on freeview. If you look at what your actually paying for with SKY, and what's available on Freeview, you'll find the majority of what you watch is already available on Freeview.

Also on FreeSAT and soon Freeview all HD channels from BBC/ITV/Channel 4/Etc. are free, Sky charge you for access to this.

[i70q7m7ghw]

I haven't been following this story. Can someone break it down for those of us not in the EU?

In Canada, we got the feed from BBC/ITV played on TSN (The Sports Network) live, or slightly delayed on SpeedTV (enough to render the live timing useless) with a some slightly more annoying yet still competent announcers.

So, since BBC covers the race, does this mean they will no longer cover it and a new commentating crew? Some races with Legard, Brundle, Coulthard, and Jordan, and others with some new boys?

I just don't get it, and Bernie needs to understand the few hundred million of us on this side of the Atlantic barely know what Sky TV is, as we've never had to care until now.

Basically BBC won't be broadcasting half the season, so I guess that means your TV companies there will have to use another feed, possibly the SKY feed but it will probably come at a hefty premium - so it's unlikely.

No news on commentary crew. Currently some memebers of the BBC crew stand to lose their jobs, Martin Brundle particularly vocal about the issue.

[i70q7m7ghw]

I don't get why people hate Murdoch (I have no idea if that's spelled right lol). His company did some awful, abhorrant things, but is the general responsible for the soldier who does awful, illegal things? No. And it's the same in a big company like this. If his grilling at that commitee was truthful, he simply was not told about anything that was going on, even when his subordinates knew. They are to blame, not Murdoch.

Willful blindness.

And some of his answers have been brought in to question, some of those subordinates have disputed a claim James Murdoch didn't know, saying they infact made him aware of certain information.

[ben_watkins]

Sky is only 39% owned by Murdoch. He wants the rest so he can exert total control. There are concerns that this will impact on media plurality because a dominant position in the market would allow Murdoch to hoover up all the goodies, leave the low value stuff to the others, and he can hold viewers over a barrel to empty their wallets for the stuff that used to be free to air.

This apparently is a good thing. We, the viewers, should be grateful for being allowed to pay more for the same content.

Murdoch controls News Corp through differential voting rights: the Murdoch’s own 40% of the B voting shares. The much more numerous A shares have no votes, so the Murdoch’s are able to control a company in which they own only 13% of the issued share capital

http://www.terrysmithblog.com/straight- ... -doom.html

[myurr]

The thing that everyone keeps overlooking is that other papers were far far worse than News International. According to the investigation by the information commissioner the Trinity Mirror Group and Associated Newspapers were in a completely different league in terms of the number of offenses, and even the holier than thou Guardian Media Group was in the same ballpark.

Here's a handy graph:


News International are being picked on for a whole bunch of reasons - primarily the lefty press don't like them and have gotten their knickers in a twist over all this; partly because they switched allegiance away from Labour at the last election and Labour are trying to get some pay back; partly because their editor at the time was the current PMs press adviser and so was a target for the press and opposition; partly because their various competitors smell blood and an opportunity; and partly because they've always been vilified to a degree.

Pretty much every UK newspaper has been involved in this scandal, and no one political party can claim to have been above mixing with those papers or employing former employees of those papers. It's all just a huge sack of self serving bullshit as media companies try and assassinate each other, and political parties do what they always do.

[Richard]

I suspect the BBC will still have a crew at every race to produce the highlights packages. For example Match of the Day (football/soccer highlights) uses BBC commentary teams. So their will still be a BBC live feed for non-UK broadcasts. Its simply that those in the UK paying for the commentary salaries will only get highlights.

The BBC aren't saving much cost here, they are simply selling the UK live rights to Sky to balance the books.

----

As for Sky ownership...

I've been cynical about large corporate ownership of public services long before the phone hacking came to light. Large media corporations' aim is to make money in an oligopoly or even a monopoly, whereas free to air broadcasters exist to provide a service while covering their costs.

ben_watkins - NewsCorp own 39% of Sky. The A share and B share thing you mention refers to the Murdoch Family Trust ownership of NewsCorp.