BBC / Sky Sports

[wesley123]

I think what we all should do is just mail the fota, bbc and sky about this. Apart from that, instead of not watching we all massively download the race coverage via a torrent, because there is one thing game developpers/tv stations hate more than not viewers, and that is people who obtain it in an illegal way.

Apart from that, I somehow can understand Bernie's decision. AQfterall he is quite old and he, as everyone else, knows he cannot keep this place much longer, so he just starts filling his pockets massively and by these deals leaving a mess behind for his follow up to fix.

[skyhater]

don't understand how this deal adds up for SKY
the majority of people that I know who have SKY SPORTS subscriptions don't watch F1 ; very few F1 fans will pay SKY to watch ...personally I will just go back to having an ASTRA 19.2 dish and watch non BBC races in german with some assistance from BBC radio
it will be interesting to see EXACTLY what the deal is

[Richard]

starts filling his pockets massively

start? He's been at it for 35 years

[Sawtooth-spike]

So both HRT and Williams have made clear statements on which side they are on.

HRT i dont care about, they are a joke in the first place, I am sure there sponsors will enjoy the lack of screen time the car will get in the highlights show.

Williams, well i really hope they were going to pull out of the Dive they are in. But now i am sure they will enjoy their extra million from Sky and the lack of tv time they will get in the highlights as well.

Anybody fancy meeting up outside their local teams HQ and protest? I have Red bull just down the road, i as thinking a sign saying "Good deal for UK Fans, Bull ---"

PS: got the generic responce from the BBC.

[wesley123]

starts filling his pockets massively

start? He's been at it for 35 years

It increased a lot over the last 10 years, he hasnt done anything else. Remember it was Ecclestone that made Formula 1 the popular sport it is today, but since that job was done he just starts filling his pockets and abusing Formula 1's fame to ask way too much for ticket prices. If F1 wasnt so well known one could think the circuits would already quit paying this price years ago and went to indycar/champcars w/e.

As far as this sky deal is just suicide for F1 over the years it just doesnt matter to him, let's be fair, he wont do this job over 10 years do you think? Formula 1 is already an dying sport and by doing this he keeps the teams happy, kills F1, fills his pockets by a huge amount and leaves sky with a worthless sh*thole when he leaves, it is just the perfect plan.

[Sawtooth-spike]

out of interest This just in from Twitter

@PaulHembery

Lots of comment and fans writing to Pirelli ref BBC/sky. We will issue a statement tomorrow. Not our decision tho and BBC wanted rid.

I stick by my word, if he stands with us, i will replace all the tires on both my cars!

But the Big finger of blame falls back to the BBC.

[Richard]

hmmm... actually the BBC had no choice. Politicians pulled the plug on their budget under pressure from News International dominated media. Its supposed to save you and I some money apparently. Freeze the licence fee to save us £20 and land us with a £500 bill.

Hopefully its just the painful ripple of austerity working its way up the food chain and FOM will eventually cut the fees. My only fear is that F1 fans are as obsessive as footie fans and end up paying Sky's blackmail demands to feed their F1 habit.

[wesley123]

Actually the whole Formula 1 is to blame, Ecclestone for doing such a deal, the BBC for just selling out to Sky, Sky for being an evil company and further everyone in these world for being such money horny bastards. Thery get 1 million extra per year, after a year they will start crying about the deal because they lost 10 million on sponsorship or other things.

Anyway, I wrote my complaint to the BBC, I suggest you to do the same

https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/

Hello BBC,

I am a viewer of your Formula 1 coverage and it is simply the best coverage around. Since i started viewing around a year ago I have enjoyed the formula 1 and around formula 1 way more by great commentary and pre shows.

I understand that there is the need to cut costs for the BBC, but I certainly do not understand the way the costs are cut. Sky gets the contract, an way too expensive service that isnt even available in my country.

Now, as I said before, I have an huge understanding in the need for the BBC to cut the costs, yet there are better ways to cut the cost. For example, you could broadcast all races but without post race commentary, show commercials before/after the race, and there are enough other ways to cut the costs here.

Now you have sold out to all the formula 1 fans, and you have made a deal with an 'evil' company that is aiming to buy the whole F1 rights for a long time. It is disappointing that the BBC does this to one of the best viewed broadcasts on television.

I am really disappointed that such great, high quality broadcasting has to go out this way, that there are better ways, both for your pockets as for the 9+ million viewers that watch the BBC coverage every race, and that it is sold in this way to Sky corp.

It is really sad to see that you treat these 9 million viewers in this way

Greets,
Wesley Modderkolk

[Sawtooth-spike]

thats my worry too. Infact thats what bernie is counting on. Time will tell on who is right, probably this time next year we will have our answer.

[beelsebob]

hmmm... actually the BBC had no choice. Politicians pulled the plug on their budget under pressure from News International dominated media. Its supposed to save you and I some money apparently. Freeze the licence fee to save us £20 and land us with a £500 bill.

Hopefully its just the painful ripple of austerity working its way up the food chain and FOM will eventually cut the fees. My only fear is that F1 fans are as obsessive as footie fans and end up paying Sky's blackmail demands to feed their F1 habit.

That's an interesting point actually. Even when you average out the maths, and assume that F1 was the only thing to be cut thanks to the politicians, we still reach tho conclusion that this was a startlingly bad deal for the populace:

There are roughly 25 million license payers in the UK, meaning that the £20 rise in the license fee would have cost the populace £0.5bn. Meanwhile, 6 million people watch F1 on the BBC, by costing them each £600 the populace is out of pocket by £3.6bn. This is actually 7 times more expensive for the average TV viewer than the BBC solution would have been.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Why does the BBC not charge other countries for access to it's coverage?

I cannot help feel this could recoup alot of the outlay, and could possibly even lead to even better coverage?

[wesley123]

Why does the BBC not charge other countries for access to it's coverage?

I cannot help feel this could recoup alot of the outlay, and could possibly even lead to even better coverage?

I do not know but here we pay a monthly fee to watch television, we can choose not to but that leaves us with the 3 national stations and nothing more.

[Richard]

This is actually 7 times more expensive for the average TV viewer than the BBC solution would have been.

That's why certain activities are best delivered by public services, the alternative is to hand monopolies to companies who's prime goal is revenue maximisation and cherry picking the profitable parts.

A free market only works when the consumer has choice, and competitors can enter the market without barriers. So that's why Sky can make money by monopolising a national sport, but makes losses when it has to compete with other channels for soap operas or news.

....

I do not know but here we pay a monthly fee to watch television, we can choose not to but that leaves us with the 3 national stations and nothing more.

That sums up the unique bit about the UK public broadcasting. Our 3 big providers (BBC, ITV, Channel 4) give such good quality that most people can't see a reason to subscribe to anything else.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Makes more sense to sell the BBC commentary, along with their in depth reporting and insider interviews to other English speaking countries around the world. And as English is the defacto world language, it could even transcend just English speaking countries.
More viewers, more money, more clout = no sky.

[Richard]

BBC Worldwide do sell BBC content for profit, Top Gear get phenomenal income apparently.

However, free to air BBC will never be able to compete with the closed monopolistic model operated by Sky.

I do wonder if the BBC could operate a BBC premium channel that charged an extra £50 a year to enable them to grab back a bit more sport. I'd pay for that.