BBC / Sky Sports

[Just_a_fan]

If you really love F1, you'll make the sacrifices necessary to watch it live. If you're really a serious fan, you'll pay the price. It's your choice,

Yep. English rugby and cricket sold out to Sky and I don't watch them anymore either. As someone who used to play rugby and still plays cricket at a low level that's a bit sad.

I do listen to the test matches (cricket) on TMS but that is because it's TMS as much as the for the cricket.

I'll probably just drift away from F1 - I'll watch the BBC races but lose the feel of the suspense over the season. Then I'll end up missing the odd Beeb race "well, never mind, I'll catch the highlights" and then I'll just sort of give up on it. And as someone who has followed the sport for 20 years,who has been to GP, who has spent time in the garages during race weekends and even had a couple of days in the F1 Paddock Club enclosure, that's a bit sad too...

I'm just not prepared to pay Murdoch. The man and his empire are evil.

[WhiteBlue]

anyone know how to tune an old sky dish and reciever to RTL so i can watch it for free and listen to the 5 live commentary? I refuse to subscribe to and sky sports for £40 a month when the only sport i watch is motorsport i've no interest in any football / golf / tennis or other crap they put on there!

That isn't rocket sience. RTL is free to air and you are in the Astra 19.2°E footprint if you live in the south of the UK. A 90 cm dish should get the channel.

Data: Frequency 11229 Vertical, Transponder 2 RTL Deutschland

But will BBC4 continue to broadcast F1 live?

[Pup]

I don't encourage illegal activity but let's just wonder if any members of anonymous or lulzsec are big F1 fans?

So you don't encourage illegal activity, but you'd like to benefit from it.

How would I benefit from a group of hackers turning on an evidently corrupt media giant to cause unwanted activity in response to a business deal with one of it's subsidiary's? If I did it would be no more beneficial or illegal than the picture in your avatar that you probably don't own the copyright to but use it knowing it doest actually hurt anyone?

Considering that the picture is of my dog, Mika, then yes. The fact that you assume it is stolen tells me as much about you as does your rationalization of theft.

[Pup]

F1 isn't food or shelter. Do you really think that you're owed free F1, just because you're British?

Yes.

We make most of the bloody cars, we staff most of the bloody teams. Take away the Brits and F1 would die. Instantly.

If the BBC went to the US and bought the rights for the Superbowl or went to Brazil and bought the rights for Soccer would the locals be happy if they suddenly had to pay several hundred % more to watch what they watched last season for X? You bet they would...

Do you make the cars? Do you staff the teams? I think F1 would do just as fine without you as it would me.

And I think you'd be shocked at how restrictive and expensive US sportscasting is.

[megz]

As it is, for me to follow F1 I'd either need to purchase and pay a monthly fee for sky (impossible given I live on a loss at the moment) or go through questionably legal loopholes to watch it on the internet. If I were to watch the races live only 4? races are before 9pm at night on a Sunday throughout the entire year. Hows that for perspective?

There are ways and means of following your sport - there always will be - but are they your favourites? Probably not, unless you were sitting on the pitwall or on one of the best grandstands and each and every grand prix all year. I know I'm not - I've only ever once been in the position to see a single GP and my car broke down scuppering those chances.

I feel sorry for the British public who will lose free access to something they've almost always had, it's a huge inconvenience and is likely to be a complete flop commercially unless Sky make enough money in subscriptions because one would expect viewing numbers to drop quite significantly. I hope I'm still somehow able to find a website like the BBCs wherein I can download the highlights as I do now because I have no other way to economically follow the sport.

I'd echo some of the other members sentiments - try to get in on RTL (and maybe learn German).

[Mr Alcatraz]

Imagine if F1 was as popular in the U.S. as the NFL. It would be the equivalent of Romans partying with fine whores, and using the extensive commercial breaks to use the Vomitorium!
Just kidding! Or am I?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Pup,

What of the Giants ad you have on the footnote of your posts? Either way, the vitriol you just lambasted towards "brits" is quite disturbing.

Had it good have we?(I'm not british, I just frequent the place)]
Other than TV licences South Africans neednt pay to watch F1. Namibians neednt pay to watch F1. Portuguese neednt pay, Australians and New Zealanders? pretty sure they are covered although im willing to cede as I dont know for sure.

Now if you look at J_A_F's comment, you would see is what he meant is this country does alot more for F1 than any other. It is not a niche sport like it is in the states.
Why should a mainstream event like F1 be charged for if you pay an exorbatent TV licence? $1000 dollars a year may not be much to you lot across the Atlantic, but I guess if we all spent money the way Americans did, we too would be lumbered with a 1.4 trillion dollar debt mountain, a massive trade deficit and living out the pocket of the worlds new superpower, China.

F1 losing audiences because of a greedy mans vision, charging fees for something that was given to him on plate on the cheap is beyond ludicrous. Look how he is a billionaire, a BILLIONAIRE from F1. You think thats right he takes the money out the sport with his cohorts at CVC?

Tell you what pup, I'd pay the fee if every penny went back into F1 and not the dimunitive ones family trust fund.

[Sawtooth-spike]

Sorry to bang on, but here is something to think about

as i have said before, If you have sky but not sky sports (no cable in my area), you will need to pay £30 per month for the same as you have now as part of your licence fee. I think i then worked out it was around £18 a race. But when you think about it, you get half the races on BBC anyway, So for your £360 extra a year you get 10 extra races so thats £36 a race.

As a side to this, with the same extra money, i could go to All the BTCC races next year. I would see 30 BTCC races, plus support races. Thats a hell of a lot of racing for your money.

PS: At this moment in time, i am packing my mclaren shirts and other Team items into a box. The Teams clearly dont care about fans.

[SiLo]

Just checked the Sky website, looks like we are going to have to fork out about 560 quid a year if we want to watch all races live.

I hate not watching the races live, because someone will always tell me who won the race while I am out doing something if I'm busy, it's the most annoying thing ever knowing who won the race before watching it, and that is what will probably happen for half the races a year, which means I won't watch any of those races at all.

Also, what happens if it's a race like Spa? A great track where there is always a great race and then you have to wait until late night to watch it?

Do we know what races will be shown on the BBC?

[beelsebob]

A random thought... Sky may have --- over Silverstone here. Suppose you're british, and not willing to pay £600 a year for half of F1... Now suppose you are willing to spend £400 on a good weekend somewhere. Are you going to a) chose to go to Silverstone, which the BBC is guaranteed to be showing, or are you going to b) go to Spa/the Nurburgring, both of which are about as easy to get to for the bulk of the british population, and which might not be being shown by the BBC.

[Undead_Mud]

I'm German living in Switzerland and i feel genuinely for all the brits here.
It's a shame. I started watching the weekends on BBC which, you can legally watch via Zattoo here, last season and I have to say the show is far more informative compared to RTL.
RTL has a lot of advertising breaks during the races. So in a way you get only half the races as well...
And as you can imagine the show is pretty focused on Vettel. Can't really recommend it.
Sky Germany does a better job with better comments and several channels, but it's too expensive to have only for F1.
(They have the normal race, one channel where you see Schumis onboard for the whole race (don't know if that one still exists though), another cockpit channel switching through onboards, a data channel, and a channel for the highlights...)
I'll probably try the Austrian ORF with Alex Wurz now, or watch Swiss television whilst listening to 5Live.

[Richied76]

one thing i've just realised while watching Whitmarsh and Horners view
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula ... 349356.stm)
Is that yes it MAYBE good for Tv audiences but what about other media? Between the live shows on sky ending and BBC's primetime highlights....do they report the results? I mean do you know a single jornalist they wouldnt want to steal a march and get his story published before any other network? I think it would be silly if they did because people wouldnt need to watch the show if they know the ending?

Plus internet. i check this forum pretty regular and if i get the weekends results on the home page, i'll not need to watch Tv coverage. If you live in the UK you know full well there'll no doubt be a bbc news show before the coverage and no doubt tell you the results right before the highlights show!

And if they do change the way in which results are shown to us as fans, do they alternate beteen who has live coverage?

Oh and on another note..I paid the £20 for the ipad app for live timing..is bernie out of his mind if he thinks i'm watching sector times, speed trap figures, best laps, weather information and track location information if i'm going to have to wait 3 or 4 hours for a visual feed? Another £20 you've just lost Mr Eccelstone

[Richied76]

What did i say about MONEY!!!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93507

£1million per team EXTRA per season from Uk tv Rights alone

[i70q7m7ghw]

Frankly, you lot sound like a bunch of spoiled brats. Even under the new deal, you've got it way better than most people in the world. Pay up if you want to watch it live. If you can't afford it, then watch the free races live and watch the others delayed. Or don't watch them at all. F1 isn't a birthright, you know.

I mean, I'm sorry that you guys won't be getting quite as good of a deal as you have now. But that's about the limit of my sympathy.

If this doesn't affect you I suggest you go do one. Thanks.

You're just baiting for an argument. Let us brits do what we do best and have a good moan. You've had your say, made your point, now just leave it.

[beelsebob]

one thing i've just realised while watching Whitmarsh and Horners view
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula ... 349356.stm)
Is that yes it MAYBE good for Tv audiences but what about other media? Between the live shows on sky ending and BBC's primetime highlights....do they report the results? I mean do you know a single jornalist they wouldnt want to steal a march and get his story published before any other network? I think it would be silly if they did because people wouldnt need to watch the show if they know the ending?

Plus internet. i check this forum pretty regular and if i get the weekends results on the home page, i'll not need to watch Tv coverage. If you live in the UK you know full well there'll no doubt be a bbc news show before the coverage and no doubt tell you the results right before the highlights show!

And if they do change the way in which results are shown to us as fans, do they alternate beteen who has live coverage?

Oh and on another note..I paid the £20 for the ipad app for live timing..is bernie out of his mind if he thinks i'm watching sector times, speed trap figures, best laps, weather information and track location information if i'm going to have to wait 3 or 4 hours for a visual feed? Another £20 you've just lost Mr Eccelstone

I'll not be app-storing it for obvious reasons, but I'll be BSDing the code soon if you have an iOS dev license .