BBC / Sky Sports

[munudeges]

Here's a handy graph:

I don't know what this is supposed to represent. It could be telling me that News International gets caught less.

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.....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.

While I wouldn't exactly class myself as left-wing and I certainly don't think that they are the only papers to have done this, the fact remains that when a prospective Prime Minister wants the support of the press the first thing he/she does is book a flight to Australia.

[munudeges]

"For those who can't watch Sky, they can still watch on a Sunday night, which will probably be better than watching the whole race live half the time,"

Yes, Bernie Ecclsetone did say that.

[f1_fan_in_yorkshire]

There is NO WAY I am going to pay for a "Football Channel" just to see F1.
I am off to B & Q to get a freesat dish and point it towards Europe. RTL is free to view as are plenty others that I can see. For £40 I can stick the dish in my garden, turn on Radio 5 and listen to the commentary whilst watching the race. If we all do this, it will be a smack in the face for Sky. Of those people who have sky sports now, how many will watch F1 - not many I reckon.

Keep F1 Free to air!

[Just_a_fan]

The thing that everyone keeps overlooking is that other papers were far far worse than News International.

They're all a bunch of lying, self-serving worms, true, but News Corp got caught so they get the opprobrium. The relative silence from much of the printed media is deafening - they are definitely in "there but for the grace of God" mode in many cases.

My hope is that News Corp gets it's arse thoroughly kicked on both sides of the Atlantic (assuming the FBI do a decent job). It'll serve them right and it'll serve notice on the rest of the rotten barrel (and their politician friends).

Sadly, I fear that the British system will just let them walk away and the Americans will probably do a deal to get something beneficial for their own media groups.

[tathan]

For the Americans asking about Sky - it has a virtual monopoly on paid TV services in this country, and is controlled by the same people that control Fox News. Can you imagine a world where Fox news was unapposed? That's what Murdoch and co are attempting to bring about in this country by lobbying the government (who until recently were at their beck and call) to dismantle the BBC.

[simieski]

Can't say I am really thrilled at the prospect of having to pay a vast sum of money for what i'm convinced will be an ad-break riddled inferior product. For those wishing to avoid having to pay for the Sky base package, Sky Sports 1 can be added to a BT Vision package for £12.30 a month, I appreciate it isn't a great solution by any stretch of the imagination and doubt you will get HD but it's still a cheaper alternative.

[forty-two]

Personally, I have complained to the BBC about this decision. And I have sent an email to FOTA asking them to do something about this.

I will not pay BSKyB a penny, and I refuse to watch only half a season on the BBC. Therefore, my F1 viewing days are apparently over.

I wonder what the sponsors will make of this?

Perhaps I will pay for only half of my License Fee next year because "I need to make spending cuts".

[Just_a_fan]

Perhaps I will pay for only half of my License Fee next year because "I need to make spending cuts".

You'll probably get free access to Sky whilst you're in prison...

[Muulka]

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.

I'd imagine that the BBC would use the radio commentators to do the highlights, with the FOM feed images. They do this with 2008 highlights on the Classic F1 blog thing. It doesn't really require a crew at the race to piece together some images and audio, does it? But they would have to still send the full shibami to the fully-covered races.

And where does it say anything about there being a BBC feed of the oter races? There will not be. Sky would not be amused.

[Shaddock]

Not happy!

However, my parents have Sky (inc sport) so I can watch it on my PC for free

If any of you guys know anyone with Sky then if you ask nicely they may let you share their account (2 max per Sky customer)

http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/sky-go/

[i70q7m7ghw]

Perhaps I will pay for only half of my License Fee next year because "I need to make spending cuts".

You'll probably get free access to Sky whilst you're in prison...

They can't prosecute you unless they can prove you have a TV, and they can't do that unless they can see it from the pavement since viewing it from your front garden is trespassing.

[gridwalker]

I see a massive surge in P2P transmissions starting next year.

[Agerasia]

Just put this question to Sky and they won't answer:
"Is the full race coverage being shown on the normal Sky sports channel or sky sports and sky sports HD? Or will it be just HD. Thanks"

I seriously suspect it will be HD only...meaning you will have to fork out for it even if you have sky sports.

[wesley123]

Isnt it the case that the British government first has to allow this, or is the government in any way allowed to decide what or what not to allow according to contracts etc.?

I will see if I can e-mail the bbc and fota about this, anybody can post the mail adresses(or pm them to me) to do so?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

@ gridwalker