So, dont know whos heard the news? that the BBC have given half the rights to Sky for the F1 coverage.

This means, Sky will be covering ALL of the F1 and the BBC only covering HALF of the races, and showing only highlights on the others.

What does this mean to you?

Pisstake for me, I dont have nor do i want Sky, but to watch all the races it means i have to.

Which is god knows how much each month, just to watch 1 race a month?

Also, it goes onabout the BBC being criticized for spending x amount covering the F1 (40 million a year or something) But i bet it spends just as much covering a lot of all the other BS sport that i dont watch....

Discuss

Edited 29 July, 201115 yr by B-shaw

I know its a bit shit, but watch it online?

Bernie 'nice person face' Ecclestone

Edited 29 July, 201115 yr by stevemk3

Its a bit of a piss take, I'm lucky I've got all the sports channels so it wont affect me, but i do feel sorry for the people that dont have sky :/

It absolutely sucks. This cannot possibly be good for the sport, viewing figures in the UK will be decimated. Apparently the BBC wanted rid to cut costs, it always looked doubtful that they'd renew the contract for 2013 onwards but now they've done this even earlier. No doubt Sky have paid a fair old price to the poisoned-gnome too.

Apart from the fact this now means I'll miss 50% of the races unless I pay for a Sports subscription (I already have normal Sky) of which the only thing I'd ever watch is 50% of F1 races, so isn't worth it. It also means it'll be presented by cheesey Sky Sports commentators, it just wont be the same. The current commentating and presenting line up is brilliant (apart from EJ who was already leaving anyway). It just wont be the same, not that I'll see any of it....

If anyone from Sky I hope they get Chris Kamara imagine him trying to commentate a start.

If anyone from Sky I hope they get Chris Kamara imagine him trying to commentate a start.

hahaha that would be quality!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uoO-05gqWc

Last weekends race pulled in a 47.9% share of viewers, Top Gear gets low to mid 20%s and Eastenders was ~37% last night. Making it one of the networks biggest sucsesses. I have always been a defender of the BBC and the licence fee but this is just stupid. (Lets not forget that the BBC actualy recoupe a lot of the costs by licensing the BBC1 comentry to other nations (Australia for one) ) Martin Brundel is aparently out of contract for the BBC as well and he would be daft to turn down what would be a much bigger pay package from Sky to stay with the BBC for only half the races and no Qualifying.

and yet our TV licence goes up in price every year.

edit: well not every year, but almost.

Edited 29 July, 201115 yr by arron0909

Its happend becasue Dave C has frozen the licence fee for 6 years and top sliced it, not that he would be helping Murdoch get his hands on another lucritive contract, never.

I normally watch(ed) it on the BBC iPlayer so this really sucks. If they spend £40, 000, 000 on the F1 I wonder how much they spend on Top Gear O.O

I have Sky but I refuse to pay for the sports channel, as 99% of it's coverage is poxy football and you would have to pay me big bucks to watch 22 overpaid premadonnas chasing a bag of air!!

I did read a report earlier today that the FOTA head Martin Whitmarsh was questioning the Sky deal, as part of the "Concorde" agreement between the teams and the dwarf, is that the TV rights should be on free to air broadcasts

I was unhappy when it went to ITV. I don't even have sky.

To be fair I usually only catch about half of the races anyway, but I do normally watch the qualifying.

If that's going to sky I'll be disappointed.

I have Sky but I refuse to pay for the sports channel, as 99% of it's coverage is poxy football and you would have to pay me big bucks to watch 22 overpaid premadonnas chasing a bag of air!!

x2

Edited 29 July, 201115 yr by MattLoaf

I have Sky but I refuse to pay for the sports channel, as 99% of it's coverage is poxy football and you would have to pay me big bucks to watch 22 overpaid premadonnas chasing a bag of air!!

x2

add me on to that one too.

Petrol is rising, as is food. Not paying to watch something 2 or 3 times a month for a ridiculous amount

I hadn't heard about this. Gutted. I love the F1 bit I'm not going to pay to watch it. And coverage was tacky enough on itv, it'll be horrendous on sky.

It seems the only sport you can get free now is athletics. And who watches that?

oh and you'll get them dammed commercial breaks on sky sports

FOR F*CKS SAKE

Adverts are about as welcome in F1 as they are in the world cup.

I am not paying extra on my Sky subscription to watch F1.

I will no longer watch F1.

A very sad day for F1 F**cking adverts boil my piss!

oh and you'll get them dammed commercial breaks on sky sports

Good point. If it was free and they wanted to play adverts I can understand that but I'm not paying AND seeing adverts.

Adverts are about as welcome in F1 as they are in the world cup.

I am not paying extra on my Sky subscription to watch F1.

I will no longer watch F1.

same here.

Edited 30 July, 201115 yr by gaz2k

Sky will just ruin it imo and then what the hell.will happen? Advert breaks every 2mins, commentary by some overpaid fuckhead who wont be able to pronounce any of the names and itll just take the enjoyment out of it.

ill watch the races in the bbc. all the rest will just get missed as i cant afford sky :(

Stuff like this boils my piss, they try and blame having to cut costs but still find funding for plenty of shit that is aimed at a tiny minority. As said a large amount of the initial costs can be earned back so although on the surface it looks like they are making massive saving by ditching it they actually ain't.

It's another example of putting minorities before the masses. Maybe I'm just being cynical but to me it seems more like a case of the BBC using f1 as a sacrificial lamb to make the government look bad in the public eye for freezing the licence fee.

Imo this is exactly the sort of thing that the licence fee should be going on, especially with how prominent Britain is in the sport atm. Instead its wasted on channels like BBC4 which produces shows like "come clog dancing"...