BBC to axe F1 from 2013? Confirmed - F1 will be on Sky from 2012

[teabagyokel]

For those of you worried about football matches clashing with Formula One, I wouldn't get carried away.

Who decides when Sky's live Premiership football is on? Sky.

Anyway, Sky's Sunday match is usually 4pm. So the F1 would finish just before the football. Perfect, no?

 

[Galahad]

According to the Guardian, the BBC are currently paying £50m a year for the rights. The new deal is in the region of £20m a year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/29/formula-one-coverage-bbc-sky-share

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

According to the Guardian, the BBC are currently paying £50m a year for the rights. The new deal is in the region of £20m a year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/29/formula-one-coverage-bbc-sky-share

Given that the Beeb will still be showing all races in one form or another and will therefore have to keep commentary teams etc. on for every race, I can't see how much they will actually be saving from their production costs, so presumably most of the £30m is a gift from the sky.

 

[fat jez]

For those of you worried about football matches clashing with Formula One, I wouldn't get carried away.

Who decides when Sky's live Premiership football is on? Sky.

Anyway, Sky's Sunday match is usually 4pm. So the F1 would finish just before the football. Perfect, no?

No. What happens when there's another race like Canada where the BBC stuck with coverage during the 2 hour break in the middle due to rain? At worst, Sky will stop their coverage to make way for the football (bigger market). At best, it will move to the red button. Either way, anyone recording it will miss out. I expect they'll show it on a different channel to the one showing a scheduled football match though.

 

[Jos the Boss]

For those of you worried about football matches clashing with Formula One, I wouldn't get carried away.

Who decides when Sky's live Premiership football is on? Sky.

Anyway, Sky's Sunday match is usually 4pm. So the F1 would finish just before the football. Perfect, no?

Sunper Sunday is 2 matches at 1 and 4. Also Saturday 12.45 kick offs usually finish around 2.30.

 

[Quintessentially]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/2011/07/f1_coverage_to_be_shared_betwe.html

And while our coverage from 2012 may not be as extensive as it has been up to now, the bare facts are that the BBC needs to save money. Given the financial circumstances in which we find ourselves, we believe this new deal offers the best outcome for licence-fee payers.

Ultimately, of course, decisions about which media organisations get the chance to broadcast F1 are taken by Bernie Ecclestone's Formula 1 Management (FOM).

*Sigh*. I guess half a loaf is better than none.

 

[Quintessentially]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13143365

Mr Ecclestone, who runs F1 on behalf of CVC, told the Times on Wednesday that selling the business to News Corp would complicate F1's freedom to negotiate rights to screen the sport.
"We would not sell to a media company because it would restrict the ability to negotiate with other broadcasters," he said.

 

[Andyoak]

I'll be interested to see what Martin Brundle is allowed to write in The Sunday Times tomorrow .

 

[KekeTheKing]

Out of curiosity, if Sky were to broadcast the race tomorrow, is there anybody here that would be able to view it with their current TV/Cable/Satellite/Internet connection?

 

[Galahad]

Sky have just over 10m subscribers in the UK

http://corporate.sky.com/media/key_facts_and_figures.htm

I've seen estimates suggesting 50-75% of subscribers have the basic sports package, which I assume is what the F1 would be included with.

 

[fat jez]

I wonder how many of that 50-75% have the sports package just to watch football though? i.e. what percentage would watch F1.

To put it another way, there are 60-65 million people living in the UK and only around 10% of those watch F1 when it's free to air and I bet a lot of those are casual viewers who only tune in when things start to hot up. I rather suspect the number expressing any interest in paying for the privilege will be very small.

 

[RickD]

Out of curiosity, if Sky were to broadcast the race tomorrow, is there anybody here that would be able to view it with their current TV/Cable/Satellite/Internet connection?

I luckily would, but would not really want to atch it on Sky after seeing their other motorsport programmes. I watch Cricket and Golf on Sky sport, but do not watch anything else and even with the cricket, there are too many adverts. The golf can be frustrating as hell to watch as it is just innundated with the bloody things..

 

[Brogan]

Out of curiosity, if Sky were to broadcast the race tomorrow, is there anybody here that would be able to view it with their current TV/Cable/Satellite/Internet connection?

Not unless I added Sky Sports to my package.

 

[fat jez]

Not unless I added Sky Sports to my package.

Likewise. There are times I have considered it to see the rugby and F1 would certainly sway me more, but then I look at the £20 charge and think sod it. I'd consider it more if Sky said we'll drop the £10 a month HD charge for anyone with Movies and/or Sports.

 

[Josephiah]

I think I must be one of the only people on here who isn't that bothered. Given that we don't have a TV or a licence (out of choice), I always watch the catch up programmes on iPlayer anyway (and yes, that is legal).

That said, I can totally understand how bad a deal that is for all of you who watch every race live, and several of the BBC's comments about their cost-cutting measures don't make sense. Also, it does seem pretty obvious that it's been a cosy done deal for a while now. The thing I dislike most is the abundance of lame cover-ups/propaganda/blatant mistruths from the likes of Ecclestone and that sky guy someone mentioned a page or two back.

 

[Jen]

Out of curiosity, if Sky were to broadcast the race tomorrow, is there anybody here that would be able to view it with their current TV/Cable/Satellite/Internet connection?

Nope.

 

[fat jez]

I think I must be one of the only people on here who isn't that bothered. Given that we don't have a TV or a licence (out of choice), I always watch the catch up programmes on iPlayer anyway (and yes, that is legal).

It's yet to be clarified that the races the BBC don't show live will be available in full, so you could still end up in the same boat as the rest of us

 

[GurraJG]

Out of curiosity, if Sky were to broadcast the race tomorrow, is there anybody here that would be able to view it with their current TV/Cable/Satellite/Internet connection?

Nope.

 

[cider_and_toast]

30 pieces of silver and you get your nod and wink

Well that just about sums it all up for me.

According to Kolles he dosn't imagine anyone would get up at 4am to watch a race.

Bernie has done a great deal.

It's better for the fans because you now get to watch highlights in primetime.

Urghhh I can't go on.

Sadly, because of work, I'm going to miss the last half of this season but I know one things for sure I'm not going to give two toots about F1 2012.

it all.

EDIT - Bro has already posted this in the FOTA thread

 

[fat jez]

I found some interesting viewing figures in this link http://www.fanvision.com/F1/TheExperts/OffTheRecord/More_is_less

This was tweeted by Maurice Hamilton.

Basically, the best viewing figures ever experienced on a Sky Sports channel were 248,000 for a 20/20 Cricket game.

That compares with the following for F1 this year:
Average figures: 4.1M
Best (Canada): 5.9M
British GP: 4.94

So on average, BBC1 has had over 16x as many viewers tuning into F1 as Sky Sports best ever viewing figures.