The Sky / Beeb Poll

[cider_and_toast]

Now that the dust has settled a little on the recent F1 TV rights crisis it's time to find out how the good members of CTA intend to watch their F1 next year.

I will leave the closing date open to see if anything changes over time.

Don't worry about posting in this thread, just use the poll above to show your viewing intentions for 2012.

 

[Brogan]

I really have little choice but to cough up.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

way too expensive. I already pay for virgin TeeVoo, Broadband, LoveFilm and Spotify. Damned if I am going to pay any more money for entertainment. I'll just have to watch it on the BBC, and if I keep finding the results out before I watch then I may stop watching all together.

 

[Tacitus]

Shame i couldn't see out Schumacher's last season in 2012, just a guess. Oh well

 

[Slyboogy]

I have SKY sports, but I don't know what I will be doing

I will definitely be watching F1 as I am an avid fan, but I will have to see what the BBC is like and SKY when showing F1, I heard they will share the same commentray team.

So my option is not in the poll...

 

[Galahad]

As an avid football fan I have been wrestling with my conscience for many years regarding getting a Sky Sports subscription. To date I have not taken the plunge.

So you can imagine my delight on Thursday of last week when I got an email from my football club, Tottenham Hotspur, telling me that after seven years on the waiting list, they can now offer me a season ticket for the coming season. Quite an outlay (>£800) but at least I knew it definitely wouldn’t be worth getting Sky now, since I’ll be at the stadium when a fair percentage of their televised matches will be on.

Obviously that plan is looking a little dog-eared now.

I still haven’t decided. I could probably overcome my purely moral objections to BSkyB if it were for F1, but there’s a substantial, unanticipated financial cost attached to all this now as well. It might come down to how crippling expensive Christmas is.

 

[Nothing but net]

The problem I find is that like watching a tv series if you miss one or two episodes you start to loose track of what is going on even with the usual 'last week on .......' Therefore I will probably watch it on the BBC if I remember or it's a particularly good track. Because in F1 there is always something happening you need to know everything that has gone on previously for example how the Ferrari's drive on the different compounds but I just don't think you can guage that fro a highlights show.

 

[Jos the Boss]

Shame i couldn't see out Schumacher's last season in 2012, just a guess. Oh well

Will see his last race thanks to BBC!

 

[Brogan]

Off topic, but judging by the early votes, this is going to have a major impact on everything related to F1, including forums.

 

[sportsman]

Off topic, but judging by the early votes, this is going to have a major impact on everything related to F1, including forums.

Only in the UK.
I have always had to pay for live F1.Free to air is only recorded highlights which are shown usually on a Monday.
I watch live on RTL which is availble only via my subscription cable channel.

I attend one live F1 GP every year, which for me is a flight, hotel accomodation for and my family.This costs on average €8000 for the entire event.
I don't begrudge the cost because as an F1 fan I make economies in other areas to cover the cost.

 

[jez101]

my football club, Tottenham Hotspur

don't do it G...

I could probably overcome my purely moral objections to BSkyB if it were for F1

Remember that News Int own a minority in BSkyB and because of the phone-hacking have withdrawn their takeover.

I have SKY sports, but I don't know what I will be doing

I will definitely be watching F1 as I am an avid fan, but I will have to see what the BBC is like and SKY when showing F1, I heard they will share the same commentray team.

So my option is not in the poll...

I'm in a very similar situation. I have had Sky since the 1990s, first for the football and in recent years for their cricket coverage. You cannot deny that the quanity and quality is much better than was previously available for both these sports - but then for £50+ per month, it damn well should be!!!

I don't want to come across as "I'm alright Jack", just stating facts as they are relevant to me. If I didn't have Sky already, would F1 tip me over the edge? Maybe, but then I like football and cricket, but getting Sky just for 10 GPs a year would make little sense.

Thinking about which races may be "only on Sky", I know they have said Monaco, GB and the season finale, but it would make most sense for the Beeb to also take the prime time races (to maximise sponsor exposure). I am expecting the Sky only ones to be the red eye ones in the far east plus one or two others.

Viewing figures on the Beeb seem to be 6m for the evening start times (Canada, Brazil & USA), 4m for the lunchtime starts and 2m for the early morning ones (Australia, Malaysia, China, Japan, India, Korea - which would be 6 of the ten I expect to be Sky only).

Would I watch on BBC if both were screening? Probably. I watch the Champions League final on terrestrial and can see the same being the case with F1, unless there is some magic in the Sky coverage that the BBC cannot mimick.

 

[Slyboogy]

I thought Sky where showing all of the races, not 10?

 

[Jos the Boss]

I thought Sky where showing all of the races, not 10?

They are but you can see 10 on the BBC for free so your only really upgrading for 10 races you wouldn't see live

 

[McZiderRed]

At the moment I feel like voting "I will no longer be watching F1"... but there is lot of time between now and the start of the 2012 season, so my thinking may change to "I will no longer be a regular viewer but will watch occasionally when I feel like it".Therefore, I've voted for the non regular viewer option...

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Will definitely watch the races on Sky. If there coverage is not that good, i think i will watch the races on the BBC when they show them.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

I'm like Slyboogy. I'd like a 'Don't Know' option.

I currently have Sky Sports 1 as an add-on with Virgin Media, but was about to stop it and save £14.50/month, as my son has now gone away to college and it was mostly him who watched it, for the football.
Now I have to decide whether to upgrade to the full pack of four SS channels (cheaper than just adding Sky Sports 2), as Sky are bound to spread their coverage across at least two of them being the money grabbing bastards that they are, or to cancel my subscription in disgust by way of an (ultimately meaningless but satisfying) protest.

I suppose I'll probably do a 'FOTA' and capitulate, in the end.
But then every time I think like that, my blood starts to boil again...

 

[canis]

I currently have full sky sports so will continue to watch the races through the season, but I have voted that I will watch the BBC coverage when it is available live. The thing is I know they are cutting costs which may mean that the Sky coverage comes out better than the BBC (also depends on who they tempt into the commentary box and doing the presenting) so that may change to watching everything on Sky.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Actually, the more I think about this the more incensed I get. I have even taken to wondering whether to stop watching this season, let alone next. I'm not sure if I can bear all the platitudes.

 

[Jos the Boss]

It is the same commentary team so expect Brundle and DC

 

[cider_and_toast]

Interesting results so far.

Currently 19% (yes I know it isn't a huge sample of the viewing public) will be getting Sky to watch race coverage.

This compares to 23% who will continue to watch the BBC only and 33% who will actually reduce their viewing of F1.

So, given current figures, if we say the average viewing figures for F1 are around the 5 million mark across a season, that makes an increase of subscriptions to Sky of 950000. They should be pretty pleased with that.

For a race being shown on the BBC (and on Sky at the same time) the 5 million audiance for the BBC is reduced by 9.5% (those who have said they will get Sky and only watch Sky coverage) taking the 5mil down to 4525000. Then if all of the 33% choose that race not to tune in, the BBC audiance now becomes 3031750. The BBC would be set to loose almost 2 million viewers !!!