New F1 TV deal

[Gully]

Just as F1 started to get watchable again, less people will watch.

Sadly I think this will be about right. I have always loved F1 and will be less likely to watch it if I can't see all the races. I guess that I will just have to add F1 to football and cricket (Tests and ODIs) as sports that I listen to on the radio as I can't afford a subscription to Sky Sports...though I guess I could cancel my gym membership, which is about the same amount, but to be fair I'm not prepared to sacrifice my health and fitness to become a sports couch potato.

 

[Hillian1]

Sadly I think this will be about right. I have always loved F1 and will be less likely to watch it if I can't see all the races. I guess that I will just have to add F1 to football and cricket (Tests and ODIs) as sports that I listen to on the radio as I can't afford a subscription to Sky Sports...though I guess I could cancel my gym membership, which is about the same amount, but to be fair I'm not prepared to sacrifice my health and fitness to become a sports couch potato.

My theory as to why less people will watch is simple.

I know alot of people who are into motorsport, the vast majority of these people have little or no interest in any other sport and none of them have Sky sports for this reason.

I just can't see them subscribing to Sky Sports for just one sport. Although i fear Sky may have already thought of this and will be lining up Moto GP next.

 

[Colossal Squid]

I found it difficult enough to enjoy when it was on ITV because of all the ad breaks. Now I won't even get the choice because I've not got Sky.

Also, unlike the football, it's not one of those sports you can easily just go and enjoy down the pub. Several races are on at inconvenient times and others clash with other events that will no doubt take priority in a pub with just the one screen.

The government are meant to protect sporting events of national interest from being snapped up by subscription only providers but I'm beginning to wonder what that actually leaves us with. We lost the cricket, the golf, the football, the rugby... And all we seem to have protected are the football and rugby world cups along with the football European championships and Wimbledon.

Seriously, what else is left?

 

[Hillian1]

I found it difficult enough to enjoy when it was on ITV because of all the ad breaks. Now I won't even get the choice because I've not got Sky.

Also, unlike the football, it's not one of those sports you can easily just go and enjoy down the pub. Several races are on at inconvenient times and others clash with other events that will no doubt take priority in a pub with just the one screen.

The government are meant to protect sporting events of national interest from being snapped up by subscription only providers but I'm beginning to wonder what that actually leaves us with. We lost the cricket, the golf, the football, the rugby... And all we seem to have protected are the football and rugby world cups along with the football European championships and Wimbledon.

Seriously, what else is left?

The annual slaughter of the Brits that is Wimbledon.

 

[wakeytom]

watch online

in fact watch bbc online and ditch the tv and licence.

You need a TV licence to watch BBC online in the UK

 

[Gully]

The annual slaughter of the Brits that is Wimbledon.

I was chatting with someone this afternoon who is well into tennis, she seemed to think that Sky already had an eye on at least part of Wimbledon...and I don't mean the Wombles or AFC!

 

[Gully]

The government are meant to protect sporting events of national interest from being snapped up by subscription only providers but I'm beginning to wonder what that actually leaves us with. We lost the cricket, the golf, the football, the rugby... And all we seem to have protected are the football and rugby world cups along with the football European championships and Wimbledon.

Seriously, what else is left?

It is a little odd isn't it, at a time when we hear that childhood obesity in the UK is approaching record levels surely we should have more sport on free to air tv to inspire the little darlings. As I kid I watched football and cricket on the telly with my mates, then went outside to play the games, pretending that we were Bob Willis or Kenny Dalglish...depending on the sport of course! How many kids are going to be inspired to play cricket or rugby when so little of it is on normal tv...and people say that tennis is the preserve of the middle classes who can afford private lessons for their kids!

 

[Hillian1]

I was chatting with someone this afternoon who is well into tennis, she seemed to think that Sky already had an eye on at least part of Wimbledon...and I don't mean the Wombles or AFC!

I do not doubt that for a second, although I could quite happily live with it as Tennis to me is about as interesting as snail racing.

 

[Gwylan]

My theory as to why less people will watch is simple.

I know alot of people who are into motorsport, the vast majority of these people have little or no interest in any other sport and none of them have Sky sports for this reason.

I just can't see them subscribing to Sky Sports for just one sport. Although i fear Sky may have already thought of this and will be lining up Moto GP next.

That's the point I was making earlier - the fact that there's lots more sport on TV doesn't mean that people will watch more. I love cricket but I worked out that to pay for Sky and watch the test matches over a year would cost me about £15 to £16 an hour - I'm just not going to pay for that. If Sky offered a deal so that test matches were a £10 PPV, I might be interested but they have an all or nothing attitude which I don't really think helps sport in the long run.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

My theory as to why less people will watch is simple.

I know alot of people who are into motorsport, the vast majority of these people have little or no interest in any other sport and none of them have Sky sports for this reason.

I just can't see them subscribing to Sky Sports for just one sport. Although i fear Sky may have already thought of this and will be lining up Moto GP next.

Just to play devils advocate - by the same token you could argue that this could bring F1 to a whole new audience group, who already pay for sky but don't watch BBC1. Admitedly this would be a smaller group than those who will miss out, but presumably sky think this will bring in new subsscriptions to make it worthwhile.

 

[manilaseagull]

Indie car is on SKY and at the moment is far better than F1 and its live ( albeit early hours but recordable) maybe BBC should take advertisements and stop charging if people dont watch it.

 

[Gully]

Just to play devils advocate - by the same token you could argue that this could bring F1 to a whole new audience group, who already pay for sky but don't watch BBC1. Admitedly this would be a smaller group than those who will miss out, but presumably sky think this will bring in new subsscriptions to make it worthwhile.

Although, given that BBC1 is already available to those with any sort of Sky subscription, it is probably unlikely that anyone who already has their sports package would choose to watch it because it is now available on a different satellite channel if they didn't already.

I guess that the F1 will become available on sites like justin.tv or my2p2 or whatever they are called, make them exclusive and someone will stream them!