BBC to pull out of F1 entirely.

[Grandad Gaz]

Blayney said:

thegreenhell said:

If this is the end of free-to-air F1 then it is also the end of my F1 viewership. I wouldn't pay for the current 'show', and certainly not to the Murdoch empire. I've already become accustomed to only catching the highlights rather than the full live broadcast, so maybe in future I'll be satisfied to just look up the results on Monday morning.

Same thoughts ran through my head.

and me.

I've started watching a bit of moto GP on the TV lately and I must say, it's pretty exciting stuff!

[jbudgie]

REALIST123 said:

jbudgie said:

entropy said:

London424 said:

You list Darts and Snooker as two examples that apparently have "faded away". I think you'll find Darts is massive still. Record attendences, mega prize money on offer. I'm not a big snooker watcher but I think that's also true there.

Snooker seems to be dying a slow death. Prize money is poor, players constantly moaning they don't earn enough; TV figures are low compared to its peak in the 80s; biggest market is China; 20/20 cricket style gimmicks to make snooker more attractive.

Barry Hearn runs snooker and darts yet the latter has become a success.

Au contraire, snooker is taking off all over the world now.

Really? It's being touted and played all over the world but it's getting pretty poor attendance and even its 'stars' are complaining about only just being able to scrape a living out of it.

That's because the 'stars' are not having it all their own way due to up and coming youngsters and also a different format where they aren't guaranteed a place in the main draw like they used to be.

Now they have to play in it from the beginning, not appear later on.


Also, attendance seems pretty good to me.

[jbudgie]

swisstoni said:

jbudgie said:

entropy said:

London424 said:

You list Darts and Snooker as two examples that apparently have "faded away". I think you'll find Darts is massive still. Record attendences, mega prize money on offer. I'm not a big snooker watcher but I think that's also true there.

Snooker seems to be dying a slow death. Prize money is poor, players constantly moaning they don't earn enough; TV figures are low compared to its peak in the 80s; biggest market is China; 20/20 cricket style gimmicks to make snooker more attractive.

Barry Hearn runs snooker and darts yet the latter has become a success.

Au contraire, snooker is taking off all over the world now.

Not here though. And when did you last see a dart board in a pub, let alone anyone playing?

Depends on whether you frequent 'proper' pubs or not.

[rohrl]

I've been watching F1 on Sky since Martin Brundle moved over and so consequently haven't sen much of the BBC coverage for the last few seasons. I did catch a bit recently and wasn't that impressed.

Eddie Jordan is a grade-A bellend. He's enough to put me off watching the BBC's coverage on his own. DC is good but the main commentator, whose name I don't know, didn't seem to be much cop at all. If it wasn't for Coulthard they wouldn't have a product at all.

[Chrisgr31]

rohrl said:

If it wasn't for Coulthard they wouldn't have a product at all.

However its a product with much higher viewing figures than Sky!

[marshall100]

London424 said:

You can also look at Golf or Tennis too. Pretty much not shown on free to air, gone from strength to strength. Massive prizes, sponsors fans attending

Not sure about golf. If your in anything than the European tour then it's a struggle. There's a lot of decent golfers out there with enormous debts chasing coin all over the globe. It might well be a global sport as such, but there's nowhere near the number of events there used to be held in the UK.

[hairyben]

I hope the beeb or someone keeps F1 free to air in some capacity. Quite apart from it being healthier for the sport I expect if sky had the exclusive all of us watching via sky's legacy HD package will find ourselves being asked for a full sky sports sub.

[rohrl]

Chrisgr31 said:

rohrl said:

If it wasn't for Coulthard they wouldn't have a product at all.

However its a product with much higher viewing figures than Sky!

Well of course it does. It's free while you have to pay for the Sky coverage.

I'm not sure what that has to do with the quality of the coverage though, which was what I was commenting on.

[London424]

marshall100 said:

London424 said:

You can also look at Golf or Tennis too. Pretty much not shown on free to air, gone from strength to strength. Massive prizes, sponsors fans attending

Not sure about golf. If your in anything than the European tour then it's a struggle. There's a lot of decent golfers out there with enormous debts chasing coin all over the globe. It might well be a global sport as such, but there's nowhere near the number of events there used to be held in the UK.

Hasn't that always been the case?

If you aren't good enough to make it to the top you can't rely on it being a career. Not too long ago even if you made it on the European tour you still might be struggling!

The money in golf is crazy now, and players can make a very decent living without even winning all that much.

[n3il123]

jbudgie said:

swisstoni said:

jbudgie said:

entropy said:

London424 said:

You list Darts and Snooker as two examples that apparently have "faded away". I think you'll find Darts is massive still. Record attendences, mega prize money on offer. I'm not a big snooker watcher but I think that's also true there.

Snooker seems to be dying a slow death. Prize money is poor, players constantly moaning they don't earn enough; TV figures are low compared to its peak in the 80s; biggest market is China; 20/20 cricket style gimmicks to make snooker more attractive.

Barry Hearn runs snooker and darts yet the latter has become a success.

Au contraire, snooker is taking off all over the world now.

Not here though. And when did you last see a dart board in a pub, let alone anyone playing?

Depends on whether you frequent 'proper' pubs or not.

This.

My local has a dart board and I would say that it is used most nights by groups aging from 18 to 60 +

The local darts league is booming as is the pool league, despite a couple of pubs closing most teams now run two teams in the pool league.

[Bo_apex]

ITV might grab it, they need more male skewing content.

No more Suzi "cackle-contrived question-cackle" Perry is a good thing.

[Harry H]

Boxing always springs to mind. the likes of Tyson/ Bruno were house hold names as heavy weights. Haglar, Herns, Eubanks, etc etc etc as middleweights. The big fight was a massive event. Everyone talking about it. Good god Henry Cooper was a British hero. in spite of achieving very little.

We've got Tyson Fury a British bloke going for the unification of the world heavyweight title this weekend and 99% of the general public have never heard of him in spite of some very stupid media antics. His opponent is some big bloke from Russia who's been the champ for years. Again anonymous in the UK.

It all changed with PPV. How is the money in boxing doing these days ??

Edited by Harry H on Thursday 26th November 12:40

[London424]

Harry H said:

Boxing always springs to mind. the likes of Tyson/ Bruno were house hold names as heavy weights. Haglar, Herns, Eubanks, etc etc etc as middleweights. The big fight was a massive event. Everyone talking about it. Good god Henry Cooper was a British hero. in spite of achieving very little.

We've got Tyson Fury a British bloke going for the unification of the world heavyweight title this weekend and 99% of the general public have never heard of him in spite of some very stupid media antics. His opponent is some big bloke from Russia who's been the champ for years. Again anonymous in the UK.

It all changed with PPV. How is the money in boxing doing these days ??

Edited by Harry H on Thursday 26th November 12:40

They're paupers...oh hang on

http://www.ibtimes.com/floyd-mayweather-vs-manny-p...

And that bloke that the general public has never heard of will be doing alright out of the fight

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/tyson-fury-po...

Edited by London424 on Thursday 26th November 12:54

[Eric Mc]

There are numerous aspects to success in sport. Money, professional achievement and national or international recognition amongst the general public.

Restricted TV access can satisfy the first two elements.

Only free to air can satisfy all three.

[Chrisgr31]

Eric Mc said:

There are numerous aspects to success in sport. Money, professional achievement and national or international recognition amongst the general public.

Restricted TV access can satisfy the first two elements.

Only free to air can satisfy all three.

Pay TV can and does bring lots of money to sports. The problem comes though when people realise the sport is getting little recognition outside the minority that can watch it on TV. This may cause sponsors to withdraw but the real problem is the general public are unaware of the sport and therefore your audience does not refresh. Arguably not a problem with football due tot he size of its following but it would be interesting to see what percentages of the younger age groups are watching it now when compared to its time on free to air TV.

[markcoznottz]

Chrisgr31 said:

Eric Mc said:

There are numerous aspects to success in sport. Money, professional achievement and national or international recognition amongst the general public.

Restricted TV access can satisfy the first two elements.

Only free to air can satisfy all three.

Pay TV can and does bring lots of money to sports. The problem comes though when people realise the sport is getting little recognition outside the minority that can watch it on TV. This may cause sponsors to withdraw but the real problem is the general public are unaware of the sport and therefore your audience does not refresh. Arguably not a problem with football due tot he size of its following but it would be interesting to see what percentages of the younger age groups are watching it now when compared to its time on free to air TV.

Very interesting. The only reason botham and pieterson are famous is because of the BBC. Botham has dined of his success since, another 'household' name. Pay TV is a one trick pony, a sell out, ultimately it is self defeating, probably only football can weather this problem, as discussed above for socio- historic/tribal reasons. Is it fair to say free to air saved f1? Some of the early 80's races were poor, but it was nurtured and polished, and found a voice in Murray walker, the oldest trick in the book, make the listener think he's talking only to them.

[Eosman]

Too boring F1, baaad !! 4-wheel (and 2-wheel) drive, exciting WEC, goooood !!!! Petulant, stroppy little boys, baaaad - real endurance drivers, gooooood !!!

Edited by Eosman on Thursday 26th November 17:03

[Eric Mc]

markcoznottz said:

Very interesting. The only reason botham and pieterson are famous is because of the BBC. Botham has dined of his success since, another 'household' name. Pay TV is a one trick pony, a sell out, ultimately it is self defeating, probably only football can weather this problem, as discussed above for socio- historic/tribal reasons. Is it fair to say free to air saved f1? Some of the early 80's races were poor, but it was nurtured and polished, and found a voice in Murray walker, the oldest trick in the book, make the listener think he's talking only to them.

Quite.

Look at the demographic of an awful lot of sports (and other leisure activities) and you will see that it consist of males over 40.

What are the young people following?
How do they access that activity to watch it?

I am pretty sure a lot of traditional sports and entertainments that once flourished due to massive exposure on free to air TV will be forgotten in two or three decades. F1 could well be one of those activities.

[GrizzlyBear]

wanacoop said:

If it happens, I'd rather put the money into going to le Mans or Spa etc..

Agree, there is loads of motorsport they could choose from, why not try dumping F1 and bid for WRC - how much can it cost if they put it on ITV4! or Motorcross, BTCC. Why not historic F1 if they must have single seater.

Sadly, I suspect if they dump F1 the replacement will be one of three types: a repeat, something "Celebrity" or something property...

I still watch F1, but increasingly just the highlights as F1 has become too processional for me, the sport is pushing away its own viewers, sticking plaster solutions like DRS seem unfair to me.

TBH, I would like to see them get rid of the TV tax altogether as there is very little value for money from the BBC with or without F1.

[London424]

Eric Mc said:

markcoznottz said:

Very interesting. The only reason botham and pieterson are famous is because of the BBC. Botham has dined of his success since, another 'household' name. Pay TV is a one trick pony, a sell out, ultimately it is self defeating, probably only football can weather this problem, as discussed above for socio- historic/tribal reasons. Is it fair to say free to air saved f1? Some of the early 80's races were poor, but it was nurtured and polished, and found a voice in Murray walker, the oldest trick in the book, make the listener think he's talking only to them.

Quite.

Look at the demographic of an awful lot of sports (and other leisure activities) and you will see that it consist of males over 40.

What are the young people following?
How do they access that activity to watch it?

I am pretty sure a lot of traditional sports and entertainments that once flourished due to massive exposure on free to air TV will be forgotten in two or three decades. F1 could well be one of those activities.

Have you guys got any stats to back this up as there are relatively few sports shown on a free to air anymore anyway. All those pay tv sports seem to be thriving.