F1 on Channel 4
Discussion
funkyrobot said:
I don't have Sky. Unless there are alternative means (which won't be discussed here 
), I shall cease to watch it if it is only on Sky after 2018.
Even if I still subscribed to Sky, I prefer the C4 coverage mainly due to Karun Chandhok.), I shall cease to watch it if it is only on Sky after 2018.Ben Edwards seemed a bit more biased towards Rosberg than Hamilton though, which was annoying.
lbc said:
Even if I still subscribed to Sky, I prefer the C4 coverage mainly due to Karun Chandhok.
Ben Edwards seemed a bit more biased towards Rosberg than Hamilton though, which was annoying.
One thing that did grate me with the C4 coverage, was Ben Edwards. I know he has been doing the commentary for years. However, he seemed really, really shouty at points this year. Really went through me when he shouted things like 'RRRoooossbbbbbbeerrrrggggg' or 'tththhhheeeeyyy hiiiiit, theeeyyy hittt!!!!!!'Ben Edwards seemed a bit more biased towards Rosberg than Hamilton though, which was annoying.
jsf said:
Ben used to be one of the better commentators but changed his style a few years back and is now unbearable.
Yes I used to think he was great eg on BTCC but he has now become an inane annoying shouting bafoon, its like his trousers are on fire and he's trying to find the nearest fire extinguisher. Maybe they told him to be like that but its dreadful and I often have to mute the tv when he is shouting about absolutely NOTHING!rallycross said:
an inane annoying shouting bafoon
That could equally be leveled at any of the professional commentators (ie not the ex-drivers) of the last few years; James Allen, Legard, Crofty etc. They all have a tendency to try to commentate as if it was a football match, whereas it should be more like cricket commentary. Where's the motor racing equivalent of Johnners, Blowers and Richie Benaud?rallycross said:
CaptainSensib1e said:
Is it next year that C4 loses all the live races, so will only be able to show highlights?
And from that point onwards virtually no one in the UK is watching F1 - imagine how the negotiations with sponsors will go?Right - so for 2018 you will only have a live audience of around 200,000 in the UK - in that case we need to re negotiate how much we pay ( or leave as is more likely ).
CraigyMc said:
rallycross said:
CaptainSensib1e said:
Is it next year that C4 loses all the live races, so will only be able to show highlights?
And from that point onwards virtually no one in the UK is watching F1 - imagine how the negotiations with sponsors will go?Right - so for 2018 you will only have a live audience of around 200,000 in the UK - in that case we need to re negotiate how much we pay ( or leave as is more likely ).
Whichever way you slice it the amount of money the teams see is dependent on people watching and being interested in it. If only three people are watching then sponsors, advertisers and TV companies simply won't pay for it. I sometimes think the teams and people running F1 forget this. They are nothing without an audience.
thegreenhell said:
But it's all the same. As long as F1 is a business then the money involved will be linked to viewer numbers, directly or indirectly. Where does the TV money come from? It comes from commercial TV companies buying the coverage rights for which they need to recoup those costs through selling advertising and/or selling viewing subscriptions. The only exception to that was the BBC, which paid for it through the TV licence, but that was a unique case. The car manufacturers are only involved because somewhere down the line they expect the association with the sport to allow them to sell more cars.
Whichever way you slice it the amount of money the teams see is dependent on people watching and being interested in it. If only three people are watching then sponsors, advertisers and TV companies simply won't pay for it. I sometimes think the teams and people running F1 forget this. They are nothing without an audience.
Not all viewers are equal. Those who pay hundreds of pounds a year in subscriptions (in the UK, on SkyF1) are worth more than those whose experience is funded purely by advertising (in the UK, on Ch4). It's similar in every country F1 does business in.Whichever way you slice it the amount of money the teams see is dependent on people watching and being interested in it. If only three people are watching then sponsors, advertisers and TV companies simply won't pay for it. I sometimes think the teams and people running F1 forget this. They are nothing without an audience.
Around half of F1 revenue comes from track hosting fees and around half from TV rights.
A smaller proportion comes from trackside advertising and from hospitality/concessions etc.
These figures utterly dwarf sponsorship deals the teams have directly with companies like Petronas and Martini.
I will not guess what the ratio of PayTV subscriptions versus free-to-air viewers is, but suffice to say that you need a much, much smaller number of Pay TV viewers to get the same revenue as a channel solely relying on ad breaks and marketing spend.
It's so much smaller that you could have a free-to-air viewership in the millions not making the revenue of PayTV in the hundreds of thousands.
Don't forget that even on a subscription service, the TV channel is still able to sell advertising and can also guarantee a specific demographic unlike Free to air.
Sky have already inked a UK deal for F1 exclusivity from 2019-2024 - this tells you which way the wind is blowing.
Those are just the straightforward economics of it.
If you want to read up a little on where the teams get their money from, here's the 2015/16 split from FOM http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123649
You might also be interested in this http://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2015/05/31/f1-re...
Compare that against the size of the team sponsorship deals. It dwarfs them totally.
Craig
Problem with highlights is when the race is on say 19:00 our time. The highlights are on very late Sunday evening. After 22:00 for 2 and half hours. I reckon a lot of people work in the UK on a Monday morning. So get up early.
So you've either got 2 choices. Go to bed later than you'd like. Or record it and try and avoid the result from every form of media going until the Monday evening and watch it then.
I suspect if you've already accidentally caught the result. You are less likely to watch the show at all.
I've done both. But tbh it's just another reason for casual fans NOT to watch at all. And that can't be a good thing
So you've either got 2 choices. Go to bed later than you'd like. Or record it and try and avoid the result from every form of media going until the Monday evening and watch it then.
I suspect if you've already accidentally caught the result. You are less likely to watch the show at all.
I've done both. But tbh it's just another reason for casual fans NOT to watch at all. And that can't be a good thing
Anyone used NowTV for the races? Or it would be good if BernieF1 did their own package. I'm currently thinking of dumping Sky as most of the stuff we watch is recorded from terrestrial channels, the occasional thing from Discovery, and maybe half a dozen F1 races. >£500/year is a lot for 6 F1 races, much as I like the coverage. I already have an Amazon Prime subscription so can watch all of their stuff anyway. But I don't really need a £7.99 NowTV week pass for Sports when all I want to see is an F1 race.
carl_w said:
Anyone used NowTV for the races? Or it would be good if BernieF1 did their own package. I'm currently thinking of dumping Sky as most of the stuff we watch is recorded from terrestrial channels, the occasional thing from Discovery, and maybe half a dozen F1 races. >£500/year is a lot for 6 F1 races, much as I like the coverage. I already have an Amazon Prime subscription so can watch all of their stuff anyway. But I don't really need a £7.99 NowTV week pass for Sports when all I want to see is an F1 race.
They do day passes too, if you just want to watch the race itself live.Gassing Station | Formula 1 | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff