Sky F1 - worth it?
Discussion
I've had Sky F1 since it came out, on the Sky HD pack. Find myself watching less and less 'normal' TV to the point that Sky is now fairly useless with the exception of F1. Anyone made the transition from Sky coverage to just watching the highlights (and occasional live) shows on terrestrial? Are the highlights enough or do you miss the full race experience?
Must say I also enjoy the extended coverage after an incident like yesterday!
Must say I also enjoy the extended coverage after an incident like yesterday!
Since I'm happy enough with highlights of qualy, and rarely watch the FP's, just buying Now TV day pass for the 11 races that aren't on C4 makes a lot of sense, and only £77 for the year. Add on the £25/6month 'entertainment pass' and I'm basically getting all the benefits of Sky vastly cheaper. Hmm.
Would still like to hear from people who only have the C4 coverage, is it sufficient?
Would still like to hear from people who only have the C4 coverage, is it sufficient?
I used to have Sky F1, like you free when it launched and while I'd watch quali/the races I didn't find myself watching much of the other coverage.
Last season I moved to a Virgin-only building and as the only option for Sky F1 was to take the WHOLE Sky Sports bundle I dropped it and started watching races on BBC/C4 or getting a Now TV day pass for the Sky-only ones.
This season I've watched fewer and fewer Sky-only races live and if I watch a Sky-only quali. session it would be via an dodgy free online stream, so it's mainly been live on C4 or highlights. If I'm honest I can't say I feel I've missed much and, provided you can avoid hearing the result before the highlights programe it can work out better because any stewards enquiries have completed so you know the actual result at the end of the programme.
Next season... Well unless Sky do a few free races or a free highlights package I'll probably watch a handful of races live on Now TV or just read about them online. £6.99 just isn't good value for 90min of racing.
Last season I moved to a Virgin-only building and as the only option for Sky F1 was to take the WHOLE Sky Sports bundle I dropped it and started watching races on BBC/C4 or getting a Now TV day pass for the Sky-only ones.
This season I've watched fewer and fewer Sky-only races live and if I watch a Sky-only quali. session it would be via an dodgy free online stream, so it's mainly been live on C4 or highlights. If I'm honest I can't say I feel I've missed much and, provided you can avoid hearing the result before the highlights programe it can work out better because any stewards enquiries have completed so you know the actual result at the end of the programme.
Next season... Well unless Sky do a few free races or a free highlights package I'll probably watch a handful of races live on Now TV or just read about them online. £6.99 just isn't good value for 90min of racing.
I have Virgin with the top TV package; apart from Movies and Sports, however a couple of years ago I did have Movies and Sports, but it was costing me around £50 per month to have a)Sky Movies that we rarely watched and b)Sky Sports when I only have an interest in F1 and also when F1 was on terrestrial I would rather watch that than Sky so I decided that £50 a month to watch maybe 1 race in that month was a tad OTT and also, I don't really care for the extra F1 bits over the weeks or GP2, so I dropped the Movies and Sports package.
I don't feel I've missed out at all; if I'm not working on a Sunday I like to spend it with my family so generally taped it and caught up in the evening and I'm only really interested in the actual race and some of the chat afterwards and the highlights pretty much gives me that.
I don't feel I've missed out at all; if I'm not working on a Sunday I like to spend it with my family so generally taped it and caught up in the evening and I'm only really interested in the actual race and some of the chat afterwards and the highlights pretty much gives me that.
I would say it's worth it, although the tabloid journalism displayed sometimes leaves a bad taste. I watch it on Now TV but choose to watch Channel 4 when they show live races. Both Sky and C4 have aspects I enjoy, so my ideal one would be a hybrid of the two. I'm one of those people who enjoy seeing things develop over time, and the highlights often disrupt the narrative of a race, so I find it difficult to enjoy a 'good' race like yesterday's one for example with just highlights.
I rarely watch live as weekend is also family time for me. I expect now tv for the odd race I can watch live and isn't on c4, plus highlights/c4 recordings will suit me just fine. They're not offering me a good retention package this year so £36pm just for a couple of races and the convenience of having 'normal channels' + the odd thing on Atlantic doesn't represent good value any more.
Might pick up a free sat box and see how I go. Losing live pause and recording would annoy the Mrs!
Might pick up a free sat box and see how I go. Losing live pause and recording would annoy the Mrs!
I have access to Sky TV, but up until last year I was mostly happy only watching the BBC coverage, whether it was live or just highlights. I would only watch Sky if I really wanted to see a race live that BBC didn't have. I thought I would continue in the same vein this year with C4, and for qualifying it's been fine. However I just cannot get on with the C4 race highlights. The flow is always going to be disrupted in a highlights show, but the frequency of advert breaks during the race really does take the disruption to another level. For this reason alone I am back to watching Sky for the races that C4 doesn't have live. I'm not sure I would pay for this if I didn't already have it though.
Never had Sky but I use Now TV to get the non-terrestrial F1 races that I'm bothered enough about to want to see the whole race live and be willing to pay to do so ... basically Monaco, Canada, Japan ... and Brazil if it's going to be a championship decider. The highlights are good enough for the ones that I'm less bothered about.
red_duke said:
Like many, I have Sky F1 free as part of the legacy HD package. If Sky ever pull that deal then I'll cancel my Sky subscription and do something more useful with my life.
Sky+ is fantastic as it allows you to fast forward past anything with Johnny Herbert in it.
Yeah, I have this legacy package too.Sky+ is fantastic as it allows you to fast forward past anything with Johnny Herbert in it.
I've had it for, ooh, about 4 or 5 years now I think? For me, it is totally worth it. I think that in this age of generally crap TV, the quality of the show is right up there.
If you're a real anorak, you can watch literally every single thing going on at the tracks from the Thursday / Friday right through to the end of the weekend. All the support races etc. The main event is always covered brilliantly, great commentary, with the pits covered too - so if something happens, one of the Sky team is quickly badgering the race team for answers about what went wrong. The red button option is fun too, to scroll through the different views available, including on board for as long as you want.
I love Brundle's pit walk before the races, he just doesn't care about doorstepping anyone with often quite awkward and challenging questions! Ted's notebook is also fabulous, he really knows his stuff and gets some lovely inside info. Some of the features with driver interviews or covering silly things like drivers going off jet-ski'ing or something is also fun. Sometimes get to see the drivers acting more naturally and not just being team puppets sort of thing.
I have generally been a bit resistant to all this pay TV idea since it started in the 90's, but I have to say that I'd be lost without my F1 HD! I love it
We canned our SKY subscription.
It was poor value for money, and the Internet provision that was part of the deal choked off our speed significantly.
That's left me with watching it on the c4 catch-up service, as I work on Sundays.
I watch on a PS3, which is perfectly functional as a device.
The coverage is ok. Not dissimilar to the BBCs.
The production and commentary team are largely similar, and they all use the same feed from the track.
However,
The c4 catch-up service is worse than rubbish.
Barely watchable due to low bit-rate issues, and worse still, EVERY time you fast-forward or rewind the footage, you get 3 or 4 full-length ads you can't skip.
You also get ads at pre-determined intervals.
I barely bother to watch any more, and F1 was about the only broadcast media left that I watch.
Recording the c4 coverage on a non-sky PVR in HD is probably your best option.
Still, from my current position, I consider it preparation for when Sky have a complete f1 monopoly in 2018 (or is it 19?), and I won't ever get to see it again.
Bernie's sold us all down the river, along with himself and any future fan base. How will people get to sample it without subscribing?
It was poor value for money, and the Internet provision that was part of the deal choked off our speed significantly.
That's left me with watching it on the c4 catch-up service, as I work on Sundays.
I watch on a PS3, which is perfectly functional as a device.
The coverage is ok. Not dissimilar to the BBCs.
The production and commentary team are largely similar, and they all use the same feed from the track.
However,
The c4 catch-up service is worse than rubbish.
Barely watchable due to low bit-rate issues, and worse still, EVERY time you fast-forward or rewind the footage, you get 3 or 4 full-length ads you can't skip.
You also get ads at pre-determined intervals.
I barely bother to watch any more, and F1 was about the only broadcast media left that I watch.
Recording the c4 coverage on a non-sky PVR in HD is probably your best option.
Still, from my current position, I consider it preparation for when Sky have a complete f1 monopoly in 2018 (or is it 19?), and I won't ever get to see it again.
Bernie's sold us all down the river, along with himself and any future fan base. How will people get to sample it without subscribing?
Have the legacy HD here too and while I felt I'd never pay for full sky sports just to get F1 back then, today it would be a wrench. I find the coverage very good; croftys a berk but brundles excellent and at leasy 1 berky commentater just seems to be the law. Skypad stuff is excellent- the instant avaliability of raw video for incident analysis is surperb, I dont know if other broadcasters have or exploit this but Ive never seen any try. Even the maligned-on-here Ted is a nice relaxing wind-down to the day, if you dont take yourself too seriously. The facility to "stay on location" for a couple of hours after a races end is a wind down for the times you feel like lapping up more. Or of course when theres an overun or an outcomes yet to be decided by the stewards we stick it out as the channel cares about F1 and only F1, rather than cut to corrie 5 secs after they cross the line, (remember itv not showing lewis 1st race win podium?) or f
k about channel hopping a la bbc (for those times you need to record it)
It'd be tough to can it. Comparing it to old style coverage like itv had would be like someone telling you their turbodiesel vectra is just as good as your 330ci as on paper its as quick. Yeah the essential bits are all kind of there but its not the same.
k about channel hopping a la bbc (for those times you need to record it)It'd be tough to can it. Comparing it to old style coverage like itv had would be like someone telling you their turbodiesel vectra is just as good as your 330ci as on paper its as quick. Yeah the essential bits are all kind of there but its not the same.
The legacy HD package kept me with Sky, when if not for F1 I would have bailed out. However I now have Sky Q and that really have improved my TV consumption. Yes there is a cost element. However the ability to watch what I want, when it's covenant and in any room with a mini box in it, is well worth the money.
I never bothered with Sky, its strangely liberating to not have to watch F1 at a set time, as long as you avoid certain websites you can catch it on the all 4 player later that evening. For some reason it does seem to take a very long time for the race to appear on it though even after they have shown their highlights program. I wouldn't consider sky to be worth it just for F1 but I'm tight 
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