F1 on Channel 4

[TheDeuce]

CABC said:

i get where he's coming from though. i wonder how F1 will pull back from this or if it goes the way of boxing, which used to be mainstream when FTA but is now a footnote in the news with 98% of population uninterested. F1 is in a bit of a perfect storm:
- processional races
- too little competition (only 3 teams winning for last 7 years?)
- boring new tracks
- declining audiences
- minimal coverage in mainstream press compared to 20 years ago
- combined with less FTA not feeding in new audiences

there's huge intrigue with SB & LH, great new talent emerging and geeky interest in the technology but that's not enough to overcome the hurdles for a new audience. a lot of it is the beast that Bernie built, and maybe time is up.
i'm the old audience, so retain a fascination for the circus. i'm not sure why a young person not brought up watching it with the family on the sofa would pay to stream races from the new circuits.

Your concerns are sensible, which is probably why liberty seem to share them.

F1 will continue to move to pay to view, as will most TV. That much is clear. And it's already well underway, yet the audience is increasing.

This is perhaps largely to do with liberty proving to be very good at building hype around the sport. They know it has to remain visible and capable of raising headlines to the world at large in order to get people across the PTV barrier - and it seems to be working.

As for the issue of getting new generations involved, that appears to be the driving force behind more coverage of testing, more behind the scenes, the F1 app and of course the (slightly dumbed down) Netflix series - which on particular I think we be very effective, and Netflix was the perfect place to put it.

Then there is formula E which will get people in and then hopefully across to F1

So plenty of evidence that they are headed the same direction of boxing etc, but not necessarily the same dead end destination. Time will tell of course, but they seem to be guiding the sport through into the modern world quite wisely.

[AlexRS2782]

As one of the many people that doesn't need Sky & can't be bothered with Now TV, etc, i'll just make do with the, albeit now somewhat restricted by Sky, C4 highlights package this year and get my fix from that.

Rather sad to have lost a chunk of the interviews / access and especially the race from virtually full length to a 50% (or less) cut but in honesty Sky were hardly likely to allow either a full or barely edited race to be continue to be shown by C4 as there would be no encouragement from people sat on the fence to watch live or not to get a Sky subscription or Now TV. Seeing as the highlights package in C4 this weekend is 2 hours i imagine there's going to be a fair amount of ad breaks & into / outro to fill that time.

Still, I guess what C4 have been allowed is better than the original plan Sky wanted - which was along the lines of Moto GP, WRC, etc, comprising a 1 hour highlights show at some point the same day as the race, or the following day on an FTA channel. Which, as we know from the highlights packages referenced, are actually nothing more than a circa 42 to 44 minute highlights comprising barely 25 minutes of actual on track action once the presenters have done their bit, account for the ad breaks, the intro & outro sponsorship stings, etc.

[ukaskew]

budgie smuggler said:

Greedy bds. I hope they get fked over by liberty next time around.

Sky are now the single biggest investor in Formula One in terms of cash going straight to the owners. They're not going anywhere. I think Liberty will be quite content with 700k UK viewers as a trade-off, although maybe slightly nervy that Formula E could easily eclipse that in the next few years (the Hong Kong race, at 8am, had 300k+ viewers on BBC2).

I predict they'll be the world feed provider to a fully rolled out F1 TV in 5 years time. Apparently there are already plans for a (Sky) paddock studio for the European season.

Edited by ukaskew on Thursday 14th March 01:29

[defblade]

ukaskew said:

C4 restrictions imposed by Sky for the 2019 season:

- A maximum of 50% of the C4 show runtime can feature on track coverage. That is, to show an hour of the race they need to fill another hour of pre-race coverage and post race analysis.

- They are not allowed in the pen, all interviews will be supplied by Sky. Paddock interviews will also be limited with no access to the pit lane during the race.

- No grid walks (apart from Silverstone)

- Highlights show must not start until 3 hours after the race.

The 50% rule coupled with the significant Paddock restrictions is brutal and will mean lengthy pre and post race chat amongst the presenting team if they want reasonable race highlights. Clever move from Sky.

Edited by ukaskew on Wednesday 13th March 22:27

There we are then.
I'll record the highlights and skip all the ads and the boring stuff... I've been trained to do that by MotoGP anyway.
I'll hold a grudge against Sky (probably forever), but they won't care as I was wan't buying them anyway.

[budgie smuggler]

rscott said:

budgie smuggler said:

Greedy bds. I hope they get fked over by liberty next time around.

Bernie was the greedy bd - he created the deal.

He was a greedy little imp as well, but I meant the terms which Sky have imposed on C4.

[Kraken]

TheDeuce said:

Then there is formula E which will get people in and then hopefully across to F1

I wouldn't agree with that. Does getting people interested in BTCC mean they will switch to F1? FE is motorsport in it's own right not a feeder series for F1.

Personally I think F1 is on a high speed downward slope that will carry on until they have a last chance to save it in 2021. After following it since the early 70's I have zero interest in actually sitting down to watch a race these days although I still find the technical chit chat interesting. Most of the youngsters I know aren't the slightest bit interested in cars and of those that are the majority prefer other motorsport to F1.

[budgie smuggler]

ukaskew said:

Sky are now the single biggest investor in Formula One in terms of cash going straight to the owners. They're not going anywhere. I think Liberty will be quite content with 700k UK viewers as a trade-off, although maybe slightly nervy that Formula E could easily eclipse that in the next few years (the Hong Kong race, at 8am, had 300k+ viewers on BBC2).

I predict they'll be the world feed provider to a fully rolled out F1 TV in 5 years time. Apparently there are already plans for a (Sky) paddock studio for the European season.

Edited by ukaskew on Thursday 14th March 01:29

Aside from my dislike of the changes, I think they'd be fools to allow it to continue against the background of falling figures:



They need to be doing everything they can to get eyes on the sport again. Purely anecdotally, despite working in a large office full of blokes who pretty much constantly talk about sport, I don't recall ever hearing any of the people under about 25 mention F1 ever. Even after big controversies etc. It just is not on their radar.

Edited by budgie smuggler on Thursday 14th March 08:03

[anonymous-user]

I’ve watched loads of races where my kids have popped in and thought it’s dull and left. I’ve got rid of my old sky sports package and now just have a reduced sky q because my wife has some stuff she likes that isn’t on NOW tv.

I’m not really willing to pay extra just for skyF1 at the moment and will just catch replays or whatever races I can watch live elsewhere. I’d pay for Liberty’s F1 tv though.

At the moment there’s the added complexity of how to actually watch a race unless you’ve got skyF1, it’s not really accessible in this in between F1TV and sky F1/channel 4 period.

This contract of Bernie’s isn’t good for the sport at all. Looking through liberty media’s F1 TV app, it appears they’re active in many countries but there are still some like the uk with old TV contracts that have to run out first.

[HighwayStar]

El stovey said:

I’ve watched loads of races where my kids have popped in and thought it’s dull and left. I’ve got rid of my old sky sports package and now just have a reduced sky q because my wife has some stuff she likes that isn’t on NOW tv.

I’m not really willing to pay extra just for skyF1 at the moment and will just catch replays or whatever races I can watch live elsewhere. I’d pay for Liberty’s F1 tv though.

At the moment there’s the added complexity of how to actually watch a race unless you’ve got skyF1, it’s not really accessible in this in between F1TV and sky F1/channel 4 period.

This contract of Bernie’s isn’t good for the sport at all. Looking through liberty media’s F1 TV app, it appears they’re active in many countries but there are still some like the uk with old TV contracts that have to run out first.

Exactly... because of Bernie's final act Liberty's hands are tied as far as how they'd like UK fans to access the sport. Sky had wanted F1 for years and now it is what is, a binding contract. 5 years. I don't see it being renewed after that but it's a long time to wait for Liberty's F1 TV app. I've never been a Sky customer, I don't need that much TV but IF the BT/Sky channel sharing deal is the right price (staff discount) I just might take the plunge. If not, I'll Liberty's app.

[IforB]

El stovey said:

I’ve watched loads of races where my kids have popped in and thought it’s dull and left. I’ve got rid of my old sky sports package and now just have a reduced sky q because my wife has some stuff she likes that isn’t on NOW tv.

I’m not really willing to pay extra just for skyF1 at the moment and will just catch replays or whatever races I can watch live elsewhere. I’d pay for Liberty’s F1 tv though.

At the moment there’s the added complexity of how to actually watch a race unless you’ve got skyF1, it’s not really accessible in this in between F1TV and sky F1/channel 4 period.

This contract of Bernie’s isn’t good for the sport at all. Looking through liberty media’s F1 TV app, it appears they’re active in many countries but there are still some like the uk with old TV contracts that have to run out first.

Cough "VPN and proxy" Cough

[Kraken]

IforB said:

Cough "VPN and proxy" Cough

Surely they would have thought of that and put steps in place to block it? Where the card is registered that pays for it would be a stumbling block I would think.

[Evercross]

Kraken said:

Surely they would have thought of that and put steps in place to block it? Where the card is registered that pays for it would be a stumbling block I would think.

There are plenty of pre-paid payment card services available. They don't require a billing address!

[CABC]

Kraken said:

IforB said:

Cough "VPN and proxy" Cough

Surely they would have thought of that and put steps in place to block it? Where the card is registered that pays for it would be a stumbling block I would think.

i suspect not. most vpn blocking is by the brits, most notably the BBC. their blocking team must be quite large.
if someone is paying where is the motivation to block?

[37chevy]

alternatively do It the legit way, sky mobile app £10 a month, iPad and you get IndyCar, f1, rugby amongst other things. £120 a year for all the sport I love....its less than what I spend on booze in half that time

[CABC]

budgie smuggler said:

They need to be doing everything they can to get eyes on the sport again. Purely anecdotally, despite working in a large office full of blokes who pretty much constantly talk about sport, I don't recall ever hearing any of the people under about 25 mention F1 ever. Even after big controversies etc. It just is not on their radar.

exactly this.

also, most posters above refer to the geeky side of things, the political intrigue etc. i love it too, more than the races. but that's not going to draw in a new audience, it's actually a barrier. how do you explain DRS to anybody? and isn't their immediate reaction going to be "that's no way to fix a problem. oh, and those really fancy cars that can't overtake, that's a problem".

[HighwayStar]

CABC said:

budgie smuggler said:

They need to be doing everything they can to get eyes on the sport again. Purely anecdotally, despite working in a large office full of blokes who pretty much constantly talk about sport, I don't recall ever hearing any of the people under about 25 mention F1 ever. Even after big controversies etc. It just is not on their radar.

exactly this.

also, most posters above refer to the geeky side of things, the political intrigue etc. i love it too, more than the races. but that's not going to draw in a new audience, it's actually a barrier. how do you explain DRS to anybody? and isn't their immediate reaction going to be "that's no way to fix a problem. oh, and those really fancy cars that can't overtake, that's a problem".

The casual viewers do not understand the nuances of F1 and would have no clue re the politics.

I remember back in the Schumacher era... he's team mate, leading the race, is asked move over and Schumi wins.
On the Monday morning I'm talking to another colleague, others who weren't fans but had seen the race just thought the whole thing was fixed. You couldn't get through to them about it being a team sport blah blah...

With the Sky situation, exposure to all that F1 is, is now massively restricted.

[Kraken]

37chevy said:

alternatively do It the legit way, sky mobile app £10 a month, iPad and you get IndyCar, f1, rugby amongst other things. £120 a year for all the sport I love....its less than what I spend on booze in half that time

Where do you get it for that price then?

[budgie smuggler]

Kraken said:

37chevy said:

alternatively do It the legit way, sky mobile app £10 a month, iPad and you get IndyCar, f1, rugby amongst other things. £120 a year for all the sport I love....its less than what I spend on booze in half that time

Where do you get it for that price then?

It's 10.99 on google play

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....

[Fundoreen]

Yes its pretty bad but at the end of the day Sky are trying to get people watching and paying for their service. Its hardly likely if the C4 offering is nearly as good.
Some of the protest is laughable.'Im not watching 40-50 minutes when there is 6 minutes on the f1 website' lol.

[cuprabob]

Although not ideal, I can live with 50/50 highlights. It's very rare for a race to be exciting from start to finish these days so I'm confident I won't miss much, if anything.