F1 on Channel 4

[Stan the Bat]

TheInternet said:

Evercross said:

You will need to move the dish to point to 19 degrees east (the old Sky analogue position). As for the box, any old receiver will do.

Instead of moving the dish you can just add another LNB next to the existing one (perhaps using duct tape )

Few threads around about it:

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1510340/w...

Thanks .

[Mr Pointy]

As I supected C4 beat Sky on Sunday:
https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/

C4 pulled in an average of 1.38m viewers for the highlights show while Sky got 441k for the live race & 574k for all of the repeats shown before the C4 programme. Sadly it does seem that a lot of viewers have gone to Sky as these were their best figures ever but a lot of these came from Sky One so it is very uncertain if these viewers will be retained when they stop showing the race on Sky One..

[MissChief]

Mr Pointy said:

As I supected C4 beat Sky on Sunday:
https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/

C4 pulled in an average of 1.38m viewers for the highlights show while Sky got 441k for the live race & 574k for all of the repeats shown before the C4 programme. Sadly it does seem that a lot of viewers have gone to Sky as these were their best figures ever but a lot of these came from Sky One so it is very uncertain if these viewers will be retained when they stop showing the race on Sky One..

Sky don't care about viewers as much as Ch 4 do. Sky rely on subscriptions for their main income source and advertising is a secondary source. As long as people pay the subscription then viewers are a secondary concern.

[Andy S15]

I think we're being a little harsh on the C4 coverage here, personally. I think they did a pretty good job with the restrictions imposed. It wasn't exactly an action packed race so the highlights length felt about right anyway and there was enough chatter & interviews if you wanted it. I suspect a lot of viewers just watch the race and don't bother too much with the other guff anyway.

Good addition of Steffano, and I thought Billy did well for his first go. I did enjoy the few little digs that DC and MW got in against Sky & Universal though!

[IforB]

Mr Pointy said:

As I supected C4 beat Sky on Sunday:
https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/

C4 pulled in an average of 1.38m viewers for the highlights show while Sky got 441k for the live race & 574k for all of the repeats shown before the C4 programme. Sadly it does seem that a lot of viewers have gone to Sky as these were their best figures ever but a lot of these came from Sky One so it is very uncertain if these viewers will be retained when they stop showing the race on Sky One..

One of those Sky 1 viewers was me on my Now TV box and I suspect a fair few others were too! When it becomes Sky Sports only, then I suspect the true number will show.

[Lucas Ayde]

IforB said:

One of those Sky 1 viewers was me on my Now TV box and I suspect a fair few others were too! When it becomes Sky Sports only, then I suspect the true number will show.

Yeah, I watched it through my NowTV entertainment sub that gave me Sky One (first time I've ever used it to watch a 'live' channel actually, normally just use streaming of their archives) .... won't be paying for the Sky F1 coverage.

Too bad they seem to have really screwed over the C4/Whisper coverage but that will be where I will be watching from now on.

[cuprabob]

Finally caught up with the highlights show last night. It was good enough to keep me happy but I agree that it did seem disjointed in parts and the "coming up" part before the break really was annoying.

[vxr8mate]

cuprabob said:

Finally caught up with the highlights show last night. It was good enough to keep me happy but I agree that it did seem disjointed in parts and the "coming up" part before the break really was annoying.

Could not agree more.

After every ad break Botas' lead got larger and larger, but I didn't hear any explanation for why Hamilton was so far back.

[Evercross]

MissChief said:

Sky don't care about viewers.....

...but the team and track-side sponsors do.

Sky 1 appear to be showing all of the coverage of the first three races (practice, quali, race and repeats), so it'll be interesting to see what happens to those figures when the 'European' part of the season starts.

Edited by Evercross on Tuesday 19th March 14:02

[Fundoreen]

C4 doing ok with what they are allowed. At the end of the day a lot of what they did like running around the grid in a panic getting bland promises and predictions can be annoying to everyone including the viewer (me).
Leave that junk to paying sky f1 punters that feel they have to have something more. I bet DC is loving ditching that nonsense.
Doorstepping teams for quotes 5 seconds after an incident is also junk. They normally know as much as we do.
Just watch the flippin race and catch up with news the next day. Instead of just reading the same thing you heard already on sunday all week.
I would expect sky squeezing them even more in the next few years till its just still pictures and a voiceover if people dont switch to sky f1 lol.

[rscott]

vxr8mate said:

cuprabob said:

Finally caught up with the highlights show last night. It was good enough to keep me happy but I agree that it did seem disjointed in parts and the "coming up" part before the break really was annoying.

Could not agree more.

After every ad break Botas' lead got larger and larger, but I didn't hear any explanation for why Hamilton was so far back.

No-one knew why Hamilton was so slow until they discovered the damaged floor, after the race.

[MissChief]

Evercross said:

MissChief said:

Sky don't care about viewers.....

...but the team and track-side sponsors do.

Sky 1 appear to be showing all of the coverage of the first three races (practice, quali, race and repeats), so it'll be interesting to see what happens to those figures when the 'European' part of the season starts.

Edited by Evercross on Tuesday 19th March 14:02

Yes, the Sponsors do, but not that much in the UK TBH. They're far more interested in developing markets where peoples quality of living is rising and people are starting to have more disposable income. India, China and the Far East are far more of interest to Vodafone, Rolex, Mercedes and even Philip Morris than the UK as they're developing markets with 'new' compared to the UK which is a mature one with fewer brand new customers.

[Drew106]

IforB said:

Mr Pointy said:

As I supected C4 beat Sky on Sunday:
https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/

C4 pulled in an average of 1.38m viewers for the highlights show while Sky got 441k for the live race & 574k for all of the repeats shown before the C4 programme. Sadly it does seem that a lot of viewers have gone to Sky as these were their best figures ever but a lot of these came from Sky One so it is very uncertain if these viewers will be retained when they stop showing the race on Sky One..

One of those Sky 1 viewers was me on my Now TV box and I suspect a fair few others were too! When it becomes Sky Sports only, then I suspect the true number will show.

Same here. First time I used NOW TV specifically for the F1. On a 7 day free trial, but ended up keeping the sub to finish watching Westworld.

Was OK. Race was a bit dull. Nice to see it live though, but I don't think much of the Sky team. Also the picture quality is not brilliant, but just good enough not to bother me.

I think I heard somewhere that Bahrain is also on Sky One? Would be good to see a list of races shown on Sky One, but couldn't find anything from Googling.

[Condi]

Andy S15 said:

I think we're being a little harsh on the C4 coverage here, personally. I think they did a pretty good job with the restrictions imposed. It wasn't exactly an action packed race so the highlights length felt about right anyway and there was enough chatter & interviews if you wanted it. I suspect a lot of viewers just watch the race and don't bother too much with the other guff anyway.

Good addition of Steffano, and I thought Billy did well for his first go. I did enjoy the few little digs that DC and MW got in against Sky & Universal though!

Agreed - it was good considering what they were allowed to do.

But it wasn't as good as last year's coverage.


You cant blame C4 - the blame lies with Bernie and F1's greed. Sky have paid a lot of money and understandably want people to buy their subscriptions, the wider picture is somewhat irrelevant to them. For F1 however, its another matter. No younger viewers are going to pay for Sky F1, and so F1's appeal and reach goes down, and it goes against everything Liberty want to do with the sport. All very well increasing social media presence and attempting to reach out to more people, but if the only way they can watch races is a very editied highlights show or paying £35 a month casual fans or new fans will not bother.

[anonymous-user]

I do like the new sky F1 ‘through the ages’ advert though.

[firtyfree]

I'm never going to buy Sky F1, because the cost doesn't represent value for money for me. Used to have a news black out and wait to watch Channel 4 highlights. However I'm experimenting with a different way of following it this year. Listening to BBC Radio 5 Live, and then watching the Ch4 highlights. Its not actually too bad, especially as F1 put out highlight videos on their YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/F1 so you can watch some of the action soon-ish after listening.

It's nowhere near as good as watching live, but it's better than nothing, and better than having the news black out.

Also discovered that Nico Rosberg is putting analysis videos on youtube too. You can find them via www.nicorosberg.com. He has a English channel and a German channel, which is handy as I'm learning german at the moment.

Hoping that this will see me thru, until Liberty are able to put it back on FTA, or I manage to get rich enough to afford Sky(still not sure I will give them my money), or I move to a country where I can get F1 TV Pro.

Just thought it was worth telling you all. Please feel free to ignore me! :-)

Edited by firtyfree on Sunday 31st March 02:24

[Bullitt Five-Oh]

firtyfree said:

Also discovered that Nico Rosberg is putting analysis videos on youtube too. You can find them via www.nicorosberg.com. He has a English channel and a German channel, which is handy as I'm learning german at the moment.

Why don't you simply buy a dish and watch it for free on RTL, especially if you want to learn German.

[firtyfree]

Bullitt Five-Oh said:

Why don't you simply buy a dish and watch it for free on RTL, especially if you want to learn German.

Thanks for that information. If I was staying in the UK, I would do that, but I'm probably not.

So it sounds like the easeist way for anyone wanting to watch F1, but not pay for Sky, is to get a RTL satellite setup, and listen to BBC radio.

[tigerkoi]

firtyfree said:

Bullitt Five-Oh said:

Why don't you simply buy a dish and watch it for free on RTL, especially if you want to learn German.

Thanks for that information. If I was staying in the UK, I would do that, but I'm probably not.

So it sounds like the easeist way for anyone wanting to watch F1, but not pay for Sky, is to get a RTL satellite setup, and listen to BBC radio.

Don’t RTL have an app? That would be the real shortcut.

[AlexRS2782]

Nice to see C4 seem to have listened to the complaints over the "coming up next" outros going into the ad breaks and dropped them.

Although it's only 2 weekends in, the current C4 package is working pretty well so far tbh.