F1 owners say UK paywall TV deal they have inherited is detr

[CraigyMc]

Teppic said:

CraigyMc said:

S0 What said:

That sounds posative, personly i'd happly pay £20 a month to just have skyF1, at the moment i find the 1 day pass too short (ideally should be all 3 days) and the weekly pass a waist of 4 days and 5 other channels, i know being in a minoraty i get the short end of the stick but i can hope

The channels being split up into categories doesn't neccessarily mean you'll be able to buy them individually.
Sky Sports F1 is already a separate channel, and you can't buy that individually.

The changes are happening form 18th July.

You wil be able to buy the F1 channel individually from 18th July, but it will cost £18.

The pricing of Sky Sports will be £18 for one channel, £22 for two, £26 for three or all nine of them for £27.50, with the price frozen for 12 months (ominous).

Press Release

FAQ

The FAQ's seem to imply that there will be no change for those on the Legacy HD pack, who currently get F1 included for 'free', but it remains to be seen.

The channel number will also change for F1 from 18th July, from 408 to 406.

These changes will also apply to Virgin Media customers.

So it's as simple as £208 and I get sky with just one channel? really?

[yayitsadiesel]

As far as i am aware you must still have the Sky basic package (£22 per month) before you can then add on any of the sports channels so hence £22 + £18 required for the F1 channel (Sky also used to charge extra if you wanted the channel in HD)

[ClockworkCupcake]

yayitsadiesel said:

As far as i am aware you must still have the Sky basic package (£22 per month) before you can then add on any of the sports channels so hence £22 + £18 required for the F1 channel (Sky also used to charge extra if you wanted the channel in HD)

I'm paying £44pcm for the legacy Sky HD + Entertainment + Discovery package, so that sounds about right.

[yayitsadiesel]

For anyone just wanting the F1 it is still cheaper to use Sky's Now Tv service their 24hr pass is £6.99 or a weekly pass is £9.99 but if you look on ebay there are loads of Sky passes you can buy, i usually pay about £4 for a 24hr pass and £7 for a weekly pass.

[Teppic]

CraigyMc said:

So it's as simple as £208 and I get sky with just one channel? really?

No. Looks like I worded it badly.

yayitsadiesel is correct - you will need at least the Sky Basic package at £22 per month, before being able to buy the individual sports channels as an add-on.

Edited by Teppic on Tuesday 11th July 14:37

[oyster]

yayitsadiesel said:

For anyone just wanting the F1 it is still cheaper to use Sky's Now Tv service their 24hr pass is £6.99 or a weekly pass is £9.99 but if you look on ebay there are loads of Sky passes you can buy, i usually pay about £4 for a 24hr pass and £7 for a weekly pass.

Do you need a Sky dish for using Now TV?

[HTP99]

oyster said:

yayitsadiesel said:

For anyone just wanting the F1 it is still cheaper to use Sky's Now Tv service their 24hr pass is £6.99 or a weekly pass is £9.99 but if you look on ebay there are loads of Sky passes you can buy, i usually pay about £4 for a 24hr pass and £7 for a weekly pass.

Do you need a Sky dish for using Now TV?

No, you need either a NOW TV box or an app on your tablet, or in my case I have an app on my Xbox One and also on my Smart TV.

[yayitsadiesel]

oyster said:

Do you need a Sky dish for using Now TV?

As HTP99 said, No dish is required as it uses your broadband connection, many of the newer tv's already come with the Now tv app built in or you can buy a stand alone (very small) box from Currys etc.

[CraigyMc]

Teppic said:

CraigyMc said:

So it's as simple as £208 and I get sky with just one channel? really?

No. Looks like I worded it badly.

yayitsadiesel is correct - you will need at least the Sky Basic package at £22 per month, before being able to buy the indivitual sports channels as an add-on.

So it's actually £18+£22 = £40 per month, aka. £480 per year, for Sky F1 coverage via their most minimal package.

[C70R]

CraigyMc said:

Teppic said:

CraigyMc said:

So it's as simple as £208 and I get sky with just one channel? really?

No. Looks like I worded it badly.

yayitsadiesel is correct - you will need at least the Sky Basic package at £22 per month, before being able to buy the indivitual sports channels as an add-on.

So it's actually £18+£22 = £40 per month, aka. £480 per year, for Sky F1 coverage via their most minimal package.

So it's actually £24 per race (3x practice sessions, qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), and you get a load of free content the rest of the year.

The alternative is to pay >£10 per race weekend (qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), or >£200/yr, via NowTV weekend passes.

I'm intrigued as to how much people think watching F1 should cost.
Or should it just come free with the licence fee?

[Kolbenkopp]

C70R said:

So it's actually £24 per race (3x practice sessions, qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), and you get a load of free content the rest of the year.

The alternative is to pay >£10 per race weekend (qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), or >£200/yr, via NowTV weekend passes.

I'm intrigued as to how much people think watching F1 should cost. Or should it just come free with the licence fee?

IMO, if they are in it for the long run, they should make access as painless and as easy as possible. What we (on a motor sport friendly forum) would be willing to pay to get our fix -- it is not that relevant.

The TV subscription model seems archaic in 2017, it is bad VFM and very cumbersome to set up for the end user. Guess that will vanish quickly -- with the demographic that grew up on linear TV and yesterdays news printed on dead trees.

The existing streaming options are IMO also not very good VFM. Very niche area of interest ends up costing the same as most people pay for a year of smart phone usage or the equivalent of 4-5 top tier console games. Not consumer friendly to use (geo-blocking, annoying registration process with some TV company, no download for repeat viewing possible...) and on top of that poorly advertised.

FTA on TV (ad backed on commercial TV where the local market can bear that) and streaming for a token fee (1-3 GBP) is something that could work. As long as that is with some major players that people know (Google, Apple, Netflix, Amazon).

[C70R]

Kolbenkopp said:

C70R said:

So it's actually £24 per race (3x practice sessions, qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), and you get a load of free content the rest of the year.

The alternative is to pay >£10 per race weekend (qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), or >£200/yr, via NowTV weekend passes.

I'm intrigued as to how much people think watching F1 should cost. Or should it just come free with the licence fee?

IMO, if they are in it for the long run, they should make access as painless and as easy as possible. What we (on a motor sport friendly forum) would be willing to pay to get our fix -- it is not that relevant.

The TV subscription model seems archaic in 2017, it is bad VFM and very cumbersome to set up for the end user. Guess that will vanish quickly -- with the demographic that grew up on linear TV and yesterdays news printed on dead trees.

The existing streaming options are IMO also not very good VFM. Very niche area of interest ends up costing the same as most people pay for a year of smart phone usage or the equivalent of 4-5 top tier console games. Not consumer friendly to use (geo-blocking, annoying registration process with some TV company, no download for repeat viewing possible...) and on top of that poorly advertised.

FTA on TV (ad backed on commercial TV where the local market can bear that) and streaming for a token fee (1-3 GBP) is something that could work. As long as that is with some major players that people know (Google, Apple, Netflix, Amazon).

I'm still intrigued as how much you think it should cost for an entire race weekend worth of coverage. Give me a rough 'per race' or annual figure that you would be willing to pay to support a sport that you are passionate about.
£1 per race for streaming is cloud-cuckoo unrealistic, btw.
(For example, if I support a mid-tier Premier League football team, I might pay the same £480 subscription a year to watch my team 10-15 times)

Being 'premium' sporting content (like Premier League football and rugby), we need to accept that the days of getting it as a freebie with the TV licence fee are long gone. I'm absolutely OK with that, because I'm happy to put my money where my mouth is to support a sport I love.
I'm of the opinion that the people who aren't prepared to spend a tenner a race (and are probably hunting illegal streams anyway) to watch the sport, aren't actually bringing that much value to it anyway.

As for the "cumbersome" bit, I'm confused.
I have Sky Sports and a Direct Debit, and thus don't need to do anything to make F1 appear on my TV 20 times a year.
As for NowTV, you type in a code in to activate a Sports weekend subscription. No more complex than making a post on PH, and certainly not going to be too taxing to do 20 times a year.

Edited by C70R on Thursday 13th July 07:14

[768]

C70R said:

I'm of the opinion that the people who aren't prepared to spend a tenner a race (and are probably hunting illegal streams anyway) to watch the sport, aren't actually bringing that much value to it anyway.

Begs the question of what value there was in you before you could justify spending a tenner a race. And whether you would have become sufficiently interested if required to stump up a tenner a race to discover that interest.

[C70R]

768 said:

C70R said:

I'm of the opinion that the people who aren't prepared to spend a tenner a race (and are probably hunting illegal streams anyway) to watch the sport, aren't actually bringing that much value to it anyway.

Begs the question of what value there was in you before you could justify spending a tenner a race. And whether you would have become sufficiently interested if required to stump up a tenner a race to discover that interest.

I don't understand, particularly the bolded bit.

As for the generating interest bit, that's F1's job to promote the hell out of itself - events like yesterday's in London will help.

Edited by C70R on Thursday 13th July 07:30

[768]

WRT the bolded bit, you say there's not much value in people not prepared to spend a tenner a race, my point is just that no one was born prepared to do so. If the sport sees no value in those people it has no future. Arguably even they should be who it targets above all others.

[C70R]

768 said:

WRT the bolded bit, you say there's not much value in people not prepared to spend a tenner a race, my point is just that no one was born prepared to do so. If the sport sees no value in those people it has no future. Arguably even they should be who it targets above all others.

I suppose that makes sense as a theory. However, millions of people in the UK already spend money on premium/subscription sport content, and they weren't all "born prepared to do so".
It's inherently possible (as has been proven time and again) to generate interest in a sport without giving away the content for free - look at yesterday's event in London, for example.
For me, the bigger challenge is converting a generation who were used to getting F1 for 'free' (via BBC/ITV/C4) to understand that they must spend money to support their sport.

How much do you think is reasonable to pay for a full weekend of F1 coverage?
Is £10 (via NowTV) an unreasonable amount?
Is £24 (with free content the rest of the year) tantamount to extortion?

Edited by C70R on Thursday 13th July 07:50

[CraigyMc]

C70R said:

So it's actually £24 per race (3x practice sessions, qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), and you get a load of free content the rest of the year.

The alternative is to pay >£10 per race weekend (qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), or >£200/yr, via NowTV weekend passes.

I'm intrigued as to how much people think watching F1 should cost.
Or should it just come free with the licence fee?

It should be on free-to-air, as it has been for most of its existence in most of its markets. That's why the fans exist in the first place.

The model of "squeeze revenue out of the hardcore fans by making it ppv only" means the fanbase only ever shrinks, and ultimately becomes too small to be attractive. It's not viable long-term.

F1 needs to be broadly available, and funded by advertising revenue because of the large crowd.

This isn't UK-centric. This is a worldwide sport.

[London424]

CraigyMc said:

C70R said:

So it's actually £24 per race (3x practice sessions, qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), and you get a load of free content the rest of the year.

The alternative is to pay >£10 per race weekend (qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), or >£200/yr, via NowTV weekend passes.

I'm intrigued as to how much people think watching F1 should cost.
Or should it just come free with the licence fee?

It should be on free-to-air, as it has been for most of its existence in most of its markets. That's why the fans exist in the first place.

The model of "squeeze revenue out of the hardcore fans by making it ppv only" means the fanbase only ever shrinks, and ultimately becomes too small to be attractive. It's not viable long-term.

F1 needs to be broadly available, and funded by advertising revenue because of the large crowd.

This isn't UK-centric. This is a worldwide sport.

By your logic everything should be free-to-air as that's the way it's always been.

Should we only have 3 TV stations again?

[CraigyMc]

London424 said:

By your logic everything should be free-to-air as that's the way it's always been.

I didn't say "everything". You did.

You can't grow the sport by making it less available.

The comment about 3 TV stations is not helpful.

[C70R]

London424 said:

CraigyMc said:

C70R said:

So it's actually £24 per race (3x practice sessions, qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), and you get a load of free content the rest of the year.

The alternative is to pay >£10 per race weekend (qually, pre-race build-up, race, post-race analysis), or >£200/yr, via NowTV weekend passes.

I'm intrigued as to how much people think watching F1 should cost.
Or should it just come free with the licence fee?

It should be on free-to-air, as it has been for most of its existence in most of its markets. That's why the fans exist in the first place.

The model of "squeeze revenue out of the hardcore fans by making it ppv only" means the fanbase only ever shrinks, and ultimately becomes too small to be attractive. It's not viable long-term.

F1 needs to be broadly available, and funded by advertising revenue because of the large crowd.

This isn't UK-centric. This is a worldwide sport.

By your logic everything should be free-to-air as that's the way it's always been.

Should we only have 3 TV stations again?

I just can't see this "it should be free to air" argument. There's absolutely no logic to it whatsoever, other than "because that's how it used to be" (before subscription TV was a big thing).
Do you think everything should be covered by your 12 quid a month licence? Or just things that you like?
Should the rest of the country support your ability to view a relatively niche sport for free?
Should the BBC abandon awesome things like iPlayer and all of their radio stations, just to support one premium sport?

If I want a sport that I love to succeed, I'll gladly pay a relatively token amount (10 quid a race, FFS) to support it. I'd question the motivation of any 'fan' who takes umbrage with such a token gesture.

Some people are never going to put their hand in their pocket to support F1 (that's not what your TV licence fee was doing), and I question exactly what value they add to the sport in general...