F1 owners say UK paywall TV deal they have inherited is detr
Discussion
Mr_Thyroid said:
When you get up for work at 6 and Channel 4's highlights doesn't end until 12:30 it's more trouble than it's worth.
Also, if I can't watch live, Channel 4 take ages to add it to their iPlayer thingy - which doesn't work as well as the BBC one anyway. Bring back video cassettes.
This is why when Virgin offered me SS half price for a year I took it. Also, if I can't watch live, Channel 4 take ages to add it to their iPlayer thingy - which doesn't work as well as the BBC one anyway. Bring back video cassettes.
If Ch4 were smart, they could delay the early morning races (aus, japan, Malaysia etc) to lunchtime. Then make all the evening races live. Canada, Austin Mexico. The rest just need to be live or early evening.
But they aren't
And TBH I find myself watching the live races on Ch4 anyway, since their team is just as good as Skys. Then I watch Teds notebooks afterwards
Rich_W said:
If Ch4 were smart, they could delay the early morning races (aus, japan, Malaysia etc) to lunchtime. Then make all the evening races live. Canada, Austin Mexico. The rest just need to be live or early evening.
But they aren't
It's not that simple. If the contract is still broadly similar (and it seems to be based on the races they've picked) they automatically get the British and Abu Dhabi GPs, they can then choose 8 races but they must never pick more than two consecutive ones and never go three races without a live race.But they aren't
Considering there are five early morning and evening races in a row directly before Abu Dhabi your idea would never work.
Derek Smith said:
It was either F1 or Wimbledon.
I thought it was either F1 or The Voice and now the BBC has lost that load of tripe too.I enjoy CH4's coverage. Sky's is so-so. I binned Sky for a couple of years. The presenters are dull as dishwater apart from Kravitz and Brundle. I have recently re-subscribed but ironically it was more to get Le Mans.
ONtheROCS said:
Derek Smith said:
It was either F1 or Wimbledon.
I thought it was either F1 or The Voice and now the BBC has lost that load of tripe too.I enjoy CH4's coverage. Sky's is so-so. I binned Sky for a couple of years. The presenters are dull as dishwater apart from Kravitz and Brundle. I have recently re-subscribed but ironically it was more to get Le Mans.
They wasted £100m on their digital project.
Just the cost of the rights for "the voice" would have seen the F1 contract out, let alone the production costs etc. This si the show that they ditched by the way.
They wasted god knows how much giving golden handshakes to staff that contractually there was no need for. Some staff then got re-hired as contractors on inflated wages.
They could have afforded F1 if they wanted to, they didn't.
ukaskew said:
Rich_W said:
If Ch4 were smart, they could delay the early morning races (aus, japan, Malaysia etc) to lunchtime. Then make all the evening races live. Canada, Austin Mexico. The rest just need to be live or early evening.
But they aren't
It's not that simple. If the contract is still broadly similar (and it seems to be based on the races they've picked) they automatically get the British and Abu Dhabi GPs, they can then choose 8 races but they must never pick more than two consecutive ones and never go three races without a live race.But they aren't
Considering there are five early morning and evening races in a row directly before Abu Dhabi your idea would never work.
Are you sure about no more than 2 consecutive live?
Bahrain/Russia
&
Singapore/Malaysia will be live on Ch4 this year
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/01/05/channel-4-re...
They should have delayed Malay, and run Brazil live!
Anyway, I suspect in the next 2 years you'll see Ch4 given the option to buy live rights for all races. But you might see that it's only the race and Qualy will be delayed/highlights only to appease Sky.
There are very strong rumours that Sky are making major changes to the way Sky Sports will be sold.
It's suggested they'll launch separate channels for various sports and make them available individually. It'll cost more to take all of them, but F1 or football fans may be able to subscribe to just their preferred sport.
That'd probably also carry over to Now tv, so they may be able to offer an F1 pass at a vaguely sensible price.
It has even been rumoured that Sky were discussing providing the official F1 streaming service, to be sold via F1 directly. Would make a lot of sense - Sky have recently migrated their streaming infrastructure to a common platform for all countries they serve, so gives them a base for this.
It's suggested they'll launch separate channels for various sports and make them available individually. It'll cost more to take all of them, but F1 or football fans may be able to subscribe to just their preferred sport.
That'd probably also carry over to Now tv, so they may be able to offer an F1 pass at a vaguely sensible price.
It has even been rumoured that Sky were discussing providing the official F1 streaming service, to be sold via F1 directly. Would make a lot of sense - Sky have recently migrated their streaming infrastructure to a common platform for all countries they serve, so gives them a base for this.
rscott said:
There are very strong rumours that Sky are making major changes to the way Sky Sports will be sold.
It's suggested they'll launch separate channels for various sports and make them available individually. It'll cost more to take all of them, but F1 or football fans may be able to subscribe to just their preferred sport.
That'd probably also carry over to Now tv, so they may be able to offer an F1 pass at a vaguely sensible price.
It has even been rumoured that Sky were discussing providing the official F1 streaming service, to be sold via F1 directly. Would make a lot of sense - Sky have recently migrated their streaming infrastructure to a common platform for all countries they serve, so gives them a base for this.
I hope the rumours are true, Skys business model is greed-driven and cynical. It's the real reason why more people don't use it, it's just too expensive, and you have to pay for all kinds of crap that you don't want to watch. Instead of having one package for sport, it's split into football, and then the rest, which includes F1. so you have to pay for two packages, plus the basic package of course, which you always have to take, whether you want it or not.It's suggested they'll launch separate channels for various sports and make them available individually. It'll cost more to take all of them, but F1 or football fans may be able to subscribe to just their preferred sport.
That'd probably also carry over to Now tv, so they may be able to offer an F1 pass at a vaguely sensible price.
It has even been rumoured that Sky were discussing providing the official F1 streaming service, to be sold via F1 directly. Would make a lot of sense - Sky have recently migrated their streaming infrastructure to a common platform for all countries they serve, so gives them a base for this.
The F1 package is padded out with sports like golf etc. Watching golf on TV is like watching paint dry...
Why not offer a package with all sports ? ( then my wife can watch her football, and I can watch F1 ). Or an F1 package for €10 a month or something.
I hope they're finally starting to realize that, with a fair business model, they could be in almost every household in Europe. Only a very few people that I know have Sky, most of them say they'd be there like a shot, if it wasn't so expensive. For the first year I'm paying €30 a month, for three packages. Next year, when I don't cancel it, it'll cost €56 for the same thing, which is obscene.
Crafty_ said:
Its simpler than that, the BBC didn't want motorsport any more. Probably some green agenda of some sort.
They could have afforded F1 if they wanted to, they didn't.
What on earth do you mean by 'the BBC'?They could have afforded F1 if they wanted to, they didn't.
Do you mean the sports programmers? No you can't mean that because they wanted F1.
Do you mean the producers, the staff or who?
The boss at the time, put in place by the government, and under its control?
It's nonsense to say 'the BBC' did not want F1. Of course they did. If you mean the government didn't want F1 to be in the hands of the BBC then yes, that's right.
The rug was pulled from under them.
I'm a classic example of one of the 'lost' viewers. I'm 38 and as a kid/teen in watched F1 almost religiously for years. I loved it. Fast forward to now and I couldn't tell you many of the drivers (I'd be guessing at a few I've heard mentioned in recent past), let alone who they drive for.
I should be prime F1 target audience; male, 30s, good job with decent income, yet I couldn't care less about it. My love of cars and things automotive hasn't died, but several things in F1 resulted in my disinterest. Aside from the ridiculous rule changes and constant meddling, the cost of watching was a massive factor. I was paying £60/mo for Sky and realised I didn't watch much at all. There was no way I was going to pay even more for a load of sports channels I had zero interest in just to get F1 either. Add on the licence fee and suddenly that's nearly a grand a year on something I never use. I ditched Sky and shortly after that the licence fee too. I've not watched live TV in years and don't miss it at all.
My brother grudgingly pays for the full Sky Sports package to get F1 and hates Sky for it. That sounds like a bad way to do business as it wouldn't take much for him to decide to f
k it off.
If there was a way to watch a live stream for sensible money it might tempt me back but I'm really not sure whether I'm that bothered by it overall.
I should be prime F1 target audience; male, 30s, good job with decent income, yet I couldn't care less about it. My love of cars and things automotive hasn't died, but several things in F1 resulted in my disinterest. Aside from the ridiculous rule changes and constant meddling, the cost of watching was a massive factor. I was paying £60/mo for Sky and realised I didn't watch much at all. There was no way I was going to pay even more for a load of sports channels I had zero interest in just to get F1 either. Add on the licence fee and suddenly that's nearly a grand a year on something I never use. I ditched Sky and shortly after that the licence fee too. I've not watched live TV in years and don't miss it at all.
My brother grudgingly pays for the full Sky Sports package to get F1 and hates Sky for it. That sounds like a bad way to do business as it wouldn't take much for him to decide to f
k it off.If there was a way to watch a live stream for sensible money it might tempt me back but I'm really not sure whether I'm that bothered by it overall.
Whilst Sky is far from perfect. Don't assume Virgin are any better!
All I want is Eurosport, BTSport, the ability to record programmes (TiVo is half decent to be fair) and broadband. Yet the way their M/L/XL bundles are it's currently just under £100 for that a month! And I HAVE to have the phone lien at £15 a month, which if fking annoying since there's not even a phone plugged in to it and I don't know the number (its written down somewhere)
WHY have Ofcom not got involved and shafted them?
All I want is Eurosport, BTSport, the ability to record programmes (TiVo is half decent to be fair) and broadband. Yet the way their M/L/XL bundles are it's currently just under £100 for that a month! And I HAVE to have the phone lien at £15 a month, which if f
king annoying since there's not even a phone plugged in to it and I don't know the number (its written down somewhere)WHY have Ofcom not got involved and shafted them?
Funk said:
I'm a classic example of one of the 'lost' viewers. I'm 38 and as a kid/teen in watched F1 almost religiously for years. I loved it. Fast forward to now and I couldn't tell you many of the drivers (I'd be guessing at a few I've heard mentioned in recent past), let alone who they drive for.
I should be prime F1 target audience; male, 30s, good job with decent income, yet I couldn't care less about it. My love of cars and things automotive hasn't died, but several things in F1 resulted in my disinterest. Aside from the ridiculous rule changes and constant meddling, the cost of watching was a massive factor. I was paying £60/mo for Sky and realised I didn't watch much at all. There was no way I was going to pay even more for a load of sports channels I had zero interest in just to get F1 either. Add on the licence fee and suddenly that's nearly a grand a year on something I never use. I ditched Sky and shortly after that the licence fee too. I've not watched live TV in years and don't miss it at all.
My brother grudgingly pays for the full Sky Sports package to get F1 and hates Sky for it. That sounds like a bad way to do business as it wouldn't take much for him to decide to fk it off.
If there was a way to watch a live stream for sensible money it might tempt me back but I'm really not sure whether I'm that bothered by it overall.
Yet the recent seasons have given us some of the most exciting races and championships ever. I should be prime F1 target audience; male, 30s, good job with decent income, yet I couldn't care less about it. My love of cars and things automotive hasn't died, but several things in F1 resulted in my disinterest. Aside from the ridiculous rule changes and constant meddling, the cost of watching was a massive factor. I was paying £60/mo for Sky and realised I didn't watch much at all. There was no way I was going to pay even more for a load of sports channels I had zero interest in just to get F1 either. Add on the licence fee and suddenly that's nearly a grand a year on something I never use. I ditched Sky and shortly after that the licence fee too. I've not watched live TV in years and don't miss it at all.
My brother grudgingly pays for the full Sky Sports package to get F1 and hates Sky for it. That sounds like a bad way to do business as it wouldn't take much for him to decide to f
k it off.If there was a way to watch a live stream for sensible money it might tempt me back but I'm really not sure whether I'm that bothered by it overall.
I take your point about the cost, and that's what will kill it. I've been following WEC, although having to wait for nearly a week for ITV4 to show it. Le Mans was great to have on in the background. I can't see me swapping over to it unless free to air, or at the very least reasonable to air, goes for F1.
Derek Smith said:
Yet the recent seasons have given us some of the most exciting races and championships ever.
I take your point about the cost, and that's what will kill it. I've been following WEC, although having to wait for nearly a week for ITV4 to show it. Le Mans was great to have on in the background. I can't see me swapping over to it unless free to air, or at the very least reasonable to air, goes for F1.
And that's exactly the issue Derek; I wouldn't know because I'm not watching, nor am I likely to. They've already lost huge numbers, many of whom aren't ever coming back.I take your point about the cost, and that's what will kill it. I've been following WEC, although having to wait for nearly a week for ITV4 to show it. Le Mans was great to have on in the background. I can't see me swapping over to it unless free to air, or at the very least reasonable to air, goes for F1.
It doesn't matter how good the racing gets if no-one's watching.
Derek Smith said:
Yet the recent seasons have given us some of the most exciting races and championships ever.
I take your point about the cost, and that's what will kill it. I've been following WEC, although having to wait for nearly a week for ITV4 to show it. Le Mans was great to have on in the background. I can't see me swapping over to it unless free to air, or at the very least reasonable to air, goes for F1.
You can get the whole WEC season, including LeMans, for €9.95 here in Germany. Which is a great deal: 72hrs of racing plus all the practices and qualys, and all for pennies. Sky, are you listening?I take your point about the cost, and that's what will kill it. I've been following WEC, although having to wait for nearly a week for ITV4 to show it. Le Mans was great to have on in the background. I can't see me swapping over to it unless free to air, or at the very least reasonable to air, goes for F1.
Rich_W said:
Are you sure about no more than 2 consecutive live?
Bahrain/Russia
&
Singapore/Malaysia will be live on Ch4 this year
Yes, as in they cannot show 3 races in a row live. Both of those examples you've given are fine as they are both only two consecutive races with highlight races either side of them.Bahrain/Russia
&
Singapore/Malaysia will be live on Ch4 this year
Funk said:
I'm a classic example of one of the 'lost' viewers. I'm 38 and as a kid/teen in watched F1 almost religiously for years. I loved it. Fast forward to now and I couldn't tell you many of the drivers (I'd be guessing at a few I've heard mentioned in recent past), let alone who they drive for.
I should be prime F1 target audience; male, 30s, good job with decent income, yet I couldn't care less about it. My love of cars and things automotive hasn't died, but several things in F1 resulted in my disinterest. Aside from the ridiculous rule changes and constant meddling, the cost of watching was a massive factor. I was paying £60/mo for Sky and realised I didn't watch much at all. There was no way I was going to pay even more for a load of sports channels I had zero interest in just to get F1 either. Add on the licence fee and suddenly that's nearly a grand a year on something I never use. I ditched Sky and shortly after that the licence fee too. I've not watched live TV in years and don't miss it at all.
My brother grudgingly pays for the full Sky Sports package to get F1 and hates Sky for it. That sounds like a bad way to do business as it wouldn't take much for him to decide to fk it off.
If there was a way to watch a live stream for sensible money it might tempt me back but I'm really not sure whether I'm that bothered by it overall.
Look on the positive side. You used your head instead of your heart to realise what bad value the Sky offering is. If only more people did what you've done it would be back on Free To Air in a year full of apology. I feel sorry for all the poor schmucks who've been duped into paying for all the Football packages - especially now it's all split across three providers (that I know of).I should be prime F1 target audience; male, 30s, good job with decent income, yet I couldn't care less about it. My love of cars and things automotive hasn't died, but several things in F1 resulted in my disinterest. Aside from the ridiculous rule changes and constant meddling, the cost of watching was a massive factor. I was paying £60/mo for Sky and realised I didn't watch much at all. There was no way I was going to pay even more for a load of sports channels I had zero interest in just to get F1 either. Add on the licence fee and suddenly that's nearly a grand a year on something I never use. I ditched Sky and shortly after that the licence fee too. I've not watched live TV in years and don't miss it at all.
My brother grudgingly pays for the full Sky Sports package to get F1 and hates Sky for it. That sounds like a bad way to do business as it wouldn't take much for him to decide to f
k it off.If there was a way to watch a live stream for sensible money it might tempt me back but I'm really not sure whether I'm that bothered by it overall.
The public have been well exploited by the TV companies. But you don't have to be one of them. Save the money and go watch real motor racing at a circuit instead. That's what I do.
Krikkit said:
IMO part of the problem isn't that it's behind a paywall, but that it's behind a VERY expensive paywall. Luckily I have access to another friend's Sky online sub, but I genuinely couldn't afford to pay for a Sky+SkySports package on a monthly basis.
It's hardly expensive to watch!20 races a year and £6.99 for the race (£10.99 if you want to watch the whole weekend of coverage). So £139.80 or £219.80.
That's if you want to watch the same coverage race in race out.
Alternatively, you could watch the 10 races that are live on C4 included with your TV Licence and 10 on Sky. That reduces the total to £69.90 or £109.90 for the year.
Hardly VERY expensive paywall.
thegreenhell said:
KobayashiMaru86 said:
Many of the current racers watched it on normal TV when they were kids and inspired them to do it. If it goes all paid then kids won't see it. If BTCC went behind a paywall it would kill it.
All the rich kids whose parents can afford to take them karting can also afford the Sky subscription to watch F1. Professional motor racing has always been an elitist sport, and this will just reinforce that.In all honesty, that comment is just about the stupidest thing I've read on PH. And moreover, for whom is £60-odd a month a massive burden?
Eric Mc said:
And audiences are declining.
F1 is fading out folks and is becoming less and less relevant.
This is sad but probably inevitable. Culture is changing. Car culture is changing. What thrills and excites people is changing.
As a self-professed 'leaver' of the sport, I welcome the absence of your contributions here. Persistent negativity, thread derailment and nitpicking are the last thing anyone wants to see on a discussion forum. Don't let the door hit your backside on the way out.F1 is fading out folks and is becoming less and less relevant.
This is sad but probably inevitable. Culture is changing. Car culture is changing. What thrills and excites people is changing.
ETA - As usual, you're probably wrong in your analysis of why the figures are declining, because it's anything but unique to motorsport: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/analysis-puttin...
Edited by C70R on Sunday 25th June 22:58
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