F1 back on free to air tv till 2020

[TerzoNeil]

this season is probably last to free viewing, well half of it

only way round is either trl with radio 5 on or day pass to nowtv for each race

me..... when it goes to sky only thats it finished, except when i attend a live race once every few years

[Stan the Bat]

Has it been announced yet which races CH4 are showing live this year?

[MissChief]

Gaz. said:

Vocal Minority said:

Eric Mc said:

Vaud said:

UK is a small market though in the scheme of things.

Compared to.......?

I would be interested to see how the promoters calculate the value of individual markets.

It may be physically smaller than, say, south east Asia - in terms of head count. But is probably much richer.

On a bang for buck basis- it may only be second to Germany.

But that is ultimately a guess as I haven't a clue how it works!

Bang for buck: China, USA, UAE, Singapore, Brazil & Russia, roughly in that order. Mercedes said that the Chinese race is 'worth' $60m to them and that the USA wasn't far behind.

The UK is a mature market for advertisers in that most customers have been advertised to for years and are either very stuck in their ways and unwilling to make a change (making advertising BT mobile to them when they've been Vodafone customers for a decade pointless) or are serial flitters from brand or company to another so don't turn into long term customers that companies love and in some cases aren't economical to keep.

Compare this to places like China and India where standards of living and wages are rising exponentially year on year and there are millions of people that suddenly have a lot of free time and a lot of disposable income. These are the ones who will be buying a mobile or their first car and are potential gold mines that companies like Mercedes, Johnnie Walker and Red Bull love. You can see why these sponsors don't particularly care about dropping viewers from FTA in the UK and Europe when FTA TV is still available in developing economies where they can advertise relentlessly to new potential customers.

[carl_w]

sgtBerbatov said:

So, really, the question is would people be willing to ditch their provider to watch F1 on Sky? My answer is no.

Cheap NowTV box (got mine on Black Friday for £20) and a 24h Sports pass for the race? 21 races at £7/race is £147 annually. I was paying more than that for 3 months of SkyTV

Edited by carl_w on Thursday 4th January 20:09

[2fast748]

I'm currently plucking up the courage to ring Sky and cancel as £44 per month is too much for what we get out of it, F1 and Superbikes are the only sports I watch and we Sky+ quite a bit but never get time to watch it. I'll miss F1 live but spending hundreds of pounds a year for the chance to watch a race live if I've got time is just a bridge too far these days.

I've dug out an old YouView box from TalkTalk and found it is NowTV capable so if I do decide to buy a pass it won't cost me much.

[bakerstreet]

2fast748 said:

I'm currently plucking up the courage to ring Sky and cancel as £44 per month is too much for what we get out of it, F1 and Superbikes are the only sports I watch and we Sky+ quite a bit but never get time to watch it. I'll miss F1 live but spending hundreds of pounds a year for the chance to watch a race live if I've got time is just a bridge too far these days.

I've dug out an old YouView box from TalkTalk and found it is NowTV capable so if I do decide to buy a pass it won't cost me much.

We were paying £80+ for two Sky+ boxes and we had SkyF1 on grandfather rights as it was part of the HD package when we signed up. However, like you we were getting fed up of with Sky's fees and I was finding that I just didn't have time to watch the races even in highlights form, so it was a bit of a waste.

We moved to Virgin, which is approximately half the price of Sky, but I did gain BT Sport so I can go back to watching MotoGP races live. Also, that is actually much easier to watch as the race is only an hour and I never watch any of the build up.

[HighwayStar]

bakerstreet said:

2fast748 said:

I'm currently plucking up the courage to ring Sky and cancel as £44 per month is too much for what we get out of it, F1 and Superbikes are the only sports I watch and we Sky+ quite a bit but never get time to watch it. I'll miss F1 live but spending hundreds of pounds a year for the chance to watch a race live if I've got time is just a bridge too far these days.

I've dug out an old YouView box from TalkTalk and found it is NowTV capable so if I do decide to buy a pass it won't cost me much.

We were paying £80+ for two Sky+ boxes and we had SkyF1 on grandfather rights as it was part of the HD package when we signed up. However, like you we were getting fed up of with Sky's fees and I was finding that I just didn't have time to watch the races even in highlights form, so it was a bit of a waste.

We moved to Virgin, which is approximately half the price of Sky, but I did gain BT Sport so I can go back to watching MotoGP races live. Also, that is actually much easier to watch as the race is only an hour and I never watch any of the build up.

I've never had Sky, never wanted it so there's no way I'm signing up with them just to watch F1.
I've been resigned to the prospect of no F1 from 2019 but there could be salvation... I work for BT so get my broadband and BT Sport free. As luck would have it Sky and BT have buried that hatched and from 2019 have agreed to make their sports channels available to the other. They won't be free to staff but I'm guessing they'll be discounted.

[carl_w]

2fast748 said:

I'm currently plucking up the courage to ring Sky and cancel as £44 per month is too much for what we get out of it, F1 and Superbikes are the only sports I watch and we Sky+ quite a bit but never get time to watch it. I'll miss F1 live but spending hundreds of pounds a year for the chance to watch a race live if I've got time is just a bridge too far these days.

I cancelled via web chat. It was relatively painless.

[Jon39]

DKL said:

So how do you get RTL? Is it just a IE browser option or can I find proper TV res through freeview or similar?

All you need is a satellite dish and a 'set top' box.
Sometimes available in Lidl etc. for less than £50.
You might see a complete kit in a big plastic brief case, intended for caravanners. The dish can be placed on a window sill. It works in the south of England. Might possibly need a larger diameter dish further north, I don't know.

RTL and other continental free to air TV stations are broadcast from the Astra 19.2°E satellite. Not Astra 28.2°E, which is used by UK broadcasters. The degrees simply refer to the direction of the satellites.

Aerial cable connects the dish to the box, then SCART cable to your tv.
Usually a sound tone can be created on the tv, to help with aiming the dish at the satellite.

I have not watched F1 on RTL, since the ITV era in UK. In those days, each time the ITV adverts started, a flick across to RTL continued the same F1 video feed, often without their adverts coinciding.

If this is the only free option for us in 2019 onwards, then perhaps we will just have to imagine David Coultard's comments, "That missing front wing endplate will effect the downforce", or "After running wide on the marbles, it will take a couple of corners to regain full grip", "He will be hampered by a heavy fuel load, at the beginning of this race", "It has been rather a procession, so wake up now viewers, if you want to know the results".

If anyone is interested in watching the big tennis tournaments, this way also gives you the free-to-air Eurosport. No need to understand spoken German, when watching a tennis match.

Edited by Jon39 on Saturday 6th January 20:36

[8V085]

One issue with watching RTL and listening to BBC Radio 5 Live is that there will be delay, last time I tried this when I was in the NL there was over 60 secs of gap between the two, also the Dutch channel was out.

[MissChief]

Not to mention RTL has adverts regularly.

[Chrisgr31]

MissChief said:

So would people pay £20pm for F1 on Sky? They have a Sky Sports Mix channel which is free to all Sky subscribers and often shows the F1 when Channel 4 have a live race on. Sure it requires a Sky subscription, but you don't need the basic pack and another £18 for F1, then another £6 for HD?

Except if they don't have the competition from Channel 4 they wont need to put it on Sky Sports Mix!

[tonyvid]

Jon39 said:

DKL said:

So how do you get RTL? Is it just a IE browser option or can I find proper TV res through freeview or similar?

All you need is a satellite dish and a 'set top' box.
Sometimes available in Lidl etc. for less than £50.
You might see a complete kit in a big plastic brief case, intended for caravanners. The dish can be placed on a window sill. It works in the south of England. Might possibly need a larger diameter dish further north, I don't know.

RTL and other continental free to air TV stations are broadcast from the Astra 19.2°E satellite. Not Astra 28.2°E, which is used by UK broadcasters. The degrees simply refer to the direction of the satellites.

Aerial cable connects the dish to the box, then SCART cable to your tv.
Usually a sound tone can be created on the tv, to help with aiming the dish at the satellite.

I bought my neighbour's redundant Sky dish for the price of a bottle of wine and some ladder time, set it up with £10 alignment device from Amazon and use the Freesat receiver in my TV. I used to watch that and listen to R5L but the 1.5secs delay on the pic gets surprisingly annoying after a while - and good luck if you pause one of them!! I went to Sky in the end as it was just easier in the end. It still grates having to pay a small fortune for a load of sport I'm not remotely interested in... That Astra satellite has some "interesting" extra channels we don't normally get in the UK, don't set them as favourites!

[GuitarTech]

MissChief said:

Not to mention RTL has adverts regularly.

As I already noted in another reply, due to advertising breaks, you actually miss more laps than you get to see. And, since RTL has no control over the transmission, if anything of note happens in the ad break, they're dependant on the F1 TV director feeding in a replay.
And now Niki Lauda is gone, the rest of the commentry team haven't got a clue, and spend more time talking to, and about, the "stars" that happen to be guests in the pits than the racing.
And, last but not least, the head buffoon Kai Ebels fashion sense: no, just no....

[markcoznottz]

Sooooooo. This highlights package? Will C4 show it? Presumably it will be on Monday night @ 7pm I'm guessing.

[HighwayStar]

markcoznottz said:

Sooooooo. This highlights package? Will C4 show it? Presumably it will be on Monday night @ 7pm I'm guessing.

No... Sky have exclusive rights from 2019-2024. There is no Free To Air deal. Depending which article on the subject you read, Sky only have to show one race FTA, the British Grand Prix. That could go out on Pick which is a FTA Sky channel. Others say it’s all behind a pay wall. That’s it, they don’t have to provide a nightlights package for the plebs....
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jun/21/f1-u...

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/269082/1/could-f1-man...

[markcoznottz]

HighwayStar said:

markcoznottz said:

Sooooooo. This highlights package? Will C4 show it? Presumably it will be on Monday night @ 7pm I'm guessing.

No... Sky have exclusive rights from 2019-2024. There is no Free To Air deal. Depending which article on the subject you read, Sky only have to show one race FTA, the British Grand Prix. That could go out on Pick which is a FTA Sky channel. Others say it’s all behind a pay wall. That’s it, they don’t have to provide a nightlights package for the plebs....
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jun/21/f1-u...

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/269082/1/could-f1-man...

Look what happened with Moto gp and bt sport though? Last minute highlights package.

[MissChief]

I'm sure Liberty will be pushing Sky towards the end of next season for a FTA highlights deal, probably with Channel 4 again. Liberty know it makes sense.

[CraigyMc]

MissChief said:

I'm sure Liberty will be pushing Sky towards the end of next season for a FTA highlights deal, probably with Channel 4 again. Liberty know it makes sense.

Using what as leverage?

Sky own the rights, not Liberty.

It'd be a bit like selling your house to someone then asking if the new owner would let a friend stay a few nights a week.

[HighwayStar]

markcoznottz said:

HighwayStar said:

markcoznottz said:

Sooooooo. This highlights package? Will C4 show it? Presumably it will be on Monday night @ 7pm I'm guessing.

No... Sky have exclusive rights from 2019-2024. There is no Free To Air deal. Depending which article on the subject you read, Sky only have to show one race FTA, the British Grand Prix. That could go out on Pick which is a FTA Sky channel. Others say it’s all behind a pay wall. That’s it, they don’t have to provide a nightlights package for the plebs....
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jun/21/f1-u...

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/269082/1/could-f1-man...

Look what happened with Moto gp and bt sport though? Last minute highlights package.

MotoGP BT Sport was exclusive live rights. ITV had the highlights package from the get go... there was nothing last minute about it.
Bernie’s deal with Sky is total exclusivity. If there is going to be a highlights package from 2019 that will be down to Sky. Liberty Media have said there is nothing they can do until the next contract