F1 on TV - 2019
Discussion
Mr Pointy said:
Kraken said:
Look at all the viewing figures for other races. Sky never gets more than a few hundred thousand viewers for the bulk of the program whereas C4 often gets millions for a highlights package. As things stand F1 and it's sponsors are going to lose millions of viewers around the world if the Sky model is allowed to continue.
As Lee McKenzie has posted she often gets more viewers for her preview show than Sky do for the race.Stan the Bat said:
Mr Pointy said:
Kraken said:
Look at all the viewing figures for other races. Sky never gets more than a few hundred thousand viewers for the bulk of the program whereas C4 often gets millions for a highlights package. As things stand F1 and it's sponsors are going to lose millions of viewers around the world if the Sky model is allowed to continue.
As Lee McKenzie has posted she often gets more viewers for her preview show than Sky do for the race.
The vast majority of Sky Sports subscribers have the full package, not just the F1, In which case Sky don't really care if people watch as long as they keep paying. Sky have around 5.5m Sports subscribers. Even if they all pay £20pm on average that's still £110m a month in Sports income alone from domestic subscribers. Add on all the Business subs (who apparently bring in more money for Sky than the domestic market) and you could be looking at £250m a month. Sky won't particularly care if viewers drop slightly.
MissChief said:
The vast majority of Sky Sports subscribers have the full package, not just the F1, In which case Sky don't really care if people watch as long as they keep paying. Sky have around 5.5m Sports subscribers. Even if they all pay £20pm on average that's still £110m a month in Sports income alone from domestic subscribers. Add on all the Business subs (who apparently bring in more money for Sky than the domestic market) and you could be looking at £250m a month. Sky won't particularly care if viewers drop slightly.
Pish. If Sky can collect that money without having exclusive F1 then what is the point in spending £200m extra a year if they don't intend to recuperate it? By your numbers Sky have to increase the subscribers for sports by just short of 1 million annually to recover their investment in F1. That's 1 million extra on top of those who are already currently watching F1 on their platform. If a proportion of those viewers come in via Now TV then they will need more than a million more customers.They aren't going to get those numbers and they already know that so they will be offsetting the cost by hawking out a FTA offering to be funded by advertising.
Plus, as I said, the funding of the teams still relies on eyes on logos and Sky are acutely aware that the value of their investment will fall if they don't indirectly support that part of the sport. There's no value in exclusive rights to a sport if there are precious few participants left in it.
Edited by r11co on Tuesday 12th June 22:21
r11co said:
Pish. If Sky can collect that money without having exclusive F1 then what is the point in spending £200m extra a year if they don't intend to recuperate it? By your numbers Sky have to increase the subscribers for sports by just short of 1 million annually to recover their investment in F1. That's 1 million extra on top of those who are already currently watching F1 on their platform. If a proportion of those viewers come in via Now TV then they will need more than a million more customers.
They aren't going to get those numbers and they already know that so they will be offsetting the cost by hawking out a FTA offering to be funded by advertising.
Of course they'll be considering it as a further incentive to get customers. There's been zero word on FTA coverage, as I would expect. It might even be announced within 1-2 weeks of the 2019 season starting. To announce now would stop potential subscribers.They aren't going to get those numbers and they already know that so they will be offsetting the cost by hawking out a FTA offering to be funded by advertising.
Edited by r11co on Tuesday 12th June 22:18
MissChief said:
There's been zero word on FTA coverage, as I would expect. It might even be announced within 1-2 weeks of the 2019 season starting. To announce now would stop potential subscribers.
Of course it would, but as I've said several times now - look to Italy for what is very likely to happen.r11co said:
MissChief said:
There's been zero word on FTA coverage, as I would expect. It might even be announced within 1-2 weeks of the 2019 season starting. To announce now would stop potential subscribers.
Of course it would, but as I've said several times now - look to Italy for what is very likely to happen.MissChief said:
Potentially, but Pay F1 has been a thing in Italy for quite a while. We'll see what happens early 2019.
Italy are exactly 1 year ahead of the UK in how F1 has been televised. Until 2017 it was shared between Sky Italia and terrestrial free-to-air channel RAI in a set-up that mirrored the Sky UK/Channel 4 deal with half the races live and half shown delayed on FTA.Sky paid less for exclusive TV rights in Italy than they did for the UK but still failed to gain enough subscribers by the start of the season to realise the cost of their investment let-alone make a profit, and that was on viewing figures greater than the UK going into the deal. The pay-tv market in Italy is also fractured because of competition from Mediaset, in the way the UK's is beginning to become with BT Sport and now Amazon coming on board. This might drive up the cost of purchasing sports rights in the short term as providers compete to out-bid each other, but at the other end it will reduce the providers' ability to charge small numbers of customers large amounts for bundles of channels and instead they will have to offer targeted packages at reduce subscription costs and rely on greater customer numbers in the hope people will subscribe to more than one provider. This should bring the cost down for those who want F1 but don't want to have to purchase it as part of a bundle that includes some (but not all) Premiership football matches for example.
In the longer run though I expect that Sky et al will be cut out of the process as Liberty have the infrastructure to deliver F1 globally without having to go through third party providers. It makes sense for them to charge a nominal amount for premium coverage to hit as many subscribers as possible and cut out the middle men.
Edited by r11co on Tuesday 12th June 22:52
red_duke said:
mollytherocker said:
HiMy Sky 'legacy' deal is up soon and I am seriously thinking about quitting them.
I wasn't aware the Legacy HD Pack that gives free access to Sky F1 was ending. Did you have a personal arrangement with Sky that is ending or is this affecting all Legacy HD subscribers?I can negotiate again, but they know I have the legacy deal and know that if I leave, I lose it forever. I managed to reduce the deal by 30% last time.
The latest advertisement for F1 on Sky states that there will be four races in July, meaning “four times the overtaking”. In order to have four times the overtaking, you need to have some overtaking in the first place! I’ve given up on F1. Every other word of commentary is “tyres” and the other word is “strategy”. What is the point of the Monaco GP? Unless you are on pole, you have no chance of winning, it is farcical when a car with a knackered engine wins the race because no one can get by him!
Whether you can easily afford the TV subscription or not, you may begrudge paying for what we have been having free.
Last weekend the Channel 4 Canadian GP highlights, was broadcast quite late. Instead I decided to watch earlier, live on the free German TV channel RTL. Unless one has an understanding of German, the commentary is tricky, but they were probably only talking about tyres, saving fuel, and trying to guess strategy.
The viewing was fine, and they even continue a thumbnail view during the adverts. After lap 10, I fell asleep (found out later that I did not miss anything), but then awoke to see the chequered flag being waved. That seemed odd at the time, because the timing screen on my tablet showed the race should still be running.
I expect RTL will be my viewing for next year.
Jon39 said:
...but then awoke to see the chequered flag being waved. That seemed odd at the time, because the timing screen on my tablet showed the race should still be running.
r11co said:
Of course it would, but as I've said several times now - look to Italy for what is very likely to happen.
The situation in italy is a result of circumstance rather than planning.There was intention to have free to air coverage, the bids were deemed insufficient and rejected however.
Sky inherited exclusive rights rather than purchased them. The UK is very unlikely to follow suit.
cuprabob said:
Jon39 said:
...but then awoke to see the chequered flag being waved. That seemed odd at the time, because the timing screen on my tablet showed the race should still be running.
Gillett66 said:
The situation in italy is a result of circumstance rather than planning.
There was intention to have free to air coverage, the bids were deemed insufficient and rejected however.
Sky inherited exclusive rights rather than purchased them. The UK is very unlikely to follow suit.
That is pretty much EXACTLY the same as how it happened in the UK. It was Bernie who negotiated both deals remember, and he made a point of saying there was no reason to consider any other bid than Sky's in the UK because no-one would be able to match it.There was intention to have free to air coverage, the bids were deemed insufficient and rejected however.
Sky inherited exclusive rights rather than purchased them. The UK is very unlikely to follow suit.
The situation that many predicted for both countries is now playing out in Italy - F1 got its payday and share-price boost and the TV rights-holder is struggling to recoup their investment through subscriptions alone and therefore is having to hawk an additional full package of FTA races paid for by advertising (and you can only charge worthwhile money for advertising if you know there are sufficient numbers of people watching).
Edited by r11co on Thursday 14th June 06:40
r11co said:
That is pretty much EXACTLY the same as how it happened in the UK. It was Bernie who negotiated both deals remember, and he made a point of saying there was no reason to consider any other bid than Sky's in the UK because no-one would be able to match it.
The situation that many predicted for both countries is now playing out in Italy - F1 got its payday and share-price boost and the TV rights-holder is struggling to recoup their investment through subscriptions alone and therefore is having to hawk an additional full package of FTA races paid for by advertising (and you can only charge worthwhile money for advertising if you know there are sufficient numbers of people watching).
The Italy deal was concluded long after Bernie had any involvement in the process.The situation that many predicted for both countries is now playing out in Italy - F1 got its payday and share-price boost and the TV rights-holder is struggling to recoup their investment through subscriptions alone and therefore is having to hawk an additional full package of FTA races paid for by advertising (and you can only charge worthwhile money for advertising if you know there are sufficient numbers of people watching).
Edited by r11co on Thursday 14th June 06:40
In the UK it was a competitive process and the fee paid was increased by competition from BT Sport. This is public knowledge and widely documented.
In Italy, Sky agreed to offer a free to air package. They do so on a same day delayed basis, so for Races in the America’s they will always be shown in fairly short order of the live race concluding due to the time zone.
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