Grand Prix Rant

DCFC79

victor2 wrote: »

Brightens my weekends up when there's a race on and I've been an armchair fan for years. Wouldn't pay more than I already pay for a TV licence to watch it though. OH will be pleased and I'll have to find another excuse instead of "I'll do it after the race."

lol haha :rotfl:

patman99

Murdoch only owns 39% of BSkyB, so is in effect, a minority partner with no control over what they do and do not show. When the various enquiries have finnished, he may well be forced into selling his 39%. This option is currently being looked into by OFCOM and the MMC.

Personnaly, I'll be watching the foreign web-streams with the sound off and 5 Live providing the commentary.

Rolandtheroadie

If it was a choice between watching paint dry and F1, F1 would be second.

alun4

martinthebandit wrote: »

Just watch one of the many foreign web feeds while listening to the commentary on the radio.

Jobs a good 'un :-D

How is this done?

martinthebandit

alun4 wrote: »

How is this done?

Well I would do a search for whatever race it is live and go from there

Spartacus_Mills

21Twinkle wrote: »

Is anyone else annoyed that next years Grand Prix circuit will be shared between BBC and Sky ?
This, presumably, means that many people, (myself included) will only be able to watch 50% of next seasons races ?
Yes, we have sky - but are not going to fork out over £12 per month on a Sport upgrade, just to add Grand Prix to the, already too expensive subscription - unless Murdoch sets up a free "stand alone" Grand Prix channel - extremely unlikely ?
That's my rant over with (for the time being) !!

I don't watch them.

I could not care less about it.

paulsad

I find f1 a great sleeping aid. Mind you I am into golf the majority of which seems to be on sky (which I too can't afford) and yes I fall asleep during most of that too - I am a very tired person...zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Nilrem

pmduk wrote: »

It doesn't bother me at all, it has always cost too much for the relatively small number of viewers that watch it. I've got my fingers crossed that Top Gear goes next.

Top gear is very unlikely to go, from memory it actually makes the BBC a small profit via sales world wide (part of the reason Clarkson is paid as much as he is, is because he owns some of the rights to it*, in addition to the normal fees any presenter would get from WW sales of any TV programme).

It's a shame to see F1 effectively becoming a partial Sky product, as like so many other sports it's going to kill at least part of the UK audience for it, as it's gone from something you can watch on any set in the UK, to being one that is going to cost ~£50 a month to watch + more if you can't watch it on your main TV/want to watch it in your bedroom (for late night races), or in HD.
Unfortunately from memory it's also one of the most expensive sports that the BBC shows per hour of TV (I've got a feeling it's on a par with a top Drama), due to the rights costs, and the costs of getting the crews/presenters out to where the races are taking place.



*IIRC he was one of the key people who came up with the current format.

paddyrg

Nilrem wrote: »

Top gear is very unlikely to go, from memory it actually makes the BBC a small profit via sales world wide

Actually it is a huge selling show internationally - Top Gear actually *subsidises* the license fee!

Nilrem

paddyrg wrote: »

Actually it is a huge selling show internationally - Top Gear actually *subsidises* the license fee!

Ah, I knew it made money but didn't want to overstate it.

And ironically one of the reasons it's popular is, from what American friends have told me, is that it doesn't hesitate to say "this car is junk", something most similar programmes are quite unwilling to do for some reason (nothing to do with the fact that advertisers tend to show displeasure at a channel that has programmes that call their products rubbish*).

But that's one of things a lot of people don't realise, some popular programmes that the BBC do are at worst revenue neutral, thus effectively free, whilst others do make enough to help pay for other less popular content.

It could be interesting to see what the F1 teams say about the partial move to Sky, IIRC most of them are based in the UK (Redbull/Jaguar is based about 10 miles from me), and almost revolted when it was suggested before that they might see the sport move behind the Sky paywall.

*I think it was Renault whose EU management basically said "pull the advertising" after seeing one of their cars getting slated on TG - completely missing that it was on a non advert channel.