BBC considering not renewing F1 contract

[Shizuka]

Funniest post of the year anyone?

[DanielPT]

That Mark Lawrenson is a bright lad!

[Collieafc]

Good on 'em for not paying huge fees for live football and cricket, and it kinda shows their commitment to F1 that it is the biggest sport they cover now. But if Bernie wants to flog to the highest bidder do we want our taxes (it is a tax after-all), used to pay for F1?

I DO!

But seriously. As its the only thing I watch on TV nowadays. I cant get these fancy features like red buttons and ITV 4, and my area HAS switched over to digital (theres a big hill where I live that blocks the main TV transmitters signals :S Until recently we only got BBC 3, News 24 and Parliament on top of the "basic 4")

I think its realy a simple choice for Bernie - Does he want more cash in the form of Sky or better accessability and coverage that the BBC offers? The advantage of BBC is its a LOT easier to make new fans as someone flicking through the channels may come across it, go "oh whats this?" (or some other generic expression) watch it for a bit then get hooked. Whereas in Sky the only people who can see F1 will be people who already follow it. Someone who hasnt watched it before is hardly going to spend money to find out just whats on one channel

[MaxZero]

On a plus note regarding ITV's coverage in '08, you could tune into ITV4 and see the GP2 and Formula BMW before the F1 on ITV1

[dinizintheoven]

The advantage of BBC is its a LOT easier to make new fans as someone flicking through the channels may come across it, go "oh whats this?"

What's this?

(or some other generic expression) watch it for a bit then get hooked.

And 21 years later, here I am. Still.

[James1978]

The advantage of BBC is its a LOT easier to make new fans as someone flicking through the channels may come across it, go "oh whats this?"

What's this?

(or some other generic expression) watch it for a bit then get hooked.

And 21 years later, here I am. Still.

Read the same for me but one year later, but no sprained toe, and I was actually waiting for snooker to start! It was the 1991 San Marino GP and apart from Senna and Berger, I though "Who?" to all the other drivers featured as all the other drivers who I';d heard of before were out in the first few laps in the rain!

[AndreaModa]

I think AndreaModa is referring to things like football and cricket which are pre-dominantly shown on Sky , which you have to pay (I think) 30 pound a month to sign up to, or on ITV where you have simply appalling commentators and pundits. Sports coverage on the BBC is certainly not as good as it used to be, they had to get rid of Grandstand (a platform to show all sorts of sports on weekends) because they didn't have enough sport to fill the schedules.

Spot on. Regardless of what the price is, which in all fairness should be set at a sensible level but isn't, the BBC have a duty to provide the British public with a suitable coverage of mainstream sports, which they fail at miserably. Having said that, as others have pointed out, this is due largely to cost which is of course out of their hands, but nonetheless at the end of the day when push comes to shove, it's not the more obscure sports that get the shaft, it's the expensive, but vastly more popular mainstream sports, and this is exactly the case with this article suggesting F1 will get the boot in 2014.

[JohnMLTX]

You know what, be glad you aren't american and have this service while it lasts. I get /most/ of the races live, 4 tape delayed by hours, loads of commercials, fragments and commercial-interrupted gp2, qualifying tape delayed, and hell, speed cuts from the podium ceremony to show nascar pre-pre-pre-pre-pre race shows. </rant>

i'd kill 3 people to have access to the bbc here in texas.

[watka]

On a plus note regarding ITV's coverage in '08, you could tune into ITV4 and see the GP2 and Formula BMW before the F1 on ITV1

It's a shame that I didn't find that out sooner. I remember watching the Turkish GP2 race where Senna crashed into a dog.

[thehemogoblin]

You know what, be glad you aren't american and have this service while it lasts. I get /most/ of the races live, 4 tape delayed by hours, loads of commercials, fragments and commercial-interrupted gp2, qualifying tape delayed, and hell, speed cuts from the podium ceremony to show nascar pre-pre-pre-pre-pre race shows. </rant>

i'd kill 3 people to have access to the bbc here in texas.

The good news for you is that killing three people is legal in Texas, as long as you can get them onto your property. I suggest buying bear traps and expensive-looking watches.

[JohnMLTX]

You know what, be glad you aren't american and have this service while it lasts. I get /most/ of the races live, 4 tape delayed by hours, loads of commercials, fragments and commercial-interrupted gp2, qualifying tape delayed, and hell, speed cuts from the podium ceremony to show nascar pre-pre-pre-pre-pre race shows. </rant>

i'd kill 3 people to have access to the bbc here in texas.

The good news for you is that killing three people is legal in Texas, as long as you can get them onto your property. I suggest buying bear traps and expensive-looking watches.

I prefer gold bars and auto turrets. The former soviet union's a good source for both.
And, in texas, you can hit and kill someone with your car, but it's only 30 days community service if you render aid and call 911.

[thehemogoblin]

You know what, be glad you aren't american and have this service while it lasts. I get /most/ of the races live, 4 tape delayed by hours, loads of commercials, fragments and commercial-interrupted gp2, qualifying tape delayed, and hell, speed cuts from the podium ceremony to show nascar pre-pre-pre-pre-pre race shows. </rant>

i'd kill 3 people to have access to the bbc here in texas.

The good news for you is that killing three people is legal in Texas, as long as you can get them onto your property. I suggest buying bear traps and expensive-looking watches.

I prefer gold bars and auto turrets. The former soviet union's a good source for both.
And, in texas, you can hit and kill someone with your car, but it's only 30 days community service if you render aid and call 911.

Yeah, but the auto turrets are less justifiable...

[JohnMLTX]

Yeah, but the auto turrets are less justifiable...

Not in texas!

[Guzuky]

Has anyone ever suggested the idea of ad breaks, but once the race resumed from the ad break, it resumed right where it left off? Or something similar to IndyCar's side-by-side coverage, which, while it has ads on one side of the screen, has the race still running (albeit muted) on the other side

Spanish TV has that and works very well.

[RAK]

If this happens, and Formula One coverage ends up going to Sky, Ecclestone's just lost a viewer. BSkyB, News Corporation and Rupert Murdoch can all go do intimate acts involving themselves. I'm not paying a penny to them.

[watka]

Couldn't be bothered to find the Jonathan Legard thread, so I'll just post here. I thought Brundle and Coulthard made a superb commentary team for the qualifying. Brundle relished the role of lead commentator and didn't make any mistakes. He was able to analyse the action and pick out the important bits. Coulthard was great to as he has an understanding of recent F1 cars more so than Brundle, so we should get a really good technological insight this season.

[Glennerz]

I thought Brundle and Coulthard made a superb commentary team for the qualifying. Brundle relished the role of lead commentator and didn't make any mistakes. He was able to analyse the action and pick out the important bits. Coulthard was great to as he has an understanding of recent F1 cars more so than Brundle, so we should get a really good technological insight this season.

Couldn't agree more, Coulthard did well explaining the DRS and analysing mistakes, and I didn't mind hearing Brundle's voice more than usual. The real test will come on Sunday though, where we will see if he can cope with what will hopefully be an exciting race.

[AndreaModa]

I thought Brundle and Coulthard made a superb commentary team for the qualifying. Brundle relished the role of lead commentator and didn't make any mistakes. He was able to analyse the action and pick out the important bits. Coulthard was great to as he has an understanding of recent F1 cars more so than Brundle, so we should get a really good technological insight this season.

Couldn't agree more, Coulthard did well explaining the DRS and analysing mistakes, and I didn't mind hearing Brundle's voice more than usual. The real test will come on Sunday though, where we will see if he can cope with what will hopefully be an exciting race.

I'll add to the agreement, I thought Brundle was excellent, he really stepped up to the plate and provided some exciting commentary to what was for all intents and purposes, a largely predictable qualifying at the front, with the exception of Lewis' 2nd place perhaps. And I agree about DC, it was about time they got a more recent driver in there and his technical knowledge really complements it all.

Really looking forward to the race, which I won't be able to watch until the evening as I have to be up early for a trip to London! Gah!

[LukeB]

With the disclaimer that I thought Brundle and Coulthard done well first time out, there were inevitably a couple of weak points.
1. Brundle spent the first 5 minutes EMPHASISING words at RANDOM. Thankfully he settled down after that, just in time to stop me throwing something at my TV.
2. Coulthard was a little quiet. Presumably this will pass when he gets more comfortable and gets the hang of interrupting the main commentator.
3. Brundle was a little mush-mouthed. Again, likely a side-effect of learning his new role.

The real test will come on Sunday though, where we will see if he can cope with what will hopefully be an exciting race.

The first real test will be the first snore-a-thon of the season, which will hopefully not be this one. The Bharian GP would have been a baptism of fire.

[ADx_Wales]

Note how Ted in the pits did not answer when being called "and now news from the boy Kravitz"

[ADx_Wales]

Going back to the Mark Lawrenson thread, you forgot to have him say "At the Merment".

[Paul Hayes]

Sadly I won't get to listen to Brundle's race debut as main commentator, as like all the morning races I shall have to follow today's events on the silent on the monitor at work.

However, if it's a good race I shall give it a proper watch on the iPlayer later!

[ADx_Wales]

Sadly I won't get to listen to Brundle's race debut as main commentator, as like all the morning races I shall have to follow today's events on the silent on the monitor at work.

However, if it's a good race I shall give it a proper watch on the iPlayer later!

Subtitles?

[Paul Hayes]

Sadly I won't get to listen to Brundle's race debut as main commentator, as like all the morning races I shall have to follow today's events on the silent on the monitor at work.

However, if it's a good race I shall give it a proper watch on the iPlayer later!

Subtitles?

They tend to be about hallf a minute behind on live commentary (and filled with amusing errors!), plus they just tend to obscure on-screen action.

And frankly it's not really the same, is it?

[ADx_Wales]

but if you cant hear it could be handy if its stuff you cant see...

[JeanDenisAlcatraz]

Note how Ted in the pits did not answer when being called "and now news from the boy Kravitz"

They've worked together for about a decade, I don't think he'd have said it if Ted would be annoyed.

[Paul Hayes]

but if you cant hear it could be handy if its stuff you cant see...

I'll probably have the text commentary up on the BBC website too, to keep me updated on what I can't hear!