Grand Prix Rejects

Sky Sports' managing director Barney Francis wrote:We will give F1 the full Sky Sports treatment

solarcold wrote:Feels sorry for the UK. But I suppose countries outside UK have their own contracts, like Russia has "Rossia-2" channel providing nearly every session. I remember Ukraine had problems with F1 coverage last year.
Anyway, is Sky Sports pay channel or something? Just for education.

eagleash wrote:Yes & (usually) requiring a satellite dish & a bundle of other channels. (Not to mention the ads).

eagleash wrote:(Not to mention the ads).

solarcold wrote:

eagleash wrote:Yes & (usually) requiring a satellite dish & a bundle of other channels. (Not to mention the ads).

Man, this is... Disappointing. Radio & highlights won't make equal feeling.

eagleash wrote:(Not to mention the ads).

BBC shows F1 without ads? do want.

eagleash wrote:It's a way off yet but, who will SKY try to tempt away from the BBC for their commentary team?

sswishbone wrote:I am gonna pirate via torrent every single race Skysports shows live, I am NOT buying anything that criminal owns, if everyone who follows F1 does the same thing we can hit him where it hurts most, in the pocket

*edit: - I am hoping Eurosport show it as I'll try and grab their feed like I did for Le Mans

kostas22 wrote:

eagleash wrote:It's a way off yet but, who will SKY try to tempt away from the BBC for their commentary team?

I bet EJ, and only EJ. Some commentator we've never heard of and Johnny Herbert in the comms box, with EJ doing some analysis on the side and a random blonde bimbo as host. And some other bloke whose sole job is to make crass sexual references about said host.

Ross Prawn wrote:Not good.

For the regular fan, it means you have to have Sky, which is serious money.

Unless of course you can figure out how to get an internet feed from elsewhere in the world and use Radio 5 live for commentary.

Or get you own sattelite dish and pick up RTL or Polish telly.

We have nine months to work on the non-Sky technical solution.

Shizuka wrote:I, as a Hungarian, who has been fed up with the poor, below-par Hungarian commentary feed on the race, being interrupted with ads without any forewarning, only the commentary shutting up, slashing the picture in half with the stupid ad... have been watching BBC's commentary since 2010, because the main commentator, who is our Murray Walker, sort of, has left and got replaced with a REALLY BORING driver, who just fails at commentating. (QuickYoda41 is also Hungarian, I think he will agree with me on this...)

beetleman64 wrote:Anyway, the teams are apparently none too pleased because they really want F1 on Free to air so their sponsors get more coverage (and pay them more). Hopefully FOTA will kick up a nice fuss soon before it's too late to save next season.

sswishbone wrote:well actually FOTA can't argue this, because BBC have a highlights package for all races, so it is technically on free to air, it's a loophole, but the teams know all about those so I expect there's jack all they can do about it.

Formula 1 teams are to seek clarification from Bernie Ecclestone on the new BBC/Sky television deal amid concerns about the sport moving away from free-to-air television in 2012.
...Team principals have also expressed some surprise at not having every race shown on free-to-air television, but they want more details from Ecclestone to find out what the specifics of the deal are.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said that he would seek more information from Ecclestone, especially because he felt it important F1 was not taken off free-to-air.

...Whitmarsh said moves to take F1 off free-to-air could be viewed as a breach of the Concorde Agreement, with him claiming that there were clauses in the deal that ties the teams, Ecclestone and the FIA together that guarantees the sport's broadcast platform.

...Williams chairman Adam Parr said the key was understanding the finer details of the arrangement - because what teams lose in widespread television viewing figures could be gained in an increased revenue from Sky.

...Parr also pointed out that the Sky/BBC deal was part of a changing media platform – and he drew comparisons between it and the 'freemium' platform of AUTOSPORT.

...BBC commentator and former F1 driver Martin Brundle said on Twitter that he was "not impressed" with the deal.

"BBC/Sky/F1 2012+. Found out last night, no idea how it will work yet I'm out of contract, will calmly work through options. Not impressed," he wrote.