F1 TV coverage threadFormula 1 

Ok so whats done is done so what races do you think wil be dropped.

I say.
Austrailia.
Malaysia.
China.
Japan.
Korea
India
The two spanish races.
Bahrain.
IDK about the last one.
 
I guess the one positive outcome of this is that some F1 races will be free to air. If BBC were to drop F1, Sky would buy it completely and we wouldn't be able to watch any races or catchups for free.
Well, as haitch40 just said, that should not currently be possible under the Concorde agreement - which states that F1 coverage should not be exclusive to pay TV in key markets such as the UK. That said, I'm not sure if that applies to live coverage or just 'any' coverage, e.g. highlights. I suspect that Premier League football has a similar deal - Sky get to show live games (because they pay a fortune for them) but BBC (and previously ITV) get to show exclusive highlights (e.g. Match Of The Day).

I can see F1 going to 'highlights only' on BBC or some other free to air channel, although Sky themselves may think about having a free to air channel (such as Sky Sports News used to be on Freeview), so it is possible (although maybe unlikely) that F1 could be exclusive to Sky eventually. I also suspect that the Concorde agreement may not be worth the paper it is written on when the teams start to see the sort of money that can roll in from Sky, as opposed to the dribble of cash they get from the good old British TV license payer.
 
I do kind of understand the logic behind the new deal, since F1 is expanding into new markets where it needs to gain some popularity (Russia and US for example), the F1 might need that money injection, maybe a new aggressive strategy to increase F1 popularity, by increasing their income with this sort of thing and make advertising easier to afford.

However if that's the logic behind the recent decisions I kind of disagree, UK audience will reduce significantly and it is the audience for F1. I don't recall this as a good decision by Ecclestone (or whoever idea this was), but I do see this as a future preparations for F1 entrance into "unknown territory".

Apart from that, I cant pay Sky, is not that expensive but there is already other stuff more vital to deal with (bills and stuff).
 
Does anyone know if the BBC will still show coverage (on all races) on the red button or through internet streams, as they do now?

Sky can go to hell if they think I'm buying their sports packages just to watch 10 races.
 
Has it already been mentioned that you can legally watch the F1 for free by setting a satellite dish to receive the German RTL broadcast. Then listen to the BBC live commentary on radio. A satellite dish is about £50 in the shops apparently.
 
Has it already been mentioned that you can legally watch the F1 for free by setting a satellite dish to receive the German RTL broadcast. Then listen to the BBC live commentary on radio. A satellite dish is about £50 in the shops apparently.

I did ask a question whether RTL is still going and showing F1. I used to watch F1 on RTL during ITV's dreadful coverage.

I haven't plugged in my old Astra satellite dish since BBC got the rights.

How long has RTL's contract got to go and anyone know how much RTL pay Bernie to show it? I hope to watch RTL next year.

I'm glad I didn't buy a HD Freeview box for F1 at the start of the season. So much for F1 in HD on the BBC :lol:.
I love how technology and picture quality advances but in 2011 I watch Football, Boxing (and quite possibly F1 soon) on some pixelated, jumpy stream at 320x240 resolution on my desktop, a vastly inferior experience to the 1980s
 
Last edited:
"TF1 on TNTSAT at 19e with a dedicated FTV receiver or on Fransat at 5W again with a dedicated FTV Receiver with the audio from Radio5... even with the set up costs of approx £200 (to include a 2nd. dish and / or extra LNB/Bracket etc + the Decoder + Card) a lot cheaper than the +/- £35 a month for Sky Sports!!! Especially as i am not interested in anything else on Sky Sports. "

Think that's about the French broadcast.

The RTL HD feed is encrypted so only SD is available for free.

.........
Also I don't believe it's illegal to fake the country of origin of you network connection is it? So can just watching the live internet streaming from various host countries be done?
The responsibility becomes that of the broadcaster not the recipient perhaps.
Not having the rights to watch something, can not be enforced if you are not in the country that enforces the rights.
If I watched an American only feed, America or it's rights owners and businesses have no authority to act against that in law. Or have I made that up?
I think i'm thinking of the recent Star Wars case in the UK of the guy making Storm Trooper costumes and being able to do it because American copyright law has no effect on UK law. George Lucas won his court case, but no action could be taken due to the defendant being safe in UK. Anyway so I don't know what's right technically.
 
I love how technology and picture quality advances but in 2011 I watch Football, Boxing (and quite possibly F1 soon) on some pixelated, jumpy stream at 320x240 resolution on my desktop, a vastly inferior experience to the 1980s

Totally agree. Almost all my TV watching is done this way now. Feels so retro, (although, like you say it doesn't even match the quality from the days of betamax), and yet it's completely typical of this age..
 
At least the BBC will still cover half the races. I'll get to watch the highlights of the others too. I already pay enough to Sky, i won't be paying them anymore.
 
No, No. It's got to be Legard and Allen for the win!

Seriously, if $ky had any brains at all they'd sign Croft and Davidson. They are the best team covering F1 in the UK. No contest.
 
No, No. It's got to be Legard and Allen for the win!

Seriously, if $ky had any brains at all they'd sign Croft and Davidson. They are the best team covering F1 in the UK. No contest.

The are entertaining and fun to listen to, but they're not necessarily as good as Brundle and Coulthard.
 
I did ask a question whether RTL is still going and showing F1. I used to watch F1 on RTL during ITV's dreadful coverage.

I haven't plugged in my old Astra satellite dish since BBC got the rights.

How long has RTL's contract got to go and anyone know how much RTL pay Bernie to show it? I hope to watch RTL next year.

I'm glad I didn't buy a HD Freeview box for F1 at the start of the season. So much for F1 in HD on the BBC :lol:.
I love how technology and picture quality advances but in 2011 I watch Football, Boxing (and quite possibly F1 soon) on some pixelated, jumpy stream at 320x240 resolution on my desktop, a vastly inferior experience to the 1980s

Guess who's Freeview HD box was out for delivery when the announcement was made?

:grumpy:
 
Commentary will be shared.

So is that Brundle & DC on the BBC and Croft & Davidson on the Sky broadcasts?

TBH I'm not really that fussed about this situation regarding who broadcasts the F1. There have been good and bad commentary teams over the years, but none have particularly annoyed me. It would be nice if Brundle & DC covered it as they work well together, but I'd like to think I know enough about F1 to work out what's going on myself anyway - any pit news and background will be covered whatever channel you're using.

For the record, I do have Sky Sports... so I would say I'm not that fussed wouldn't I? ;)
 
Last edited:
No, No. It's got to be Legard and Allen for the win!

Seriously, if $ky had any brains at all they'd sign Croft and Davidson. They are the best team covering F1 in the UK. No contest.

Well if sky do take MB, im hoping the bbc will then use Crofty and Davidson for their coverage of half the races.

So is that Brundle & DC on the BBC and Croft & Davidson on the Sky broadcasts?

Croft and Davidson will be sticking with 5live radio unless they get offered better contracts elsehwere. I highly doubt they will leave radio as they seem happy where they are.
Plus, Croft really didn't work so well without Davidson and I'm not sure Sky will want to commit to Davidson when he has his sportscar commitments still.

As I said earlier in this thread, Brundle and Coulthard will almost certainly be kept on as probably most of the current BBC team such as Ted Kravitz and some of the various production and camera teams, as many came from ITV & North One's F1 coverage.
I'm pretty sure Sky will basically do what the BBC currently do - produce the commentary and pre and post show bits. And the BBC will simply re-broadcast that.

It wouldn't make sense for the BBC to be doing any of it when they aren't broadcasting all the races live. The only possiblity is them producing their own pre and post race stuff from a studio or something, 1996 Steve Rider style.

I wonder if Sky will give Martin Brundle his Hungarian GP holiday back that the BBC denied? Maybe even let him run the Le Mans 24 Hours with his son Alex? Probably going to be a lot harder for Martin to negogiate this when he is main/lead commentator.
 
Really.... people like Davidson? I think he's terrible and brings nothing other than silly jokes and a huge ego. I prefer the guy who often commentates with Croft for the practice sessions. But I do agree Radio 5 F1 coverage is a hidden gem.

Apparently if Sky take Brundle he will be entitled to the salary that other top tier sports commentators get with the network which is a MILLION quid + a year! That's huge step up from BBC salary so I'm sure he would be happy.

Robin.
 
Apparently if Sky take Brundle he will be entitled to the salary that other top tier sports commentators get with the network which is a MILLION quid + a year! That's huge step up from BBC salary so I'm sure he would be happy.

Well if he does jump ship then at least the Beeb can bring back Murray Walker as a stop gap! 💡

...or perhaps not.
 
Really.... people like Davidson? I think he's terrible and brings nothing other than silly jokes and a huge ego. I prefer the guy who often commentates with Croft for the practice sessions. But I do agree Radio 5 F1 coverage is a hidden gem.

He works well with Crofty, but I agree about the ego trip. I always thought he looked a bit smug... But that's no reason to dislike the guy. Just because someone looks smug, doesn't mean they are.

Robin.
Apparently if Sky take Brundle he will be entitled to the salary that other top tier sports commentators get with the network which is a MILLION quid + a year! That's huge step up from BBC salary so I'm sure he would be happy.

Robin.

I think he's fully deserving of it. If other sports commentators are making that money, then surely Brundle deserves it. I don't think many people dislike him.
 
This is going to turn out to be bad like the last time BBC cut top gear, promptly it came back and the lady responsible was out of a job. Now we have the fastest, most exciting motorsport off to sky. I dont know the viewing figures for the UK but worldwide they are 530 million. BBC has awesome coverage and sky will find a way to screw that up. Not happy!
 
I dont know the viewing figures for the UK but worldwide they are 530 million.
And several broadcasters - including Australia - have said nothing will change about the way they broadcast the sport. They'll still get a syndicated feed from the primary broadcaster, Sky. The decision to go to pay-per-view only really affects the UK.
 
BBC has awesome coverage and sky will find a way to screw that up. Not happy!

Really the only thing that will change is the commentators and the addition of commercials, worst case just mute the TV if you don't like the commentators.

Really don't think anyone has room to complain as here in the states we have to pay $40+/month depending on the service to get Speed and they don't even do all the races live(and often cut off the post race for NASCAR).
 
Stupid decision, hopefully BBC will rebroadcast the race later in the day. If not I'll be looking at other means to view it.

Hopefully F1 can pull through it, because you're looking at 60% percent less viewers on sky at least, £15per race for those that already have normal sky is a bit silly.
 
Stupid decision, hopefully BBC will rebroadcast the race later in the day. If not I'll be looking at other means to view it.

Hopefully F1 can pull through it, because you're looking at 60% percent less viewers on sky at least, £15per race for those that already have normal sky is a bit silly.

Maybe in the uk, but the rest of the world will remain pretty much unaffected. So many people forget that the world of F1 is bigger than the uk.
 
Back