The end of Formula 1?

[Wizzo]

Source BBC News...

The BBC and Sky Sports will broadcast Formula 1 in the UK between 2012 and 2018 under a new rights deal.

The BBC has been the exclusive broadcaster of F1 in the UK since 2009 but its contract with Formula One Management was due to expire after the 2013 season.

Sky Sports will show every race, qualifying session and practice live.

BBC Sport will broadcast half the races live, as well as the qualifying and practice sessions from those races.

Both companies will broadcast in high definition.

Races screened by the BBC will be live on the BBC Sport website for UK users.

The BBC will have highlights on TV, online and mobile for any race it is not showing live, and all races will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 live.

Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport, said: "We are absolutely delighted that F1 will remain on the BBC.

"The sport has never been more popular with TV audiences at a 10-year high and the BBC has always stated its commitment to the big national sporting moments.

"With this new deal not only have we delivered significant savings but we have also ensured that through our live and extended highlights coverage all the action continues to be available to licence-fee payers."

Races shown live on BBC TV will include the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the Monaco GP and the concluding race of the season.

Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, said: "This is fantastic news for F1 fans and Sky Sports will be the only place to follow every race live and in HD.

"We will give F1 the full Sky Sports treatment with a commitment to each race never seen before on UK television."

[Ian]

Gutted, looks like I'll only be watching half the races, here's AUTOSPORT's report.


http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93447

[Wizzo]

Personally, I refuse to pay money to watch TV (apart from the licence fee). For the cost of a Sky subscription I could actually go to at least 6 races and watch half the season live on the BBC!

This is a disaster for F1 in the UK, luckily F1 is worldwide so the effects will probably go unnoticed. My fear is that this agreement will have the same affect on F1 as Sky had on boxing in the UK.

As always Sky have let the BBC do all the hard work getting the format just right and then they move in for the kill. Next you will have Brundle and Coulthard being offered vast salaries to 'jump ship' ensuring that Sky keep the format that everybody loves.

The is the first major step in us losing F1 to pay per view in the future. Hopefully, things will not be as bad as they seem but I know I would rather not watch F1 than pay for it.

[Ian]

Plus highlight's are'nt worth watching are they. The end of Dare's GG maybe ?

[John S]

This is the real pits.    How can the BBC think that half the races is good coverage, don't suppose they will consider just covering half the Olympics.  

Bernie was saying up until a couple of weeks ago that F1 would not go to pay TV. This is a quote atributed to Bernie, from a piece by Jonathan Noble on Autosport.com, 18th July 2011; - He added: "It isn't possible that F1 could go on to pay TV, we wouldn't want to do that."

Why say that when clearly at that time he knew that this carve up in favour of pay Tv was ready to happen, a deal like this doesn't get cobbled together in a few days.

[markfarrell9572]

I for one won't be subscribing to sky sports, putting aside the fact that I find it hard to give money to make Murdoch's corrupt ammoral empire richer.  This is a terrible decision, we have been lied to by mr Ecclestone and the teams who said they will keep it on free to air.  On Twitter Martin Brundle said he was not impressed, hopefully during qually and the race he has the balls to vent his feelings, unlike David Croft this morning on 5 live.  I know some of you probably have sky sport alreald, but for those who don't lets make a united stand and not upgrade.  Falling viewing figures might make an impact.


For f1 fans in UK and ireland this is a terribly sad day.

[Ian]

Bombard the BBC with emails, not that it will do any good but you can let know your feelings, don't swear though as it will be automatically binned.

barbara.slater@bbc.co.uk

[Neil.P]

Oh well. That's ruined it for me, and probably ruined the sport.

Neil.P

[Wats-on]

This is terrible news, also for many Dutch viewers for the Dutch broadcasting is covered with commercials for over 30% of the race! Plus no-one life on location, the commentator is sitting on the couch in his living room, just like you and me.

For me, that leaves the German RTL, witch should be good too, but I prefer English over German

I wonder how it comes that the torrent site do bloom so wel...  Oh no, I don't, 'cause I download myself, too... 

[John S]

The more I think about this the angrier I become because we are getting the worst of both scenarios. If the Beeb dropped out at the end of 2012 and then Sky took over at least we would get another season free and savings at the BBC for other programming from 2013. Sure we would have to pay a subsription to get the races live, but we would be getting all of it for our money.

However now anyone wanting the whole season will have to fork out full Sky subscription and not get anything extra from the BBC. Under this stupid shared plan we will still need to pay to get all the races live but only need to watch half on Sky thanks to someones crazy idea at the BBC that half of anything is good service.

When I went to school half of something for the same money made it double dear, I know maths lessons have changed in the last Fifty years but arithmatic hasn't.  
Just who thought up this crazy plan at the BBC?  Must be Sky shareholders I reckon.  

[Ian]

Would'nt surprise me if we find out in the future that Ecclestone is somehow tied in with sky and he got a huge backhander.

[cosworth151]

Welcome to our world. This is why some of us spend so much time on Sunday mornings looking for streaming links. Here in the States, F1 is mostly on Rupert's Speed TV. It isn't even available in many areas (like mine.)

Star Sports isn't BBC, but it's not bad. And, it's in English.

I haven't read if they will use separate broadcast teams or will share the same broadcast.

[Ian]

But Cos, do you have to buy a tv licence to receive tv broadcasts ?

[Ian]

They just announced on P2 that the BBC will be showing 10 GP's in their entirety. What races they are will be announced later.

[Dare]

But Cos, do you have to buy a tv licence to receive tv broadcasts ?

Here you have to upgrade to the digital package and
then add the sports package to it.Thats why I finally
got tired of it and dropped it.

How much is the Sky Sports package in the UK?