So here it is:

.http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/15893254.stm

Very disappointing really. Only highlights for me are Monaco, Silverstone and spa. Only highlights too from the non live races

TBH; I’d be quite happy with an hour or 90 mins highlights really. Plus cut out all the before and after race filler. I tend to watch from 5 mins before a race starts, to the podium ceremony then switch off. Not really interested in what shirt Eddie’s wearing or what slebs are trackside etc.

Plus all the SKy live stuff will be viewable online, same way all live footy matches on Sky are. 😉

And I tend to watch recordings of the unearthly hour races so it’s not really going to impact much on my enjoyment of the racing.

On the same day that Sky announced they will have a dedicated F1 channel.
This whole situation has left me a bit annoyed. Although I now don’t need to renew my tv licence after this weekend because the total amount of live tv I will watch is 0 mins.

Since I can’t justify or really afford getting a Sky subscription I am either going to have to visit family for every race or seek other means of watching the races…

I noticed that Jake Humphrey tweeted the other day that the F1 team will still be attending all the races even those that aren’t being broadcast which seems like a colossal waste of money for something that is meant to be saving money.

I guess I will just have to accept that the BBC’s current programming mandate means that things like the sports budget are raided for quality programming like The Voice (rumoured to have cost £22m!) and what little sporting money there is is spent on over priced football pundits.

Apologies for the rant 🙁

sending folk to 20 of the best locstions in the world to report on the most expensive sport in the world is never going to be cheap.. BUT the one thing uncle bernie needs is viewers.. sky doesnt touch the mass market and thast what he needs so give it a couple of years and it ll be back terrestrial like the old back and forth between gb grand prix tracks of a decade or so ago..

sky doesnt touch the mass market

Are you sure!? – there aren’t many people in my group of friends who don’t have Sky TV. They aren’t some tiny niche broadcaster!

To be honest the Sky costs could have been a lot worse – I was expecting to have to take Sports and HD to get F1.

there aren’t many people in my group of friends who don’t have Sky TV.

Just as there are few in my circle who do.

I only know a few people who have sky TV and I imagine you’d have to have an enhanced package to pick up F1?

I also I can’t imagine pubs putting on races, the repetitive noise of the cars wouldn’t make for a social atmosphere would it.

I can see F1 going into a backwater in the UK. Bet advertisers will LOVE that. Maybe it’ll go the way of Rally ultimately…

Well if they’re only showing highlights for half the races they best stop plastering who won the race all over the bbc website!

So whats the cheapest options to watch f1 on sky hd?

So whats the cheapest options to watch f1 on sky hd?

share someone else’s card?

no, I won’t go into the details – even if I knew them 🙂

A bit like how us bikers’ need Eurosport for the MotoGP/WSB/BSB – wanna watch, need to pay.

I’m not that bothered really. There are highlights for the races that aren’t live, and I usually record the races and fast forward through all the waffle anyway (especially if Eddie Jordan is anywhere near a microphone).

Hmmmm…. £40 a month according to the chat advisor on the sky homepage

Has the BBC lost Motogp too??? 😯

A bit like how us bikers’ need Eurosport for the MotoGP/WSB/BSB – wanna watch, need to pay.

Eurosport [not British Eurosport] is still available ‘Free to Air’ via Astra 19.2 but not sure how much longer it has

As for the F1 live & free
There may well be live coverage from RTL next year, so all you’d need is a very cheap set up and another source of commentary [not sure what R5 are doing]

Bet advertisers will LOVE that. Maybe it’ll go the way of Rally ultimately…

Yep, look how they’ve all run away from football, rugby, cricket etc.

Rally killed itself by closing off stages to the public and charging huge fees for entry to sanitised stages and ‘superspecials’. Rally has never been big on TV – a few hours of coverage on terrestrial when the RAC was on.

Televised for inadequates. Not a penny of Licence Fee should go on it.

flap_jack – so you don’t approve, so everyone else can get bent? Very public minded of you.

of course Sky have held the rights in the past but the viewing figures were dire

Televised w@anking for inadequates. Not a penny of Licence Fee should go on it.

What would you prefer the money to be spent on in its place?

What is brundle doing, staying or going?

Televised w@anking for inadequates. Not a penny of Licence Fee should go on it

What would you prefer the money to be spent on in its place?

Televised w@nking, maybe?

What is brundle doing, staying or going?

Here’s what he said end of October:

“Telegraph was wrong,I didn’t sign £1m Sky contract today. Calmly working through it, will end up doing what satisfies me most professionally”

Jake has confirmed himself, reckon everybody else is still in talks with Sky

Actually it suits me quite nicely. I never have a chance to watch any live anyway these days, and frankly a 90 min highlights programme is ideal. I just hope this year they can get it to iPlayer before stupidly late at night, and that they retain MB and DC.

wrong on so many levels.

rounds held in morally dubious countries.
glorification of squandering of limited natural resources.
white supremicist attitude (loads of dissing Hamilton in favour of the nice middle class white boy with the stupid name).
everyone jetting in and out – carbon footprint must be incalculably large.
women used for decoration.

that’ll do for starters…

That’s all very nice, but what is your chosen w@nkfest?
How many other businesses do you want to close because you don’t agree with them?

I’m not saying close it, I’m saying don’t spend ‘taxpayer’ money on it. I’m old and Reithian. It may fulfill the third criterium but is so wrong on the first two.

rounds held in morally dubious countries.

True. This bit is rather unsavoury tbh, and if bahrain is included as it looks like it will, this will put F1 under a cloud, morally and ethically. Somehow doubt all those enthusiastic staff at the Indian got paid proportionate to tohers in the F1 ‘circus’.

glorification of squandering of limited natural resources.

True, although it’s not quite as bad as it used to be, speshly with the budget capping. but yeah, there are people starving, being killed in wars over precious natural resources and that.

white supremicist attitude (loads of dissing Hamilton in favour of the nice middle class white boy with the stupid name).

Ooh, dunno about that one. Dunno about that one. It’s Lewis who’s made an issue of his ethnicity; jolly well have not heard the Indian and Japanese drivers banging on about their colour at all.

everyone jetting in and out – carbon footprint must be incalculably large.

It’s not really setting the best example, is it?

women used for decoration.

This still seems to be the case. I find it embarrassing they’re still using pretty girls on the pit lane to hold up umbrellas and number boards and that. Bit ‘Benny hill’, in’t it? Anachronistic.

that’ll do for starters…

Please; carry on. No reason to hold back! 😀