F1 TV coverage threadFormula 1 

I think it's far more likely that they simply see the way home entertainment is going. I would not be surprised if the free-to-air business model is dead by 2019.
 
Just a note on the Sky TV costs. I dumped Sky sometime ago as it just wasn't worth the £80/month it was costing me to have everything (inc. multi-room). I now spread my viewing across C4 (for now) and 24 hour Sky Sports passes on NowTV. This works quite well if you don't mind missing the odd qualifying session as it costs £6.99 for a 24 pass for those races not shown on C4. Total for the year is £76.89 for 11 races. Even if everything goes over to Sky then that will still only cost £153.78 a year, which is around half the cost of getting Sky.
 
prisonermonkeys
I think it's far more likely that they simply see the way home entertainment is going. I would not be surprised if the free-to-air business model is dead by 2019.
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Of 27 million UK households only 11 million buy Sky television. Another 4 million have Virgin or TalkTalk (though they don't necessarily watch it, it's just an available component of their broadband package). There are still hundreds of free-to-air channels (a good number of those are HD even if the content isn't always) so I don't see free-to-air disappearing any time soon. The BBC's survival is dependent on the licence fee but aside from that the sponsored-programming-with-adverts-in-between model seems to be alive and kicking.

The pay future is, I think, outside the Sky model that @axletramp refers to above and related more to users accessing specific content such as films, individual programmes (and series thereof) or songs.

On-topic; it's tragic that F1 is moving to be available to less than half of the UK especially as the financial benefits to the sport are in a revenue stream that's well-tapped long before the teams see any money.

It's worth noting that the British GP will continue to be free-to-air inside the UK, or so I understand.
 
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TenEightyOne
The BBC's survival is dependent on the licence fee but aside from that the sponsored-programming-with-adverts-in-between model seems to be alive and kicking.
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Globally, it's been losing ground to the pay model for years. Most free-to-air content is either syndicated international productions or original local content. Britain is one of the few territories left that is able to produce local content for export, but it hinges on foreign markets picking it up - and there's a big difference between "The Night Manager" and "Coronation Street" in terms of quality. The gradual slow-down of local productions will kick in eventually. It might be feasible now, but what about in 2019?
 
With less people watching TV in general it makes sense why free to air is dying because it relies on a huge amount of people watching it to be able to stay free and competitive with Pay TV.
 
mustafur
With less people watching TV in general it makes sense why free to air is dying because it relies on a huge amount of people watching it to be able to stay free and competitive with Pay TV.
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And it's not unheard of for the industry to be caught out by technology. Remember the writers' strike a few years ago? One of the key issues was the studios were paying writers based on contracts dating back to a time before DVDs - but the invention of DVD meant that people could suddenly own entire seasons of content. The writers felt that they should be paid more because their entire bodies of work could be privately owned.

We are now living in an age of live streaming and television on demand. That has naturally changed the landscape of television, and will continue to define it for years to come.
 
Well, unless something changes drastically for me, 2019 will be the first time in 25 years that I do not watch F1. I cannot afford 300 quid a year (and that will probably rise) just to watch one channel on select weekends for around six hours. Bernie can go and get stuffed.
 
As @axletramp pointed out there are other options and it's quite a way off yet, so those options might change.

It's not too surprising to me, the BBC funding mechanism is stuck in the 20th century and with everyone involved at the BBC so stuck in their ways, the BBC aren't going to be a contender for a while. C4 rarely invest in sports outside of horse racing and ITV are probably completely off the radar.

If anyone will compete with Sky for F1 coverage in the future it's probably going to be BT Sport.

It's not too dissimilar to what happened with cricket coverage all those years ago. To be fair to them, Sky do an amazing job with it.
 
Sureboss
As @axletramp pointed out there are other options and it's quite a way off yet, so those options might change.

It's not too surprising to me, the BBC funding mechanism is stuck in the 20th century and with everyone involved at the BBC so stuck in their ways, the BBC aren't going to be a contender for a while. C4 rarely invest in sports outside of horse racing and ITV are probably completely off the radar.

If anyone will compete with Sky for F1 coverage in the future it's probably going to be BT Sport.

It's not too dissimilar to what happened with cricket coverage all those years ago. To be fair to them, Sky do an amazing job with it.
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Which the last time I heard left the cricket people who sold the rights to Sky very unhappy with the number of people who actually go to cricket dropping off. They have discovered what is true for any sport not called football. Out of sight is out of mind.

It's a short time money grab sacrificing the future. Madness.
 
Tired Tyres
Which the last time I heard left the cricket people who sold the rights to Sky very unhappy with the number of people who actually go to cricket dropping off. They have discovered what is true for any sport not called football. Out of sight is out of mind.

It's a short time money grab sacrificing the future. Madness.
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And what future does Free to air have?

It does work both ways, BBC may Need advertising in the future.
 
I think the reasons for that in cricket are more complicated than "Sky are the baddies".

Bit off-topic, this is a pretty good article on cricket (if not a bit old). http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/801903.html

Sky Sports have also done Club Life for ~ 10 years, showing a team's progress through the season and sometimes getting them involved with former pros for coaching sessions, etc.

There are similar issues with participation drop off in my beloved snooker. Our league has lost half it's teams in a decade, other leagues have similar problems. Rise of property prices mean that selling off property is highly valuable.

But anyway, to get back on topic...

I think there are bigger problems with F1s viewing figure problem than a reduction in availability of live coverage on free to air (in the UK's case, that isn't actually FTA, but nevermind, that's a whole different subject).

Rules that lean towards one team dominating once they get on top of them.
Excessive changing of rules
Dull tracks being used because they pay more money than tracks that actually promote good racing.

In amongst many other points.
 
mustafur
And what future does Free to air have?

It does work both ways, BBC may Need advertising in the future.
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Possibly. C4 already have a share of the licence fee plus advertising so unless the BBC is allowed to increase the licence fee at least in line with inflation than they will probably end up doing something similar. Since it is a tax it will require legislation.
 
shoemaker
Here you go,i wonder what happened ? Money ?http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mo...al-with-Rupert-Murdoch-would-be-suicidal.html
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From the old 2011 article.

Murdoch hasn’t got anything really big to drive their TV audiences and Formula One would be good for that. Very recently they wanted to do something in Germany, in the UK and in Italy, where they are, but we couldn’t do it.


“Sky is doing an incredible job but if you look at their audience they are nowhere. With their figures it would be almost impossible for teams to find sponsors. That would be suicidal.”
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F1 going to Sky hasn't been big either. You'd think maybe some of the audience would slowly migrate since 2012 Sky deal but figures are down year on year for Sky F1 channel.

I have to laugh at Bernie's comments on how Sky's viewing figures are nowhere yet here we are signing a deal with minus nowhere viewers. We're talking 200-500k for Sky F1 on race day. Used to be a paltry ~700k.
 
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prisonermonkeys
Taken on its own, it was nothing particularly problematic - but Sky are stupidly pro-British. It came across as if they trying to cast Rosberg as the villain, completely ignoring the context of the incident. Even now they're doing it; Damon Hill just characterised Jolyon Palmer as a phenomenal rising talent when Pascal Wehrlein arguably has the better resume. That's what annoys me about Sky; they know they're broadcasting to the world, but only produce content to appeal to the Brits.
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Can you not get NBC or something?

I know TSN in Canada this year has decided to use Sky F1 UK but this is very much Sky UK, whoever decides to use the Sky UK feed is up to them. USA France and Germany have their own, as do Italy, Brazil Australia and many others. I think you're stretching saying Sky UK is some world broadcaster. With Damon Hill, Martin Brundle, Johnny Herbert, Anthony Davidson and all the others, its very much geared towards the UK. Please don't mistake this as a world service. You talk like the British Empire is still running, especially all the British media is affecting poor Nico nonsense.
 
Hearing these news make me lose faith in the future of the sport, even as an argentine who has nothing to do with Sky or C4. The past two years Latin America suffered from a similar situation, with Fox losing rights to a "premium" channel. What happened? Everyone, including myself, started watching online streams (don't tell Bernie).
Last month a spanish motorsport TV channel suddenly appeared on the grid, it will broadcast all races and sessions live. Maybe someone learnt a lesson in the process...

Don't give up on the sport guys, seems that we, the fans, are the only people still caring for it.
 
Sky are pushing the fact that they'll be making the races "free-to-air", the channel showing the races won't be part of a pay package. Except for the part where you still have to buy Sky, obviously. At least that's how it stands right now - maybe they're going to push out on Freeview as they currently do with their news channel?
 
TenEightyOne
Sky are pushing the fact that they'll be making the races "free-to-air", the channel showing the races won't be part of a pay package. Except for the part where you still have to buy Sky, obviously. At least that's how it stands right now - maybe they're going to push out on Freeview as they currently do with their news channel?
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Hopefully it will be like that BT Sport freeview channel, where they just show something every now and again but it's mostly off air. I think for it to count as FTA it has to be available only with an aerial or dish, nothing more.
 
TenEightyOne
Sky are pushing the fact that they'll be making the races "free-to-air", the channel showing the races won't be part of a pay package. Except for the part where you still have to buy Sky, obviously. At least that's how it stands right now - maybe they're going to push out on Freeview as they currently do with their news channel?
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Highlights only, of course, apart from Silverstone...

https://corporate.sky.com/media-centre/news-page/2016/sky-sports-to-become-exclusive-home-of-f1:
"Free to air: The FORMULA 1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX, together with highlights of all other races and Qualifying sessions, will be shown on a ‘free-to-air’ basis".

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2016/03/analysis-the-numbers-show-why-formula-1-took-the-exclusive-sky-deal/:
"The small consolation is that the new Sky deal obliges them to show the British GP live and all highlights on a free platform, available in 90% of homes. At present Sky does not have a platform that qualifies. So they may well sub licence the highlights to Channel 4 or more likely ITV, in the same way as Champions League is live on BT Sport with highlights on ITV".

Emphasis mine. So it remains to be seen how that works out. Would another broadcaster manage to put together good presenters if they're only doing highlights? I'm a bit sceptical, and poor presenters can make it truly painful to watch!
 
The way I see it, the end of F1 in 2019 may play into the hands of the other genres of motorsport like Touring Cars and Sports Cars and could see the ignition of support. Currently F1 has near saturation coverage in certainly the UK mainstream media and press so anyone new to motorsports or are an older fan but are only used to F1 only recognize and are familiar with F1. When F1 has so much of the media and press attention you can see how hard it is for things like the USCC, BES and PWC to get noticed.

But without F1 on free-to-air TV these fans will be forced to look elsewhere for their racing fix and may, as they are surfing the net, stumble on things like the Super GT or BES and for the first time be aware of these other genres of motorsport. And they will hopefully see what they have missed and how much better it is than F1.
 
I actually like the Sky coverage, they clearly put a lot in it and try and make it value for money, but the problem for us now is that our Sky has gone up by £6.50 a month and we don't know why, we only really use the Entertainment and Sport so maybe we should get rid of everything else.
 
C4's viewing figures was the lowest seen for a Bahrain race since 2007, down 36% year on year and down 39% from last year. BBC had a peak of 5.3 million and C4 had a peak of 3.2 million.

Good news for C4 though, as the channel boasts the highest viewing figure for this time slot and has seen a boost in other shows.

Interestingly the viewing figures stayed at 3 million to the end despite Lewis bombing out early.

Sky doesn't seem to have picked up much in this new season start. Average is 500k which is still down from the 700k or more from a few years ago. I would've expected the audience to grow at least a bit, not shrink.
 
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chromatic9
Sky doesn't seem to have picked up much in this new season start. Average is 500k which is still down from the 700k or more from a few years ago. I would've expected the audience to grow at least a bit, not shrink.
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Bernie seems to think that "more people watch Sky", he's been sold some cooked figures if he genuinely believes that.
 

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