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MG Midget and Sprite General - BBC loses F1

Bugger
http://pistonheads.co.uk/news/default.asp?storyId=24035

As a Dutchman i can't recieve sky and the Dutch chanels have a terrible comentator.
So no more EJ/DC fun pre race and DC/Brundel race comantating.

I'll have to try thos Belgian chanels then.....
Onno Könemann

Can't believe it, I've watched F1 on "free TV" since the 60s and have no intention of getting Sky.(can't justify spending the money to pay for it)

Just as the racing has become more competitive too..
the world as we know it is crumbling beneath our feet..where will it end..time for the happy pills I think....
JB Anderson

This is only the 3rd year the BBC have had the rights since buying them off ITV and already they have given up!

If they are only going to show half the races they may as well show none of them!

Looked into Sky, it appears (well, as far as I can see) the only way you can get sky sports is to get 10000000000000000000 million trillion other channels at the same time. £40 a month! Thats £480 a year, I spent less than half that on an entire weekend of Live F1 at Silverstone this year.

Grrrr... Blood boiling!

Malcolm
M Le Chevalier

F1 loses viewers.

Not a good move, I think.

Thee again, I have hardly watched a complete F1 race in recent years.
Dave O'Neill 2

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

Ian Ball said:"But it isn't, you stupid woman."

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.

Ian Ball said: "Barney, I think you'll find that this is a load of !@?$@! for F1 fans"

Mrs. B is very unhappy.

Well done BBC thank you for spending my licence fee on complete and utter crap.

Ian
Who, if it wasn't for the fact that Mrs. B is expecting visitors, would be off for a drive over the Pennines.
I Ball

Quote "So no more EJ/DC fun pre race"

... so it's not all bad news then!

Brundle "not impressed" http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/82360,sport,other-sport,brundle-angry-as-bbc-and-sky-split-f1-coverage
Geoff E

Geoff
You are spoiled our race previews are realy bad and make DC/EJ a joy to watch
Onno Könemann

I'm still seething. Didn't Ecclestone say(probably on more than one occassion) on TV that he always wants F1 to be free to air TV. Thanks a lot Bernie, you're no better than all these other high powered oiks that are in the news lately - you lied.
As for Barbara Slater - utterly deluded, how on earth can you be delighted with that.
Who wants to watch highlights - Ms Slater, I suggestyou try getting through a Sunday without finding out the result apart from locking yourself in a dark soundproof cupboard. In fact Slater, go and lock yourself in a dark sound proof cupboard.
Thanks BBC, that just proves your a second rate channel with second rate programmes. I suppose your going to spend our licence fee on more reality rubbish.
Oh I do feel better for that
Nigel Axtell

I don't see why, in this modern era, we are not allowed to opt out of paying the licence fee and simply have them switch the BBC feed off. I resent being forced to pay for stuff I don't watch. This year we basically only use the BBC for F1 and Cbeebies - now they have lost F1, effectively (I won't bother with highlight shows, so will end up watching it on Sky), and my youngest son starts preschool in September, so from then we will basically be paying for nothing.

Slater was pleased as her whole agenda is cutting costs - dressing this up as good for fans was utterly ridiculous and pretty typical of how detached the BBC has become from the real world in recent years.

For better or for worse, the world has changed a great deal since the BBC started, we should no longer have to pay by default even if we don't want the service.

I happen to be an F1 fan, but I expect that many non-fans thought it ridiculous that the BBC was able to outbid commercial channels for such an expensive sport in the first place.

But this chopping and changing, and this crazy franken-show where they have half the season and some highlights, seems ludicrous to me. And noone seems to have consulted the teams, judging by what some of them have said today - given that they derive a good chunk of their revenue from sponsors, suddenly finding half the season on a subscription-only channel seems to be something that they should have been consulted on. There are murmuring that this is in breach of the concorde agreement.

Anyway, apologies, this is turning into a rant!!

Off to sulk, now.
Piers Colver

If I told my boss that I'll be going to work for 50% of the time for the same money, and expect him to be pleased with the news, I'd probably find myself benefiting from a P45.

So it's only fair that Slater should have the same experience.

A
Anthony Cutler

Sorry a bit of history to explain things:

my mate had an American girlfriend so had a wire attached as the rocket went up in 1989, the first boxes had card slots ready for pay-per-view intended for PER PROGRAM not channel

I got a satellite receiver a few years later and had to pay for a package of channels I didn’t want just to get the one I did, £2.99 per month then, but on top of this I also had to pay £9.99 per big event (then) the same as those that only had the ‘free’ channels

As I remember it Murdoch gambled and screened Sky I’m not even sure if it was legal (can’t remember details) it was certainly an inferior system to BSB who held back to get there system right – this of course was where they went wrong

BSB had the advertiser but weren’t broadcasting was Sky was but with very few advertisers I still remember the commercial breaks on Sky with no adverts or just one (just a white screen as I remember it)

Sky took over BSB gaining the advertisers, then they got football, then they got cricket, rugby and so on

They put a load of money into those sports and you can pay BSkyB to watch those sports

Just look at a lot of the rubbish programs and channels and quality offered on satellite and Freeview – the extended length and number of advert breaks on top of that the program sponsorship before and after - plus now product placement

the BBC is excellent, radio and TV and excellent value, just over £12 per month for 9 TV channels, Radio - 10 national, 1 international and local channels, the I-player and all with high quality programs

when you loose it you'll realise how good it was and what you’ve lost and how much you’ll need to pay to see what you want to see

I went 2 years without TV and could leave it again tomorrow (but not speech radio)

If you want to see more F1 get F1 to take a pay cut they can certainly afford one
N Atkins

Oh, well, if you do feel the urge to subscribe to Sky you can take comfort in the fact that your money is going into that nice Rupert Murdoch's pocket! I for one won't bother.
Jonathan 1972 1275 RWA

obviously I put it badly before, I'll simplify

IMO, those that want these very expensive to broadcast sports should either go to see them live or cough up to the likes of BSkyB

satellite isn't even value for money - BBC is great value all round

the quality of programs would be heavily diminished if the BBC was to disappear

with the BBC gone I'd be happy to pay for what I want to watch but I bet those that want the BBC gone would soon be whinging about the cost and/or lack of availability of what they want to watch and had previously took for granted

I gave up on satellite about 15 years ago
N Atkins

Personally I think the BBC have made the right choice. F1 is poor value for money and if you want to moan, moan at bernie for trying to make excessive profits. Without the BBC there'd be no quality news and programming left for us to watch and the licence fee at least guarantees them a bit of independence.
Matt1275Bucks

I read in one of the papers a couple of weeks ago that it was either lose f1 or lose the whole BBC4 tv channel - as apparently they cost the same amount per year.

So I guess we should be grateful that at least some content will still be on the BBC - even if the solution isn't ideal.
Mothy - '65 GAN3 and '65 HAN8

I think Ecclestone has just signed F1's death warrant. They will loose a lot of fans over this one. It'll be interesting to see what happens over here in Canada. We get the BBC feed on TSN. We pay for it anyway so hopefully it'll continue. I'm a huge fan, but won't pay for another channel to watch it.
Sad day for the sport.

Paul
Paul Barnes


Im think I am right saying the aussies got
bill through parliament that national
trasures like cricket ect have to be on terestial television. So lets get on to Our MP !!! little good it would do . Pete
P C Knightley

I'm with N Atkins and Matt in that I think the BBC and the license fee are good value for money and produce good programming. Having lived in the US and seen TV else where in the world I think we have some of the best TV going and I've spoken with others from other countries that feel the same. Friends in Holland said a few years ago don't get rid of the BBC as you'll end up with crap commercial telly which they felt they had in Holland, they do get to watch the BBC for free largely.

Regarding F1, after many years watching it on the BBC and then it moving to ITV, I was surprised it when it back to the BBC. They must have paid quite a bit and although good coverage I thought the license fee would be better spent elsewhere. These days I rarely watch it as usually busy with other things at the weekend so I'm not likely to notice any change.
David Billington

Come on lads,(and lasses)

It's time we realised that us punters are merely cash cows for those nice gents, messrs Ecclestone and Murdoch.

Four hundred plus quid for a Sky sports package? I don't think so.

Admittedly they have tried to make F1 a bit more interesting recently but unless the weather intervenes it's still pretty predictable. I preferred it in the days of Mansell, Prost,Senna et al when the turbo boost could be turned up or down and there was a real danger of running out of fuel within yards of the finish.
I still watch F1 and as it's usually a Sunday afternoon I tune in just before the start and watch the first few laps until the running order has settled down, and then I settle down myself and have forty winks, waking just before the finish and find that the positions haven't changed very much.

Dave
D MATTHEWS

you also have to pay for the top drivers

I don't agree they totally earn or deserve the money they get - there are a lot more deserving and more dangerous jobs that are paid a tiny fraction of what those guys get

good luck to them for their income it's what the supporters are prepared to pay them

I was told, don't know if it's correct, that in the 50s(?) the fastest cars/drivers started at the back of the grid and had to overtake the slower ones to get to the front - that sounds like racing to me
N Atkins

What you've got to remember here, is that Murdoch, Slater, Ecclestone et al, don't give a tinker's cuss for the fans and are just a bunch of (T)rans(W)orld(A)ir(T)ravellers.

Bernie.
b higginson

Whilst I do not like Murdock I have to stand in awe of the man!!

Many years ago I used to pay the BBC a small payment each year. For that I could watch football and many other sports, even the worrl cup and our own domestic cup finals.

Suddenly Murdock comes along and asks people to pay probably 10 times more money each year simply for the same TV and guess what many paid the price and those of us who saw the theft in the deal and refused to pay were robbed of the benefit of watching all sports on the BBC.

Today using the money from these people who pay for football from him he has outbid us who watch F1 on the BBC, now we do not have that pleasure.

Thanks Mr Murdock you (T)rans(W)orld(A)ir(T)raveller

And sadly those others who have given him the ability to do this crime to us!!
Robert (Bob) Midget Turbo

Quote: "I was told, don't know if it's correct, that in the 50s(?) the fastest cars/drivers started at the back of the grid and had to overtake the slower ones to get to the front "

It's certainly not correct for F1. The "star" drivers used to start at the rear of the field in Stock Car Racing.

A good website here for those who remember that sort of thing http://www.oldstox.com/
Geoff E

It'll be interesting to see if the teams have anything to save about this. Doesn't the concorde agreement state that F1 must be free to air? If the sport looses viewers it can't do their sponsorship deals any good.

Paul
Paul Barnes

Is it just me, or can anyone else see a resemblance between Bernie and Brick Top?

Same scruples, I believe.

We all know what a "Nemesis" is. If not, you can Google it!

John Shep

Strewth John, I thought you were talking about me for a minute there. I can assure you that the only thing I have in common with Mr Ecclestone is my first name.
I'm taller,(who isn't?) younger, don't have any real money, I'm bald and I have never travelled by Trans World Airlines.

Bernie.
b higginson

How we miss Murray! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxAEFEEo-B
Geoff E

This thread was discussed between 29/07/2011 and 06/08/2011

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