I don't have £32 spare a month Ste I have taken 3 pay cuts in 8 months to keep my job in the NHS, I live in one of the most expensive cities in the UK for renting. It is not just casual fans that will be lost by this, but longstanding fans and as someone who only watches F1 on TV, I do feel aggrieved that I already pay £145 for a TV license for alot of dross that I will never watch, yet the one thing I do watch is being partially axed.
So basicaly we have to pay twice to watch the whole season, what trickery is this?
Agreed, even if you are a die-hard fan, it doesn't mean you will magically scrape the extra money up from somewhere every month. I've read comments online from people who have watched F1 for 40, 50 years, saying they won't get Sky. Deciding that you simply cannot afford to get Sky doesn't make you a casual fan. Times are hard and for a lot of people, F1 is now going to be an expense that they can't justify.
Forza Jules
Yeah but it depends on your lifestyle, doesn't it? There's many people I'm sure who have mortgages, bills to pay, kids etc - things that they HAVE to prioritise over F1 - and that £12 extra a month might just be a step too far. I'm not saying that £3 minimum a week isn't do-able - it is. But not everyone is as lucky as you or I to *find* it do-able.
Forza Jules
Yeah I will, as much as I will grumble about it. That's money I could be using for petrol though
I feel sorry for the people who don't have Sky in the first place and are now faced with the choice of forking out for it or trying to watch F1 via other methods.
Forza Jules
Here's another petition; this one targets woman who made the ultimate decision to cut F1 and spend more on Wimbledon!??
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/sackbarbaraslater
I have to pay $10 (6 GBP) extra a month, on top of my $60 (38 GBP) Satellite bill, just to watch F1.
There might be a third option for you guys though. Pay for a VPN server that will grant you access to another country that also streams it's race coverage like the BBC, and watch it that way. Some of these VPN services can be very cheap. I have a UK one and pay $55 a year. Plus I can pause it in between F1 races, and not get charged for those days; extending my renewal day every time I pause it. I think Spain streams the race coverage.
I'm guessing we are going to have a lot of links to live streams.
I think F1 may start to lose its fanbase if its not careful.
Its bad enough that the viewers got shafted by the new TV deal, they are also trying to cripple the car's performance all in the name of green.
If lets say they introduced new things that would make F1 even more exciting like bringing back V10 engine, ground effect, reviving classic tracks, these could all actually encourage fans to subscribe for F1.
But now the FIA are doing the opposite, even the track organizers are worried the fans will get turn off. Its a very bad time for Bernie to try something like this.
"Sky is doing an incredible job, but if you look at their audience they are nowhere. With these figures it would be almost impossible for teams to find sponsors. That would be suicidal." - Bernie Ecclestone,
I live in Switzerland, I have cable tv (*) and I can choose to watch F1:
1) in Italian: Rai1 or Rai2, Rai Sport (Italy), TSI1 or TSI2 (Swiss italian speaking TV)
2) in French: TSR, (Swiss french speakinkg TV), TF1 HD (french TV) , Eurosport french, La Deux (Belgian french speaking TV)
3) in German: SF1 or SF2 (Swiss German speakinkg TV), RTL and SkySport (Germany), ORF eins and Sky Sport (Austria)
4) in Spanish: La Sexta
5) in Portuguese: Sport TV
6) in English BBC (for the moment...)
And I only mention the languages I speak. Now, if you dont mind the comments, TV cable/TNT also let you choose the channels of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey. And I probably forget some.
So, what's your problem, British friends? Hasn't TV cable and TNT reached your island yet?
(*) (The cable subscription cost is 30 (thirty), swiss francs per month. The price includes about 120 channels (and keep increasing) from all over Europe and beyond. I even have a chinese one )
Addio Signor Enzo. Ciao Gilles.
With all due respect alot of F1 fans cannot afford to pay an extra £40-50 a month for 1 tv program that is on once every two weeks, especially considering the UK is in economic recession, alot of people have lost jobs and the cost of living has gone up 20% in the last year. That is the problem. Some families are struggling to feed themselves and meet their bills, let alone fork out for an expensive tv subscription.
i agree. i will have to find some streams now, or watch the highlights. all my family had Sky a couple years ago, so it wouldnt have been a problem then, but now all of my family memebers have cancelled it.
but one thing, will there be highlights after quali aswell as the race? if not thats pretty ****.
In Stefano Domenicali, we have a team boss who has proved to be a leader. - Luca diMontezemelo
We have a three tier system here in the states, basic, expanded then the top rung. SPEED TV was on the top rung for a long time so I did without watching F1 for about 5 years. It wasn't until 2004 that SPEED was dropped to the second tier so I could then afford it. If I were in the UK I'd be in the same boat as a lot of the fans, just not wanting to fork out the extra dough for the channel. It's not so much I couldn't afford it, but in lean times you have to make tough choices. Many fans here in the states are very worried this will happen here.
The big problem with F1 is over the years its all about money and not what the fans want, This needs to change and the only way I see that happening is Benie stepping down along with FOM,
Racing is life and life is a risk - Michael schumacher
Which he has evidently done and the BBC and FOTA have been complicit into the bargain. I think part of the reason why the response from fans has been vociferous has been that the BBC has gone around selling the deal like its the best thing since sliced bread. "Your going to have to pay for something we used to give you out of your tv license fee....now on top of you paying your license fee...your going to have to pay £500 a year for the same level of service...isn't that great?". While I appreciate times are tough and the BBC are citing financial cuts as the reason (not sure why they are making cuts when their annual budget next year is same as this....could it be the fact they are spending £900 million on moving to a new TV centre?) there was no consultation with the license paying public, they have just jumped into bed with SKY and have left the people who can't afford to pay with a sub-standard service. Even if half of the UK fans can afford to go and buy a SKY subcription at £39.75 a month plus installation fees...that still leaves approximately 3-4 million UK fans with a substandard service.
The reason why I'm particularly livid is if the costs of running the F1 show were shared out only amongst the F1 fans from their tv license it would be less than £10 a year per fan for the BBC to keep the full show. So that begs the question what the hell are the BBC wasting license payers money on if they can't afford to put on the full show.The BBC then chose to make a partnership with SKY to prevent any terrestrial channels from being able to take on the coverage - effectively removing any chance of FTA tv for the fans.
I would love to be able to afford SKY to continue watching F1, but I simply can't afford it and because of that I am supposed to be delighted that I will only be able to watch half of the season live, and the other half will be delayed but edited highlights. Now I don't know about anyone else but part of the excitement for me of the sport is cheering your team on live....a delayed transmission removes that excitement for you, once I know the result I'm less inclined to sit and watch the highlights unless there is something particularly contentious to watch.
Anyway enough of my ranting away but this decision will more than likely ruin F1 for some fans, and there doesn't seem to be any concern from the teams etc about how this will effect their fanbase, so to me it feels like FOM, BBC and FOTA have basically sold us out for a quick dollar.
Just a couple of questions:-
1) Do the BBC receive any revenue for the feeds that other countries receive, ie we get their feed over here in the Philippines on StarSports?
2) Do people in the UK have the option to watch F1 at a local bar/pub/lounge if you don't want to fork-out for pay-TV?
Two hours in a bar to watch a race is not the answer for me. If I go with friends the TV will become secondary as most my friends have no interest in F1 and we never sit in the same bar for that long, we do the rounds like most people, plus where is the saving, £12 in a bar does not last long in the UK!
The alternative is to go alone in a bar for two hours, I don't think so.
Nope, lets set up a permanent thread with links to the best live feeds when SKY have the GP for that weekend.
Think it's a massive mistake to spilt the coverage, all races at least should be live on the BBC and they should have let Sky have all races in HD and practice and qualifying. It's not so bad for some like myself if I did get Sky Sports because then I could watch loads of football as well as F1, but for the F1 fan that just wants to watch races then it's a terrible price to pay just to watch 9 or so F1 races, ideally Sky should offer a F1 season pass or something, so you can only watch F1 broadcasts for a fixed yearly fee rather than asking people to fork out every month, which might make it a little more affordable to those already with Sky.
Forza Ferrari
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