BBC to lose F1 coverage

I would not be surprised if Youtube and Amazon get in the act pretty soon and sell almost sumultaneous F1 programmes.

Amazon is already praparing programmes with Jeremy Clarkson to replace the axed Top Gear show.

I don't know what format they will use though, but it will be a pay-as-you-view channel, I believe.

 

I do, but often not live. Recorded races are OK with me.

As I said, daytime TV isn't for me, mostly if the weather is good enough to go out.

 

Yeah funny (privacy violation is a serious and criminal offence).

As a Brit, occasional good weather or not, you probably know the ridicilous claim Sky currently has on English Football. Their 2016 PL TV rights deal is beyond ridiculous;

Sky Sports dominate £5bn Premier League TV rights deal as BT Sport are left with two live football packages | Daily Mail Online

It doesn't do anything other than disorder the sport itself; even higher wages and more commercials.

Pay more (parlty for mediocrity), and get less.

Probably the reason why the NBA and NHL are seeking for salary caps for years and years.

 

A shame. Canadians get to watch BBC coverage with half screen through most ads. Hopefully TSN will find another way to keep F1 on TV.

 

TSN get your act together for Australia!
Well we did get to see DC occasionally prancing up and down the grid for twenty minutes before the action, I mean the 'race' started.
Even Friday practice disappeared in the past for a while...

 

I think sky do a good job coverage wise, although their Elton bias is ridiculous, they seem to assume everyone in the uk is a fan of the donut, where the opposite is true. Even people I know that love Elton cringe at some of the rubbish they come up with.

Overall, if you haven't got sky, or Virgin media, or bt tv packages, the U.K. Has terrible tv in general, free view channels are pumping out mostly rubbish you would never watch.

My sky package costs me £110 per month, it has every channel they support, because otherwise I wouldn't see any of the tv I actually want to see, and I also pay BT sport for its channels, which I think is something like £60 a quarter, although I could be wrong, as I didn't really listen when I signed up, I just needed it for certain football matches, so it had to be done.

The world revolves around the commercial side of sport now, and if you can't afford it, you simply won't be able to chose what you see, it will be a lesser selection than you would really want, it's an unfortunate fact of life.

Er indoors father refuses to pay for tv channels at all as a matter of principle, but he's pretty quick to arrive on our doorstep when his favourite team is playing! I should charge a fee!

 

+1

 

The bottom line in this discussion is that people used to get F1 coverage for free and are now upset because it comes to an end. So, they accuse Ecclestone or SKY because of it.
It's funny really.

 

I just wait for a torrent to be uploaded and I watch at my leisure. No more having to wake up at zero dark thirty in the morning. Well actually, I'm partying at those hours till the sun comes up, so I miss the live races anyways, and I've cut the cord 10+ years ago already. So yeah, I watch whenever I wake up on Sunday, commercial-free.

 

Very sensible ...

 

Official announcement just published

BBC to end Formula 1 television contract early - BBC News

 

From today the bbc officially sucks

 

As mentioned in that story, Channel 4 are taking over the coverage from 2016: Channel 4 takes up TV rights from BBC - Formula 1 - Eurosport Australia

Hopefully they will be able to get the BBC team to carry on the coverage on a "sub-contract" basis as they did a fantastic job of bringing us the coverage (and I love Suzi Perry!).

From today?

The BBC got it badly wrong when they decided to drop Jeremy Clarkson and then lost the whole Top Gear team!

That show was making ten's of Millions of pounds for the BBC and was easily covering the cost of F1.

I get the impression that even though they're replacing Clarkson/May and Hammond with Chris Evans (and God only knows who else!), they know the "New" Top Gear just isn't going to sell around the World and so are having to ditch everything!

If ever you wanted an example of: "killing the goose that lays the golden egg!"

 

oh come on....you can't condone Clarkson's actions. Not ditching him would give a terrible message. It had to be done, no matter the cost.

Knowing that, maybe that's why Clarkson did it.

 

Hooray channel 4....

 

No I do not condone Clarkson's actions, I do however believe that there were numerous circumstances behind it that were not taken into account correctly by the BBC (Various personal family issues, health issues etc., etc. From what I've read of the whole incident, I get the impression that Clarkson was actually in the process of having a nervous breakdown at the time! - Still, who cares about that possibility!, and besides, it's Clarkson so it couldn't be that he was having a breakdown could it?)

Let's face facts about what happened with Clarkson and the BBC (Not directly related to F1 I appreciate but it does go towards why the BBC can no longer afford F1):

The BBC did not sack Clarkson after he hit the producer, they initially suspended him for the last three episodes he was contracted for and then decided not to renew his contract again - If they were so outraged by his actions, why did they not sack him on the spot?

If they were so outraged by his actions, why are they happily showing re-runs of Top Gear every single night on BBC3 from 7pm~8pm, and re-running the Top Gear specials every chance they get?
They don't make any money showing Top Gear on their own channels and there are no adverts to make money off so why bother re-running a show starring a man you no longer want to be associated with?, a man who is supposedly a disgrace to the corporation?

Why are the BBC happily selling Top Gear merchandise featuring Clarkson if he is a disgrace to the corporation? (Actually I do know the answer to this one: Since dropping Clarkson and losing the Top Gear team they are now incredibly desperate for money!).

Yes the BBC needed to take some form of action against Clarkson but it didn't necessarily mean they had to drop him completely! - They could have suspended him for a longer period of time, delayed the next series of Top Gear for a year and let him sort his life out!

So as it turns out, the BBC have basically lost Top Gear and it's £50Million+ revenue (Chris Evans taking over the show is never going to earn them that sort of money), they've lost F1 because they can no longer afford it and they're basically becoming a TV company that only shows re-runs of old shows and the most depressing, "Oh My God please make it end!, I'm going to slash My wrists" soap opera on the planet that makes the corporation no money whatsoever! - And as I licence fee payer, I have to pay for that s:censored:t to be shown!

Top Gear was their most popular programme around the World and they binned it!

The BBC were renowned for their F1 coverage and more people watched the races on the BBC than SKY, even when it was only the highlight races! - Now they've binned it!

Had they just handled the Clarkson situation differently (not "done nothing", but handled it differently), then they would be in as big a financial mess than they are and they could have kept F1 for at least the duration of their contract.

Still, at least Channel 4 have stepped in so I still get to watch F1 (and hopefully Suzi!) for free and don't have to kowtow to SKY TV for My favourite sport!

 

Jeremy Clarkson has stated that he loves the people who work at the BBC actually making the programmes, and he will be forever grateful for the lifestyle that the BBC have allowed him to have.

He said the problem he does have is with the top bosses who are completely out of touch with the reality of what people really want to see on TV, and the restrictions that they place on those working in the corporation.

So it's not quite as simple as "he hates the BBC", it's aspects of the BBC that he actually hates.

 

The BBC should never have sacked Clarkson, regardless of him slapping a producer.

Clarkson brought millions of spectators to watch Top Gear and was an asset to the BBC, not the unknown producer who got roughed up for a laugh.

I don't care about the message, you don't sacrifice your best entertainner to soothe the ego of a mere producer. And yes it costs them dear!!

I read the BBC may have lost £ millions in lost income; just a few £1000 to bribe the producer to shut his mouth would have been enough .

 

I don't agree with you.....but that's ok.

In my books, you don't have two sets of rules. Just because it's Clarkson, you don't allow what he did. Whether you call it sacking or 'not renewing his contract', they did the right thing....regardless of what his fans want or think should have happened.

The show could have gone on without him IMO, but the others jumped ship with him. I'd like to see if they felt the same way if it was one of them that he hit.

 

Call me an old cynic, but I am an inveterate pragmatist.

I wouldn't have sacrificed Clarkson and Top Gear just because an obscure producer got slapped!!
Money would have changed hands, and "the show would just go on" ...

Top Gear was one of the Beeb best ever programmes, and Clarkson a famous entertainer.
You don't throw that away because of a prank.

 

lol....well, fair enough. I hope you never become a law maker or law upholder though!

It'd be like Sharia law in Bahrain....applies to everyone except the Prince and his family.

 

Opinion - Has the BBC stepped down from F1 just in time?


Opinion - Has the BBC stepped down from F1 just in time? | Autocar


With audiences fading and teams finding it harder to stay competitive, can the BBC really be blamed for stopping its F1 TV coverage?


I like that quote that gives an insight on Hamilton’s “popularity” in UK.


“Despite his third championship, Lewis Hamilton’s following is in decline. For all the he’s-finding-himself excuses used to account for his increasingly weird dalliances with dogs, haircuts, earrings, tattoos, funny hats and woeful rap music, it is clear he has lost the interest of the public; the Beeb’s own Sports Personality voting made that clear.”