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back to article Murdoch muscles BBC out of Formula One driving seat

BSkyB has snatched the full Formula 1 broadcasting rights from the BBC, which had been the exclusive channel showing the live races since 2009. It's a deal sure to upset fans of the Beeb's recent slick coverage of F1, which has won bumper TV ratings. BSkyB will – from the start of the 2012 motor-racing season – broadcast …

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  1. g7rp0

    Can I assume

    That we are going to see cuts in the uttter shit that is that dancing travesty that is hosted by Forsythe (Who incidentally should have been pensioned off a long time ago).

    Sky now has pretty much every sport worth watching, cut some salaries from people like forsythe, moyles et al and we we might get some decent programming again.

    I would like to know what races the BBC will still have, they have said British and Monoco iirc, but whats the odds on the rest are the ones on at silly o clock on the morning UK time?

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  2. Joel Mansford
    FAIL

    What kind of deal is that?

    Half the races? wtf!?!

    This is the *ONLY* sport I watch. I hope that F1 see the error of their ways and realise they benefit more from having it on the BBC beyond what they get paid directly.

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  3. HaplessPoet
    Mushroom

    Hello, wake up, it's coffee you can smell.

    Firstly, to everyone who said "the only thing I watch on BBC is F1" you are lying, so stop it, be honest, add Top Gear & QI, come clean!

    Secondly, Mr Ecclestone, is mistaken. Sky only have 10m subscribers and I am 100% sure they won't all watch F1. So BBC and Mr Eccelstone, you are sadly mistaken, viewing figures will fall.

    Thirdly, to any BBC managers reading (enjoy your job while you can) you are making a mistake, if you think you aren't then sadly you should resign, because you are clearly in the wrong job!

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  4. Arnie
    Thumb Down

    That'll show murdoch

    ........What a tough line our government have taken with him. Just let him buy the rights to F1 off of our state owned media. Bet the poor man can't sleep at night.

    Personally I wish the BBC had pulled out altogther. Fans will be double dipped having to pay the licence fee subscription and a sky sport sub on top. I'd rather my license fee monies be used for new episodes of cash in the attic and bargin (rhymes with) hunt. y'know quality award winning content. Rather than for half the races and a highlights package.

    The reality is F1 is driven by sponsers. These sponsers invest based on footprint and volumes of viewers. Will sky pick many subscribers up off the back of this? or will it just be a bonus for the footy fans? If numbers drop significantly on the beeb then there really is a chance advertisers will eventually start pulling out. That can't be good for F!.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Damn you Murdoch..

    How will I manage to get to sleep on a Sunday afternoon now if it's on Sky?

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  6. Cyberelic

    Oi! Bernie - NO!!!

    That man should be roasted on a spit over a slow fire, whilst all us F1 fans take turns to kick him in the delicate bits.

    P.

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  7. MJI Silver badge
    WTF?

    Who is going to pay for my satellite mods?

    80cm dish

    2 quad LNBs

    2 multiway DiSeqc switches

    Lining it up

    The BBC?

    Bernie the dwarf?

    Unfortunately me

    And my wife doesn't want me to put up another but the 65cm is too small for 3 Quad LNBs

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      WTF?

      That is all.

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  8. MJI Silver badge

    TF1 HD

    Is it FTA?

    If not may just go RTL

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      RTE

      I remember during the ITV era, switching it on to RTE for their coverage during the ITV ad breaks.

      Unfortunately Setanta bought the rights and no longer broadcast.

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  9. Danunwin

    Still Hope

    From a little googling i've done, the Concord agreement uses the wording "F1 Events" when describing the free to air issues, so a race shown on sky and not BBC will be in breach so long as it affects the viewing figures.

    I have emailed FOTA & the BBC, the more that do saying we will not be paying for Sky the better, at worst we will cost them email storage and time in replying to so many emails.

    It will probabaly fall on deaf ears but it's worth a shot.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Why not show last years races?

    All F1 races look the same anyway

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  11. James Dunmore
    Go

    It's a political move

    i.e the beeb are cutting popular items to cause outrage, rather than cut - say, bbc 4 that no one watches.

    I think F1 should remain on free-to-view (in the short term), however, I already have sky sports, sky always do excellent sports coverage so it isn't a bad thing.

    In the long run, we should scrap all license TV (well, happy to pay a means/house-sized based fee towards documentary making, but not eastenders and chris moyles' salary) - and go true PPV on demand. It's not far away (in the future) anyway.

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    iplayer?

    I love the f1 on the BBC and it has rekindled my love for the sport. One of my favourite parts was the ability to use the iplayer in the unfortunate event that I missed a race.

    I assume Sky dont have something similar?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      skyplayer

      see title.

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    WHY??

    Why couldn't they put half the episodes of Eastenders on sky instead..

    (in fact I'd be happy if they all went.)

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    A1 Grand Prix

    Surprised no one has mentioned the A1 Grand Prix yet. It was only available on Sky and, err, was a flop.

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  15. Aggellos
    Holmes

    direct your anger at the right target

    not much point complaining here,

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

    is the best place to complain to such an undemocratic body like BBC

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      What?

      You're still missing the point. The BBC were outbid they didn't decide to hand F1 to Sky for free. Now normally these auctions are sealed bid only, so you decide how much you want to bid and don't find out how much your competitors are bidding. As such you don't get another go.

      The majority of licence fee payers do not watch F1. If the BBC had bid more then would you consider it OK for all the people who don't watch it to complain that the BBC were spending too much money on a minority interest?

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      1. Jedit Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Blue Sky thinking

        "The majority of licence fee payers do not watch F1"

        True. This is something F1 coverage has in common with literally every other program on the air. By your logic, therefore, the BBC should not make or purchase the rights to any programming at all.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Hardly

          The point is that people are complaining that the BBC did not bid an awful lot more to secure F1. I was merely pointing out that, had the BBC bid bid enough to secure F1 then it would be just as valid for people to complain about the amount of money "wasted" on F1 when it could have been better spent elsewhere.

          The point being that complaining to the BBC in large numbers (or raising a petition) would put you on a hiding to nothing. People suggesting that the BBC would change their minds because a number of viewers complained seem to think that the BBC is some sort of democracy. The point of my post was that if the BBC were a democracy then they would always have to go with the majority.

          I never said I thought the BBC should always go with the majority, just that a minority should be careful about trying to play some sort of democracy card.

          Even so there seem to be an awful lot of people out there who seem to think that complaining to the BBC about this will suddenly change the situation. It won't. The contracts have been signed.

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  16. Jon H
    Unhappy

    Typical!

    Great, I've just bought my first HD tele, still waiting for it to be delivered in fact. I bought one with FreeSat HD built in so I wouldn't have to pay Sky. Honestly I've been looking forward to F1 in HD more than other programs and now all this, just typical.

    How many Sky Sports subscribers are there already? Obviously Sky next year will take that figure and say they have that many F1 viewers making it sound like they've won a lot of fans over.

    If we can't see all the races live, public interest will wain, revenue from the UK will be down and this will slowly get noticed by the F1 teams and more importantly their sponsors and hopefully they will then kick up a fuss.

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  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WRC

    WRC went on PayTV.

    And look how popular it is now compared to the heyday of the late 90s, when every boy racer aspired to own a Subaru (which were once the sole preserve of farmers!).

    Citroen are doing well, but it hasn't helped their sales of 'hot hatch' versions in the UK because nobody watches anymore, and most people don't even know that Subaru and Mitsubishi no longer have factory WRC teams!

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    1. MJI Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      I used to like WRC

      Remember bits back to early 80s

      But mainly in the McCrae and Burns era.

      Then the RAC rally became a joke.

      Then TV coverage disappeared.

      News about Subaru - so thats why they are not selling as well.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Stupid Rules

      Rallying has always been at it's most popular when the competing cars closely resembled the cars the fans could buy themselves. In the days when Mitsubishi and Subaru dominated you could buy homologation special road cars. These days you can't really buy a road going version of the Citroen.

      I think the decline in popularity of WRC has a lot to do with the stupid rules they have that have made a mockery of the sport by allowing some teams to run what amount to modern day group B cars that don't have a lot in common with road cars. Take for example the Peugeots from a few years back. The homologation rules are pretty rigid, but Peugeot were allowed to bend them while nobody else was. Everybody was running reasonably large cars, but Peugeot took a smaller car, the 206, and put big fat bumpers on it to take it up to the minimum length. Nobody else was allowed to do this and surprise surprise the Peugeot dominated. If they'd been competing on a level playing field with the likes of Mitsubishi they would have been running something like a 406 (equivalent in size to the Lancer) and would have lost. But the 206 had a weight and wheelbase advantage over the oposition and won. Rallying is still largely ruled by the French and the rules tend to be twisted to suit the French teams. It has been thus since before the days of WRC.

      Who's old enough to remember the 1966 Monte Carlo? The powers that be actually stated there was no way the Mini would be allowed to win again, but it did. So they put a huge effort into disqualifying the BMC team. All they could find was that the headlamp bulbs on the works Minis were not homologated and so the car was disqualified and IIRC a Citroen won. All they could come up with was the headlamp bulbs, but on the other hand when a complete car openly flouts the homologation rules that's OK as long as it's French. Of course as far as rally fans from outside France were concerned the Citroen didn't win and no matter what the official record books say most people consider that the Mini won in 1966.

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  18. HaplessPoet
    Thumb Up

    e-petition at direct.gov now available

    http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/57

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      What?

      What have the government got to do with it?

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