lovegroova

You're confusing subscribers with viewers - they are two different things. A family of four may use one subscription.

You can still watch highlights of every race on BBC, much like many people do with Match of the Day.

Interestingly in May, 4.36m watched MOTD vs 4.75m for the Spanish GP.

British GP pulled in 4.94m

Figures here: http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyT...ammesOverview?

gbduo

Yeh I had a look at those figures earlier but I am not entirely sure of their accuracy, I mean how do they work it out?!

I thought it would have been a lot more than 5m watching the BGP. Especially as the roads were so quiet when it was on.

I don't know, I am resigned to the fact that F1 will now go to pay tv in 2018, but best to make the most of it whilst it is FTA and this season.

Lets hope for a good weekend for McLaren in Hungary!

gbduo

Too funny! Bloody good shot!

chilled

I did the figures, and on virgin media it will cost a minimum of 150 to watch the races on sky. It's an extra 70 minimum to watch it in hd.

Not exactly a bargain.

lovegroova

I suspect with a good deal more accuracy than the figures you plucked out of the air earlier!

As an existing Sky Sports subscriber, I'm actually pleased, as it means I'll get more sport for my money. (I already watch quite a lot of BBC so as a percentage of my licence fee vs percentage of my Sky Sports subscription it makes sense.)

I will lose HD for the Sky only races as I'm not prepared to fork out the extra £7 a month that Virgin Media want for the service, but I'm not hat bothered really as HD doesn't really add much to F1. 3D might be very good though and with Sky on board, there's more likelihood of that happening.

gbduo

The problem is, is that the camera work is done by Bernie's firm, FOM, Sky and BBC just have the rights to show that live feed and commentate/do post/pre show. The actual race and the cameras used is nothing to do with the broadcaster, but obviously I guess they have a say if they want to go 3D

I won't be taking out Sky Sports just for F1, but yeh, I can your point.

And what!? My figures were dead accurate mate!

lower

Is it? I thought the track camera work was done by the broadcaster that had the rights to show F1 in each respective country and then feed out to all the other broadcasters around the world.

gbduo

Oh, maybe, I thought it was FOM because I remember some BBC coverage saying that it was FOM who were dragging their heels in doing F1 in HD. But I have no idea how you can find out either way, but pretty sure FOM have a massive say in the broadcasting.

lovegroova

As I stated much earlier in the thread, all actual footage is supplied to broadcasters by FOM - that's why you get the F1 logo swooshy thing just before each race. All broadcasters thus show exactly the same footage. The only difference is commentary and pit lane reporting.

The production work may well be sub-contracted out to a local broadcaster, but that one feed is the same everywhere.

Dembo

WHS. It's been that way for several years now. I think it's a hangover from when Bernie launched his pay F1 channel a few years ago, which I don't think anybody's mentioned on this thread: F1 has been on a Sky pay channel before. It flopped that time of course, but it did pave the way for FOM taking over to provide consistent coverage, and things like the on screen telemetary and pit lane transmissions that I'm sure we all like.

So really it's a case of whether you prefer the Jake/Eddie/Dave "Last of the Summer Wine" type pre/post show, or Tony Jardine and a bimbo on Sky.