It always amuses me when the UK blokes complain about Sky. They have no idea how lucky they are.
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Formula 1 2017 Season |OT| Japanese Horror Story - Sundays on Sky
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It always amuses me when the UK blokes complain about Sky. They have no idea how lucky they are.
Waldo Lydecker
Member
Indeed. In the Netherlands and Germany for decades we are used to watching commercials with some small snippets of race footage in between...
No amount of coverage is worth the price of admission, not to meantion the free to air coverage has always been better in my opinion. Yes you will only see the 3 main events but that's enough.
Its £31.75 for the channels and you have to add extra £7 for HD.
I am not sure other European channels are locking F1 coverage behind paywalls but come 2019 until 2024 at least, the only way to watch F1 in the UK is to pay this outrageous price.
Seriously. I skipped to Sky UK a long time ago because their coverage is phenomenal. A certain partisanship to their home drivers is expected and not NEARLY as bad as anything I was used to by german channels RTL and Sky. And, obviously, the pre-coverage is miles and miley beyond anything you get in germany.
I can see why you may find the Sky coverage great, if German coverage is not up to standard, however here in the UK the free to air coverage has historically always been good.
Heck most of the guys Sky now employs, were part of the BBC team of F1.
This 100% I have absolutely no want to pay for sky and a crap load of channels and content that I wont watch, and have the privilege of watching the ridiculous amount of adds on top of a whacking monthly fee.
If Liberty Media don't want to lose a huge amount of "legitimate" viewers from the UK they need to come up with something quick.
Also Sky's coverage is absolutely terrible.
It's not BBC-era Jake + Brundle + Coulthard + Jordan, but it's by no means terrible.
Liberty should hire them to be the faces of the new global F1 feed, which will be accessible only via subscription [like MotoGP].
I would be behind that if the subscription wasn't something ridiculous.
As other said before, i have no interest in the other channels that are part of the package.
I would consider any coverage where I only like 1 of the regular presenters (Brundle) to be terrible, and Crofty actively makes races worse to watch with his commentary.
But of course this is all subjective and I'm glad you can enjoy the coverage I just can't.
Sadly true
Have you considered NowTV? That is how I watch F1. I nab a content 'pass' each weekend; in essence, the GP weekend is a pay-per-view event. But at least I'm not saddled with a rolling subscription (I also have *no* interest whatsoever in anything else Sky have).
That isn't to say I sing the *praises* of their coverage. They have ad breaks during the practice sessions, for example, which is a bummer (I mute those, and do something else), and so far as I've seen since I've been using the service to follow F1, just about everything that isn't 'cars racing around a track' is garbage (another reason they aren't worth a rolling sub).
I think Ziggo Sport is quite good tbh.
Daffy Duck
Member
Yep Sky F1 coverage is fantastic.
Loved th the bit they did today about freight and getting the cars and teams everywhere.
I'd love a documentary and full in depth show on that.
If you like your coverage shallow, heavily fanboyish and want to see more of what is actually happening about three laps before the actual commentator realizes it, sure. Not to mention the absolutely abysmal pre- and post-shows.
People complain about Sky being expensive, but I can't for the life of me imagine a scenario where I would pay for Olav Mol & Co.
Psychotext
Member
I use NowTV, but it pisses me off that I can't watch qualifying unless I buy two day passes or a week pass.
Fair play. For me, F1 is just about worth what I pay - though part of this is that I am very lucky in that I can arrange remote-working so I can catch Friday sessions live, for example. The four-quid (something like that) difference between the day-pass and the week-pass is worth it to me to catch practice and quali.
Though if F1 had something like what MotoGP does... *MAN*. Those damn rights contracts are *long* - but I hope one day Liberty will be in a position to offer their own content packages directly. I'd *absolutely* maintain a subscription to a service that pulled together F1 and the various feeder and support series, and let me watch old or 'classic' races on demand, in addition to live action.
Edit: I thought you were the person I originally responded to. Both usernames begin with 'P'. Don't judge me!
Fox Mulder
Member
Yeah, coverage is shit in the US. Riddled with ads like all our sports, but also low budget broadcasts on nbcsn. Don't get shit for pre race coverage and produced bits like Sky does. Need more than Will Buxton and a camera guy at a race really.
nekkid
It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
*sits smugly while still having their legacy F1 bundle honoured on Sky Q*
Apart from on-demand classics (although they are played frequently), isn't this exactly what SSF1 offers?
Apart from on-demand classics (although they are played frequently), isn't this exactly what SSF1 offers?
Jezbollah
Member
You're not wrong. My experience over a number of years when I have been to Italy (like right now) is their coverage starts 1hr before the session starts, and you are fed canned highlights of each race to act as filler and a few minutes here and there with live pit lane interviews with Ivan Capelli and Giancarlo Fisichella.
Oh, and the bias here is insaaaane. Ferrari dominate 80%+ of the non replay coverage.
I suspect people need to see other countries coverage to see how good we get it in the U.K.
Not even remotely.
Frankfurter
Member
I fear we'll soon be in the pay-TV only territory here in Germany as well :/ Atleast that's the current rumor.
Jezbollah
Member
I think the NowTV option is very reasonable for the races you can't see live on Channel 4
Sad that's the case, but I don't think it's helped by Germany declining as an F1 market over the last decade.
Jezbollah
Member
To be fair, that's not Sky's fault, that's down to Bernie. People might complain that they're "forced" to buy the service to get it, but they're getting a whole channel dedicated to the sport, and that includes all sessions from the entire weekend (from GP3/F2 as well) - something that has never been offered to viewers of this country.
I think the commitment by Sky to F1 is under appreciated - they could have easily half-assed the coverage on one of their existing sports channels and have people only in a U.K. studio with maybe three people in the commentary booth and pit lane on site - but they haven't.
nekkid
It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
#tellmemore
Jezbollah
Member
Again, that's not Sky's fault, it's down to Bernie. And possibly can be traced back to the BBC too. If the Beeb had half the commitment Sky has to F1, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
Premiership football is still water cooler talk, even though it's been on Sky for the best part of 20 years. Match Of The Day helps there, so no reason why delayed F1 highlights can't do the same there.
nekkid
It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
Yeah it was mainly the BBC who wanted to forego their commitment to their contract by approaching Sky.
Too often it seems like Olav Mol's been looking at a different screen than what the audience is looking at, because he'll miss something that was clearly on screen, or mention something that's not popped up yet or at all.
I like Doornbos in the pre/post shows, but everybody else is cringe.
But at least there are no ad breaks like when it was on RTL 7.
And at least for the other race classes I can switch to the English commentary
Adam Scott Aukerman
Member
The BBC can't afford to have that commitment to F1, and really, F1 has not been deserving of that commitment for the best part of a decade at least.
If whatever highlights package Sky sell on to FTA is sufficient, then I'll probably continue watching (and be thankful for regaining Sunday afternoons), but I'd gladly drop F1 in a heartbeat if the choice comes down to not watching or paying for Sky.
Jezbollah
Member
Funnily enough Arrivabene also blanked Rai pretty hard too. I guess old Mauricio has little interest in the media....
Yep his company makes smart dildo's and fleshlight's. He is basically the Steve Jobs of sex toys.
The real reason his career ended is because he got into a fight with his sponsor, a real estate mogul. Tried to sue him for the sponsorship money he gave Doornbos, saying it was a loan. He lost that, of course, but Doornbos never got back to driving.
Interesting. You'd also think someone else would be willing to sponsor him, but I guess he got tired of the necessary evils of sponsorships in an expensive sport.
(And it wouldn't make sense to put sex toy ads on a car either).
Although...
FrankCanada97
Roughly the size of a baaaaaarge
Yeah, all good points. I meant it in the context of it being free and with no commercials during the race, I can't complain.
Waldo Lydecker
Member
This. Although I like Olav Mol a lot the rest of Ziggo is terrible in a way only Dutch television can be terrible: yelling camping site like public in a studio with always a 'famous' person who likes F1 (people like DJ's, retired speed skaters or terrible musicians), a bald failure of a comic as host, people who can drive against Ronald Doornbos in a simulator... ugh.
Before that my only way of being able to watch F1 was on RTL Television and well... multiple commercial blocks of 5+ minutes of which only two are so-called 'splitscreen werbung', multiple interruptions during a race for 'unseren Gewinnspiel wobei Sie einen funkelnagelneuen Ford Kuga im Wert von 32.000 Euro gewinnen können', a lot of Kai Ebel and Germany Hosanna commentary (the most own country driver biased ever).
I've watched some Sky footage last year during the Hennöken ace streams (which is now gone sadly) and while it isn't the quality of BBC days of F1 with Murray Walker and the intro with that nice instrumental part Fleetwood Mac's The Chain I found it to be miles better than the alternatives...
Well yeah, that's one way of putting it.
What i basically mean is that if we say the tracks from this point suit Ferrari/Mercedes 50/50 (which is how Sky Sports are calling it), Mercedes really need to avoid being the bread in a Red Bull sandwich on the street circuit/technical tracks or it's game over.
50/50? I don't see any track that favors the Ferrari over the Mercedes for the remainder of the calendar. Some tracks are a toss up, but Singapore, like Monaco is a cost Merc already factored in. They're damage control tracks.
Apparently, Hamilton is vegan now. It's also news, for some reason.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1...bc_sport&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=sport
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1...bc_sport&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=sport
Yeah I just had a deeper look and thought Sky were pretty generous to Ferrari with that assessment too.
Suzuka and Interlagos up for grabs but the rest still suit Mercedes power for mine.
That said a technical failure or engine penalties on the wrong circuit could change things up.
Still Hamilton's championship to lose for mine but their margin for error seems to be increasingly thin now. Ultimately Ferrari still need to pinch one they aren't expected to.
If only the internet could crowdfund Team Maldonado to get in and shake things up.
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