F1 moving to Sky - Time the BBC licence became optional

[d000hg]

I thought F1 said they wouldn't go to Sky because they want the biggest audience.

It'll be interesting how the coverage works when they only show 1/2 the races... probably the BBC commentators will spend 1/2 the time bitching about it

[d000hg]

Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, said: "This is fantastic news for F1 fans and Sky Sports will be the only place to follow every race live and in HD.

Why is it fantastic news? Sky subscribers can see it already, and BBC are already showing it in HD. Doubtless the Sky commentators are crap too?

[Paddy]

Not as bad as Denmark

The licence fee in Denmark is 2,260 kr[13] (€303.35) in media licence fee (which applies to all TVs, computers with Internet access above 256 kbit/s or with TV tuners or other devices that can receive broadcast TV: which actually means that you have to pay the TV licence if you have a relatively new mobile phone [14] ). Radio licence is 320 kr (around €43).

Television licence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Gonzo]

I say the same thing time and again.

You all might complain about the TV licence but unless you don't watch TV at all then you would not like living somewhere that there is no equivalent.

There's no licence where I am now and TV is abysmal.

We can get around the saturation advertising by not watching anything at the time it is broadcast and then fast-forwarding through the ads.

Can't do anything about the fact that the vast majority of the shows are lowest common denominator stuff, and all imported from the US, UK and to a lesser extent Australia.

[snaw]

I say the same thing time and again.

You all might complain about the TV licence but unless you don't watch TV at all then you would not like living somewhere that there is no equivalent.

There's no licence where I am now and TV is abysmal.

We can get around the saturation advertising by not watching anything at the time it is broadcast and then fast-forwarding through the ads.

Can't do anything about the fact that the vast majority of the shows are lowest common denominator stuff, and all imported from the US, UK and to a lesser extent Australia.

Gotta agree with that, I've lived in several countries and while UK may not be perfect, it's head and shoulders above the any other english speaking country I've lived in.

[lilelvis2000]

I thought F1 said they wouldn't go to Sky because they want the biggest audience.

It'll be interesting how the coverage works when they only show 1/2 the races... probably the BBC commentators will spend 1/2 the time bitching about it

I think Bernie said that he would not go Pay-per-view and keep F1 on a free to air channel. Sky is not free to air, just wondered why ITV didn't put in a bid.

[suityou01]

In an age of virtually infinite digital choice, the BBC licence fee is unfair and cruel. No viewer has ever decided that the BBC should take £8 million a day from the public - approximately £3 billion a year.

A simple nationwide boycott should bring them to their knees quick enough. There aren't enough courts in the land to prosecute eeeeverybody simultaneously, the backlog would take years to process.

[VectraMan]

Well now the racing has gone to sky it would appear I need to buy another dish, buy a sky package, pay for someone to fit it along next to my freesat dish an pay to be switched on. Or I could buy another stand alone dish, point it to Europe watch the race on French TV and tune into the radio for a live commentary.
I don’t think so, life is hard enough right now
Good bye F1

I salute your staggering level of ignorance of satellite TV technology

I don't like the principle of the licence fee, but on balance it has to be said the BBC is probably a good thing and probably does result in greater quality than we might otherwise have. But even though I like to see F1 on "free" TV, and without ads, I can't really support the idea of a taxpayer funded broadcaster bidding millions in competition for the rights to premium content, like major sporting events. That's really not what the licence fee should be for.

[Sysman]

Or I could buy another stand alone dish, point it to Europe watch the race on French TV and tune into the radio for a live commentary.

That's a workable idea. One of my neighbours in te UK did that years ago because all the satellite salesmen he talked to were only interested in supplying English speaking channels.

Here on the mainland I get F1 and other sports events on something like half a dozen channels.

[Sysman]

Gotta agree with that, I've lived in several countries and while UK may not be perfect, it's head and shoulders above the any other english speaking country I've lived in.

Agreed it can be dire in some places. In one place we survived on imported tapes and even the weather forecast was welcome.