Reply to: F1 moving to Sky - Time the BBC licence became optional

[gingerjedi]

Who says I've never watched it. It's just a bunch of 'thugs' that have more in common with Neanderthals than humans, just a load of overpaid kids. Yes as performing monkeys, they are very impressive, but the matches just seem to be a long drawn out affairs interspersed with play acting and bad ref decisions when the various 'thugs' fall over. I used to enjoy football back when the likes of George Best played, and even Norman Whiteside but it simply is not exiting to watch given the lack of sportsmanship. And I know you'll come back and say what about when player X passed to Y, but a few exciting bits in a 90 minute match do not cut it for me.

FTFY

Now you know how non Man U fan feels about watching a game at Old Trafford.

[BoredBloke]

It's easy to make generalizations without actually watching it.

F1 is really popular, and specifically F1 figures are up since it moved to the BBC since the BBC coverage has been very well done.

Who says I've never watched it. It's just a bunch of 'cars' that have more in common with a fighter jet than a car, piloted by a load of overpaid kids. Yes as machines, they are very impressive, but the races just seem to be a long procession intersperced with 'overtaking' when the various 'cars' pit. I used to enjoy F1 back when the likes of Senna drove, and even Schumacher (sp!) but it simply is not exiting to watch given the lack of overtaking. And I know you'll come back and say what about when driver X overtook driver Y, but a few exciting bits in a 3 hour race do not cut it for me.

[gingerjedi]

They do stream it over the internet but it's only available in Germany, AUstria and Switzerland. In theory.

Download Hotspot Shield

You can watch Hulu with that too (a sort of American iPlayer with 1000's of new shows).

[Zippy]

From what I've heard, RTL SD is in the clear, but HD is encrypted. There's a rumour that the B&Q box comes with a card for the HD to decrypt it, which lasts for a year.

They do stream it over the internet but it's only available in Germany, AUstria and Switzerland. In theory.

[Freamon]

Yup. As long as it's transmitted in clear, you'll be ok.

If it's encrypted, then you're stuffed.

But a box from B&Q is currently about £20 for the box & dish, so not much to lose there.

From what I've heard, RTL SD is in the clear, but HD is encrypted. There's a rumour that the B&Q box comes with a card for the HD to decrypt it, which lasts for a year.

[d000hg]

Did anyone else think Jake's little piece thanking all the people who made the show great, and thanking the viewers for their feedback, sounded a lot like a good-bye?

[d000hg]

Watching F1 is like watching a motorway. It doesn't matter to me if Sky have it or if it's only shown in Belguim. It's dull. The cars might as well be on tracks!

It's easy to make generalizations without actually watching it.

As for people complaining about it moving to sky, why should F1 be any different to other sports that have moved?

F1 is really popular, and specifically F1 figures are up since it moved to the BBC since the BBC coverage has been very well done.

[gingerjedi]

Every so often mine tells me to connect it to a telephone socket.

I don't have a telephone socket to connect it to any more.

They are quite hot on this if you have multi-room, they don't trust people who are friendly with their neighbours.

[lilelvis2000]

Every so often I get phoned up by Sky and asked if I want the movie channels & the sports channels.

They seem ever so surprised when I say no.

For the past two years my box has been asking me to cough up £20 to replace my freeview card....for the privilege of watching channel 5. Yeah, like I'm gonna pay £20 to just so I can watch channel 5.

[BoredBloke]

Watching F1 is like watching a motorway. It doesn't matter to me if Sky have it or if it's only shown in Belguim. It's dull. The cars might as well be on tracks!

As for people complaining about it moving to sky, why should F1 be any different to other sports that have moved?

[Freamon]

Soooo ... we need to find the free picture stream on t'interweb and listen to R5 Live (they talk over the pics from the practice sessions and are very good). A quick Google and <cough> RTL </cough>

Rumour has it that RTL can be received with a euro satellite box that can be purchased from B&Q, and a dish pointed at Astra 19.2E.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.