Formula 1 shared rights with Sky

[Drencrom]

The easy answer is to get Sky, or we all pay more for our license fee. Either way someone has to pay for a sport which isn't value for money to the avaerage license fee payer. And before anyone says it, yes, EastEnders is a waste of money in my opinion as well. But millions love it - far more than F1, and programmes like EastEnders are better value for money - £30m per year for an average viewership of around 10m, as opposed to the £80m F1 is costing the Beeb every year of the three year contract it signed back in 2009 for approx 6m of viewers.

It's a no-brainer to 'only' cover half the season. The real villain is, of course, Ecclestone.

 

[Neil G]

F**k Sky

That news pissed me off as well, next thing you know they'll have 100% rights to it and the rest of us who don't want to get ripped off having to subscribe to Sky will miss out.

 

[FMJ]

We find your state TV, separate provider$, licensing and such very confusing over here. Do you pay just to have a TV? For every channel besides the BBC individually?

I pay about 20 pounds a month for cable plus another 2 for the HD channels. It includes everything but the new release movie channels and PPV. I'm watching practice at the Hungaroring live right now on SPEED TV HD.

 

[Andy B]

We find your state TV, separate provider$, licensing and such very confusing over here. Do you pay just to have a TV? For every channel besides the BBC?

I pay about 20 pounds a month for cable plus another 2 for the HD channels. It includes everything but the new release movie channels and PPV. I'm watching practice at the Hungaroring live right now on SPEED TV HD.

Everyone in the UK who watches or records TV as it is broadcast needs to be covered by a TV licence. This includes TV on computers, mobile phones, DVD/video recorders and other devices.

The Government sets the level of the licence fee. In January 2007 the licence fee was agreed for a six-year period with the amount being approved each year by Parliament. More recently the Government decided to freeze the licence fee at its 2010 level of £145.50 until the end of the current BBC Charter period in 2016.

There are plenty of 'free' digital channels available over the airwaves, not just the BBC

Then there are (various) cable and satellite (Sky) providers for which you have to pay extra for on top of your TV license

There is also a freeview digital TV service for which you pay a one off fee for the box and you get a certain amount of TV channels not available on regular 'free' TV for your money

Think that's about right, I have a stonking head cold at the mo, so I might have missed something out

 

[Drencrom]

We find your state TV, separate provider$, licensing and such very confusing over here. Do you pay just to have a TV? For every channel besides the BBC individually?

I pay about 20 pounds a month for cable plus another 2 for the HD channels. It includes everything but the new release movie channels and PPV. I'm watching practice at the Hungaroring live right now on SPEED TV HD.

I was just about to add a reply along the lines of "it must seem a bit weird that people are annoyed at having to pay a monthly subscription to watch sport" for those outside of the UK.

In a nutshell, 'terrestrial' TV channels, so BBC 1&2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are free to air - prior to the great digital upgrade that began a few years ago anyone could receive them with a bog-standard aerial provided they pay for a yearly TV License - currently £145 for a colour TV (there are, still people using black & white sets, who pay £49). That money is used to pay for the BBC, across all platforms, as well as some other programming on other channels.

As part of the BBC remit, they identified key sporting events, known as the 'Crown Jewels':

Olympic Games
Fifa World Cup finals (soccer)
Uefa European Championship finals (soccer)
Grand National (horse racing)
FA Cup final (soccer)
Scottish FA Cup (soccer)
Home and away football qualifiers for World Cup and European Championship (soccer)
Wimbledon Championship (tennis)
Open golf championship
Cricket's home Ashes Test matches
Rugby World Cup tournament
Wales matches in Six Nations (in Wales only) (rugby)

Formula 1 is not part of that list, along with an awful lot of football (soccer), rugby, cricket - the main sports for the UK. It just isn't value for money for a non-commercial organisation.

With regards to subscriptions - the fees are around the same over here for basic satellite or cable TV; sports packages add another £15 on top.

So, we pay a license of £145 to allow us to receive TV (and radio), which will get you 5 TV channels - and then if you wish to 'upgrade' you can either go down the cable/satellite route and pay per month for hundreds of channels, or pay a one-off cost for a Freeview receiver that picks up a lot of them without the monthly costs.

 

[FMJ]

145/yr. for 5 channels, then you have to pay for cable on top of that?!?!? :shock: Insane.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Technically the 5 channels status is no more as we knew it. It just allows us to watch TV. % channels is all the analogue system could cope with.
Free to Air is now digital (few areas have analogue, my area being one of the later to switch and is about to do so in a few days) so the 5 normal channels are now whatever FreeView or FreeSat platforms can provide. There is now no 'one off fee' as it's obligatory to continue watching and built in the tellies anyway.

Now I just want to find a FreeView + FreeSat combined box and I'll be happy (my TV is, I just want a box for the other TV's)

Stuff F1GP now, I hope we get the good one on BBC still.
While you can still get SkySports on Freeview I don't think it's HD and some£20+ a month :shock:

I can see torrents getting hit harder again :roll: ... actually if the BBC keeps the good and EU ones, then the ones at the odd hours will be highlights then I'll be happy. I've started missing some and watching the recordings recently, what with damn retrobikers wanted to go riding

 

[sylus]

if you watch them on the i/player...plus 4 and the itv version..you do not need a licence

 

[daj]

I wish they biffed what is meant to be the "pinnacle" of motorsport off the face of this world ...Maybe ...just maybe it would get the millions of people that waste 16 (dont know how many it is now!??!) sunday afternoons watching this troll and get out to their national circuits to watch proper motorsport.

Real people , real cars and real racing

 

[FluffyChicken]

if you watch them on the i/player...plus 4 and the itv version..you do not need a licence

as long as it's not being broadcast at the time (or you're recording it)
This includes, TV, Computer, media boxes, mobile phones etc. even if it's Sky, Virgin, BBC etc.