Banter: Feckin Ecclestone....

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Feckin Ecclestone....

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Forum Name: Banter
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URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8091
Printed Date: 28 Jun 25 at 8:29pm
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Topic: Feckin Ecclestone....

Posted By: chrisg
Subject: Feckin Ecclestone....
Date Posted: 31 Jul 11 at 11:25pm

Anyone else annoyed about the BBC losing the rights to screen all F1 races live next year? If you want to see them live you'll have to line the pockets of the Murdoch's.

I've thought the current coverage is some of the best ever! And some of the races have been slightly interesting too.....

Replies:

Posted By: bert
Date Posted: 01 Aug 11 at 4:31am

I thought it was in the rumour stage & the teams hadn`t seen how it affects them because the sponsors will leave if you have to have sky to watch the race series.

10 million regular viewers on BBC 10 million sky subscribers’.the numbers don`t add up to me.

No team Sponsor`s No money for the teams to produce the cars to race.

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Phantom 1181
AC-227 IC 304
blaze / halo 586

Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 01 Aug 11 at 8:14am

I thought the concorde agreement stated that the coverage should be on Free to Air TV where possible...in the UK it is definitely possible so you may find that FOTA have something to say about this and something may have to be dine, there is an article on BBC Sport about it so it seems a little more than just rumours.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9550930.stm - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9550930.stm

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Paul
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D-Zero GBR 74

Posted By: Mark Jardine
Date Posted: 01 Aug 11 at 8:15am

More than just and a rumour - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9550930.stm - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9550930.stm

Posted By: alstorer
Date Posted: 01 Aug 11 at 9:23am

As well as a carefully worded bit at the start of the coverage explicitly about the deal, did anyone else notice the subtle mentions of it throught- especially from Brundle, who's vented elsewhere about it? Bernie seemed pretty unwilling to talk on the grid as well...

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Al

Posted By: Laser 173312
Date Posted: 01 Aug 11 at 9:41am

We will give F1 the full Sky Sports treatment

This is the worrying part, it means a 2 hour race will need a 5 hour show!

As long as the BBC show Monaco, Silverstone, Spa, Monza and the last race I'll be happy. Sky can happily have Singapore, I hate that race.

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Posted By: alstorer
Date Posted: 01 Aug 11 at 9:56am

To be fair, BBC gives over 3 hours to a 2 hr race plus the additional hour and a half or so on the red button- plus full coverage of qualification and every practice session.

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-_
Al

Posted By: chrisg
Date Posted: 01 Aug 11 at 2:33pm

I think the concorde agreement had a loophole added that said something along the lines of the rights holder had to ensure that not all coverage was on a pay to view channel. So, as the BBC will have some races live next year they are in the clear on that one.

Something fishy is definitely going on. I've read further that it wasnt actually Ecclestone who brokered this deal but that in the BBC cost cutting measures (£900m to move to Manchester anyone) they couldnt afford to honour the remaining period of their contract - to the end of 2013. Bernie said it wasnt down to him to sort out so the BBC went to Sky to partner them. Apparently if the BBC had pulled out wholly then the F1 people would have had to go to a free to air channel and Channel 5 had offered whatever Sky were offering for coverage. But the BBC don't view Sky as a direct competitor but do ITV, Channel 4 and 5 etc so by keeping some races effectively closed the door for any other terrestrial channel in the UK to bid for the whole shebang. Plus the murdoch's are currently trying to buy F1 company which may have had something to do with it...

What I also don't understand is why the teams are swallowing Bernies line that this will increase viewing figures, must be the promise of the additional £1m payment they are being offered from the deal. It's weird becaue every Sky customer can already watch F1 on the BBC, but not every BBC viewer will be able to watch Sky Sports. So how does that improve ratings?

Can you imagine the uproar if the BBC decided they could only afford to show every other episode of Eastenders next year? I heard that the viewing figures for yesterdays F1 was +6m. The most watched program on any channel in the UK. Niche sport huh?

I loved all of the little digs in the commentary over the weekend - Brundle opened with " the Skys closing in", right through to where during the forum afterwards the three presenters went to talk to the crowd and someone grabbed the microphone and said we dont want sky. Jake Humphreys did a really fake shocked look. Brilliant.

And breathe.... Apologies. rant over.....

p.s. over 6000 negative replies to the head of BBC F1's blog so far - do you think they get the picture yet?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/2011/07/f1_coverage_to_be_shared_betwe.html - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/2011/07/f1_coverage_to_be_shared_betwe.html

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Posted By: Jack Sparrow
Date Posted: 01 Aug 11 at 4:39pm

If that is how it went down, the BBC seem to be attempting to write there own death warrant. Ummm... Lets find the best way to migrate as many loyal BBC viewers to a subscription channel and make the license fee debate even harder to argue.

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Posted By: chrisg
Date Posted: 01 Aug 11 at 6:04pm

Of course what I read may be misinformation being spread by FOM....

As I said I'm sure something fishy is going on.

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Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 02 Aug 11 at 8:09am

Ecclestone must have been involved somewhere as the BBC only had the rights to broadcast to the end of 2012 I seem to recall, this deal goes to 2018 which is far beyond the existing agreement.

Definitely something fishy going on!

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Paul
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D-Zero GBR 74

Posted By: chrisg
Date Posted: 02 Aug 11 at 8:45am

Yep Mr Ecclestone agreed to the deal, no doubt the additional £9m his company will get from the partnership might have swayed it a little. Apparently he never forced the BBC to break their exclusive rights deal (they had that until end of 2013 season) though. They couldnt afford it so approached him with the Sky deal to make it work.

I started off by blaming Ecclestone but having read as much as I can about it, I think I'm starting to believe the BBC may be more to blame here than it first seems. They seem to be trying to portray the organisation as the innocent party in all of this by saying they couldnt afford it and this is the best outcome as at least some races stay free to air. If they'd have walked away they would have had penalty clauses but ALL races would be shown live on free to air, on another channel.

Funny how they are claiming poverty after having just spent £900m moving to Manchester (urr perhaps the Sport dept really should still be in London due to a little shindig going on there next year - apparently the expenses bills are going to be huge, but remember folks its a money saving scheme!).

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Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 04 Oct 11 at 2:10pm

Read this and weep Bernie, Sky, BBC et al....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15162241 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15162241

I know 'tis about football....but what it says has wider implications for TV rights across any european state and any sport.....

In theory nothing to stop people from doing this at home to watch their chosen sport (High Court ruling pending of course).

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Paul
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D-Zero GBR 74

Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 02 Dec 11 at 2:35pm

Good news for Sky HD subscribers.... http://www.sky.com/mysky/latestnews/article/my-sky-updates/2011-12/new-sky-channel-to-rev-up-formula-1/index.html - clicky

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Paul
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D-Zero GBR 74

Posted By: alstorer
Date Posted: 03 Dec 11 at 2:42pm

meanwhile, Ferrari left FOTA this week, with a superbly bitchy press release

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-_
Al

Posted By: getafix
Date Posted: 12 Dec 11 at 2:00pm

Unfortunately, I think the prancing horse prancing off has a lot more to do with their cr*ppy results this year and willingness to spend way more than they'd be 'allowed' to by the gents agreement within FOTA than anything else... notice Red Bull weren't far behind either. Now, IMO, I think this is all unfortunate because the smaller teams will just end up much further away from competitiveness (if such a word exists) as the bigger boys spend, spend, spend and they are spending all that dough on a much more developed platform to start with....