The big news in Formula 1 this week has of course been the BBC selling part of the broadcast rights to Sky Sports. There has been a huge reaction online with a wide array of opinions. I decided I should take a moment and write down my own thoughts. The basic idea of the new deal which starts next year is that all the races will be broadcast on Sky Sports while only half of the races will be live on the BBC, but BBC will still show highlight programmes.
The first reaction a lot of people seem to be having is about the cost. To view everything related to F1 from new year onwards you will require Sky Sports HD. If you don't have Sky already then that is quite an investment. Now personally I have no problem paying for something so long as it has worth and value. People talk about keeping F1 free-to-air but seem to be forgetting about the license fee. Although I will admit there is quite a difference.
The following is based on a season of 20 races with 6 hours of coverage in each race weekend and of course ignoring all the other channels these services offer. Currently on the BBC it costs £7.20 per race to watch. Sky HD with the sports channels will cost you around £669 per year so that is £33.45 per race. If you really enjoy F1 that could be a lot worse. For me personally I am already a subscriber of the basic Sky package so I would just need to add the sports package. The would cost me £375 extra per year or £18.75 per race. That's actually not too bad for a full weekend of entertainment. Still I do have to question whether I really need a channel for just one thing. There is nothing else on Sky Sports in which I am interested, that's why I don't have the package already. It is for similar reasons I don't have Sky Movies either. I go to the cinema and watch DVDs so I don't have any time left for films on Sky, so it's not worth the cost considering how much I would watch it.
My biggest issue is with the coverage itself. The BBC was the original home of F1 and where it was when I started watching. Then in 1997 the broadcast rights went to ITV. I remember at the time being concerned about the mid-race adverts but being glad that Murray Walker would be moving too so there would some continuity. Still it was during the ITV years that I drifted away from the sport. Then in 2009 F1 came back to the BBC and since then they've been building top quality coverage ever since. They've got a great team with Jake, DC and EJ, also with Ted and Lee who came from the ITV team I believe. The team have all built up their relationships with the sport and the teams leading to some unprecedented access. I've read comments online from foreign viewers being extremely surprised how much coverage and special features we get. Of course they won a BAFTA this year for it as well.
So what will happen to this team next year? If they're no longer at the races every week then the unique relationships will degrade. It's pretty obvious that Jake Humphrey is a BBC man through and through, he'll be doing the Olympics after all. So he'll probably remain on the reduced BBC content. Martin Brundle tweeted that his contract was up and he'd be looking at options. I wouldn't be surprised to see him stop his TV work and go back to driver management or perhaps he'll move to Sky. For Lee McKenzie and Ted Kravitz who are already the roving reporter type I imagine different things. Lee has worked at Sky before so I guess she might go back. Ted on the other hand I'll guess he'll end up attached to Radio 5 Live instead. I'm only making vague predictions but I can't imagine the team not being split in some way.
Regardless of what does happen the coverage will be very different next year and having to choose how to watch half of the races will be strange. The problem this become what to watch on the races which both channels air. It will become a competition and if the BBC coverage ends up being better than the Sky coverage then it will make the races that are only on Sky seem less interesting. If I even decide to watch the Sky coverage and it ends up not being very good I can see myself drifting away again. That would be a shame as it's happening when I was getting right back in to it again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That is a very good analysis which I am sure other F1 fans will appreciate. It does seem very infuriating, the whole set up, not just that people will only get the full thing on Sky but also that they will not be able to match what the BBC team had going.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the cost goes, though, it would probably be cheaper to buy 20 x train tickets to here and get free food thrown in!