BBC Surrenders half F1 rights to SKY

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BBC Surrenders half F1 rights to SKY from next season


from ……..

NEWS.BBC.CO.UK/SPORT1
29-Jul-2011 @ 07:36

and http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12433_7066182,00.html

There are pros and cons to this for the BBC. The big con is that, obviously, they're only showing half the Grand Prix. On the plus side, the Beeb don't lose the rights altogether which wasn't out of the question, the BBC makes 'significant savings', and also, depending on which races the BBC shows live, it could avoid clashes with some other big sporting events, at least in 2012 - the European Grand Prix takes place on Wimbledon's middle weekend, while the German and Hungarian Grand Prix both clash with the Olympics. Also, if they show either the Canadian or US races, rather than both, that'll be only one Sunday evening schedule affected.

I wonder what 'extended highlights' means? Will Sky dictate when the BBC can show their highlights programme? Presumably the highlights for non-live races will be on BBC One/BBC Two rather than BBC Three.

It could have been much, much worse for the BBC.

What worries me about this is the idea of the BBC being there may have propped up Sky's bid, having said that no other terrestrial broadcaster may be interested and if the BBC didn't step in it may have all ended up on Sky.

It might not be too bad if the BBC get their free choice of races and can leave the very early starts to Sky.

I can't help but feel this is a tester for F1, if this works out of the whole thing will go pay on the next contract renewal.

I wouldn't be shocked if Jake went to Sky Sports, the likes of Martin Brundle will have a big decision to make.

I'm no sports fan, and find F1 about as exciting as watching the traffic on a local roundabout, however a lot of my colleagues are F1 fans. Their unanimous view is that if the Beeb need to cut back on the cost, then ditch all the the pre and post race preamble floss. Go back to the days where the coverage starts 5 mins before race start, and 5 mins after the podium. I'm told the MotoGP coverage on Sunday night followed that format, and was a refreshing change. No need for any on site presence by the Beeb just MB and JC via ISDN in sound only.

Interesting Tweet from Brundle



He'll go to Sky.

Well I for one am devastated at this news. I'm not a sky sports viewer myself so this means I will only see half the races with presumably less coverage ie presenting from a BBC studio etc which I expect will happen.

I would have fears that because the BBC are showing half the races live if their coverage is dramatically scaled down they will attract very few viewers and the BBC will cut F1 altogether.

In relation to an above post by Jon Wells I think Jake Humphrey has the big decision to make rather than Martin Brundle. (That is of course if Sky Sports want them...which I hope they do). Jake has other commitments to the BBC so such a move may be risky however Brundle has no other commitments with the BBC. My prediction would be is that Sky will follow the BBC when they took over from ITV. They will keep a balance between keeping the likes of Brundle and Coulthard but also putting their own stamp on it with a new presenter and reporter/s. It will be interesting to see who the BBC get possibly a return of Jonathan Legard to commentary.

I cannot see Sky throwing the budget The BBC threw at it. It was so large it cost more to produce than the whole of BBC 4. I would be surprised if Sky Sports went the full hog and committed large amounts of money to it to bring it up to the quality of BBC's coverage. In addition the viewing figures are going to be significantly reduced so Sky will be reluctant.

Many on twitter are very disappointed with this move as you do not have to be a 'sports' fan to love formula 1. I hope I'm wrong but I cant see the BBC's award winning F1 coverage being reproduced at sky and I fear a massive downscaling on the BBC itself.

Just another point - I would have thought that F1 would be a crown jewl given that all the F1 teams bar 2 or 3 are based in the UK making it the biggest sports employer in the country providing thousands of jobs to engineers etc.

Yeah he'll want to be there for the Olympics

Having listened to Jake on Radio 1 this morning, it sounds to me as though he will probably be staying with the BBC, and might continue in his role for the 10 races that the BBC shows.
I hope that Eddie, David and Martin all go to Sky, the coverage certainly isn't going to be anywhere near as good as the BBC's, but if those three don't continue in their roles then it will be a real shame.

Piston Heads Forum opinions:-

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=204&t=1034837&mid=0&nmt=Only+half+the+F1+races+on+BBC+next+year+

No DOG on Sky Sports 1 or Sky Sports HD1 at the moment. Has the new 10-second fade in rule made it to Sky Sports?

If they can't afford to show the whole thing, they should have just used the opt out clause and dropped the whole thing at the end of this season. Showing half the races is just stupid, especially since the championship can be won at any of the last few races - it's not like a football tournament where it all comes down to the last match.

Are they going to do a similar time share with Wimbeldon? Sky get Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays, and BBC Tuesdays, Thursdays & the Weekend? It'll all be fine though, because they'll have the finals.

Stupid decision. More so in that apparently they're paying 1/3 less than the existing contract, for only half the races.

But the current deal is 3 years old. You wouldn't expect to pay the same again in Sports rights terms for a popular sport like F1, particularly when Sky had already expressed a strong interest in it. Sports rights inflation is still pretty steep - so you'd certainly expect to pay a lot more for the next deal.

So paying less than currently AND keeping some of the sport - when the BBC couldn't afford to continue to pay what it pays currently, let alone pay the significant increase that Bernie would no doubt have wanted, is probably not a bad result.

The BBC has 16% (+4% extra) savings to make as a result of the frozen licence fee AND taking over funding of S4C and World Service Radio. This is on top of the savings processes that have been running for the last 5 years or so. There is only so much that efficiency savings can deliver - the BBC now has to decide what it can and can't afford to continue to do. This is just the beginning of pretty drastic cuts I suspect.