The BBC/Sky F1 deal announced yesterday (29th July) has left most fans of the sport feeling angry and disappointed. Some of the comments I've heard from people trying to stop me ranting about it have just made me more irate. Here's why:
At least if you have to buy Sky Sports to watch F1, you'll get to watch NASCAR too
This argument is based on the idea that if you like one motor sport, you'll watch them all. Would you assume a jump-racing fan to be equally enamoured with three-day eventing, on the basis that they both involve horses? Did cricket fans react to the move to Sky Sports by saying 'never mind, if I want to watch men hit balls with sticks there's still golf on the BBC'?
I am an F1 fan who happens to also enjoy touring cars on ITV4 and the occasional foray into Moto GP. I don't especially want to watch NASCAR. If I did, I would already have Sky Sports.
Football fans have had to rely on Sky Sports for years - stop complaining!
Sky Sports broadcast 115 Premier League matches each season. Include Football League, SPL, internationals and assorted cup games to more than double that figure.
If you're talking value for money, adding Sky Sports to my existing TV package works out at less than £1 per football match, but more than £10 for each of the 20 F1 races in a season. That's before considering the hundreds of millions of pounds that Sky have invested in football, which won't be matched for F1 (unless News Corp. up the ante on their rumoured bid to buy into F1 and let's face it, even with their recent scandals and shaky stock market performance, there are some serious spare bucks available now that the BSkyB deal is off).
It's just a necessary part of the BBC cuts
It's no secret that the BBC have been looking to offload F1, but there are economies available within the existing model (some good examples in a blogpost here by James McLaren). I could cope without the features on tyres, driver profiles and Eddie Jordan's insane conspiracy theories (in fact, Eddie Jordan altogether). Just pay for the race footage and get Brundle/Coulthard to commentate from a studio. If we want to know more, the Internet will provide.
The BBC are axing award-winning motor sport coverage in favour of continuing to allow Jeremy Clarkson to dick around with expensive cars and ludicrous machines on the increasingly indulgent Top Gear (a show that doesn't get anywhere near the audience share of F1, which regularly outstrips the likes of Eastenders on this measure). I'm not even going to start on some of the light entertainment dross that the BBC's produced in recent years (some examples: In With The Flynns, White Van Man, 2 Pints post Ralf Little ... in fact any show with Will Mellor).
F1 sponsors will be pleased by the advertising opportunities on Sky
Sky have already said that there won't be any advertisements during the race itself, but of course in many ways F1 is already one big advertisement, for the various sponsors and the car manufacturers themselves.
There will of course be advertising opportunities either side of the main event, but that would have been true on ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 or any number of other of commercial channels that don't demand a premium subscription rate. I'd rather go back to the days of ITV advertising during the race itself (mostly clever Honda ads, as I recall).
I'm sure the sponsors would be delighted if all 6-7 million viewers from the BBC continue to watch on Sky, but that won't happen. The net effect will be that exposure to all of that in-race advertising from the sponsors is seriously diminished and that's not going to please them at all.
You'll be able to watch it in pubs and sports bars if it's on Sky
Races in the Far East and Australia can start as early as 5am - not a time that most pubs will be open, or fans inclined to watch in any situation other than pyjama-clad on the sofa.
European races are at weekend lunchtimes, the same time as Premier League football, so it's unlikely many bars would prioritise F1. (I did recently persuade a Cardiff pub to put the Monaco race on their big screen when I had a power-cut, but that was on a rare football-free day and they only had four customers).
Not everyone lives in a big city with plenty of possible venues. My dad, who has watched F1 since the 1960s, lives in rural Somerset where Sky do not provide a signal, leaving him stuck with Freeview and thus no means by which to watch half the races from 2012 onwards.
F1 is a niche sport for petrolheads and a few hangers-on who've jumped on the Hamilton/Button bandwagon
Simply not true. The F1 fans I know are diverse and loyal to the sport. For my own part, I started watching in the 1980s while still at primary school. My mother spent many a Sunday fruitlessly trying to get my father and I to sit up at the table for lunch. After around 25 years of following F1, I rarely miss a race. I don't own a car out of choice, because I am to road-driving what Pedro Diniz was to F1, but that doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for the sport.
Last word goes to Bernie Ecclestone, quoted in this Telegraph article recently: "It isn't possible that F1 could go on to pay-TV, we wouldn't want to do that". Oh Bernie. What did Rupert promise to make you change your mind?
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Monday, 4 July 2011
Reviews: The Big Sheep and Cefn Mably Farm Park
The Big Sheep
Located a few minutes from Bideford in North Devon, The Big Sheep is billed as "world famous fun" and "the best day of your holiday ... baa none!". We visited in late June, with a two-year-old in tow who is luckily a couple of inches short of 3 feet tall, as it's only £4.00 to get in for children "under 3 feet tall (& 12 months or older)". Anyone over this height can expect to pay £10.95 each (with a not-very-generous reduction to £10.45 for groups of 4 or more and 'less abled' visitors). We'd got our hands on some vouchers, so there was the added bonus of free toy sheep for the children (the two-year-old named his "Baa-Baa").
The animals were predominantly of the ovine variety, with activities centred on them throughout the day, including lamb feeding, sheep herding and sheep racing, which included competitors named Red Ram and Alderknitty. Visitors receive a timetable on arrival and the park is quite compact, so it's easy to get around to seeing everything. Many activities take place in outdoor venues allowing you to watch casually rather than committing to seeing the whole show, which is great for those with young children.
In addition to sheep, there was a duck herding display where children were invited to 'get involved', though this merely involved them standing behind some fences on the course, rather than interacting with the animals themselves. The first obstacle was approached approximately seven times before the ducks went where they were meant to - we couldn't decide if this was a not-very-funny part of the show, or just the shepherd's ineptitude. When he started threatening to get an adult from the audience up to sing 'Old MacDonald had a farm', we decided to leave, as it became quite uncomfortable to watch.
Other animals included the most enormous rabbit I have ever seen, some very smelly ferrets and a bunch of goats who lived in a tree-top 'Goatel'. Horses also featured, with horse-whispering and pony rides on offer, plus tiny ponies Wallace & Grommit.
Our two-year-old was particularly interested in playing on the tractor ride, bouncing on the jumping pillows and whizzing down the slide in the soft play area, which was adjacent to the Ewetopia cafe. The food on offer was depressingly average - I had a fairly non-descript burger served in a takeaway carton with anaemic-looking chips.
The Big Sheep has a small gift shop, The Sheepy Shop, with the usual range you'd expect - the two-year-old selected some chocolate Lamb's Whoopsies as a gift for his grandmother, then demanded to eat most of them himself.
Plenty of other activities were on offer, including a brewery shop, the Twister ride and the incongruous Battlefield Live combat game, which had nothing at all to do with sheep or farming.
The Big Sheep is certainly more than the average farm park, but I'm not sure that the attractions really warranted the rather excessive price tag, particularly for adults.
Cefn Mably Farm Park
Cefn Mably Farm Park promises "all weather family fun" and is 15 minutes by car from Cardiff city centre. The entrance price is a reasonable £4.50 for adults and £4.00 for children over a year old. You can also buy bags of animal food for 50p each at the front desk. We bought three bags between two adults and a two-year-old (not the same one, I just spend a lot of my time with other people's toddlers these days).
It was immediately clear on entry that the park is currently undergoing extensive improvement work. The soft play area has already been improved, with the under-fives area in particular greatly expanded. The builders didn't get in the way on our visit (the two-year-old was delighted to see 'Bob' and his friends at work, so in some ways it was an added attraction).
The petting area is the first port of call on entry, with rabbits and guinea pigs galore that can be handled by the children. Following this, we had our first encounter with assorted sheep and goats, who weren't particularly bothered by the food we offered them, as a visiting toddler group had just been past and overfed them quite considerably. There's then an aviary with a wide assortment of birds, including a peacock who was displaying his impressive plumage as we passed by. Next, the cat enclosure. Yes, really. Cefn Mably is home to a number of rescued cats, who live very comfortably in an enclosure that's done up to look like someone's front room. Opposite this were the rare breed pigs and a small outdoor play area, with tractors for children to ride on, which they can then conveniently ride around the rest of the park and ditch wherever they like.
There are plenty of animals to see as you walk round the park - sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, ducks, geese and assorted poultry, including a turkey who unfortunately looks like someone's already started plucking him in preparation for Christmas dinner. As our walk progressed, the animals we encountered became increasingly hungry. One donkey bit another in an attempt to get at our food (resulting in a loud 'hee-haw!' that scared the two-year-old) and several horses were kicking the crap out of their gates to get our attention. I'm not sure quite what was in those feed pellets, but even the geese came honking up to the fence when they heard the rustling bags. This allowed for a charming level of interactivity with the animals, who will all eat out of your hands (though I drew the line at proffering my palm to the geese and there's a strict 'no hand-feeding' policy with the pigs).
A tractor and combine harvester were on hand for children to sit on (though our two-year-old was more interested in 'mending' them). There were also pony rides available on a little pony called Silver (£2 for just under three minutes), though most of the children apparently call him 'Pumpkin' because that's the name of the horse in Postman Pat.
We ate in the restaurant, which served a good range of hot and cold food, served on proper crockery. I was slightly hungover, so went for the less healthy option of sausage, egg, beans and chips, but for a meal of this type, it was unusually tasty with good quality sausages. There's no gift shop at Cefn Mably, but plans are afoot to open a Farm Shop with locally-sourced produce and a butchery, which I was quite excited about (no harm in the kids seeing what's going to happen to those cute baby piggies and lambs).
For the price, Cefn Mably is excellent value and particularly good for those with toddlers.
The Big Sheep: http://www.thebigsheep.co.uk/ (on Twitter: @bigsheepdayout)
Cefn Mably Farm Park: http://www.cefnmablyfarmpark.com/
 |
| Some big sheep at The Big Sheep |
The animals were predominantly of the ovine variety, with activities centred on them throughout the day, including lamb feeding, sheep herding and sheep racing, which included competitors named Red Ram and Alderknitty. Visitors receive a timetable on arrival and the park is quite compact, so it's easy to get around to seeing everything. Many activities take place in outdoor venues allowing you to watch casually rather than committing to seeing the whole show, which is great for those with young children.
In addition to sheep, there was a duck herding display where children were invited to 'get involved', though this merely involved them standing behind some fences on the course, rather than interacting with the animals themselves. The first obstacle was approached approximately seven times before the ducks went where they were meant to - we couldn't decide if this was a not-very-funny part of the show, or just the shepherd's ineptitude. When he started threatening to get an adult from the audience up to sing 'Old MacDonald had a farm', we decided to leave, as it became quite uncomfortable to watch.
 |
| A paddling of ducks in the duck-herding show at The Big Sheep |
Our two-year-old was particularly interested in playing on the tractor ride, bouncing on the jumping pillows and whizzing down the slide in the soft play area, which was adjacent to the Ewetopia cafe. The food on offer was depressingly average - I had a fairly non-descript burger served in a takeaway carton with anaemic-looking chips.
The Big Sheep has a small gift shop, The Sheepy Shop, with the usual range you'd expect - the two-year-old selected some chocolate Lamb's Whoopsies as a gift for his grandmother, then demanded to eat most of them himself.
Plenty of other activities were on offer, including a brewery shop, the Twister ride and the incongruous Battlefield Live combat game, which had nothing at all to do with sheep or farming.
The Big Sheep is certainly more than the average farm park, but I'm not sure that the attractions really warranted the rather excessive price tag, particularly for adults.
Cefn Mably Farm Park
 |
| A greedy goat at Cefn Mably Farm Park |
It was immediately clear on entry that the park is currently undergoing extensive improvement work. The soft play area has already been improved, with the under-fives area in particular greatly expanded. The builders didn't get in the way on our visit (the two-year-old was delighted to see 'Bob' and his friends at work, so in some ways it was an added attraction).
The petting area is the first port of call on entry, with rabbits and guinea pigs galore that can be handled by the children. Following this, we had our first encounter with assorted sheep and goats, who weren't particularly bothered by the food we offered them, as a visiting toddler group had just been past and overfed them quite considerably. There's then an aviary with a wide assortment of birds, including a peacock who was displaying his impressive plumage as we passed by. Next, the cat enclosure. Yes, really. Cefn Mably is home to a number of rescued cats, who live very comfortably in an enclosure that's done up to look like someone's front room. Opposite this were the rare breed pigs and a small outdoor play area, with tractors for children to ride on, which they can then conveniently ride around the rest of the park and ditch wherever they like.
There are plenty of animals to see as you walk round the park - sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, ducks, geese and assorted poultry, including a turkey who unfortunately looks like someone's already started plucking him in preparation for Christmas dinner. As our walk progressed, the animals we encountered became increasingly hungry. One donkey bit another in an attempt to get at our food (resulting in a loud 'hee-haw!' that scared the two-year-old) and several horses were kicking the crap out of their gates to get our attention. I'm not sure quite what was in those feed pellets, but even the geese came honking up to the fence when they heard the rustling bags. This allowed for a charming level of interactivity with the animals, who will all eat out of your hands (though I drew the line at proffering my palm to the geese and there's a strict 'no hand-feeding' policy with the pigs).
A tractor and combine harvester were on hand for children to sit on (though our two-year-old was more interested in 'mending' them). There were also pony rides available on a little pony called Silver (£2 for just under three minutes), though most of the children apparently call him 'Pumpkin' because that's the name of the horse in Postman Pat.
 |
| Tractor at Cefn Mably Farm Park |
For the price, Cefn Mably is excellent value and particularly good for those with toddlers.
The Big Sheep: http://www.thebigsheep.co.uk/ (on Twitter: @bigsheepdayout)
Cefn Mably Farm Park: http://www.cefnmablyfarmpark.com/
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