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?
No comments:
Post a Comment