One of the biggest stories to dominate the weekend during the
Hungarian Grand Prix was the news about the television rights in
the UK from 2012.
It was news that most fans feared, Formula 1 is going to
pay-per-view TV from 2012. With the BBC forced to make cuts in
their spending due to a freeze in the current license fee and with
a rumoured contract costing £60m a year, Formula 1 coverage was
something to cut in order to reduce their budget.
So what happens for 2012?
Sky Sports have signed up the rights to Formula 1 in the UK,
which means viewers will now require a Sky Sports subscription in
order to watch the full season live. But it's not quite as clear as
that as the BBC have announced that they will be showing 10 races
over the season live themselves alongside Sky, including the
British Grand Prix, the Monaco Grand Prix and the season finale.
There will be either a full race re-run or extended highlights on
the Sunday evening of the 10 races not shown live on the BBC (the
details of which have yet to be revealed).
What this means for fans is having to pay a Sky Sports
subscription to essential watch the 10 races live on Sky that BBC
will not be cover live on their channel.
Obviously this deal has caused much outrage from the fans,
comments and letters flooding websites and forums with the fans now
unhappy at having to pay for Formula 1 coverage which has always
been free to air.
For me personally, this has no impact, as I currently already
pay a subscription for Sky Sports, due to my passion for football,
but for those who do not, it is a major expenditure to consider for
the ability to watch only 10 races on their channels. With Sky's
football coverage however, this is quite different. During the
football season, there is usually a match on from different leagues
or competitions every day of the week. With Formula 1 we only get
20 races over an 8 month period, so it is understandable that
Formula 1 fans feel outraged with regards to the costs involved
just to follow Formula 1 live.
Many comments I have seen from fans say that they will stop
watching Formula 1, I find this quite harsh. Unlike the Premier
League football coverage, there will still be live Formula 1 races
on the BBC and fans will still be able to watch highlights of the
other 10 races that BBC do not show live. Formula 1 is a sport I
have followed for as long as I can remember and I will not stop
doing so from 2012 despite the move in TV coverage.
There are still question marks however over Sky's coverage. They
have stated that they will not show any advert breaks during the
race itself (something that they will have learned from ITV's time
with the sport), another unknown is the presenters and commentary
team. Rumours are that they will attempt to poach Martin Brundle
from the BBC, who has become synonymous with Formula 1 coverage in
the UK since 1997.
Many have commented that Sky will improve the coverage of
Formula 1 as they have done so with the Premier League, but I do
not feel that is the case. Bernie Eccelstone's FOM control all the
race feed images we see (any time you see the F1 logo in the bottom
left corner of the screen, that is from the FOM feed), so what will
Sky actually do different?
Currently on the BBC we get around an hour of pre-show build up
to Qualifying and the Race, and around 30 minutes of analysis, with
an additional hour post-race for the F1 Forum. All Sky's cameras
will be able to do is bring us similar pre and post race shows. I
know the counterpoint to that is that we will see interactive
options for onboard cameras, but BBC also currently has this option
available as well, whether it is choosing the Radio 5 Live
commentary, onboard camera, or the driver tracker, this can all
currently be done on the BBC coverage either on the Red Button or
on the BBC Sport website.
I for one utilise these feature when I watch races as I follow
the onboard feed and driver tracker on the website while watching
the TV coverage. That is one thing I know I will probably not be
able to do from 2012 on Sky. Sky Sports website is not the greatest
or easiest to use and their complicated account settings and
restrictive registration of PC's for their live and on demand
features have always caused me problems, and that is assuming they
even make these options available for viewing on their website.
So that is something I will lose out on from 2012, as well as
the ability to view those Sky races in HD. BBC One HD is available
for free, but Sky charge £10 a month for their HD pack, this is a
charge I refuse to pay. Sky have pushed the ability to get HD in
our homes and therefore should be setting a standard and make this
free. For me, and many like me who do not have Sky's HD pack, this
will mean watching 10 races in standard definition quality. I
personally believe it was pressure from the BBC on Bernie that
meant we currently have HD coverage of Formula 1 this year, so if
Sky truly wishes to set a new standard for Formula 1 coverage, they
should be making HD coverage available to everyone.
Of course it is clear this TV deal is not all about TV coverage.
There is definitely some politics involved. The BBC have been
forced to cut costs, and are doing so with Formula 1 coverage, and
this week rumours of BBC 4 being cut back or maybe slashed
altogether. It is the BBC that got itself into this mess. They have
been wasteful with our money, whether it is the new Media Centre
they have build in Salford and housing the staff in that area,
filling our TV's with overpaid 'celebrity' reality TV shows, or
even dare I say, Formula 1 coverage, which it was rumoured they
massively overpaid for.
The BBC is trying to compete with the likes of Sky and ITV, who
of course have the ability to get more income through advertising
revenue. In doing so, BBC has filled our screens with lowest common
denominator TV, be it game shows, talent shows or celebrity
competition shows. All the while, true programming winning good
ratings have been cut or budgets have been slashed.
I have read many reports stating that programs such as Doctor
Who and Top Gear are operating on reduced budgets. These are two of
the BBC's flagship shows and two that are sold to many countries
around the world. This is what the BBC should be focusing on and
not the likes of Total Wipeout or Hole in the Wall. Other top shows
such as Spooks have been axed recently, which was another BBC
hit.
If what is shown on TV is dictated by ratings then BBC would
have found a way to keep Formula 1 on their channel, with every
race so far this year gaining higher ratings than last year (bar
the European Grand Prix in Valencia). The August issue of F1 Racing
magazine details these figures for those interested in the numbers.
So it's clear that there are other factors involved, the biggest
being cost, but at time when BBC are cutting Formula 1 coverage,
earlier this week it was announced that they will open up BBC 3
during the day during London 2012 for Olympics coverage and there
will also be a dedicated Olympics radio station for the duration of
the games. Is this what Formula 1 coverage (and potentially BBC 4)
is being axed for?
I have seen many petitions being circulated on the government
e-petitions website to keep Formula 1 on the BBC, but honestly, how
many think this will actually work? The decision has been made, the
contracts have been signed and it was the government that gave the
mandate to the BBC to cut costs. Unless the petition contains about
£60m there is no chance of this deal changing.
I know this seems like a personal attack on the BBC, but this is
my opinion on the way the BBC has been run and managed. This is not
an attack on the people that bring us these programs, who no doubt
work hard on any show that they are a part of, and this is
certainly not an attack on the BBC F1 team. They have done a
fantastic job in bringing us Formula 1 coverage, not just the team
of Jake Humphrey, Eddie Jordan, David Coulthard, Martin Brundle,
Lee McKenzie and Ted Kravitz, but all of the team behind the scenes
that edit and put the show together, the 5 Live radio team, and the
website team. After these past couple of years with F1 on the BBC,
it is hard to remember what previous coverage was like. They have
all done a brilliant job to bring us F1, and I do congratulate them
on that, and they thoroughly deserved their BAFTA award earlier
this year.
Now we move on to Sky. Rupert Murdoch has been in the news
around the world due to the recent News of the World allegations,
many have suggested boycotting his other media outlets as protest,
but with the might of Sky in the UK, that is quite difficult, as
there is no real alternative for television in some parts of the
country. For example, I subscribed to Sky TV after all cable TV
coverage in my area of East London was deactivated, leaving Sky as
my only option at the time.
Beyond the wider politics of News Corp, and Bernie, it is clear
that this 2012 TV deal could be the start of a bigger move by Sky
and News Corp. Rumours surfaced earlier this year that New Corp
were looking to buy FOM which at the time was refuted by Bernie
Eccelstone. But with this 2012 TV deal, this could be a first step
by News Corp to get themselves in to Formula 1 with a view to
purchasing the sport in the next few years. Only time will tell if
this is the case.
There are still wider implications of this TV deal, will
sponsors pay less knowing that they will be receiving a lower TV
audience? Could there be less people attending Formula 1 races as
they will have switched off from watching on TV and therefore have
no interest in attending races? Could this be the start of a
complete phase out of Formula 1 coverage by the BBC?
Until we get into the 2012 season, it is hard to answer those
questions. I haven't found any Formula 1 fan that is happy about
this TV deal, but I, like many else who love this sport, will have
to accept the change to keep following Formula 1. Since I already
pay a Sky Sports subscription, this is not likely to have much of
an impact, and as I have subscriptions to Autosport and F1 Racing
magazines respectively, I have no qualms about paying to follow
Formula 1.
It is those fans that cannot get Sky, cannot afford Sky or do
not want to pay for Sky that I feel for, not just with Formula 1
coverage. Sky is a massive corporation that has used its money to
continually price the other TV companies out of programmes and
sports coverage, forcing us viewers to pay as well. At a time when
everyone is trying to save costs, it is us hard working members of
the public that feel the burden the most.
Only time will tell if this was the right move for BBC, Sky and
Bernie. All we can hope for is maybe one day, Formula 1 can find
its home on the BBC again.