Just heard the appalling news.

I'm quite sickened by this. The Beeb had loads of scope for savings elsewhere without giving up half of their F1 coverage for SIX years.

What an almighty shitstorm this will unleash. There will be outrage amongst fans and the teams, particularly as this breaches the requirement for live fta coverage and in the "home" market too.

I can see this deal being overturned...

it's pissed on GeorgeS's chips though, which is slightly amusing

good to see the BBC & Rupert working together Friends again after their little spat


Well I'm glad your happy about that. Its a bit tough on Ch4 though. Clearly they wanted to bid but were denied the chance as the BBC/ Sky stitched it up.

of course it means that if the BBC is only saving on 50% of the F1 rights, some other sports rights still need to be axed. More news will break over the coming weeks/ months I'd say.

People always say this, but it would never happen, because when have Sky shown any interest in putting anything of value on Freeview. You could say that it would promote Sky Sports, but they had Sky Sports News on Freeview for eight years which did that 24 hours a day, and they stopped doing that, so why would they bother with spending money on Euro 2012?


No different to the FA Cup, or the Premier League, or the US Masters, though. And what this basically proves is that the usual line about Sky not being interested in test matches unless they have all cricket exclusively is rubbish, given they're happy to share F1. We should have this kind of deal for home nations football.

Bad, bad decision. Every race has to stay on FTA. It's a must, explicitly a must. I will be surprised if F1's audiences do not decrease.

And seeing as F1's on Sky Sports, I would like to see every race on Sky Sports 1. Oh, wait... there's that thing with 22 people and a round ball....

Bad move - and don't reply "F1 stays on BBC", yes, it may do, but half the races going to pay TV is an unmitigated disaster for those that cannot afford the money. (ps - I did not know about this, last I heard was that ITV and C4 were the leading runners for a new deal)

What's half of 19, btw?

I assume the Beeb will only get 9 live races out of 19, not 10?

What makes this particularly bad for the Beeb, and the licence payer, is that the BBC is effectively subsidising Sky by building up the audience, continuing with its great web and interactive presence (most of the time), and at the same time allowing Sky to show absolutely everything even on those weekends the Beeb is involved. Meantime, the Beeb presumably still has to pay its personnel at least for next season (Jake, Brundle, Jordan etc), or will the big names just move to Sky with the Beeb getting the sloppy seconds?

I wonder if there's some Bernie brinksmanship here - with a new Concorde Agreement due, and the existing one (supposedly....) requiring FTA live coverage, he can now say "I can't include that in the new one, because I've done a Pay TV deal with Sky till 2018".

But I don't know where that leaves 2012, the last year of the Concorde. Could the teams (or at least the British ones) sue?


I'm not really, but I can see how you have been getting excited about ITV getting its mitts on F1 again since the Beeb's financial conundrum became clear.

In truth, I would probably rather ITV had got the sole FTA rights than Sky become the home of F1, with highlights and half the races shared with the Beeb.

MBrundleF1
BBC/Sky/F1 2012+. Found out last night, no idea how it will work yet I'm out of contract, will calmly work through options Not impressed
5 minutes ago

I'm not surprised Brundle is pissed off. Get promoted one year and the next you're effectively redundant.

2nd time that the BBC has partnered with Sky rather than ITV. 1st time was when ITV lost the live premier league rights. The BBC chose to throw their hat in with Sky for MOTD highlights, rather than do a joint bid for live rights with ITV.

It just shows you that the BBC and Sky are a lot closer than the Guardianista's and the DS ranters claim. Both prefer a 2 player stich up rather than diversity in the media.

If media ownership is to be diversified the BBCs stranglehold needs to be broken up too IMO.

Yes, by pricing F1 fans out of £600+ per year. Don't be so ridiculous George.

Dont watch F1 unless I'm in company who are watching it so I'm not personally bothered.

Financially ITV would be better growing its rights portfolio on ITV4 which they are quietly doing (its a rare week now that ITV4 has no live sport on). The real icing on the cake (despite mlt's comments) would be exclusive Euro 2012 rights.

you clearly dont understand diversity. Diversity is about more than BBC & Sky.


As I said before Its the BBC who backed Skys deal for live premier football. Now with F1 too.

Clearly the BBC prefer Sky to Ch4 who could have been a partner for a rights share.

Good news for the BBC that they retained SOME rights. Bad news for consumers that half the races will be exclusive to pay TV. These BBC/Sky linkups do seem to be on the rise, sadly. It was inevitable that Sky would make a move given their heightened coverage in recent weeks and months. And Sky tend to get what they want.

People saying that it's a travesty for licence fee payers forget that it costs an extraordinary amount for the amount of viewers it tends to get.

People have a right to be annoyed that it's going behind a paywall, but equally, Sky will not be showing adverts through it and the BBC still have half the races.

Correct - From The BBC Press Office release

The public are gonna be pissed. I don't have, and can't afford, SkySports. Being an F1 fan the whole of my life, this is a massive disappointment taht half the races are going to Sky - I think the sport will lose quite a few followers. I'd even rather it went to bloody ITV - at least that way everyone can still watch it. /end of rant.

I suppose a lot depends on how comprehensive and at what time, the BBC's highlights are.

Could Sky show an early morning race with the BBC airing highlights mid afternoon? or will the contract state that Sky have rights to the live race, an afternoon re-run and the BBC's highlights are at 11pm?

the 6 year contract is the stinger on the F1 deal, but yeah no reason sports should be protect from cuts.

F1 on Sky blah blah etcetc.

Back to ratings please?

we dont have any yet

OK then!! From Sky's results today.


What's that figure based on?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...-on-watch.html

Just a bit of renewal news - HBO has ordered 2 extended standalone episodes of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. Not sure if BBC are involved.

Ironically, the ratings could actually go UP from next year if the BBC (extended) highlights are on BBC1 and late afternoon on Sundays. Clearly, they're not going to show live BBC1 F1 coverage 9 or 10 weekends a year, and then stick the highlights of the other 10 on BBC3 at 7pm like now.

It's a real conundrum for lifelong F1 fans like me, who don't have Sky. If I do subscribe (I say "if" - it seems I've no option...!), then I'll probably want to watch all 19/20 races on the service I'm paying for.

I'm just so gutted about this stitch-up. Yes, it probably would have been better to see ITV get the rights back, ad breaks and all, than what it is now going to cost me....

But surely the Beeb could have found some savings elsewhere within its bloated empire without hacking off one of its legs and claiming that as a victory....

Candy Bar Girls is flopping, maybe we need to see those girls doing there work a days jobs, 8pm Heroes style

Wish I could be surprised by Torchwood, but the pacing is simply too slow.

Too many viewers for Peter Andre Here 2 Help however.

I'd like to think the Qualifying and Race highlights will be in an early primetime slot on BBC One, but the chances of that happening are extremely unlikely I think.

Sorry to interrupt the discussion, but does anyone have the 15 minute breakdown figures for Torchwood last night? TIA.