Yes I have, and the impression i've got is that it's stuck in a rut, and yes there's definitely a 'laddish' atmosphere to it, which I don't like, but is understandable given the 9/10ths male presenting team, and given that Sky Sports have mostly done Football coverage before. Personally I think the coverage should go through a complete overhaul. The only thing i'd keep is Ted's notebook tbh. I can understand keeping Hill on, as he's actually an F1 champion, but personally If I wanted to freshen it up a bit, I'd drop Herbert and probably Brundle, in particular, I'd replace Brundle with a driver with more recent experience in F1, e.g. Di Resta or Davidson. I mean Brundle last contested an F1 race 20 years ago & frankly his commentary is more sounding like an angry granddad now tbh. I don't think his analysis adds much to it any more, it would be far better with a younger, post-2009 driver at the very least.

Sky aside though, in this internet age where most fans will read websites like Autosport etc. the pre & post race analysis segments are no longer as vital or necessary as they used to be. Even post-race, any new info/explanations etc. always come days after the event itself, never in the following couple of hours.

Exactly what i've done this year. I was on the legacy HD package, and the only benefit to me was Sky+. From December to March was a waste of money as the sky box wouldn't even get turned on and despite effectively being the same thing, Now TV seems so far to be better than Sky Go performance wise.

Nice to see a trailer for Channel 4's F1 coverage in the ad-break for the Guy Martin "wall of death" programme.

James Allen doing the wall of death commentary, that was unexpected. Coulthard and Steve Jones in the studio.

I understand Karun Chandhock is set to miss Azerbaijan because he doing stuff at the Le Mans so maybe James will stand in for Karun. After this appearance I think the prospect of that happening is now very likely.

Formula 1 will now be not watched if there is another motorsport on FTA channels at the same time, Did the same to MotoGP when pay TV was announced.

Not really.

Guy's shows are produced by North One, F1 is produced by Whisper Films.

I think it's unlikely that there will be a wholesale move from F1 to, say, Formula E or BTCC. I'm sure some people will make that sort of switch, but overall I'd guess that it wouldn't be that big a proportion of the total current F1 FTA viewership.

More likely a whole swathe of the audience, whose only motorsport viewing is F1, just won't be watching F1 any more.

Yeah, I mean with the BTCC, I don't think the casual fan is likely to have their interest levels sustained over a whole 6hr plus live race program.

I used to watch F1, Nascar, IndyCar, Champ Car, A1GP, Touring Cars, MotoGP, World Superbikes, British Superbikes when they were all available on either free channels, Sky or Eurosport, some of them obviously no longer exist, others went on Premier Sports or BT, I don't watch something else instead, I just watch less. Same thing with football, I don't pay for BT so I can watch Champions League, I just don't watch it now it's no longer on a channel I get.

Some viewers will follow F1 wherever it goes, a few will watch something else, many will just forget about it.

Yep. I'd expect most people to give whatever morsels of FTA highlights that exist in 2019 a try or else simply drift away. If, come 2019 (and Ecclestone hasn't killed the sport by then) or the racing at that time is cr4p or the highlights offered are cr4p, more people will just drift away without giving it a second thought.

Anyone who is interested enough in F1 to want to watch every race live (and doesn't have issues about Murdoch) will already have Sky Sports. I've read literally hundreds of comments across a number of sites in the last few days and no-one - not one person - has said they'll consider subscribing to Sky or they expect to have to take out a subscription over the next few years (some will do of course) but the consensus seems to be a definite but resigned "three more years and we'll find something else to do". Doesn't bode well.

Normally at this point, I'd say, "oh well, F1 will carry on as it is" but TBH I'm not so sure. For many reasons, it's very much at a crossroads and regardless of future TV coverage issues, there's a lot of crucial decisions and changes on the horizon around F1's direction, its rules and regulations, governance and particularly ownership which could potentially blow the whole thing open. A threat of a breakaway won't be openly discussed, I'm sure, but that or the loss of a few independent midfield teams like Sauber or Force India could be crucial. F1 is nothing without its teams and the last thing anyone wants is for Ecclestone to start threatening once more about the big teams being forced to run three cars to make up the numbers.

I'll consider subscribing to Sky.

Nobody knows what the highlights will be. If it's an hour and a half of highlights a few hours after the event, much like we have now, then it doesn't make a great deal of difference to the majority. Lots of people said they'd stop watching F1 when the mixed Sky/BBC deal was announced, but 3 years later and the audience hasn't deserted the sport any more than it's likely to when this happens.

In Spain who started a new deal this year which is pretty much the same, I believe the highlights shows are 60 mins. I wouldn't expect the same level of extended highlights seen now. Probably going back to 80's style coverage Grand Prix shows

Sky's current highlights shows just happen to be 60 minutes long including ads, and without any pre/post-show, just straight to the parade lap or grid (can't remember which.)

Apparently the manufacturer-backed teams don't want a breakaway, but Ecclestone (who owns the rights to the GP1 series) apparently used a breakaway as a threat in order to get them to make up their minds at a strategy group meeting recently, apparently.

One of the thing i've always seen put forward as a reason the teams are unwilling to start a breakaway series is that the cost's of setting it up & running it would be more than what they could actually afford.

I recall reading an article in 2005 when you had all the big manufacturer's threatening to start a breakaway series that they were never 100% committed to it because none of them wanted to foot the cost & that the same was true when breakaway discussions came up again in 2009.

At the end of the day if the teams were serious about doing it I think they would have done it already when they had the backing of big manufacturer's a decade ago, With the fact most of them are struggling to run 2 cars for a season now I just can't see them having the money to throw at a startup series even if every current F1 team agreed to pitch in.

True. A breakaway would be bad for F1 tbh.

If there were any possibility of a breakaway then chances are it'd go straight to whoever would pay the most for the TV rights; i.e. it'd be on Sky or BT Sports, because that would be the only way to fund it. For it all to be on FTA it would need the sponsors to stump up a lot more money, or for a radical reduction in budgets, neither of which seem very likely.

But could the maths work if Ch 4 were prepared to pay the same amount for most of the same teams and drivers, with some cash kicked in from the big sponsors (like Shell) who expect to have every serious road car driver in the world knowing what V-Power is and why it's worth paying the extra pound / dollar / rand for?

The manufacturer teams won't want a breakaway as they're doing very nicely from F1, thank you very much. It's the midfield teams who complain that they don't get the returns that they feel they should who would be the catalyst. Yes the costs would be huge but the history of F1 has shown that there's always rich benefactors and businessmen around who are able to throw money at buying things or sponsoring things to give their brands (or egos) exposure. If (say) Formula E grows, one or two F1 teams may look at that as a more cost-effective means of of meeting their aims, some already have an element of involvement there anyway. Never say never! Ecclestone and CVC can't continue ramping up the costs of TV rights and circuit hosting fees for ever without something giving. The question is what.... and when.

At some point F1 will get better owners who will have a normal CEO in charge.

Well according to Bernie, CVC are nearly ready to sell to a couple of buyers, if they want to.

I've been pondering this, and have come to the conclusion that I will be to actually being okay with highlight packs, if they are on a standard channel. I have been okay with the past few years of F1 being half live and half highlights, and the MotoGP ITV4 highlights. I don't miss watching everything live as much as I thought I would do.

As for the sport itself, I think this move is the clearest indication that modern F1 is mainly a high end corporate entertainment venue for the high-rollers to be wined and dined in the paddock club and to meet movie stars etc. The sport is increasingly a bolt-on sideshow and the main game in play is parting people from their cash.

But, long term they may be damaging themselves, in five years or so you organise a big event at the F1 and invite you biggest client to attend and they reply "formula one? is that still going on? I thought it ended a while back, no thanks I'll give it a skip" then your golden goose is cooked.

There's been a Monaco Grand Prix on the calendar since the 1950s.... Frankly F1's been like that since the 80s at least... I don't think F1 will have been erased from public conciousness in 5 years time tbh, even on Pay TV. The Premier League has been Pay TV since 1992 - and people still know what that is.

I don't doubt that. How much damage will be done between now and then?


And next week he'll be saying something different to someone else. The bloke is the consummate snake oil salesman. CVC might be nearly ready to sell and there might be a couple of buyers interested but whether their valuations will ever agree is another matter entirely.


The problem with the football analogy is that F1 back in the 50s was very much a niche sport. Football wasn't, it never has been and it never will be. You and I can go and have a kick about in a park can very easily or go and watch a live professional match without much difficulty and certainly without waiting for the one game a year in our part of the world. F1 is only where it is today because of exposure from FTA TV.

- Match of the Day (BBC One)
- Football Focus (BBC One)
- Final Score (BBC One)
- extensive online coverage via BBC and ITV on social media
- radio coverage on 5 Live, talkSport and all BBC regional stations

If you were to get rid of the majority of the above, the stature of the Premier League would decline significantly in this country.