Disgrace, F1 to Foxtel!

[Stuart Thomson]

In a seemingly never ending grab for money, F1 has moved to Foxtel.  We will still get 10 races preyer on FTA, but the other 10 you'll have to pay for.  One wonders how long that will last?

To me, this is another nail in the coffin that was the premier category of motorsport.  Goodbye F1, it was great while it lasted, but I won't be watching it now.  How does a sport expect to grow it's fan base when you have to pay $750 a year just to watch it on TV?  I pay less to be an AFL member and get to attend at least 20 games a year.

I don't want the remainder of the rubbish that is telecast on Foxtel, so I would be paying the whole amount to watch the ten GP that aren't on FTA.


Stuart

[colcol]

Yeah Stuart, i hear you mate, Since Formula 1 went to pay television, the ratings have gone down in the United Kingdom.
The 10 'free to air' broadcasts will not be the ones that you want to see anyway, [the least popular ones].
The ones that you want to see will be on Fuxtell, but repeated on free to air on the following Tuesday with a 45 minutes 'highlights' program, won't that be worth watching.
This is another great move by channel 10 who are broke, but can manage to pay celebrities $65,000 EACH!, per week to be on 'I am a celebrity, get me out of here', the ratings for that piece of crap are going down daily which is a good thing.
And the V-8 Supercar series are on Fuxtell this year as well, with just 6 races being on free to air, with the rest being shown live on Fuxtell, with free to air package being a 1 hour 'highlight' package.
When a Salesperson at the door from Fuxtell or someone in politics tells you thats it only a cup of coffee a day or a couple of packets of cigarettes a week, you know you are about to be screwed over.
You cannot get more blue collar than V-8 Taxi racing, so they are screwing over their loyal followers, but they wouldn't know that.
The LIVE Bathurst 12 hour last week on 'free to air' channel 7, outrated the V-8 'show and shine' day on the 'highlights package' later that day on channel 10 and there were 5 times more viewers on channel 10 than viewers watching on Fuxtell.
What can we do about?, well i have a cunning plan, last year when all this was announced, i purchased a lot of oils, coolants and spare parts from Supercheap and such, so for the next few years i wouldn't be buying anything from them when its on pay tv, so they will see a drop of from motorsport fans supporting the sponsors.
Check who are sponsoring the Formula 1 and V-8 Supercars and don't buy their products, Colin.

[Craig_m67]

<snip> but repeated on free to air on the following Tuesday

If this is true I feel a bit less annoyed. Do Ten confirm this anywhere?

[colcol]

See Speedcafe for the full story, watching a chopped up repeat is like watching a two day old edition of the news, Colin.

[Craig_m67]

I see, I read your post to mean it would be repeated in full. My mistake.

[aggie57]

In a seemingly never ending grab for money, F1 has moved to Foxtel.  We will still get 10 races preyer on FTA, but the other 10 you'll have to pay for.  One wonders how long that will last?

To me, this is another nail in the coffin that was the premier category of motorsport.  Goodbye F1, it was great while it lasted, but I won't be watching it now.  How does a sport expect to grow it's fan base when you have to pay $750 a year just to watch it on TV?  I pay less to be an AFL member and get to attend at least 20 games a year.

I don't want the remainder of the rubbish that is telecast on Foxtel, so I would be paying the whole amount to watch the ten GP that aren't on FTA.


Stuart

Jeez Stu - you pay to watch footie?!  Those of use who follow super rugby have had to have foxtel to watch it for years. I'm afraid 10's woes are symptomatic of the gradual demise of free to air television. Soon it'll be like that old argument about timed local phone calls. Who remembers that? 

[colcol]

The $750 per year is on top of the $700 instalation  fee, as quoted on the Speedcafe forum, plus its for 2 years as well?, so it ends up over $2,000 for 2 years, .....which is only a cup of coffee a day.
Will be doing everything to boycott the Formula 1 and V-8 Supercars sponsors, just so they get the message.
Upset a bit, but not massively, still plenty of things to watch on 72 mate, with histories of car manufacturers and old Formula 1 teams, when it was available to all, not just those with Fuxtell.
I would like it if they had pay-per-view, and you didn't have to pay for all the rubbish on Fuxtell, Colin.

[Stuart Thomson]

Jeez Stu - you pay to watch footie?!  Those of use who follow super rugby have had to have foxtel to watch it for years. I'm afraid 10's woes are symptomatic of the gradual demise of free to air television. Soon it'll be like that old argument about timed local phone calls. Who remembers that?

Hi Al,

Well, if you follow an elitist sport...

Oh, hang on, you probably don't get much more elitist that F1, bugger, exposed by your own argument.

I suppose what really hangs in my craw (ask a local if you don't understand that expression), is that I'll be contributing to the Murdoch Empire, which would be fine, except that he's a money grubbing piece of filth who won't pay tax like the rest of us.  Hmmm, I may be slightly biased though.

It's like the current season of Top Gear, which is being simulcast all around the world, but in Aus you have to pay to see it, or wait several months until Ch9 can be bothered to put the top rating factual (LOL) show "in the worrrrrrld" on FTA TV, then screw it up with ads, chopping time out of the show :face palm.  That was supposed to stop people from sharing a show on the internet.  Didn't work.  I have a VPN and can stream it on BBC iPlayer.

Cheers
Stu

[colcol]

Channel 10 are broke, so they can't sell adds to Bridgestone or Castrol, because they won't be able to show V-8 Supercars or Formula 1, how does loosing audiences that buy sponsors products going to pay their way?.
I think that Fuxtell are hoping channel 10 will go into receivorship, so they can offer them a lowball finance package and take them over, so all the good stuff can go on pay tv and the stuff that no one wants will be on channel 10.
The Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix won't be on free to air, but will be on pay tv, Colin.

[obersturm]

Hey all,

well, I am going to go to Albert Park and be disappointed like last year because of the noise the F1s make these days and that is it for me.
I won't be watching anything on TV but go to Classic PI and attend some sprint events and make my own motorsport....

[lombardi]

Ve hav vuays of making u talk,, have given up on watching ten 's telecast of F1 years ago, anyone remember when cricket 9 used to do it,was criminal to the sport, channel ten was not much better, mate sky uk or sky italia--that's the way to do it, all practice session's, f1 show's weekly, preview show before race and after with real people that know what they are talking bout,not some washed up out a cash git, i for one don't give one about ten losing it, good riddance, put ur glasses on and watch the best,sky uk.

[Potsie]

Well I have a different opinion. I am a F1 fanatic - I like to watch the whole weekend including the practice sessions. Up until now, I have had to watch practice 'streaming' on the web (lots of sites out there that stream the UK's Sky F1 channel probably with questionable copyright). I also have had to download the F1 show by torrent (which is also questionable legality).

Last year the channel 10 commentators really gave me the sh*ts. I hate it when they talk about something which really they have no idea about (sometimes that includes Alan Jones). So my setup would be, a laptop sitting next to me on the couch for the live timing screens, another PC in the living room hooked up to the stereo with Sky F1 streaming via the web for the sound (which I would then swap to the telly audio when the annoying channel 10 iriots would go to the actual commentators). When the ad's came on, I would then have to change my telly over to the PC screen so  I could at least get some idea of what was happening (the video quality of web streaming not the best) during channel 10 making the money breaks.

I have to admit, the only thing I did like about the channel 10 coverage was when there was something 'better' for channel 10 to show and they would broadcast the race on channel 11 (or one, I'm not sure) and you'd get HD quality pictures.

SO bring it on Foxtel I say. The ad I caught a bit of last night said they were going to be showing all practice sessions; I assume they will be going with the commentary from Crofty and Brundle (and Davidson, Lazenby, Pinkie (assuming shes back from maternity leave) etc, which will be much better than the channel 10 crap I've had to put with until now.

(oh yes, and BTW I do have two Foxtel boxes in the house - saves me having to argue with the missus over what to watch - and have had Foxtel (or pay telly rather) since the original 'Galaxy' pay telly came out in the late 1980's (I think). I rarely watch free-to-air telly).

Potsie

EDIT: Picture attached showing plethora of remotes needed last year - the whiskey was optional.

Edit the EDIT: I just noticed that the photo shows the timing screen at the conclusion of the 2013 British Grand Prix qualy session. Another thing that Channel 10 never showed was the 1 hour after race paddock report - such as what Ted and Johhny are doing on the telly picture. From the watermark in the top right of the screen, I can see that I was watching web streaming at the time. Another of my Favourite bits of the F1 weekend is "Ted's Notebook" - channel ten never showed that either. Can't wait for proper Foxtel/Sky F1 coverage this coming season... Go Daniel ! (oh, and the Ferraris with the nice Alfa logo)

[aggie57]

Jeez Stu - you pay to watch footie?!  Those of use who follow super rugby have had to have foxtel to watch it for years. I'm afraid 10's woes are symptomatic of the gradual demise of free to air television. Soon it'll be like that old argument about timed local phone calls. Who remembers that?

Hi Al,

Well, if you follow an elitist sport...

Oh, hang on, you probably don't get much more elitist that F1, bugger, exposed by your own argument.

I suppose what really hangs in my craw (ask a local if you don't understand that expression), is that I'll be contributing to the Murdoch Empire, which would be fine, except that he's a money grubbing piece of filth who won't pay tax like the rest of us.  Hmmm, I may be slightly biased though.

It's like the current season of Top Gear, which is being simulcast all around the world, but in Aus you have to pay to see it, or wait several months until Ch9 can be bothered to put the top rating factual (LOL) show "in the worrrrrrld" on FTA TV, then screw it up with ads, chopping time out of the show :face palm.  That was supposed to stop people from sharing a show on the internet.  Didn't work.  I have a VPN and can stream it on BBC iPlayer.

Cheers
Stu

Yeah, I get that. Murdoch is a hard case.  Good thing he moved to the States .

BBC America shows TG within a few days of it being broadcast in the UK. Last week we had Daniel beat Lewis in the old Liana. Fabulous lap but I'm sure you've seen it already. Go Dan!!

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Disgraceful, but hardly surprising after Murdoch's son bought into Ch10 a few years ago.  I could see it coming when they changed from having F1 exclusively on HD, to not.

I watched the last few races of last year online anyway, purely to get the better commentary, and no ads.  Guess I'll be doing that all year now.  Time for everyone to get a VPN.

Those of use who follow super rugby have had to have foxtel to watch it for years.

It was bloody expensive trying to watch the proper oval-ball game in Melbourne a few years ago.  I used to have to go a rugby-sensitive pub every weekend.  Pretty easy to stream anything these days though.

[carlo rossi]

I watched the bathurst 12 hour and the new formula E and found both far more exciting than Formula 1
these 2 are about getting the most out of what you have!
Formula 1,and it kills me to say it, is now about limiting this reducing that so that its now like that add on TV ( FREE) where they race at 40kmph to get points exactly the same except no ferrets!