Formula 1 broadcast - only in SD?

[Evan Bottcher]

I haven't watched the last couple of races, and missed that Ten have taken the F1 off of the One HD channel and now only showing it in SD.  This happened back in April?  How ridiculous!

Disgruntled in Brunswick.

[pep105]

They've done that with Moto GP as well

[colcol]

Yes but at least we get to see it at a reasonable time, sticking it on standard definition is better than not showing it, when channel 9 had it, they would put cricket, tennis or anything else to spoil the Formula 1 for us fans, channel 7 stick the V8 Supercars on their 'other' stations, which is better than not seeing it at all, like in the bad old days, when they only had 1 station and footy was always on and the motor racing would be delayed 8 hours, Colin.

[Steve S]

SD is actually an upgrade as far as ten will care as it can be viewed by more people.

[Alan Hopla]

Qualifying is still on One. But the race is only on Ten. Much better last year when they showed the race on both One and Ten.
As for the bikes they generally show the Moto3 and Moto2 races on One, and then you have to switch to Ten for the MotoGP.

[aggie57]

I actually prefer it as takes up a lot less space on the foxtel IQ.....and as Colin says at least you can be sure it will be on.  Qualifying is on One though which is a bit weird....

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Someone more prone to conspiracy theories than me might find it interesting that this move to show the F1 and MotoGP races on SD (but leaving F1 qualie and Moto2 & 3 on HD) was made by Lachlan Murdoch when he was appointed interim Chief Executive earlier this year, after buying a 9% stake in the company.  Currently he is Chairman of the Board.  It wasn't only the F1 that was mucked around by the then interim CEO, if you'll remember, One HD was then a purely sports channel.

Someone more prone to conspiracy theories than me might also note that the Murdochs own a substantial stake in Foxtel, which had been losing subscibers to a significant degree for a while before Lachlan Murdoch bought into Network Ten, and which if it succesfully bid for the rights to F1 would show it uninterrupted in HD.  For a price.....

I'm certain the two facts have nothing to do with each other.

[alfagtv58]

here here Sheldon, I came to that same conclusion a month or two ago when One HD decided not to show the LeMans 24Hr despite having the broadcast rights until 2013.  It was only after some negative press and customer complaints (probably about 4 or 5....) that Ten Sport decided to stream the race on their website.....it was better than nothing, but a far cry from HD!!  Oh and the first hour of streaming had multiple audio feeds (multiple languagues) coming through at once, it was doing my head in.

[colcol]

And in the bad old days when channel 9 used to broadcast the F1, it wouldn't start until about 11pm, when the movie had finished, and you had to put up with an ex footballer commentator, telling you we are now crossing to the telecast, [which started an hour ago], then it was Murray Walker and James Hunt doing the biased commentary, and it would finish at 1pm, making uncle Col even more short tempered the next day than usual, now, the pre race starts at 9-30, the race starts about 10-15, finishes at midnight, the studio commentators are Greg Rust, Darryl Beatty and Craig Baird, then the race commentators are Martin Brundle and David , and they all know what they are talking about and shut up when needed, the racing with Pirrelli tyres and DRS is just fantastic, and you are whinging about what, ?, Colin.

[Evan Bottcher]

here here Sheldon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear,_hear

[Sheldon McIntosh]

and you are whinging about what, ?, Colin.

I'm whinging about a significant downgrading in the quality of the video and audio.  That's great that you don't care about it, but it's quite important to some of us, so is it okay with you that we talk about it on a public forum?

[pep105]

When Murray Walker and James Hunt were commentating it was a great era, and what you don't think the current crop
of pommie F1 & Moto Gp commentators are biased?

Give me a spell mate 

Yes the race is on earlier now and I like Baird and Darryl Beattie, Greg Rust is bearable (but he makes some dumb arse
comments at times) but it would be nice to see the Moto GP race & qualifying for example in HD.

[alfagtv58]

here here Sheldon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear,_hear

http://m.urbandictionary.com/#define?term=spelling%20nazi

[Evan Bottcher]

http://m.urbandictionary.com/#define?term=spelling%20nazi

You know I only do it because I'm jealous...