F1 heading to Sky?

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Originally Posted by Hawkmoon

What happened to rugby league in Australia is an excellent case study in what happens when News Corp buys a sport. They took a sport with an ever increasing fan base and huge TV audience and nearly killed it in less than 5 years. The term "Super League" sends a shudder down the spines of many rugby league fans to this day. They arbitrarily decided they didn't want my team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, in "their" competiton and kicked them out. Souths took them to court and got back in but by the time the dust had settled several other teams were dead.

People think Bernie's bad with his greed and stupid ideas. He's got nothing on what News would do to the sport.

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Exactly my concern for F1 if Murdoch gets his hands on it. Complain about Bernie all you like, but his "vision" in the 1970's of using television to expand the sport has been hugely successful for everyone concerned. His financial demands (see the news about the Turkish GP) may be excessive but if one doesn't want to pay he's always got another lined up ready to take their place.

However, Bernie does not own the tv channels. He sells a product to them and they decide whether to buy or not.

In Murdoch's case, if this happens (and it's a big if at the moment) he owns the sport and the one tv company. No other broadcaster will get a look in.

Were Murdoch to own F1 then we and the sport are ****ed.

All of this poses the question:

Who is preffered as the man in charge of F1: Bernie or Murdoch?

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Well that's a choice between Tofu and Quorn. Both are s**t

Bernie. No question.

Murdoch would be a poison on the sport that we would probably never shake off, so I'd go for Bernie, as much as I can't stand him for some of his crackpot ideas, at least he's steadied the ship over the last 30 years well and it's his insistence to have a free reign when it comes to TV deals that has helped the sports fanbase grow in that time.

Murdoch however doesn't give a monkeys about the fanbase unless they have £££'s to pay to watch his ad filled subscription services, F1 is the only major sport in Britain with which Murdoch does not have a stranglehold on, something with this much speculated bid he is trying to put right in his eyes.

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Originally Posted by DazzlaF1

Murdoch would be a poison on the sport that we would probably never shake off, so I'd go for Bernie, as much as I can't stand him for some of his crackpot ideas, at least he's steadied the ship over the last 30 years well and it's his insistence to have a free reign when it comes to TV deals that has helped the sports fanbase grow in that time.

Murdoch however doesn't give a monkeys about the fanbase unless they have £££'s to pay to watch his ad filled subscription services, F1 is the only major sport in Britain with which Murdoch does not have a stranglehold on, something with this much speculated bid he is trying to put right in his eyes.

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Can't argue with that.

I do subscribe to sky sports already, but I think from a purely selfish point of view, I wouldn't be able to stand F1 with ads again.

A bigger point that has already been mentioned is the likely plummit of F1's viewer numbers and it's general popularity in the uk would fall. No casual fans are going to buy Sky Sports for F1 and as mentioned above many hardcore F1 fans would not either.

It would be a bad day for F1 in the UK.

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Originally Posted by Hawkmoon

What happened to rugby league in Australia is an excellent case study in what happens when News Corp buys a sport. They took a sport with an ever increasing fan base and huge TV audience and nearly killed it in less than 5 years. The term "Super League" sends a shudder down the spines of many rugby league fans to this day. They arbitrarily decided they didn't want my team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, in "their" competiton and kicked them out. Souths took them to court and got back in but by the time the dust had settled several other teams were dead.

People think Bernie's bad with his greed and stupid ideas. He's got nothing on what News would do to the sport.

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Absolutely.

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Originally Posted by UltimateDanGTR

All of this poses the question:

Who is preffered as the man in charge of F1: Bernie or Murdoch?

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Even though I am not Bernie's biggest fan, there's no doubt in my mind that he does love the sport. True, he loves money too. But in the question of Murdoch vs. Ecclestone, I would take Bernie any day of the week and twice on weekends... because ALL that Murdoch cares about is money. Fox/Speed does a very good job covering F1 in the U.S. But I can't say that the prospect of a Murdoch owned Formula One exactly warms my heart.

So the consensus being that Murdoch would only be in it for the money???

Well guess what, for it to make money then it would have to appeal to the public (i.e. the fans - us), and that's something the news corp do well.