Bernie is an idiot

[fishinjim]

Ecclestone missed a golden opportunity to put F1 on the map in the U.S. when he signed with NBC for 2013.
He has complained for years because the crouds were not big enough in the States.
The smart thing woul have been to have NBC show the races on regular channels instead of NBC sports.
The public will only get to see 4 races in 13. That is not building a fan base. We have had that for the last 17 seasons.
I think maybe he will never learn, and NBC is as dumb as he is. They would have a much larger audience on the regular channels.

[Knock-on]

Never known him to be an idiot. Unpopular, ruthless, cunning, yes. Idiot, no.

I might guess that at the moment there isn't the fan base to justify moving it to prime channels. A company like NBC will show what makes better sense. Perhaps they are seeing the impact F1 has on the Sports channel before bumping other shows from their Sunday slots.

[zako85]

I am having a hard time identifying the link between "F1 move to NBC sports network" and "Bernie is an idiot". The situation is not much different from when FOX was in charge. Most F1 races were on Speed TV, unavailable to most of public.

[gloomyDAY]

This guy is such a troll. We'll never see him post again.

[Tazio]

I'm a little vague on why Bernie is the bad guy here as NBC simply outbid Speed for the rights.

NBC outbid the Fox-owned Speed channel for the exclusive rights to show Formula One in this country

I don't understand what the beef is. NBCSN is at least as low a level of cable packaging as Speed, I receive both and am only one level above the most basic cable my provider offers, and Speed is not included in basic cable. They've hired Matchet, Hobbs, and Diffey, meaning the only member of the broadcast team missing will be Varsha, and in my opinion Diffey is easily his match, if not better. According to what I have read all races will be televised live. Could someone explain to me what it is I will be deprived of by this move?
Thanks in advance.

The new agreement that starts in 2013 is a four-year deal, and the network will provide over 100 hours of programming across the NBC network and cable channel NBC Sports Network. All 20 races will be broadcast live using both NBC and NBC Sports Networks. Also of note is all of the races will be streamed live on broadband on NBC Sports Live Extra.

NBC will televise four races, including the Canadian Grand Prix in June and the final three races of the season in November, while the remaining 16 races will air on NBC Sports Network. The latter three races of the season include the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas on November 17. NBC Sports Network will also televise all practice and qualifying sessions.
With this new deal with Formula One, NBC will be the U.S. home for open-wheel racing, as they will again air the majority on the IndyCar series with selected races including the Indianapolis 500 being broadcast on ABC.

NBC Announces Their 2013 F1 Broadcast Team, and It Sounds Like Old Times | Bleacher Report

[Tazio]

Never known him to be an idiot. Unpopular, ruthless, cunning, yes. Idiot, no.

I might guess that at the moment there isn't the fan base to justify moving it to prime channels. A company like NBC will show what makes better sense. Perhaps they are seeing the impact F1 has on the Sports channel before bumping other shows from their Sunday slots.

Very well put. We have to deal in the here and now, and even the NFL doesn’t put all of their national broadcasts on Network TV (see Thursday Night Football, NFL Network only). Personally I'm not in favor of shoving F1 down Americans throats, which is a good way to fail. Actually when I got back into F1 about 18 years ago I did it because I consider it my sanctuary away from the traditional U.S. sports, and really don't care if my country embraces it or not, nor does it bother me if there are American F1 pilots or not. However, if NBC could get the big bucks from advertisers to broadcast F1 live at the usual starting times in Europe, which is usually 2am east coast and 5am west coast they would jump all over it. It just doesn't make financial sense to them, which is why you can bet that the 4 races shown on NBC live will all be live at a reasonable time like Canada, Brazil, and The USGP.

[fishinjim]

I think you guy's are missing my point. There was not a hugh fan base when Nascar went on the networks either. The networks have built the fan base for most if not all sports.

[call_me_andrew]

On my TV, SPEED is channel 36 whereas NBCSN is channel 37. That's a decrease of 102.78% (sorta)!

Did you see the huge fanbase SPEED has built for Grand-Am?

[IceWizard]

Harsh, if you look closely there are at least 50 people in that photo!

[Knock-on]

Harsh, if you look closely there are at least 50 people in that photo!

If you take out the drivers, Marshalls and First Aid Staff, who is the other person?