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Thread: F1 broadcasting monopoly
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4th March 2011, 12:25 #1
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F1 broadcasting monopoly
Well, I've just been passed the news that the country where I'm in now, the exclusive rights to broadcast F1 have been given to a channel which belongs to a cable company, and no other cable company can air that channel. So, this means that unless I have a contract with that cable company, I won't be able to watch live F1, which is quite amazing because a month ago I made a new contract with their rivals for a full year. What's even more amazing is that the exclusive broadcasting rights for MotoGP for 2011 also belong to this company, so effectively my MotoGP season is ruined as well. I think the FOM and Dorna have dropped the ball big time with this.
This is ridiculous. A similar thing happened when I was back home in India, where the WSBK rights were given to a channel which belonged to a cable company, and so people who didn't subscribe to that company, missed the whole 2007 season.
Shouldn't the FOM investigate, before giving away the rights, whether the channel is at least available to all cable providers in that country or not? What they have done here is force F1 fans to either jump ship or not watch F1 at all. This is the kind of douchebaggery that forces people to look for online live streaming websites or torrents, and then the FOM cries about that. Has anybody else had to go through the same problem? I know F1 is on BBC in UK and Speed TV in the states, and I'm guessing both of those channels are not exclusive to any cable company. In India it's on ESPN/Star Sports, which again is available to all cable TV providers. I have no idea about other countries.
P.S: BTW for those who care, I'm in Romania right now, and the exclusive rights to F1 have been stripped from TVR 1 and given to a channel called Digi Sport, which belongs to a company called RDS/RCS, and in December I made a one year contract with UPC for their HD channels. I thought heck, I'm gonna be here for one year at least, let's enjoy HD. I am guessing, and hoping that the Hungarian channel RTL Klub still has rights to broadcast F1, because I thankfully have that.
Apparently there were major complaints about the commentators on TVR 1, and probably some other issues as well, so it went to Digi Sport who now promise much better commentators.
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4th March 2011, 12:35 #2
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I am led to believe there are ways of watching the BBC coverage online from outside the UK, but couldn't possibly comment.
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4th March 2011, 12:36 #3
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You are correct about Speed TV in the US. It is one of the FOX networks, and as such is carried by both the major satelitte TV companies (DirecTV and Dish) as well as most of the cable companies across the states. I orginally had Suddenlink Cable but switched to DirecTV specifcly because Suddenlink (at the time) refused to pick up Speed HD and most of Speeds's NASCAR programming was being shown in HD. Of course, it hadn't made a difference for F1 because Bernie and Co. refused to show us F1 in HD until the upcoming season.
As for FOM doing their homework, I belive they did. Bernie was angling to squeeze every last penny he could from your purse and by selling EXCLUSIVE rights to just one network in your country allows that company to charge more money for it, so more money into Bernie's coffers. He could care less that the people who have the other company can't see it if they aren't paying HIM for it. I won't be shocked to see something like that happen here in the US in 2012-2013 time frame, right about the time the US Grand Prix returns.#4 2014 Sprint Cup Champion, 2007 Daytona 500,2003 Brickyard 400,2x Coke 600,2014 Southern 500 Champ: 962 starts,90 wins, 345 T5s, 544 T10s, 44 poles, 2x NNS champ
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4th March 2011, 12:40 #4
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It always used to be the case that F1 preferred to be on a free-to-air service, as the massive audience benefited it more than the subscription revenue. I guess Bernie wants the money in his pocket rather than being wasted on sponsors
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4th March 2011, 12:47 #5
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Originally Posted by Dave B
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4th March 2011, 13:00 #6
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F1 in the UK has always been on terrestrial TV - i.e. that which is broadcast free to air over ordinary analogue TV signals. And by extension is also broadcast via digital terrestrian. ITV and BBC are also available (by law) on every cable and satellite TV setup.
The main sports channels here are Sky Sports and ESPN. I beileve (although I stand ready to be corrected) that Sky are legally required to provide their sports channels to the main cable provider (Virgin Media)Please 'like' our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/motorsportforums
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4th March 2011, 13:16 #7
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Originally Posted by slorydn1Riccardo Patrese - 256GPs 1977-1993
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4th March 2011, 13:36 #8
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Originally Posted by Mark
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4th March 2011, 13:40 #9
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Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1
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4th March 2011, 13:47 #10
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I bet it's particularly off putting as I'm sure you would subscribe to the F1 channel if you could, but you aren't even being given that choice.
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