Whats going to happen to BBC F1?

[tommy2k8]

Correct me if I'm wrong but there's 5 sporting events that have to be shown on free tv in the uk by law.
The Olympics (Winter and Summer) The Fa Cup final, The World Cup, Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix!

A customer told me this a few weeks ago so I wasn't 100% sure
If someone could shed some light would be tidy.

British Grand Prix isn't one of them :-(

The Big Question: What are the crown jewels of sport and why is there a row over them? - TV & Radio - Media - The Independent

[TheFamousEccles]

Ben Edwards and DC are doing a great job, watched the sky coverage the other week and it was ****....

I wish we had the Beeb coverage in Australia, we get the other mob and Brundle - though he is probably a nice bloke - just sounds awful. He is mostly knowledgeable and occasionally on the money, but the nasal drone and the constant references to his career are draining. But it could be worse - it could be Darryl Eastlake Luckily for anyone outside of Australia, you would have no idea whom I am talking about...

[Bruce D]

I wish we had the Beeb coverage in Australia, we get the other mob and Brundle - though he is probably a nice bloke - just sounds awful. He is mostly knowledgeable and occasionally on the money, but the nasal drone and the constant references to his career are draining. But it could be worse - it could be Darryl Eastlake Luckily for anyone outside of Australia, you would have no idea whom I am talking about...

New Zealand has the BBC as far as I know, you should intercept the signal! :P Fortunately here in South Africa we do get the BBC rather than Sky and it is great coverage, very well done, even if we only get the audio. And it's funny seeing all the talk about free-to-air tv coverage, we haven't had that since 2007.

[acescribe]

I wish we had the Beeb coverage in Australia, we get the other mob and Brundle - though he is probably a nice bloke - just sounds awful. He is mostly knowledgeable and occasionally on the money, but the nasal drone and the constant references to his career are draining. But it could be worse - it could be Darryl Eastlake Luckily for anyone outside of Australia, you would have no idea whom I am talking about...

Haha! Darryl Eastlake has come up on UK broadcasts on various things from time to time over the years. I remember him from my times in Australia (and I'll be returning in a few months)

I actually prefer David Croft to Ben Edwards but even I'm starting to think that Martin Brundle is stating to get dated in his commentary's - he would be better as a pundit and bring in either Karun Chandhock (who knows absolutely everything about anything) or Ant Davidson.

I think most English language broadcasts now carry Sky's commentary with the exception of the USA (which has their own) and Canada and South Africa which has the BBC's. Not sure about NZ this year?

Back on topic though, I think the actual contract with Bernie and the BBC was for five years 09-13 - then they did the deal with Sky to take it to 2018, but who knows what the whys and what's are for that. The BBC has had a funding cut from the government and rather than buy their biscuits from Lidl, and move to Manchester rather than commute from London, probably via helicopter, the top brass are far more likely to ditch F1 than any other cut. It is not as if anyone watches it. Oh....

[ShiftingGears]

I wish we had the Beeb coverage in Australia, we get the other mob and Brundle - though he is probably a nice bloke - just sounds awful. He is mostly knowledgeable and occasionally on the money, but the nasal drone and the constant references to his career are draining. But it could be worse - it could be Darryl Eastlake Luckily for anyone outside of Australia, you would have no idea whom I am talking about...

I think Brundle's an excellent commentator - I am underwhelmed with Croft though. Adds little to the commentary, besides irritating and overly verbose similes when describing various aspects of F1.

[steveaki13]

My favorite combo since Murray & Hunt and then Murray & Brundle has been 2011 when Brundle & DC did it. You could tell they were friends and bounced off each other and seemed happy to be working together. Shame that ended.

[AndyL]

My favorite combo since Murray & Hunt and then Murray & Brundle has been 2011 when Brundle & DC did it. You could tell they were friends and bounced off each other and seemed happy to be working together. Shame that ended.

Yes that year was the high watermark for F1 coverage. It'll be a long time before we see anything to match it.

[Coulthard Fan]

If I'm honest I like all the commentators British tv have had over the last 30 years! Except for Johnathon Leggard who I couldn't stand at all. He got it wrong so many times! "Oh it's Rosberg spinning, oh no it's Nakajimi even"

The best team around at the moment is the British Eurosport Moto Gp team, Spalders, Jules, Toby Moody and Martin. EPIC! It works so well.

[AndyL]

The best team around at the moment is the British Eurosport Moto Gp team, Spalders, Jules, Toby Moody and Martin. EPIC! It works so well.

And they will also be out of a job next year (unless BT sport make them an offer they can't refuse of course).

[RS]

Ben Edwards and DC are doing a great job, watched the sky coverage the other week and it was ****....

To be honest, when I read comments like that I can only imagine it's a case of people not wanting to like it. I think Sky do a good job, however I certainly wouldn't want to be paying the £20 per month for Sky Sports in order to get it (I'm on the old deal where it came with HD for £10)

I think a re-jig of Sky's pricing must be on the way at some point though. I don't think they'll get away with charging new customers £10 extra per month just for the HD channels and I think they should make F1 available as a standalone channel as it doesn't seem fair to force people to take the other sports channels when all they want is F1.