BBC viewers

[madcat]

So to the old BBC viewers, what are your plans for March?

Are you joining Sky, watching on some free foreign Sat channel, stream it online from some dubious source or something else?

[dr-baker]

BBC.





































Radio, obviously.

[Stramala]

Sky Sports F1.

Even though I only have Freeview...











Problem Rupert Muroch?

[mario]

[...]

Problem Rupert Muroch?

Given his previous stance on internet piracy, you can bank on that - he has been very vocal with his criticism of Google, for example, for failing to act against sites which are accused of involvement in copyright infringement. Bernie and FOM are already quite aggressive when it comes to taking down F1 related material from various sites, particularly places like Youtube, so Murdoch will probably feel right at home with Bernie's attitude towards digital media - and might even weigh in on his own part...

[AdrianSutil]

Well, I think the BBC are showing a full re-run of every race on Sky a few hours after the race (If I'm wrong correct me), so I'll be doing that. I'll have to make sure I'm nowhere near this forum or the TV until though

[James1978]

I've ended up getting Sky, but wanted it for a load of other stuff too such as Golf, and not just F1. I'll watch the Sky races live but probably have the BBCF ones for their live races.

[FMecha]

[...]
Problem Rupert Muroch?

Given his previous stance on internet piracy, you can bank on that - he has been very vocal with his criticism of Google, for example, for failing to act against sites which are accused of involvement in copyright infringement. Bernie and FOM are already quite aggressive when it comes to taking down F1 related material from various sites, particularly places like Youtube, so Murdoch will probably feel right at home with Bernie's attitude towards digital media - and might even weigh in on his own part...

(sightly off-topic) Mario, with the ACTA BS going on, do you know what ACTA can affect the (fan-base of the) sport?

[tommykl]

Well, back to RTBF for me (or TF1 if my dad's too lazy...)

[East Londoner]

I have Sky Sports, but I hardly watch those channels at the moment. Only cricket and a bit of football. I used to watch a hell of a lot of WWE on Sky until a couple of years ago, when it finally dawned on me that it was a shadow of it's late 90s/early 00s prime, plus my insane hatred of John Cena...

[dr-baker]

Well, I think the BBC are showing a full re-run of every race on Sky a few hours after the race (If I'm wrong correct me), so I'll be doing that. I'll have to make sure I'm nowhere near this forum or the TV until though

Naturally, I'll be doing this in addition to the live radio coverage...

[dr-baker]

Actually, knowing me, I'll listen it live on the radio, forget that the highlights are on, then end up watching it on iPlayer at a later date...

[Barbazza]

The only time I've ever listened to 5 Live was that brilliant occasion when they got Murray on.

So it'll have to be the BBC's 'not quite in full' replays for me for the races they're not showing live - unfortunately. I have got Sky but don't want to pay their exorbitant prices for either Sky Sports or HD.

Unless Sky suddenly do an offer on either of those options of course.... (yes, I'm fickle)

[This]

Well, back to RTBF for me (or TF1 if my dad's too lazy...)

despite having coverage in 'flemish' on VT4 ', i think i'll have to go to RTBF too, VT4 is even worse than the canvas/vrt coverage was, and RTBF has always seem to be decent. Since i can only receive BBC and RTBF coverage with my oldschool cable tv. (it's not worth to me following slightly modern technology so far)

Usually i fall in sleep anyway, not because it's boring, but just because i only seem to sleep well when things are interesting

[mario]

[...]
Problem Rupert Muroch?

Given his previous stance on internet piracy, you can bank on that - he has been very vocal with his criticism of Google, for example, for failing to act against sites which are accused of involvement in copyright infringement. Bernie and FOM are already quite aggressive when it comes to taking down F1 related material from various sites, particularly places like Youtube, so Murdoch will probably feel right at home with Bernie's attitude towards digital media - and might even weigh in on his own part...

(sightly off-topic) Mario, with the ACTA BS going on, do you know what ACTA can affect the (fan-base of the) sport?

To be honest, right now it is a little hard to tell exactly what the impact of ACTA would be through the shrill complaints on both sides of the debate, particularly what I have seen of ACTA so far mainly covers physical items, rather than digital works, that breach current international regulations on copyright law. As a result, I admit that I do not know enough about the bill to say what impact it would have, so would rather stay quiet for now instead of providing what may be misleading information.

[WeirdKerr]

got sky... been wanting it for years....

[Cynon]

[...]

Problem Rupert Muroch?

Given his previous stance on internet piracy, you can bank on that - he has been very vocal with his criticism of Google, for example, for failing to act against sites which are accused of involvement in copyright infringement. Bernie and FOM are already quite aggressive when it comes to taking down F1 related material from various sites, particularly places like Youtube, so Murdoch will probably feel right at home with Bernie's attitude towards digital media - and might even weigh in on his own part...

I'd elaborate more on this if I wasn't writing a paper (interestingly enough on internet piracy), but in essence, not providing content that is easily accessible creates piracy, not stops it. That's not to say they're not entitled to profit from their content -- they are -- but I'm not sure they understand the power of paid streaming yet. Hulu and Netflix do.

[Stramala]

[...]

Problem Rupert Muroch?

Given his previous stance on internet piracy, you can bank on that - he has been very vocal with his criticism of Google, for example, for failing to act against sites which are accused of involvement in copyright infringement. Bernie and FOM are already quite aggressive when it comes to taking down F1 related material from various sites, particularly places like Youtube, so Murdoch will probably feel right at home with Bernie's attitude towards digital media - and might even weigh in on his own part...

I'd elaborate more on this if I wasn't writing a paper (interestingly enough on internet piracy), but in essence, not providing content that is easily accessible creates piracy, not stops it. That's not to say they're not entitled to profit from their content -- they are -- but I'm not sure they understand the power of paid streaming yet. Hulu and Netflix do.

Neither of which are available in the UK, hence why I pirate all the US TV shows I watch!

[razta]

I'll be watching it on Abu dhabi Sports, with 5Live coverage..

[Shizuka]

Been watching the races online...
And now I'll do the same thing! Maybe not on Sky, instead I'll watch the Hungarian m1HD feed. (Free software lets me watch the FTA channel online in case my Dad watches something else.)

[14 Hundred Hours]

I'll watch all the races that the BBC are showing, but for the Sky ones I'm either going to my uncle's or chucking my grandparents out of their front room! (Although not literally chucking. They did offer).

[fjackdaw]

I shall be watching the BBC reruns for the early morning races, then for the afternoon ones hopefully finding a sports pub somewhere that shows them and taking along a radio ipod tuned to 5 Live.

[FullMetalJack]

or chucking my grandparents out of their front room!

My grandparents would be watching Formula 1 anyway, so no chucking would have been needed.

[S951]

streams for ones i can't watch free

[shinji]

Hulu and Netflix do.

Neither of which are available in the UK, hence why I pirate all the US TV shows I watch!

Really? We have it here, I'm amazed you don't.

[CoopsII]

I can afford SKY but the outlay to return doesnt stack up. Id be paying a lot for a little extra, I dont watch much TV compared to some. The dedicated F1 channel sounds great but how long before its repeating stuff? You only have to watch a news channel to see how repetative that can be.

I cant be bothered to frig about with some illegal streaming.

So I'll watch BBC TV and on the days when I learn the results beforehand then the experience will be a negative one as will be my perception of the sport and its sponsors. Nevermind, truth be told Ive never bought a Segafredo coffee in my life.

[Valrys]

Hulu and Netflix do.

Neither of which are available in the UK, hence why I pirate all the US TV shows I watch!

Really? We have it here, I'm amazed you don't.

We do have Netflix here in the UK. The selection is awful though.

[Stramala]

Neither of which are available in the UK, hence why I pirate all the US TV shows I watch!

Really? We have it here, I'm amazed you don't.

We do have Netflix here in the UK. The selection is awful though.

Hence why I didn't count it. Comparing Netflix US to Netflix UK is like putting an Red Bull RB7 up against your grandmother's beat up old Ford Fiesta.

[shinji]

Neither of which are available in the UK, hence why I pirate all the US TV shows I watch!

Really? We have it here, I'm amazed you don't.

We do have Netflix here in the UK. The selection is awful though.

Ah right, that explains it. Would have been a first - something available in Ireland that isn't in the UK.

[BlindCaveSalamander]

I'd elaborate more on this if I wasn't writing a paper (interestingly enough on internet piracy), but in essence, not providing content that is easily accessible creates piracy, not stops it. That's not to say they're not entitled to profit from their content -- they are -- but I'm not sure they understand the power of paid streaming yet. Hulu and Netflix do.

Gabe Newell says it best. Piracy is, was, and always will be a service problem. Because contrary to what Hollywood believes, people are willing to pay for things they like.

As for F1, I'll settle for the cut-down version on BBC if it means I don't have to give a penny to Rupert bathplugging Murdoch. Assuming I can't find a good stream somewhere.

[Bob]

I'll be watching it on RTL with 5Live commentary; we have Virgin Media but to get Sky Sports will cost £22.50 per month - a HD dish is £50.

[dinizintheoven]

Bob: if you see this before the season starts, how are you getting RTL with Virgin Media? I'm with them, and I've scoured their channel list... no foreign stuff, unless you count the channels made here for Asian viewers, which would be cheating, and doesn't help.

I've started looking into Freesat setups, or similar...

This thread on DigitalSpy says I could buy a complete Freesat setup from Aldi, Lidl or B&Q - which may or may not be one of those portable jobs that I've seen mounted just outside a caravan when I was on holiday in Cornwall. I have never had satellite TV in my life, I've had cable for nine and a half years and never had any pressing need to change, and I know very little about how to point the dish correctly. I'm given an angle of 19.2°E to pick up German RTL on the Astra 1 satellite, rather than 28.2°E where I'm led to believe is to pick up "proper" Sky.

This page goes into more detail, it gives the frequency and polarisation direction I need (as it used to be with TV from an aerial). However, one thing I can't find... shouldn't there also be a vertical angle specified to point the dish at? What I mean is, if I was in Kenya or somewhere else on the Equator, I might have to point the dish straight upwards, whereas here at 53°N it should be a lot closer to the horizon...

Has anyone here actually done this, and if so, how well does it work? I am led to believe the total cost of the dish and DVB-standard receiver (seeing as Astra 1 is about to go digital-only) from somewhere like Lidl is about £60, or less than three months' Sky Sports subscription.

I already have a digital radio, and I'll be hooking it up to an amplifier so the Five Live Sports Extra commentary will not be a problem. I paid a hundred quid for that radio, four years ago, and as I barely listen to the radio except for cricket commentary, it's going to start paying for itself!

EDIT: 50 quid, and one of the reviews explicitly refers to searching for "European channels from the 19.2°E satellite" with success. I wonder what they might have meant? Either way, something tells me this is worth a punt. And if the cable is rather short that's supplied with the dish, I think I have some spare cable somewhere from where the VM engineers changed my broadband modem and insisted that they changed all the cable as well... I think they left my old cable, and it is the same spec for satellite and cable TV, isn't it?

[Nuppiz]

We had a similar situation a few years back here in Finland; for many many years F1 was shown for free (albeit with commercial breaks, during which our family switched to the German RTL broadcast back when our apartment block still had a satellite dish ) on the MTV3 channel. But in 2007 the live broadcasts were moved to the pay-TV channel MTV3 MAX, which came in a package with three other channels as well with a reasonable enough price. The free channel only featured highlights of the qualifying and race. Many, including us, decided to buy the package to still be able to watch F1 properly.

Mostly it's been the same as with the free channel (although starting from this year, for the first time ever we can watch the winter tests as well), but one thing that many have criticized is that after luring so many to buy the package for F1, it's since been expanded with a variety of other, completely unrelated channels, and of course the prices have increased as well. And getting that package is currently the only way to watch live F1 broadcasts, besides paying for the web feed in their Katsomo service.

[jackanderton]

Oh hang on I can stream sky for free online.


Streaming Sky Sports for free the only form of piracy where I actually derive direct pleasure from the knowledge that all their efforts, might and sanctimony has been in vain and I win (in a small pathetic way and with an unreliable and occasionally poor picture). Hah aha ha ha ha ha. Ish.

[IdeFan]

Be careful what you brag about on a public forum, the recent case of the British couple who weren't allowed into America because they joked about Destroying LA on twitter show that the authorities can and do trace seemingly innocuous messages back to real people and take action.

I'm not saying sky are going to get you because a post on this forum, but should you ever be investigated in future posts bragging about stealing sky could come back to bite you in the ass. The best policy is to pretend that you never pirate movies, music or games even if you've never bought an album in your life.

As for me, my dad is considering buying the minimum sky package required for F1 (if you get it packaged with phone and internet it works out quite reasonable) and failing that we'll try and pick up RTL on freesat, the EU single market allows citizens the choice of any European broadcaster even if a particular broadcaster has exclusive rights in your home country, this was recently upheld regarding sky's football coverage so I don't forsee any trouble watching F1 on RTL if you can get it.

If all else fails, delayed broadcast isn't too bad I guess, I have managed to avoid knowing the results of races when I planned to watch them later on iPlayer before.

[Minardi Man]

I'm willing to give sky a chance, they seem to be trying to do a decent job (no adverts is 5 steps up from ITV).
That said, if the coverage is as bad as I first feared, i'll be watching it delayed on the bbc instead.

[Collieafc]

While we are speaking about this, I shall chip in with some sums from my recent experience to show why us UK forum members have been up in arms about the whole thing. Plus maybe to help out anyone who is unsure on getting Sky.

On Monday (13th Feb) I investigated getting Sky, purely for the F1 channel. But it was going to be £20 per month plus another £20 to get the F1 channel as it was part of the Sports package (Getting only the F1 as pay per view was not an option - you have to get the lot). SO in addition to the yearly TV licence fee of £145.50 (For non-UK forum members, if you own a TV in the UK you MUST pay this regardless of what you watch. Failure gets a fine, and other nasty stuff. There are exceptions but by and large, this is what most UK residents have to pay) I must also pay a total of £40 per month. The minumum length you can have Sky is 12 months. So, 40*12 = 480. Add the TV licence. The total cost is as follows, per season:

2011 Season: £145.50 (€174.61 or $228.33)
2012 Season: £625.50 (€751.04 or $981.66)

Thats more than 4 times as much!

NOW you can see why UK members were/are so pissed off with the whole Sky issue!

For the record, I will probably just read the results, watch the BBC highlights, or find other sources

[IceG]

Are you sure you have to subscribe to the sports channels to get F1? I was under the impression it came with the basic subscription.

[dinizintheoven]

For the record, I will probably just read the results, watch the BBC highlights, or find other sources

And I will report on my "other source" in a few days, when I'm back home again after a brief sojourn in York. I now have my £40 satellite kit from B&Q, I will have to see what I can pick up on it... there's already a review that says it'll work.

[Stramala]

Are you sure you have to subscribe to the sports channels to get F1? I was under the impression it came with the basic subscription.

Sky Sports F1 comes as a package deal only. You either need to sub the other Sky Sports channels or the Sky HD package, both of which are bloody expensive, as detailed above.

[dr-baker]

Are you sure you have to subscribe to the sports channels to get F1? I was under the impression it came with the basic subscription.

Sky Sports F1 comes as a package deal only. You either need to sub the other Sky Sports channels or the Sky HD package, both of which are bloody expensive, as detailed above.

And don't forget to add in any instillation costs involved with getting the satellite dish and set-top box...

Exactly why I shall listen to BBC Radio and rely on TV highlights, just to prove to them that there is still a strong market for F1 on their networks. If their ratings plummet, who's to say that they won't try to get rid of F1 altogether?