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Sky Sports launches F1 channel - Sky Sports F1 HD - The ultimate Formula 1 experience

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M

mocoworm

Member
Sky Sports launches F1 channel - Sky Sports F1 HD - The ultimate Formula 1 experience

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12040/7332332/Sky-Sports-launches-F1-channel

Sky Sports is to launch a dedicated channel for its new in-depth Formula 1 coverage, taking viewers under the skin of the sport.

Starting in March 2012, Sky Sports F1 HD will get Sky customers closer than ever, with more action, analysis and information - on their TV, online and mobile devices - throughout the season.

This new home of Formula 1 will be the only place to enjoy live coverage of the whole Grand Prix season, including all practice and qualifying sessions and every race in the calendar.

From its launch, Sky Sports F1 HD will give viewers:

EVERY RACE LIVE: From March to November, every moment of each race will be live in HD, without the interruption of adverts.

LIVE PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING: Every practice and qualifying session for each Grand Prix will be shown live on one channel, Sky Sports F1 HD.

THE FULL SEASON IN-DEPTH: Over nine months, viewers will have a wealth of programmes with in-depth interviews, archive action and weekly magazine shows.

EXTRA LIVE CONTENT: Through Sky's interactive service, fans can follow the action through on-board cameras, go behind the scenes with the teams in the pits, and follow race data, to take them further inside the sport.

The dedicated channel will be provided at no extra charge to all Sky TV customers who take both Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 or the HD pack of channels. It will be found at 408 in Sky's on-screen guide, after a scheduled move of the Sky Sports channels. Sky Sports viewers without the Sky+ HD pack will receive a standard definition version.

Sky Sports F1 HD viewers can also follow the action wherever they are with all live coverage on Sky Go, through online, mobile or tablet devices, at no extra charge.

Announcing the new channel, Barney Francis, Managing Director of Sky Sports, said: "Formula 1 followers are hungry for more and we want to give them the ultimate experience. It's not just every minute of every race but a channel devoted to Formula 1.

"We can now tell the whole story of the season, from every Grand Prix, from start to finish. Formula 1 will get the full Sky Sports treatment. We have big plans for live shows and a rich line-up of Formula 1 programmes; getting to the drivers, exploring the technology and lapping up the drama.

"With a dedicated channel for Formula 1 we can also give all sports fans the depth and breadth of sports they demand every weekend, right through the year."

Jeremy Darroch, Sky's Chief Executive, added: "This brand new channel again proves Sky's commitment to investing in the best content for customers. It will give even more value to Sky customers and create another reason for others to consider pay TV.

"This is another example of the value we are creating for customers through our content leadership. It follows the recent launch of other high-quality new channels like Sky Atlantic and Sky 3D as well as our growing commitment to UK original content in areas such as drama, comedy and the arts."

More information on Sky Sports F1 HD can be found at www.sky.com/f1
 
R

ruttyboy

Member
First they stopped me watching the WRC for free, so I moved on.

Then they stopped me watching F1 for free, so I will move on again.

Might start watching the chavs pushing each other around in shopping trolleys on a Friday night instead...
 
A

Adamm

Member
Keyser Soze said:
ESPN currently works that way too.
Click to expand...

what...? Since when?
I dont have ESPN but have Sky HD

Dan27 said:
If this is going to work, it needs to be free to all Sky viewers, not just Sports subscribers.
Click to expand...

Its also free to HD subscribers

EDIT: It should also be noted that the Daily Mail said in thier paper that this channel will be coming to freeview at a cost of £10 per month!
http://duncanblog.dailymail.co.uk/2...available-for-freeview-customers-in-2012.html
Although sky havent confirmed this yet
 
H

herod

Member
Yes. Yes. Yes.

All practice sessions live and more importantly recordable.

Everything streamed to my iPad.

Permanent channel.

Sky knocked it out of the park. I knew they would destroy anything BBC/ITV ever came up with.
 
R

ruttyboy

Member
herod said:
Yes. Yes. Yes.

All practice sessions live and more importantly recordable.

Everything streamed to my iPad.

Permanent channel.

Sky knocked it out of the park. I knew they would destroy anything BBC/ITV ever came up with.
Click to expand...

They'll certainly manage to destroy the viewing figures, and perhaps even long term interest in the sport, bravo Sky, bravo.
 
B

Britprog

Member
herod said:
Yes. Yes. Yes.

All practice sessions live and more importantly recordable.

Everything streamed to my iPad.

Permanent channel.

Sky knocked it out of the park. I knew they would destroy anything BBC/ITV ever came up with.
Click to expand...

I'll have to do without, I don't have sky and I'm not paying £30 a month for it.
 
T

Timbuktu

Member
herod said:
Yes. Yes. Yes.

All practice sessions live and more importantly recordable.

Everything streamed to my iPad.

Permanent channel.

Sky knocked it out of the park. I knew they would destroy anything BBC/ITV ever came up with.
Click to expand...

It'a not that much better than what BBC offers at the moment, is it? For the £10 a month thats what they should do, not to mention half the races are still on BBC
 
B

Biggzy

Member
It still makes me chuckle to this day when it was announced the Beeb and Sky will be sharing the licence to broadcast F1 and the reason given by Ecclestone was to increase the audience for F1- I generally didn't know that you can watch Sky without paying for a TV licence.
 
H

herod

Member
Biggzy said:
It still makes me chuckle to this day when it was announced the Beeb and Sky will be sharing the licence to broadcast F1 and the reason given by Ecclestone was to increase the audience for F1- I generally didn't know that you can watch Sky without paying for a TV licence.
Click to expand...

They'll increase the audiences by providing a much higher quality service than the BBC can even dream of.
 
H

herod

Member
ruttyboy said:
They'll certainly manage to destroy the viewing figures, and perhaps even long term interest in the sport, bravo Sky, bravo.
Click to expand...

BBC are still showing every race on peasant TV, so how can they destroy the viewing figures?

Best of both worlds, premium, much higher quality for people willing to pay a reasonable amount to watch their favourite sport, and Jake and the other members of the keystone cops for 10 live races and 10 time delayed races for people who don't think it's worth paying any money to watch what they love.
 
F

Foliorum Viridum

Banned
To be fair to Sky they seem to be doing as much as they can to go about this the right way.

£100 says their coverage will still pale in comparison to the quality that we get on the BBC now, though.
 
A

Adamm

Member
Biggzy said:
It still makes me chuckle to this day when it was announced the Beeb and Sky will be sharing the licence to broadcast F1 and the reason given by Ecclestone was to increase the audience for F1- I generally didn't know that you can watch Sky without paying for a TV licence.
Click to expand...
??

You need to pay a TV licsense if you own a TV even if it isnt actually tuned into any channel
 
S

satriales

Member
I can't watch Sky and I'm not watching half a season on the BBC, so i'll probably switch to watching British Touring Cars instead of F1 next year.
 
S

SunhiLegend

Member
I don't care about existing sky customers, I don't have sky and never will. I hope this comes to freeview for a monthly charge like the daily mail claims.
 
S

Seanbob11

Member
Adamm said:
??

You need to pay a TV licsense if you own a TV even if it isnt actually tuned into any channel
Click to expand...

No you don't. You only need to have a TV licence if you have and TV or something comparable AND watch live television on it. That would be like having a tax on having just a tv to watch DVD's on :p
 
R

ruttyboy

Member
herod said:
BBC are still showing every race on peasant TV, so how can they destroy the viewing figures?
Click to expand...

satriales said:
I can't watch Sky and I'm not watching half a season on the BBC, so i'll probably switch to watching British Touring Cars instead of F1 next year.
Click to expand...

SunhiLegend said:
I don't care about existing sky customers, I don't have sky and never will. I hope this comes to freeview for a monthly charge like the daily mail claims.
Click to expand...

You were saying?
 
B

Bumhead

Banned
Wait, so I currently have a Sky HD subscription but no Sports packages.. but I still get this?

As I had no intention of getting Sky Sports or Movies I was going to cancel my HD subscription when the initial 12 months is up in March and save myself £10 a month, but I might just keep it now. Seems like a surprisingly reasonable deal..
 
A

Adamm

Member
Seanbob11 said:
No you don't. You only need to have a TV licence if you have and TV or something comparable AND watch live television on it. That would be like having a tax on having just a tv to watch DVD's on :p
Click to expand...

Ok my mistake. If you just watch DVDs or play games then you dont need one

But you have to have a TV Licence to watch Sky
 
V

Vivalaraza

Member
Biggzy said:
It still makes me chuckle to this day when it was announced the Beeb and Sky will be sharing the licence to broadcast F1 and the reason given by Ecclestone was to increase the audience for F1- I generally didn't know that you can watch Sky without paying for a TV licence.
Click to expand...

I didn't know that either? Is that really the case?
 
S

satriales

Member
Adamm said:
But you have to have a TV Licence to watch Sky
Click to expand...

That's the exact point the guy you originally quoted was making. Ecclestone claimed that the Sky deal widened the audience but actually anyone who can watch Sky can already watch the BBC so it doesn't widen it at all.
 
B

Biggzy

Member
People I was being sarcastic. I was making a reference to the fact that Ecclestone reasoning was rubbish as the BBC is available to just about everyone while, Sky is not.
 
R

ruttyboy

Member
herod said:
Haha. As if they won't be tuning in. Give me a break.
Click to expand...

Ah right, so they're lying, gotcha.

If this is successful for Sky (financially), how long do you think it will be beofre there are no live races on the BBC, and then just highlights, and then nothing?
 
A

Adamm

Member
satriales said:
That's the exact point the guy you originally quoted was making. Ecclestone claimed that the Sky deal widened the audience but actually anyone who can watch Sky can already watch the BBC so it doesn't widen it at all.
Click to expand...

I completely misunderstand the original point then


Ignore me

:(
 
V

Vivalaraza

Member
Mat C said:
Wait, so I currently have a Sky HD subscription but no Sports packages.. but I still get this?

As I had no intention of getting Sky Sports or Movies I was going to cancel my HD subscription when the initial 12 months is up in March and save myself £10 a month, but I might just keep it now. Seems like a surprisingly reasonable deal..
Click to expand...

I think so, pretty much the position I'm in. Works out much better than I thought it was going to.

Can I just ask the people here why they would switch to an entirely different racing competition? I get that you wouldn't want to pay for Sky, but why walk away from the sport as a whole? I don't really get that. You can still watch it on the BBC, okay not in the way we had all hoped for...just seems extreme to ditch F1 completely.
 
H

herod

Member
ruttyboy said:
Ah right, so they're lying, gotcha.

If this is successful for Sky (financially), how long do you think it will be beofre there are no live races on the BBC, and then just highlights, and then nothing?
Click to expand...

If it's successful for Sky then it's successful for the sport.

But either way the contract with the BBC is until 2018, so you have plenty of time yet to get into touring cars or whatever else you can scratch around for on ITV4. Enjoy the in-race adverts.
 
H

herod

Member
satriales said:
It's clearly going to be Sky only in a few years anyway, so I'll drop it now while the BBC are giving us half coverage rather than wait until they stop all coverage.
Click to expand...

Great idea, by not tuning in to the BBC, you justify the decision even further. Assuming anyone else does the same thing of course (which I doubt).
 
O

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
Can't get Sky at my house. (Tried, large trees block the Line of Sight to the Sat, so no go for me.)

So if it's a choice between seeing it so long after the live race that I get spoiled by news / online posters etc I'll just not bother to be perfectly honest, besides, after 2012 BBC will likely be highlights only, and that's of little to no interest to me.

Oh well, bye F1, hello BTCC.
 
S

satriales

Member
herod said:
But either way the contract with the BBC is until 2018, so you have plenty of time yet to get into touring cars or whatever else you can scratch around for on ITV4. Enjoy the in-race adverts.
Click to expand...
BTCC on ITV4 doesn't have in-race adverts.
 
A

Adamm

Member
I still wonder if Sky have over-estimated the appeal of F1.
Are that many people going to sign up just for the F1? I was always under the impression people watched it because it was one of the few high profile sports that was still free to air in the UK.

Even in the F1 thread alot of people said they arent going to sign up to Sky for it.

My concern is after a few years of poor viewing figures sky will cut back thier coverage & F1 will just blend into the background of Sky Sports like Speedway or that other thing...
 
R

ruttyboy

Member
herod said:
If it's successful for Sky then it's successful for the sport.

But either way the contract with the BBC is until 2018, so you have plenty of time yet to get into touring cars or whatever else you can scratch around for on ITV4. Enjoy the in-race adverts.
Click to expand...

Wow, do you actually believe that? You want the sport to become dependent on TV money like football is?

The greatest source of revenue for F1 is advertising, anything that reduces the number of people seeing sponsorship is counter productive and have no fear, viewing figures will drop massively once it goes Sky only, I can't believe anyone would even try to argue otherwise.

Also, nice one on the 'you're a pauper' accusations, that's definitely what this is about.
 
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