Channel 4 becomes terrestrial home of Formula 1

He'll be busy this year then, with Formula One and Top Gear! And on rival channels :)
 
Glad to see DC onboard. Back in his McLaren days, I would never have thought that he'd make a good commentator.
 
No great suprise , its DCs company (and Jakes)
 
Yeah, maybe Jake will leave the wasteland of BT sport and come back to F1, tho I do quite like Suzi Perry :)
 
I don't have BT Sport , but discount them as a wasteland at your peril. I have a feeling they will dominate TV Rights in years to come.

Besides, JH has a young family now, can't see him wanting to travel the world these days
 
I don't have BT Sport , but discount them as a wasteland at your peril. I have a feeling they will dominate TV Rights in years to come.

Besides, JH has a young family now, can't see him wanting to travel the world these days

I really hope not as BT seems so expensive but do show some good stuff which is annoying as I really cannot afford it...
 
Yeah, maybe Jake will leave the wasteland of BT sport and come back to F1, tho I do quite like Suzi Perry :)
I doubt either of them will be on C4.
I don't have BT Sport , but discount them as a wasteland at your peril. I have a feeling they will dominate TV Rights in years to come.

Besides, JH has a young family now, can't see him wanting to travel the world these days

I agree BT have the cash (and seemingly the will) to compete but since their initial burst on to the scene and then getting Champions League rights the only real headline deal they have wrestled away from Sky is Australian cricket which includes the next Ashes. That will be noticeable for Sky subscribers but it is a lot of (exciting but non-England) cricket in bad timeslots that they will have paid significantly for.

Yes they forced Sky to pay big to keep the best Premier League games but in the end that's the main driver for subs and Sky will have even more first picks which enables them to control the games each will get even more.

Sky have also been pretty canny in renewing deals early (Superleague, Football League etc.) to freeze BT out. Now there are another couple of elephants in the room Al Jazeera/BeIn and particularly the Discovery backed Eurosport who with that Olympic deal are going to be bigger players in the next few years.

As for Jake not only does he have a family now it was only June when he signed a 4 year extension to his BT deal and F1 is not really something he can do with those commitments.
 
Last edited:
In case anyone missed the race split between Sky and C4 was released today.

Australia: Sky
Bahrain: Sky/C4
China:Sky
Russia:Sky
Spain: Sky/C4
Monaco: Sky
Canada: Sky
Azerbaijan: Sky/C4
Austria: Sky
Great Britain: Sky/C4
Hungary: Sky/C4
Germany: Sky
Belgium: Sky/C4
Italy: Sky/C4
Singapore: Sky
Malaysia: Sky/C4
Japan: Sky
USA: Sky
Mexico: Sky/C4
Brazil: Sky
Abu Dhabi: Sky/C4

So just the one prime-time race (Mexico) and the one early race (Malaysia) for C4 the rest are 1pm races except for Bahrain which is of course now a night race (4pm start I think) and Azerbaijan which is yet to be confirmed but will be timed to miss the end of Le Mans.

Seems to make sense that C4 think that traditional post-lunch GP slot is where they can maximize their viewers/revenue without intrudeding too much into their prime-time schedule and re-runs of the early races tend to get bigger ratings anyway so not too much of a surprise they weren't interested in Australia.

Canada is always a big loss to terrestrial viewers but with it clashing so badly with Euro 2016 (Wales, England and N. Ireland all playing on Saturday/Sunday) no surprise C4 wouldn't want to touch it with a bargepole unless forced to by the pick process.
 
Last edited:
It is 'free' if you have the HD pack and had since the early days of the Sky F1 channel like myself. I think they changed it a couple of years ago that all new subscribers have to take the sports package to get F1. I dont have sports and the only thing sportwise I watch is F1 so if I'm ever forced to take the sports package then its no more F1 for me.


Yes I also get it for free on HD, I don't have SKY sports because I can't stand, Football, Cricket or Rugby, it was chucked into my package on them staring the F1 coverage that's why I'm not changing my package any-time soon, the current packages would cost me more for less channels as well, sticking with my legacy package that no longer exists I think
 
I feel that the BBC coverage has gradually been getting worse over the past couple of years, I think they were consciously heading for coming out of it for quite some time, so little surprise that they pulled out early, I think it was poor that Lee Mckenzie didn't get the BBC gig as she did well when she had to stand in & seems to have a better rapport with people she's talking to, Suzy Perry, who didn't seem very comfortable at all when she started, stated years ago that she didn't like F1 & preferred Moto GP anyway, so maybe she just had a better agent :)
 
Some thoughts on the usually sensible/reliable F1 Broadcasting Blog, interesting Twitter manoeuvres...

Whittling down the contenders to host Channel 4's F1 coverage

...Mark Priestley would be a good signing in a Gary Anderson type role. Although Scarbs would be my preference he might be a bit too techy for C4.
 
Must admit I thought most of his gaffes hilarious and I laughed out loud, but some were abrasive, nasty and mean. I know he didn’t suffer fools gladly, but some necessitated an apology , ( he may well have done that) The Mirror’s list of gaffes was the best, IMO
 
Must admit I thought most of his gaffes hilarious and I laughed out loud, but some were abrasive, nasty and mean. I know he didn’t suffer fools gladly, but some necessitated an apology , ( he may well have done that) The Mirror’s list of gaffes was the best, IMO
Which pundit are you talking about?
 
I'm a long time F1 fan but I'm beginning to struggle with this era of one team domination, no matter which team it is.

OK back in the day there were dominant performers, and dominant teams but for the past few years whether it was Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes or Red Bull again there has been one team, and that team has been running team orders from early in the season.

The teams do what they have to in order to win, no shame in that, but it's destroying the sport as a spectacle and turning up to watch Max Verstappen, right now, or Lewis Hamilton or whoever's next just tour around at the front getting further and further ahead isn't exactly thrilling
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom