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The Motorsport Thread (Part 2)

Started by Ambient Sheep, November 12, 2014, 03:44:05 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

im barry bethel

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on November 19, 2015, 05:03:07 PM
And there we are, very shortly another major sport entirely removed from terrestrial TV, despite continuing evidence of its mainstream appeal.
I did read somewhere that the viewing numbers for the live broadcast from Brazil this year (with a teatime slot and no major viewing competition that weekend) were only marginally higher than the previous years highlights broadcast so it's a hard case to sell

Shoulders?-Stomach!

And what's that vs. the usual TV audience at that time of day?

And how does that compare to when every race was on free-to-air TV?

im barry bethel

https://f1broadcasting.wordpress.com/tag/ratings/


From that same source apparently the antiques roadshow hits about the 5m mark so it's down on that, as for a pre sky comparison it's not so easy as (live) viewing figures have been steadily falling away year on year


PAGATRON

At least it's still on FTV, for now.

Ambient Sheep

On Joe Saward's fabulous eulogy to David Bowie, somebody put a wonderful comment, which contained the following stuff which I thought people here would like:

QuoteWhen Bowie comes up I always think back to post Hungary 1994 in the 'Eff One' column in F1 News. It was claimed at the time that George Harrison was performing a version of 'Space Oddity' re-written as 'Race Oddity' relating to the Benetton launch control drama, I wonder if you are able to verify this??!!

I've taken the liberty of reproducing the lyrics, they still make me chuckle irrespective of what the truth was!

Launch Control to Major Tom
Launch Control to Major Tom
Check that Schumacher
Has turned the right switch on

Race control to Major Tom
Race control to Major Tom
Check your rule book
You'll find out you got it wrong

For here I am sitting in a tin can
Leading again
Sponsorship is thin
We'll do anything to win

This is Major Tom to Launch Control
To Michael on the pole
You know Flavio expects
You to win as he directs...again

Yeah this is Major Tom to Launch Control
Now Charlie's got the codes
And he's in the car again

:-D

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Hopefully Williams won't listen to Damon Hill's advice which is that they should switch to Honda power.

This despite their period in the doldrums directly coinciding with being powered by inferior engines - Mechachrome - failure - BMW - failure - Toyota - Failure - Renault failure.

Back near the top with Mercedes for two years, competing and beating Ferrari and Red Bull despite having vastly inferior resources in a formula now dominated by engine power.

Yeah best shake that up. Nice one Damon.

Ambient Sheep

Note to Ben Edwards and David Coulthard: 16 - 7 = 9...

im barry bethel

Moto gp's back with 4 manufacturers topping the grid, Ducati's blitzing 218mph on the straight and Suzuki now with straight line speed and a seem less box to go with their cornering. 3 Brits in the moto gp top 12, 2 Brits in moto 2 with Sam Lowes in with a genuine chance of a win, not much interest in moto 3 save for John McPhee now that Danny Kent has moved up but 10 rookies should make for a few offs.

Lorenzo for the gp win Vinales for a podium
Lowes for the moto 2 win Runs for a podium
Quatararo for the moto 3 win

Anyone else tuning in? anyone?

Silly auto correct not recognising Vinales or Quatararo

im barry bethel

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on January 18, 2016, 11:43:07 AM
Hopefully Williams won't listen to Damon Hill's advice which is that they should switch to Honda power.

This despite their period in the doldrums directly coinciding with being powered by inferior engines - Mechachrome - failure - BMW - failure - Toyota - Failure - Renault failure.

Back near the top with Mercedes for two years, competing and beating Ferrari and Red Bull despite having vastly inferior resources in a formula now dominated by engine power.

Yeah best shake that up. Nice one Damon.

Aston badges on the red bull could hint to a shortage of merc engines next year?

salr

Good picture of Alonso getting out of the McLaren after the crash.


jobotic

Quote from: im barry bethel on March 20, 2016, 10:19:26 AM
Moto gp's back with 4 manufacturers topping the grid, Ducati's blitzing 218mph on the straight and Suzuki now with straight line speed and a seem less box to go with their cornering. 3 Brits in the moto gp top 12, 2 Brits in moto 2 with Sam Lowes in with a genuine chance of a win, not much interest in moto 3 save for John McPhee now that Danny Kent has moved up but 10 rookies should make for a few offs.

Lorenzo for the gp win Vinales for a podium
Lowes for the moto 2 win Runs for a podium
Quatararo for the moto 3 win

Anyone else tuning in? anyone?



Silly auto correct not recognising Vinales or Quatararo

No, but only because I can't now it's no longer on Eurosport. Does ITV4 still have highlights the night after?

im barry bethel

Usually about 8 or 9 ish, doesn't anyone stream it like all the others seem to do in the football thread?

Alberon

Sky has negotiated exclusive rights to F1 from 2019.

The British Grand Prix will be broadcast on a free-to-air channel (presumably available on Freeview, I'd guess) and at least two more on the upcoming Sky Sports Mix channel that will be available to Sky subscribers that don't have the sports channel.

Seems a dumb thing for F1 to mostly lock itself away on subscription telly.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

The GPDA has released a statement which includes agreeing with you there.

This was always inevitable as soon as Sky got a piece of it they would get all of it. I'm amazed it took ten years but whatever.

Another sport gone

Shoulders?-Stomach!

http://m.bbc.com/sport/formula1/35889156

Hate to say it as I didn't like Moseley but we would have turned f1 in the right direction if he had brought in an effective budget cap.

The stakeholders problem isn't so much ill-governance as it is outright greed.

Alberon

F1 has decided to keep qualifying the same as it was in Australia, despite the shambles that became, for Bahrain.

They'll review qualifying after the second race to decide what to do next.

PAGATRON

It really does seem the people running F1 are intentionally trying to destroy it.

Alberon

What the hell is going on with F1? It's been fucked for years, but the shitstorm seems to have kicked up a couple of gears the last few seasons.

Has Bernie lost control at last?

Raymond

After twenty years of not missing a single race, I very quickly got out of the habit when the BBC lost half the races. I haven't watched a race since 2014. Didn't even realise that this year's season had started until I stumbled across the highlights on Channel 4 on Sunday afternoon. Far from charging people money for a product that isn't worth it, they should be going out of their way to make it piss-easy for casual viewers to stumble across F1 for free on terrestrial television and online.

Acquiring the exclusive rights to a minority sport that was dying anyway isn't likely to win Sky any new subscribers, but as long as F1 clings onto the dubious 'pinnacle of motorsport' status, they can afford to make a loss on it. It's just a trophy to them. The F1 teams are soon going to find sponsors (even) harder to come by, because a few hundred thousand viewers (most of whom are die-hard F1 weirdos, and are unlikely to be in the market for Rolex watches and Moet) just isn't worth the expense. And as those fans gradually start to fall away and find something new to obsess over, there will be very few new fans to replace them. Ratings will go down and down and down. And then Sky will walk away.

They've killed it. They've finally killed it.

Ambient Sheep

Although many outlets are reporting that everything except the British Grand Prix will be locked away on Sky, I don't believe that to be the case.  It seems that this is due to people misreading a vaguely-worded press release.

According to both the F1 Broadcasting Blog and James Allen, it's only the LIVE rights that will now be exclusive to Sky from 2019 onwards.  Highlights will still be available free-to-air.

In other words, it'll be like what we have at the moment, but instead of the FTA broadcasts being a 50:50 split between highlights and live, it'll be a 20:1 split.  Also, it is unknown what form the FTA channel may take: rather than being on the Beeb or C4, it may be relegated to one of Sky's FTA channels like Pick, which has a crappy bitrate and no HD version available.  Some pessimists believe that they may put it on Sky Sports Mix, i.e. it will only be FTA to Sky subscribers, not Freeview or Virgin peeps, but others say that's not contractually possible, as it's not strictly-speaking FTA.

So yes, still shitty news, but not quite what some people have been assuming, e.g. Joe Saward's otherwise-masterful rant here.

One other fascinating tidbit, gleaned from this Digital Spy post:

Quote from: FOM Fan
Quote from: jeffersbnlMight be reading things into this but the press release is rather quiet on streaming. Other such press releases would talk about rights across mobile platforms, online, that sort of thing. That one is missing that. Pehraps Sky wanted exclusive live TV coverage in order to make up for the launch of an FOM streaming service? Having no live FTA coverage (bar the Britiah GP) might push people towards that?

An Ex-FOM employee has posted this over on F1 Fanatic:

QuoteJust a point, There may well be an alternative to Sky by the time this deal goes live because i've had it confirmed to me that FOM & TATA communication are heavily investing in streaming content, They have been trialing various delivery methods & I'm hearing that app developers with experience in working with live streaming content are been brought in.

Also James Allen has also heavily implied FOM are gearing up to launch an in-house live streaming service at some point.

So you never know, it seems that by then we may be able to do PPV direct, as many people have been asking for...

Ambient Sheep

Regarding Bahrain having the same qually format as Australia, it seems like they might compromise by having Q1 & Q2 as Bahrain, but Q3 as per 2015.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-now-evaluating-elimination-qualifying-tweaks-for-bahrain-681873/

Alberon

#82
Quote from: Ambient Sheep on March 25, 2016, 04:35:45 AM
Regarding Bahrain having the same qually format as Australia, it seems like they might compromise by having Q1 & Q2 as Bahrain, but Q3 as per 2015.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-now-evaluating-elimination-qualifying-tweaks-for-bahrain-681873/

After Australia it was originally decided to forget the whole thing and go back to 2015 qualifying rules. Then the compromise linked above was proposed. But finally they chose not to change it at all.

http://planetf1.com/news/qualifying-unaltered-for-bahrain/

EDIT: Looking at it further it appears that when the vote was held yesterday

QuoteAt an emergency meeting on Sunday, teams agreed unanimously to revert to the 2015 format.

This consisted of three knockout sessions, with the slowest cars only eliminated after each session had finished..

However, this option was not on the table when the F1 Commission finally met on Thursday.

Instead, teams were presented with two options:

to retain the rules used in Melbourne that proved so unpopular;
or stick with the elimination format for the first two sessions of qualifying but with an extra minute's duration, followed by a final qualifying session run as it had been in 2015.

As neither had been discussed by the teams in advance, agreement was not reached.

Blumf

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on March 25, 2016, 04:34:33 AM
Highlights will still be available free-to-air.

You see, that's not good enough for me, and I presume a lot of other fans. Very hard to get excited about reheated leftovers, the live broadcast had that edge (even when it's a procession). Plus the live timings on the site help keep you aware of what's going on.

Raymond

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on March 25, 2016, 04:34:33 AMHighlights will still be available free-to-air.

Highlights and one race a year. I can't imagine that being enough to maintain a constant supply of new fans. Highlights and ten races a year wasn't enough to keep me interested.

Even if Sky decided to broadcast every race FTA, it would still be a disaster for F1. It'll be hidden away on a channel that most casual viewers aren't aware of and will never stumble across. If it's on BBC or ITV, there is a massive potential audience - the kind of people who'll watch a Grand Prix if there's nothing else on, or if they hear that something really exciting has happened. I remember my whole family invading the sitting room (much to my dismay) during the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix because something interesting was happening. When Johnny Herbert won that weird race at the Nurburgring in 1999, everyone in school was talking about it the next day. Back then, F1 was a minority sport - but one with a wide reach. Lots of people had a passing interest in it. In the future, it'll just be this weird, obscure, over-complicated event watched only by a handful of obsessives. It simply won't be on anybody else's radar.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Reducing European races
Taking it off free to air tv

What has a more direct impact on the involvement and enthusiasm of the sport's general audience than that?

I would

- Reduce the races and cap them to 18 per year
- Introduce a budget cap while lifting aero restrictions
- Use wider tyres and introduce 3 new suppliers
- Increase attrition by providing options that provide a short term gain but possible risk - turbo one option
- For all marginal wet races to start on time by using full wets rather than red flagging races because half the teams start on inters and it's too wet

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Blumf on March 25, 2016, 10:08:58 AM
You see, that's not good enough for me, and I presume a lot of other fans.

Nor me.  I thought that was clear from me saying that it was "still shitty news".

However so many people, both here and elsewhere, seemed to be thinking that there was going to be NOTHING on free-to-air apart from the British GP, and I was just trying to clear up that misconception.  Doesn't mean I like it in the slightest.


Quote from: Raymond on March 25, 2016, 12:22:04 PM
Highlights and one race a year. I can't imagine that being enough to maintain a constant supply of new fans. Highlights and ten races a year wasn't enough to keep me interested.

Yeah, I must admit, I've struggled to watch ever since the Sky/BBC split.  F1 going back to the Beeb after the long hell of the ITV years rekindled my interest to an extent I hadn't had for years - the Sky move then promptly killed it again.  I'm trying a fresh start this year with C4, see how it goes.


Quote from: Raymond on March 25, 2016, 12:22:04 PMIf it's on BBC or ITV, there is a massive potential audience - the kind of people who'll watch a Grand Prix if there's nothing else on, or if they hear that something really exciting has happened. I remember my whole family invading the sitting room (much to my dismay) during the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix because something interesting was happening. When Johnny Herbert won that weird race at the Nurburgring in 1999, everyone in school was talking about it the next day. Back then, F1 was a minority sport - but one with a wide reach. Lots of people had a passing interest in it. In the future, it'll just be this weird, obscure, over-complicated event watched only by a handful of obsessives. It simply won't be on anybody else's radar.

Beautifully put.  They were indeed golden times, I remember both those races you mention very well indeed - the latter when Heinz-Harald Frentzen had a shot at the world title!!


It's so sad.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Alberon on March 25, 2016, 06:15:20 AM
After Australia it was originally decided to forget the whole thing and go back to 2015 qualifying rules. Then the compromise linked above was proposed. But finally they chose not to change it at all.

http://planetf1.com/news/qualifying-unaltered-for-bahrain/

EDIT: Looking at it further it appears that when the vote was held yesterday...

Yeah, Joe Saward now concurs:

QuoteAfter the debacle in Melbourne, the teams met and agreed that it would be best to go back to the old style 2015 qualifying. The FIA, for some reason, did not agree and instead proposed that there be another format for Q1 and Q2 and then the old style Q3. The option, they said, was to stay with the Melbourne format, presumably hoping to force unanimity for their new idea. A return to 2015 qualifying was not even on offer. That failed to achieve unanimity and so we are stuck with the same as Australia.

Not sure whether I love the teams for calling the FIA's bluff, or hate them for inflicting the Australian format on us once again.  TBH, probably the latter... the mixed version should at least have been worth trying.  I can only think that they are being deliberately bloody-minded to try to make some kind of point about the governance of the sport; holding it up to international ridicule.

Ambient Sheep

According to this Motorsport.com story, it was McLaren and Red Bull who voted against the compromise, thus ensuring we ended up with the Australian version again.

im barry bethel

Quote from: Alberon on March 24, 2016, 06:30:09 AM
Sky has negotiated exclusive rights to F1 from 2019.....


...Seems a dumb thing for F1 to mostly lock itself away on subscription telly.
Yes and no, once the fag money dried up beyond those companies that will always have a technical/research presence there really isn't a compelling reason to put ad budget into f1 so viewing figures aren't as important as they used to be so going over to a subscription model suits f1 with sky taking on the same sort of partner relationship as Shell or Bridgestone or Magneti Marelli. I'd expect sky to develop some sort of streaming platform then Fom try to cash in on it