planetf1.com

Well, how do you think F1 all being on pay channels will result for the amount of viewers this year? It is good that Channel 4 are still doing highlights. But I'm just thinking that the viewer numbers will drop significantly. Sky will get more customers so they probably won't care, but it is not good for the sport. I noticed that last year, Sky's NowTV service offered Sky Sports channels just for the months that covered the F1 season for £150. At the time, that wasn't worth it for me, as 50% of the races were live on freeview anyway. And you could buy the other weekend passes for NowTV and save a lot more. However this year, that would be a reasonable offer. But I almost get the feeling they won't offer it, or will bump the price right up because they know they are exclusively live. That will be so irritating if that is the case. I can't easily use cable TV so I have to rely on NowTV, but if they don't do a reasonable offer this year, I may just give up watching as many of them live. I still love watching the sport, but it is both the fact that I think the sky coverage is both poor and really expensive. It just puts me off watching it as often.

If some of channel 4's line up moved to sky, that would be great. I want to hear DC and Brundle back together. They got on so well. Brundle and Crofty don't really sound like best mates and crofty is just awful anyway. I really like Ben Edwards. he makes plenty of mistakes, but sounds passionate about the sport when commentating. Crofty just angrily shouts or goes off topic and starts talking about last nights supper...

I'm glad sky will have Karun Chandhok now. I always liked him. really knows his stuff when he's in the pit lane. Also thought he was excellent when commentating for practice. He would be another good replacement for Crofty.


So, how are you viewers who relied on Channel 4 last year going to watch the races live this year, if you even do? If they don't do this £150 (or less) 9 month deal again, i think i won't bother watching all the races live.

I took the sky offer last year, but still found myself favouring Channel4, even sometimes just waiting for highlights.

I doubt Sky will do a NowTV offer this year, there's little reason for them to. Which is a shame as I'm not prepared to pay £35 a month for NowTV Sport or however much actual sky is.

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Warning: The above post may contain sarcasm.

Well, I will end up having to get their £12.99 offer for a week of nowTV each time there is a race weekend. Normally there are around 2 races per month, so that would be around £25. The advertisements Sky have really irritate me. They really do try to hide the terms and conditions. There is that one where you apparently only have to pay for the sports you love. And that is JUST £18 a month. But in the hidden terms, you see that you must be an existing sky customer and already have a package of theirs which already costs over £20 a month. Then that Sky Sports F1 channel adds nearly that same price on top.

I am a bit stuck on what to do. I used to like watching practice, qualifying and the race. Now, I only feel i must see qualifying and the race. Their 24 hour pass won't cover this, and their week offer seems like too much. But the week was always what I had to get. I really like to keep up by watching things live, but I don't think their coverage is good compared to Channel 4. And adding that £12.99 21 times is pretty expensive for coverage that I'm not keen on!

I'll have to seriously hope they do the same offer as last year for £150 or less, or just cut down and watch many of them as highlights.

I moved house in November and we're on a new development that has fibre to every property. As part of my chosen ISP package I get free Sky TV for 18 months (the standard £20 entertainment package), so I can choose to add Sky F1 channel for £18 a month I think. I can stop it again as soon as the season ends so this is the best option for me.

But when my "free" Sky ends after 18 months, I won't be paying £18 on top of the £20 I'll have to pay Sky. So IF (and it's a big if at the moment) I do go the SKy F1 route, it will only be for this year and after that I'll just watch the highlights on C4 (better coverage anyway in my opinion, the presenting team just seem to gel better than the Sky lot.).

It'll be the first time in over 30 years of following F1 that I won't be watching a single race live. And I bet I'm not the only one......

Don’t know if anyone else finds this, but my viewing habits have completely changed over the past few years, where almost everything I want to watch is at my convenience on catch-up.

The fact that F1 finds itself way behind the curve regarding people’s viewing habits is frustrating, but I’m pretty much at the point where, in the absence of a decent service, I can make do without watching live, so I’ll be content with C4 highlights.

I’m actually looking forward to spending summer weekends out and about rather than stuck in front of the TV anyway (maybe that’s my age though

I agree.

I went for Sky's offer last year because it was a great deal, and when you include the extra content outside of the race weekends it was more than worth it for a fan.

However, the lack of on-demand access to this content and the realization that I actually kind of prefer watching F1 on a Sunday evening winding down in preparation for the working week meant I probably didn't make the most of my £150.

I'm interested to see where F1 goes with this F1TV over the top / on demand network.

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Warning: The above post may contain sarcasm.

Looking at sky's offers now, it is now 14.99 for just 1 week. So if all you want to do is watch qualifying and the race live this year in the UK, just times that by 20. Pretty much exactly £300. That sounds ridiculously expensive. Even the Sky Sports day pass would be getting on for £200 a year for the race and no other f1 sessions. When I first started using sky, i seem to remember the day pass being £5.99 and the week pass certainly was only £10.99. what is it with the prices going up? Or is it just that they have no competition now....

It is so sad, but i feel sky's prices are just putting me off watching F1. They should make things more affordable now they know that they don't have any free to air channels to compete with. It will be incredibly frustrating if they don't do the full season deal for £150 or less like they did last year.
https://community.nowtv.com/t5/Sports/N ... d-p/458845

It was offered early march last year, so lets hope they will do the same.

I know there is the option of using cable, but I can't easily do that where i watch the coverage. While you may get a reasonable deal as a new customer, you will always have that feeling in you that the decent value will not last, and from my experience with sky, cancelling anything is an absolute nightmare. Constantly prompting you to change your mind and purchase it again for several days after by e-mail.


Like Biffa said, I might just have to give up some of the weekends and watch the races on highlights in my own time. At least you can choose when to watch it. But the biggest problem by far with this is keeping away from the internet or news entirely. Won't be very easy to do every time.

I’m really sad about the ability to watch F1 at the moment. Ive been a fan attending live GP’s every year since the 90’s, and ive not missed a GP online or Tv. This year I cant see how I can get to watch most races. I tried Now TV ( the sky weekend package) a couple Of years ago, but the quality was appalling....so what do you do? This is so sad! And I think F1 wil Be the losers for doing this.

I agree about NowTv being poor quality. I mean Freeview has been at least 1080i on HD channels for nearly 10 years now. And Now TV is a pay service is a maximum of 720p and only this if you use it with compatible equipment. If you use the app for a phone or tablet, it is standard definition! 4k is out now and they are charging silly prices for the absolute minimum of high definition. Even then, I find that nowTV looks dreadful whenever there is traffic. For example, the start of the Canadian grand prix (when more people start viewing) in 2017, the picture went to a total blur for about 2 thirds of the race. You couldn't read any text or anything. I could watch all the races before on freeview in 1080i coming from my 25+ year old TV aerial. This makes me think that it is an absolute joke that an expensive online streaming service looks so much worse and is much more unreliable. Now I believe that their cable TV will be reliable and they 4k coverage will probably look stunning, but the prices for those are absolutely extortionate if you currently only use freeview.

I'm just currently feeling uneasy not knowing if they will do this £150 offer. If they do, I will get it and be able to watch them all live. If they don't, I don't think I will be able to make myself pay for every session, especially since the week passes are £4 more expensive than they used to be. But that will just be so sad. Giving up on the sport I really like purely because of the costs.

streamed the sky ones since it went to half races and generally decent quality even though can be a pain, but part of me was hoping kimi would retire because i dont think i would bother as much. was going to try and wean myself off f1 completely then though not sure if i can. sad really. as usual with these kind of things money talks loudest but i hope they will realise where it is heading and change course. its gonna die when they become electric so at least its a slow death.