F1 sell out to sky

[wullboy]

F1: BBC sell out to Sky

The Beeb announced that from 2012 they will broadcast only 10 Grand Prixs each live; while Sky Sports will broadcast all races live. The deal runs until 2018. The BBC claim this is a cost saving measure and are unbelievably trying to spin it as a good deal.

The reaction has been quite strong with "#bbcf1" and "#poweroff1fans" trending global on twitter during the day and many facebook groups cropping up; an official petition will open on August 8th on a government website and the Culture, Media and Sport Committee have described it as "not ideal".

Personally, I don't see it working. People won't watch the 10 BBC broadcast GP's on Sky - why watch the adverts? Sky is only going to have a decent audience for half the races. And of course this decent audience will be less than what the BBC gets now. But, on the plus side the BBC will be involved after 2013 when its current contract would have run out.

I wonder if ITV were approached by the BBC to share the rights, the money wouldn't have been as much but it would have been a more popular outcome.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/2011/07/f1_coverage_to_be_shared_betwe.html