F1 goes to Sky sports

[JeremySmith]

You chaps have quite a good deal really... I pay $131.00 per month to get Speed TV so that I can watch F1...

This is not for a dedicated F1 channel either...

[Peat]

Originally Posted by henners88

I am prepared to pay for Sky but am unable to do so due to a lack of disposable income.

You could cancel your broadband for a start. Where there's a will.......

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by Pingguest

I have not been following this thread. How many British fans have purchased themselves a subscription just to watch an extra of ten races live?

Not me and I will probably just watch the re-runs on BBC as I don't often get to see the races live. And even when I do I don't always bother, literally nothing will make me sit through Valencia/Abu Dhabi/Singapore/Sakhir ever again. Besides, I like Ben Edwards far more than the 5-Live bloke.

I do have access to Sky F1 though, I got a really good deal for my broadband through them by playing them off against Virgin Media and I do like their HD stuff, always have. But I am hoping that, without my critical viewership, the whole thing will collapse and return to terrestrial. Literally nobody needs extensive coverage of car unveilings and constant re-runs of old programs.

If half a billion of expenditure gets us a virtual car, Ted Kravitz, Fenners, episodes of Inside Grand Prix and everything else largely the same as before whilst people go crazy and lap it up then I'm out. I'd say most of that expenditure went straight to Bernie anyways, for the old season reviews!

[henners88]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Just looked at the BBC schedule for Sunday and it says that from 2-4pm there will be Formula 1 'highlights'. I do feel bad for people watching it on that and like that.

I'm not being funny and I know it's not my place to delve into your financial situation which is private and personal, but can you not afford £30 a month? I know I have all sorts of things having to leave my account I don't enjoy which add up to far more (council tax, etc) and I wonder whether you'd notice the £30 as much as you suggest. As I say, I didn't like the enforced move to paying for F1, but I've cast aside principles for personal practicality; I'd rather see it properly than not see it.

Put it this way, its very rare I don't go into my overdraft each month so adding 30 quid to it would be less than sensible. Is it really out of your grasp to understand that 30 quid is not a small amount of money for everyone? It might be a minor inconvenience for someone like yourself, but its significant to me! I find it rather insulting when I am told I could afford it if I really wanted it and that I should alter the way I live to accommodate a previously free service. I'm sure you've all got it good and this deal is great if you earn enough but I'm as big a fan as any of you and I'm annoyed I'm being forced into watching a dumbed down version of things.

Originally Posted by Peat

You could cancel your broadband for a start. Where there's a will.......

I could also get Welsh water to turn off my supply to as that would save 25 quid every month but like your suggestion that would be stupid. If I had my broadband cut off I wouldn't earn any money fullstop as it is a little more essential than a lot of other things.

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Just looked at the BBC schedule for Sunday and it says that from 2-4pm there will be Formula 1 'highlights'. I do feel bad for people watching it on that and like that.

I'm not being funny and I know it's not my place to delve into your financial situation which is private and personal, but can you not afford £30 a month? I know I have all sorts of things having to leave my account I don't enjoy which add up to far more (council tax, etc) and I wonder whether you'd notice the £30 as much as you suggest. As I say, I didn't like the enforced move to paying for F1, but I've cast aside principles for personal practicality; I'd rather see it properly than not see it.

Well believe it or not some people can struggle to afford non-essentials.

I know the past year and a half for me, whilst supporting me and my partner as she studied at uni, I lived on an absolute knife edge of funds. It was a case of paying for fancy services and never leave the house or use the money to do something with our days off. So £30 was certainly beyond me and it must surely be the same for others, you do realise times are pretty hard with hundreds of thousands scrapping over vacancies their numbers dwarf? Just being in work these days is a luxury.

So yeah, if people are pretty ****ed off about it then there is reason. It's a luxury many can't afford. And that's before we talk about people who can't get Sky even if they can afford it!

Another thing to add, for many people here it is now a choice of go to the British GP or pay to watch every other race and not go to it. A GP is a great experience, you have to go once, but pay through the nose for that AND for the TV experience. Again, gonna be some people who struggle.

But yeah henners, stop paying for food or something mate. F1 is that important.

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

I'm not being funny and I know it's not my place to delve into your financial situation which is private and personal, but can you not afford £30 a month? I know I have all sorts of things having to leave my account I don't enjoy which add up to far more (council tax, etc) and I wonder whether you'd notice the £30 as much as you suggest. As I say, I didn't like the enforced move to paying for F1, but I've cast aside principles for personal practicality; I'd rather see it properly than not see it.

I'm with Henners and Knowlesy on this, I cannot justify the cost and I'm in work in a reasonable job. Money is tighter than I've known in a long time, everything is going up and I've seen our disposable income go down by a further £100 a month since Christmas. Things are still going up every month, I've just lost the £45 child tax credits we were getting, I'm still on a 10% pay cut (since 2008), I haven't had any kind of pay increase since 2009 and every month something keeps breaking in the house. To afford it I'd need to forego being able to do things with my wife and daughter or dip into savings. Not very sensible really. That's the reality in the real world I'm afraid.

[Peat]

Mine wasn't a serious suggestion btw. Just a pedantic jab at the difference between 'unable' and 'unwilling'. If you really really really really wanted it, you could afford it. But quite understandably, you don't.

I am fortunate enough to be able to afford it, but i did do some serious umm-ing and ahh-ing before going for it.

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by henners88

Put it this way, its very rare I don't go into my overdraft each month so adding 30 quid to it would be less than sensible. Is it really out of your grasp to understand that 30 quid is not a small amount of money for everyone?

It's not out of my grasp and I've had my minimum wage days, so I do understand. But you mentioned having a few beers with friends on Sunday. If you didn't buy the beers, you would be some way towards the F1 subscription. Anyway, it's not my place to tell you what to spend your money on. I sometimes find means and ways to save money where I might not have thought of it before, so it can be done. I think you are resentful of having to do it for Sky, which I more than understand.

My own resentment has been temporarily tempered by the excitement over the start of the new season. Clever people, those at Sky!

Knowlesy, take a look at my comments earlier in the thread if you wish. I am resentful of the situation and you'll see I've made a U-turn (or changed my mind) based on the fact BT was costing me the same but without the telly. I'll still have to pay off BT £100 (a fine) for the seven months remaining on my contract (roughly the length of the F1 season). I think there is a thin line between unable and unwilling in some cases and that is not a criticism in any way. Someone mentioned family and not being willing to pay for that in lieu of doing things with their family I can utterly understand. There is an element of compromise in life required now to get F1 and some aren't up for that, which I get.

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Someone mentioned family and not being willing to pay for that in lieu of doing things with their family I can utterly understand. There is an element of compromise in life required now to get F1 and some aren't up for that, which I get.

This is exactly the point its a question of priorities. Bills like mortgage, utilities etc come first, then essentials like food and so it goes on. Paying for F1, despite being a fan of 30 years, is at the bottom of the list it terms of importance. Its a luxury in affect. Yes, I may have £30 spare a month, but do I pay that into my daughters child trust fund for her future or pay to watch what is in affect 10 races on Sky. No brainer to me really. I understand where you are coming from but I'm not sure the line between unwilling and unable to pay is that thin.

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by AndyS

I'm not sure the line between unwilling and unable to pay is that thin.

Maybe what I meant by the unwilling/ unable line is better summed up as being to do with priorities.

Fortunately for me, I don't have children and I consciously go with £30 less food a month than F1, otherwise I suppose I would have to not let mine starve.

[Rennen]

I already have Sky, but had never bothered with Sky Sports...but I've signed up to their F1 HD Deal for £10.50...Can't wait to see all the Practices Qually and Race on HD on my new Super large Flat Screen!...Sure beats spending hundreads of Pounds on being there!

[nicanary]

This thread is interesting in that many posts concern people's lack of funds, even though they appear to literate, and by association therefore not of the "underclass" - (trailer-trash to our US followers).

It goes to show the plight of hard-working decent folks in the present world economic crisis. I live in a very working-class town with a high ratio of benefit-claimants, yet they all have the ubiquitous dish attached to their homes.

These are very often the sort of people who watch the most appalling of TV rubbish, and I doubt if many of them will tune in to F1. How about we rent the telly off them for a nominal fee whenever there's a race on - they're probably still in bed at 2pm on Sundays, getting over their hangovers.

It's just such a waste of a good opportunity.

[bella]

i watch a scary amount of rubbish on tv (freeview, i might add), work full time and i'm upper middle class with a private education. so stereotypes don't always float. beware the sweeping generalisations...

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Maybe what I meant by the unwilling/ unable line is better summed up as being to do with priorities.

Fortunately for me, I don't have children and I consciously go with £30 less food a month than F1, otherwise I suppose I would have to not let mine starve.

Yeah, we didn't time it very well with the current economic climate either! Please don't take my posts as having a go at you, just a bit of frustration getting the better of me!

[Born Racer]

Not at all. Likewise Andy, I don't want anyone to take my comments too personally here, particularly when we are discussing financial matters, of which I know little or nothing of anyone's here; I am making more general points and hoping people apply the thought to their own situation.