The Sky/BBC F1 Coverage Announced
by Adam Milleneuve on Nov 25th, 2011
After months of speculation, the 2012 F1 calendar has been announced, revealing which races will be on BBC live and those that are only on Sky live, with BBC showing delayed highlights.
Sky also announced their dedicated F1 channel, although details are sketchy at the moment, so we're unaware whether GP2, Porsche and other support series will be covered.
They have promised lots of archive footage and behind the scenes stuff, and with Sky's reputation for transforming sports coverage, it will be interesting to see what they can do with F1.
The rumours of an Freeview channel being made available have been put to bed, which is a shame - was popular for a few hours amongst those who don't have Sky.
The coverage will of course be in HD for those that have the Sky HD package and any Sky customers who already have Sky Sports 1 and 2 will get the dedicated F1 channel for no extra cost. If you're currently without Sky, check their website for the best deal for you. True that compared to where it's free-to-air at the moment, it will cost at least £300+ to watch F1 next year, but you can transfer your Internet and telephone service to them and get a complete package, which could work out cheaper, or at least less of a financial hit. See the Sky website and their new @SkySportsF1 twitter for more info.
Anyhow, here's how the races will be distributed between the BBC and Sky - seems that Sky have got most of the 'big' races, but the BBC have retained Monaco, Spa and Brazil - no season opener sadly though.
What do you think folks?
| Round | Grand Prix | Date | Live on Sky | Live on BBC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australian | March 18th | Yes | |
| 2 | Malaysian | March 25th | Yes | |
| 3 | Chinese | April 15th | Yes | Yes |
| 4 | Bahrain | April 22nd | Yes | |
| 5 | Spanish | May 13th | Yes | Yes |
| 6 | Monaco | May 27th | Yes | Yes |
| 7 | Canadian | June 10th | Yes | |
| 8 | European | June 24th | Yes | Yes |
| 9 | British | July 8th | Yes | Yes |
| 10 | German | July 22nd | Yes | |
| 11 | Hungarian | July 29th | Yes | |
| 12 | Belgian | September 2nd | Yes | Yes |
| 13 | Italian | September 9th | Yes | |
| 14 | Singapore | September 23rd | Yes | Yes |
| 15 | Japanese | October 7th | Yes | |
| 16 | Korean | October 14th | Yes | Yes |
| 17 | Indian | October 28th | Yes | |
| 18 | Abu Dhabi | November 4th | Yes | Yes |
| 19 | United States * | November 18th | Yes | |
| 20 | Brazilian | November 25th | Yes | Yes |
Comments and Discussion
Having watched F1 for years and considered myself a loyal fan i'm absolutely disgusted. I wont subscribe to sky and wont agree to being thrown crumbs. Obviously sky won't care but nevertheless its shameful that money comes before loyalty.
[...] The Sky/BBC F1 Coverage Announced After months of speculation, the 2012 F1 calendar has been announced, revealing which races… more info… Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:43:00 CST [...]
Bahrain really!! should pull that fucker right out from under them... greedy Bernie!!!
I even have Sky and have had so since it first was released and I am still not happy about this. Sky don't have EJ so there is no competition to who I am picking when its on both channels
Pretty sure we were promised the first AND last races? Why no Australia??
Eddie's leaving. Brazil will be his last race. No jokes.
Still waiting for them to say whether Virgin Media customers will be allowed to get this new channel. I'm betting we won't.
VM are talking to SKY about it, they issued a statement yesterday just after it was announced
So we have to wait till April to see the 1st race on the beeb. Who picked the races for them to broadcast? I would rather see Canada than the European the Italian/German for the Korean and the Japanese for the Singapore as a lot of championships have been decided in Japan
well, this is disgusting. why is valencia being shown. cant believe it. it will still be on bbc 5 live though. thats what i read. sometimes you can get live streaming over the internet but in a different language. i would rather they sold it to channel 4/5 or ITV. at least we could have a chance of watching all the races. I REFUSE TO PAY SKY!!!
Bye then.
No you wont, you will get to watch 2 hours extended highlights of Australia. Stop being such a drama queen.
Forgetting the details for a second, I absolutely refuse to give ANY money to Sky. I have watched every single race live, bar one, since 1993 and am extremely unhappy about the situation, but will not, repeat WILL NOT give these servants of beelzebub a single penny. End of story. Incidentally, the 1 race I missed ( I think it was Austria '95?) was not my choice..it was unavoidable
Another important issue; Bahrain should NOT go ahead. They are still imprisoning medics and killing their citizens. I think I may simply stop watching F1 completely come to think of it. It's just too full of greedy people playing silly games while normal fans have multiple pisses taken. End of rant.
Don't the sponsors realise how bad this is for them. However good/bad the sky coverage is there will still be a huge drop in viewing figures so a lots less people to advertise to. This also means less interest in the sport which is bad for you to Badger!!
I don't have sky and refuse to. Thanks for letting us have the worst races --edited--
I have watched F1 since 1998 and frankly I'm glad its on somewhere else other than the BBC. Not that I dislike the BBC, but their coverage this year has been pathetic, dumbed down shite, it's like they're turning it into a football show or something, also i'm fed up of them explaining the rules every single race. Hopefully on Sky the coverage will be less patronising, and of a more technical nature, suitable for the hardcore fans. Also, before ITV picked up the sole rights in 1997, the BBC's coverage was terrible, you might get a full race occasionally, but it was mostly highlights, and quali and practice were rarely if ever shown. You'd get the full thing on Europosrt) and no-one complained then.
I'm sure coverage will be good on Sky, but why are people applauding the lack of adverts? IMHO it's rather a slap in the face for a subscription channel shouldn't show any adverts.
And no, I don't have Sky and won't be getting it. The local pub is going to make a few more quid instead in beer sales I think.
Yes, no SKY for me either. I guess the BBC bit is the "must be shown on FTA" clause that the teams and sponsors have always insisted on. Well, I don't know anyone who is buying SKY for this. Why should you when you have to buy a footy channel just to get F1? Barking. We have Virgin and I'm hoping it will be offered as a freeby like ESPN is now. BTW, there didn't appear to be any bidding process that might have allowed ESPN the option to take it on? Sounds a bit like Bernie rang Rupy and - deal done, oh well, as above its the pub for us now.
I have Followed F1 since 1976 and was disgusted when the BBC broke their contract and sold out to Sky. However I am pleased that they have given F1 it's own dedicated channel and that existing Sky HD and Sky sports customers will get it free. I have no time for football (Never seen the attraction of watching grown men run up and down a bit of grass in shorts) and was thinking I'd have to give up on F1 as I refuse to pay for the sky sports package to watch 20 races a year. But the announcement it will be free to HD customers was a good move I think. A lot of people like myself already have Sky so the extra £10 a month is doable to be able to watch my favourite sport plus the Mrs is happy with the other channels so I got brownie points too!
You can't blame Sky for taking it , The BBC are the bad guys in my book I don't like having to pay money into Mr Murdoch's pocket but are the BBC any better?
I'd have preffered F1 to remain on the BBC but it's not going to be as expensive as I thought it was.
All I will say is " SKY, please don't mess up our sport" and BBC "Can I have my licence money back now you don't show anything I want to watch other than Top Gear and I can see that on Dave"