2018 F1 Random Discussion Thread

kals · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:34 pm

micha wrote:

gkmotorsport wrote:

Williams will be launching a full week before anyone else.

Yet Rumors say they failed the crashtest which delayed the development and building

kals wrote:

micha wrote:

and less paywalls

Almost every major sport globally sits behind some kind of paywall. Why are we expecting F1 to be any different? We've been lucky that F1 has been free-to-air for years longer than most other major sports. It's irritating yet there's little we can do to fight the inevitable.

I dont think you can fully compare F1 to other major sports. For example, two of the biggest would be the British Premier League and the NFL. In both of those you'll get multiple games each weekend alone. Some will be a borefest but others dont.

In F1 you only get 20 with several at times you cant always watch. Add the one or two sundays where you have something else to go to and it already starts to get more expensive for maybe 15 races you can actually watch (maybe even less). With F1's current state half of them suck balls.

Besides the fact that F1 can be boring, a quick google search shows that NFL games are also broadcasted on NBC, ESPN, FOX and, CBS. So people who cant or wont pay for the NFLN still can watch it. They can still sit down with their kids and watch a game of football.
Currently I can watch F1 on German tv but if that would end my only option would be paywall. And being a divorced dad with normal income and debts thats not an option.
That would not only mean, F1 loses me as a viewer but also potentially my son and daughter as future F1 fans. And thats the major issue. By fully going behind a paywall you block off a large group of current and future fans.
And thats what F1 should focus on. How to keep that group. How to allow that group to keep watching.

IMHO the F1 package is not sustainable when being placed fully behind a paywall.

I share in your frustration, and in fact you’ve just validated the point I was making. Most sports are behind a paywall of some kind. NFL is free-to-air, like MLB but that’s because of the massive revenues from sponsors and advertisers. Yet both sports still offer paywall content, RedZone for example in NFL. NHL is behind differing types of paywall, beit a subscription to the dedicated NHL channel, the NHL stream or just your local sports network which covers your local teams games (here in NJ it is MSG, which covers Rangers, Islanders and Devils games) but to gain access to that channel (comes as part of a package) I have to pay an additional fee. Some NHL games are free-to-air, but they are few. Football is no different and has been for a couple of decades.

In England F1 is prohibitively expensive. To watch you must pay three times. First for the license fee (which all goes to BBC), the for a Sky package, then for the Sky F1 channel.

The way F1 is offered for comsumption globally differs. Liberty is trying to launch more online services for streaming, which looks similar to what other major US sports do. That means a good opportunity to increase viewership as your access to watching F1 opens up. You can take F1 with you instead of relying on being in front of a tv on a Sunday afternoon.

The only other viable option if money is an objection is to not watch live, wait a couple of hours after the race and then download the footage from a torrent site or newsgroup.

codename_47 · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:33 pm

The thing that frustrates me most about a paywall, is I became a fan of this sport because F1 was live on the BBC every 2nd Sunday and usually the BTCC highlights were also on that same channel in the off weeks.

As I'm getting to the point of thinking about having family of my own, how are the next generation of racing fans going to be grown?
Gathering round a laptop to watch a dodgy live stream that sometimes has pop up ads of even dodgier content?

We're limiting the future fans of the sport to just being the children of well off families than can afford the sports packages, instead of "anyone with a TV" as it has been in the past.

It's very short sighted and in an era when sponsorship is already hard enough, limiting the amount of people watching isn't smart.
Are the much vaunted pay TV channels going to pick up the slack and pay ever more for the same product?
Hardly likely....

kals · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:54 pm

I get your point, most of us got switched on to F1 and various motor sports because of easy access to coverage. But to expect the same for future generations is wrong. To judge current access based on past examples is like saying Netflix won’t succeed because we had Blockbuster stores when we were young.

codename_47 · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 7:04 pm

kals wrote:

I get your point, most of us got switched on to F1 and various motor sports because of easy access to coverage. But to expect the same for future generations is wrong. To judge current access based on past examples is like saying Netflix won’t succeed because we had Blockbuster stores when we were young.

Not sure that's like for like, Netflix is blockbuster but way more convenient.

What we're doing with F1 is the opposite, we had Netflix-like access piped right into our homes, now we have to go on a search and pay considerably more to get the same thing again

Perhaps this doesn't apply to us, hardcore forum posting fans at all, but to the casual view on which the sport depends on.

kals · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 7:18 pm

It is entirely like for like. Your point is about progress, complaining that things moving on from how they were is limiting the series potential. If anything is short sighted, it's this perspective of yours.

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 7:28 pm

perhaps they could do something like Netflix, you pay a monthly fee (still below R$50,00) and have unlimited access to old races and live events of course

kals · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:40 pm

LucasWheldon wrote:

perhaps they could do something like Netflix, you pay a monthly fee (still below R$50,00) and have unlimited access to old races and live events of course

That would be good and it’s pretty much what the NHL do.

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:42 pm

I guess that effort in the US big leagues is quite sucessful right?

EAS · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:49 pm

codename_47 wrote:

The thing that frustrates me most about a paywall, is I became a fan of this sport because F1 was live on the BBC every 2nd Sunday and usually the BTCC highlights were also on that same channel in the off weeks.

As I'm getting to the point of thinking about having family of my own, how are the next generation of racing fans going to be grown?
Gathering round a laptop to watch a dodgy live stream that sometimes has pop up ads of even dodgier content?

We're limiting the future fans of the sport to just being the children of well off families than can afford the sports packages, instead of "anyone with a TV" as it has been in the past.

It's very short sighted and in an era when sponsorship is already hard enough, limiting the amount of people watching isn't smart.
Are the much vaunted pay TV channels going to pick up the slack and pay ever more for the same product?
Hardly likely....

I see your point and when I was in my childhood I had similar habits. However, when I think of myself today I barely watch TV. So, I am not sure a younger audience will be keen on TV as we are (or were) and there are more and more ways to reach potential new fans.

F1 is releasing more and more official stuff on Youtube and Social Media in general. So, today we don't need to wait to see F1 related stuff or even the serendipity of being in front of TV in the same time when there is something being shown. We can see it at any time. I don't think people will have their access to F1 restricted. I think it is the opposite.

kals · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 9:01 pm

LucasWheldon wrote:

I guess that effort in the US big leagues is quite sucessful right?

I guess so. I can’t talk to subscription numbers of each platform or sport. I subscribe to the NHL online content, it’s about $150 a year and I can watch almost any match, live or ondemand plus watch highlights, etc... and matches from past seasons and decades ago.

NBA offers different options, from full season passes (again about $150) to single games ($6.99). I’m not sure about historic content.

MotoGP offers online packages, complementing their TV packages. Lots of good content, both current and historic available. Not bad for about $100.

If Liberty were to offer an online content subscription, and the reasons we heard from NBCSN about why they failed to agree a new deal was of a competing online offering, then I’d give it a serious look. It all depends on price and available content though.

Soul Reaver · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 9:58 pm

LucasWheldon wrote:

here I pay a shitload of money to get the channels and when I expect to see live Nascar racing, Fox Sports shows argentine football instead

makes me want to drop a bomb in their offices

They just showed the pre-race and the first 2min of the 24h of Daytona just to cut it to italian soccer pre-match. Pay tv on Brazil is disgusting. 10 channels and 8 are showing some form of soccer or a talk-show about it.

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 10:14 pm

actually they only show racing when football is on vacation

exception on F1 races on afternoon and MotoGP, the broadcast on SporTV is quite good when live

now Fox Sports is a complete joke, they call a color commentator that is almost as old as Murray Walker on Formula E races, the guy is senile and old and they keep him there

webbsy · PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:09 am

kals wrote:

It is entirely like for like. Your point is about progress, complaining that things moving on from how they were is limiting the series potential. If anything is short sighted, it's this perspective of yours.

Bernie is that you? Was wondering what you were up to.

kals · PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 2:12 pm

webbsy wrote:

kals wrote:

It is entirely like for like. Your point is about progress, complaining that things moving on from how they were is limiting the series potential. If anything is short sighted, it's this perspective of yours.

Bernie is that you? Was wondering what you were up to.

I’m good, alive and well. Need to find money to pay for Tamara’s next boob job and Petra’s next divorce.

gkmotorsport · PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:39 am

The 'Alfa Romeo Sauber C37' will launch on 20th Febraury.

ptclaus98 · PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 1:03 pm

Scotty wrote:

Little rant.

I've had enough of people complaining about motorsport behind a paywall.

In Australia, you can get access to F1, V8 Supercars, BTCC, F2, GP3, MotoGP, GT just about every major motorsport on the planet for less than $1.50 a day. Seriously, my pay TV package costs $38 a month and it comes in HD. It costs half as much as what my phone costs. Half as much as what my internet costs, it's the lowest overhead I have.

If you're complaining about having to spend that on motorsport, your priorities are all wrong.

Other countries might be different, might have to pay more, but if you love motorsport that much, it shouldn't be too much effort to pay for it.

Fucking hell some people are so fucking entitled. It's a not a sport like Soccer or NFL which requires a patch of land and a ball to go play, it requires millions of dollars in infrastructure. It needs to be supported financially so it can improve.

Pay TV networks spend more money on TV rights than free-to-air networks, I mean that's how they got the rights to them, outbidding them. That extra money they put it, goes into improving the sport. You expect it to improve by forcing it onto free to air networks who can't spend as much money on the rights as pay TV networks?

Entitled? There are tons of other options for a gearhead to get their fix. If they choose not to pay for content that they may or may not receive anyway then why is that the consumer's fault? Racing turned down a exclusionary path years ago, and now that there are other things to do for those that were raised watching motorsport and can't afford to take part, and the kids of today aren't engaged for a multitude of reasons, professional racing will take a hit. And that's our fault, how? They're the ones competing for OUR attention, never forget that.

VirtuaIceMan · PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 1:43 pm

kals wrote:

In England F1 is prohibitively expensive. To watch you must pay three times. First for the license fee (which all goes to BBC), the for a Sky package, then for the Sky F1 channel.

And then, I think, extra on top for HD or 4K?

micha · PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 1:51 pm

If this is the official F1 instagram someone needs to get fired yesterday!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BegB8CcBHya/

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 2:50 pm

the interns strikes again

kals · PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 3:00 pm

I’m guessing they meant to post this - https://www.facebook.com/Formula1/video ... 826401733/

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2018 F1 Random Discussion Thread

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