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Australia to lose free-to-air F1 coverage?
The Radical
Roar Rookie
30th July, 2011
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The Radical
Roar Rookie
30th July, 2011
18
9969 Reads

For­mula One will be broad­cast on satel­lite pay-television in the UK from 2012, after the cur­rent con­tract – due to expire in 2013 – was revised.

Sky Sports will broad­cast every race, whilst cur­rent rights hold­ers, gov­ern­ment funded free-to-air station BBC, will con­tinue to broad­cast F1 in a reduced capac­ity, screen­ing 10 of the season’s 20 events.

This out­come is a com­pro­mise, with talk in recent weeks that the “Beeb” would offload their crit­i­cally acclaimed cov­er­age in an attempt to cut spi­raling costs, and Sky show­ing inter­est through con­tro­ver­sial fig­ure, media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

For­mula One will take advan­tage of the perks that come with broad­cast on pay-TV, some­thing many other sports have cap­i­talised on in recent times, with those unable to afford the fee for satel­lite TV still able to enjoy the action, albeit in moderation.

The real ques­tion out of this is, where does Australia’s cov­er­age of the sport stand in all of this?

As Australia takes the BBC’s qualifying and race feed, one wonders if we will be treated to only their coverage on free-to-air, since it is likely that Sky will play hard ball.

Will free-to-air chan­nel OneHD only broad­cast races on the BBC, with Sky Sports’ races on Foxtel?

If this is the case, there will be blood, words will be said – there will be chaos.

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For­mula One will be dead if Aus­tralia sim­ply fol­lows the UK’s route to pay-TV, not that it already isn’t headed in this direc­tion in the moth­er­land. These are grim times, indeed.

Bernie Eccle­stone has deceived soci­ety once again, after stat­ing how impor­tant it is that the sport remains on free-to-air, his deal­ings and insane obses­sion with the pound have now left the aver­age per­son high and dry, once again.

It has cer­tainly left many peo­ple see­ing red, and think­ing like rad­i­cals, as this decision has come with no prior consultation to those concerned.

As more infor­ma­tion comes to light, we will know with more cer­tainty whether For­mula One lives, or For­mula One dies.

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