[Chalky]

So Sky have overpaid by £330m on Football according to industry analysts for Premiership Football rights.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31410300

I signed up for Sky around March last year and I only added the sports channels for F1.
So now Sky have to re-coup their costs for spending on Football and therefore are likely to increase the cost of their sports packages.
How annoying for a non-football fan like me. I wish Sky would have a separate Football subscription service and leave all the other sports in a cheaper sports bundle.

So this one year of Sky may be my only year of Sky F1. I shall have to wait and see when my renewal is due. I have a feeling that I’ll be ditching Sky sports at this rate.

Anyone else on Sky and concerned about the increases that may occur?

[Dan]

I completely agree with you, I don’t like football in any shape or form, so in 2012 I reluctantly paid the extra in my Sky TV package to watch F1, I agree that the coverage is world class. However I strongly do not agree with having to pay extra a month for something I don’t watch/ use. With other free coverage available i.e. BBC/ online etc. I am seriously considering is it worth the extra money a month. Its a shame that that bosses at sky cant have a separate sports bundle just for F1 coverage, as this might encourage other people who don’t follow football, golf, cricket etc. to get the motorsport channel particularly at this time of year when most of what is shown is repeats and it just seems to be a channel full of adverts

[F1antics]

I use NowTV to watch Sky’s F1 coverage, and the cost of their sports passes has gone down since the start of the 2014 season. NowTV coverage is nothing fancy and there’s always a terrible time lag – if you’re watching live timing at the same time you have to pause it so Sky catches up. But it’s much cheaper than having a real Sky subscription – something I’m unlikely ever to do because, having to deal through a third party rather than directly with Sky, I never get offered discounts or cashback.

[Keith Collantine]

@f1antics

NowTV coverage is nothing fancy and there’s always a terrible time lag

Is it as bad as Sky Go? I’ve seen reports of 30-60 second lag times on that.

[F1antics]

Yes, that sounds similar, although it’s sometimes a bit worse than that. And there’s been occasional buffering during race action but only once or twice early in the 2014 season, then Sky seemed to fix it. I synchronise live timing with the TV coverage at the start of a session or race, which is a useful function on the LT app, but if I’m also keeping an eye on twitter comments (which adds to the experience) then I often know what’s happened before I see it on the screen.

BBC live coverage tends to be more or less synchronised with LT.

[Keith Collantine]

Interestingly, I’ve just had a survey through from Sky with several questions on my level of interest in watching Premier League and Champions League football versus other sports including F1. This was one of the questions, there were several others just about football:

So Sky sent this survey over… #F1 #takethehint pic.twitter.com/vvl4vbuT6y

— F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) February 12, 2015

[Simon]

There’s a 40% code for new Sky customers on Moneysavingexpert.com: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cheaper-sky-cheap-cable?utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=oneliner-one&utm_term=03-Feb-15-lt&utm_campaign=shopping&utm_content=3#skycode

Works out around £27 a month with the F1 channel, not bad. Only stays at that price for 12 months but if you cancel after then Sky will usually try and tempt you back with a similar discount. Code must be used by February 19th.

[Anonymous]

I’m in the centre ground on this one. The options could be far worse, but they could of course be better. For the record, Sky has paid massive money for the Premier League rights, but they have also dropped the UEFA Champions League rights in a deal that could have cost them £897 billion on top of the Premier League, so arguably that’s a “saving” on football.

[pt747]

I think with any subscription you have to weigh up the value for money. While F1 fans are annoyed that the price may go up to pay for football, so I’m sure that football fans were annoyed that they subsidised Sky’s purchase of F1 rights without that cost being passed onto F1 fans. By keeping all the sports together in a single subscription, Sky can demonstrate value for money across their wider sports fans.

For me, Sky Sports offers value for money – that’s why I pay it. My subscription to pay-per-view channels is a lifestyle choice. I enjoy watching various sports so I’m prepared to pay for quality coverage – Sky gives me that. I don’t subscribe to BT Sport even though they have additional football and MotoGP as I don’t see it as a worthwhile expenditure.

It’s no different to objecting to paying for the movie channels when you only want to watch comedies:)

[KeeleyObsessed]

NowTV coverage is nothing fancy and there’s always a terrible time lag

@f1antics or anyone else, do you have a figure for how far behind NOW TV is? I’m thinking of using it for the Sky exclusive races (splitting the cost with a friend), is it only around 5-10 minutes?

[F1antics]

KeeleyObsessed, I’d say it’s on average about 60 seconds behind. You can often get offers on day passes (or buy them from ebay), and there’s a weekly pass for around a tenner that will cover all 3 days + some pre- and post-race analysis.

Simon, a 40% off code is no use if you can’t deal directly with Sky. Those of us who live in apartment blocks have to pay the full price to third-party installers/suppliers, even if we’re already cabled for Sky. There’s no price negotiation.

[Anonymous]

I plan to head to my local pub with a Sky screen for any European race that isn’t live, or non-live non-European race that falls in UK daytime hours. Big screen plus good meal – can’t be bad!

[Calum]

How long does Sky have F1 for?

Will be interesting to see how much the new bid for rights is. Will declining viewers and declining sponsors be offset by competition between BT and Sky?

[Aled Davies]

I for one think the sky coverage is excellent. Also like someone else mentioned, i watch a lot of sports so having sky sports is great for me (not so great for my partner) I get to watch football, the occasional rugby game, cycling, F1 as well as the rest of the sky package that I use.

I see it as very good value for money, i also watch the documentaries channels a lot so again that helps with the value for money aspect.

I know that everything used to be free for TV but everything is increasingly going towards a pay per view model, a lot of sports survive from their TV money

[Author]

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