Free Sky Sports F1 channel

You might want to change the thread title, it's as misleading as Sky's marketing of the F1 channel   

Making it available (at no extra cost) to those that have the HD or Sports pack doesn't make it 'Free'

And who's Hugh?

Ouch!! do educate me further as i am unsure as to how I go about doing the editing............

Hugh's who?

I would'nt worry to much for those who feel the need to purchase sky, the BBC still have the rights to show 2hours of the race though highlights and as many races don't go past 2 hours you will still get almost full coverage, it will just be a little later in the day 

Only 2 hours of coverage for those in the Far East - European races only get 90 minutes. And you're assuming those 2 hours will be dedicated to the race - more likely that at least an hour will be pre and post analyses, meaning highlights are likely to be around 45 mins to 60 mins at the very most.

All in all, it's not great. There's no way I'm purchasing Sky just for those races, but I will be seeking out friends who have it to watch those 10 races live.

I won't personally bother with F1 next year.

There is no point in watching a few full races, bits of others and unfortunately its not exciting enough to warrant a sky subscription just for F1 for me. Granted this season was slightly better than the last few but still lacked some actual thrilling racing.

IMO it is just another nail in the coffin for F1 which is not a patch on what it once was. Touring cars are much more exciting

I don't know, given the circumstances and the outcry I can't see the BBC being stupid enough to devote 2/3rds of a 90 minute program to analysis when they know the public are already complaining about not getting the races in full.

Come and watch at mine if you want, probably only take you, what, 4 hours to get here?

No. There's no way they'll do the same level of pre and post race nonsense that they do with the live races, even BBC management aren't that stupid.

Of course that's assuming they're allowed to show as much of the race as they want,  if the deal with F1M and Sky only allows them to have 45 minutes of each race it's a different matter.

'BBC management aren't that stupid'.?????????????????????????????????????

Whose Hugh, that's where you'll find him.

FFS, they INITIATED the deal, because they can no longer justify the expense of showing all the races live, blame Bernie for charging too much or the government for cutting the license fee. There are plenty of people to blame for the situation, find the right one for a change.

I suspect the deal will be short lived. 

Judging by the number of complaints and comments over the net, and the number of people seeking other solutions to watch the races that will be shown on Sky, very few will be subscribing to Sky just for F1, and if all that money they've spent doesn't equate to extra subscribers they'll drop it.

Thing is only the complainers will be visible on the net, the people who WILL subscribe to Sky won't say so, for fear of being accused of being sheep or supporting Murdoch or whatever (or they just won't be bothered to tell anyone). Also I presume the deal is for a fixed period, so Bernie will have something to say is Sky try to get out of it early.

If it does happen though it'll be back to ITV, if they want it, the BBC won't take it on again. If ITV don't want it or won't pay the asking price, well...