Sky to offer F1 channel for just £10 a month?

Sky will reportedly set up a dedicated Formula 1 channel, available to Freeview customers for just £10 per month, whilst Sky and Virgin Media users will enjoy the extra content for free.
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The satellite broadcaster gained the rights to show all 20-races live next season - leaving the BBC with just half - which prompted thousands of complaints, including 40,000 on the governments official e-petitions website.

In response to the criticism, and as a way to lure those with tighter budgets from the BBC's reduced coverage, Sky will broadcast all three practice sessions, qualifying and the race, live, through a monthly subscription channel available through their own service, Sky TV, as well as rivals Virgin and Freeview - the latter of which is a free service but has optional content available through a subscription service.

Whilst the news will come as a relief to some, it may not be enough to appease most viewers who have enjoyed free-to-air coverage in the UK since most can remember. It is however a massive reduction compared to Sky's basic sports package which costs £50+ per month.

Martin Brundle is expected to partner David Croft on commentating duties, whilst Simon Lazenby, a former Rugby presenter, will anchor the show. Jake Humphrey, who has been the face of the BBC's coverage since 2009, reportedly turned down an offer to jump ship.

source
 
In fact isnt the ESPN pack with sky £7.99 for 3 channels with stuff on all the time.

Not comparable.

However I it's free for existing customers then fair enough, personally if I didn't have sky I would just watch it delayed on BBC, however I like David crofts commentary so will prob watch on sky now.

Also if it's going to be available on sky go I can watch it at work.
 
Why do Freeview customers have to pay anything? Sort of defeats the object. I'll just be watching the BBC coverage unless I can find a live feed somewhere online.
 
BBC have just released their plans for 2012. They are sending the presentation team to every GP, even the ones not live on BBC. This annoys me a little bit. Wasn't the point to save money? Why have a presentation team at non live GP's? They didn't mention a camera crew, so I assume they will be buying Sky's feed from them, and I bet Sky charge more than it would to get a few blokes with cameras to a circuit.

On top of that, I can imagine the commentary will either be in a studio, with the commentator having the benefit of hindsight (if you've seen match of the day you know how the commentator keeps building things up so you know somethings about to happen, ruins it a lot) Or they will just use the BBC 5Live commentary, which I would prefer.

Brundles gone to Sky, DC's gone to Sky, Sky already have David Croft, I can see that Sky will clearly have the better coverage of the two channels, and remember,Bernie loves money, and Rupert Murdoch has a bottomless pit of it, that can only mean good things for F1.

All in all, after my initial rage, I think I'm gonna eat my words and get the F1 channel as I have Sky anyway.
 

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