setanta and f1

digi2000

just a reminder to all those diehard f1 fans robbed of their favorite sport and forced to subscribe to setanta on sky last year...renewal is close at hand!
i would assume that many of you guys will be cancelling
now with utv showing f1 in the clear, and hopefully many of you will!
on another note would it be possible that our friends at setanta are also
responsible for the loss of itv3 & 4 from our epgs?
While i,m not a diehard fan myself i kinda missed my fortnightly
fix of f1 on rte last year like many of you.
Is it possible however that the f1 coverage can be blocked???
i would asume its unlikely without utv on epg????

Gwynston

digi2000 wrote:

Is it possible however that the f1 coverage can be blocked???
i would asume its unlikely without utv on epg????

It bloody-well better not be blocked! :mad:
I don't think it will be though - like you say, all ITV regions are not on the EPG in Ireland, so it's essentially just FTA overspill from UK.

I'm looking forward to Steve Rider presenting the ITV show - a proper knowledgable F1 pundit. Jim Rosenthal is a professional and slick presenter, and got better with experience, but he still sounded more like someone who could talk round the subject well, rather than actually knowing about it in depth.

digi2000

just found this.....hopefully this year setanta will have 0 viewers
and cause a speedy return of f1 to Rte......but heaven forbid Tv3

From:The Irish Independent
Thursday, 9th June, 2005

Race ratings plummet

SETANTA'S acquisition of this year's Formula 1 series has seen the ratings for the races plummet,
according to research by Initiative. An average of 1,160 individuals have tuned into each race so
far this year on Setanta Sports, compared to 80,000 per race for the same period last year on RTÉ.
As a result, UTV has increased its Formula 1 viewers by almost 20pc, said the agency.

i'm sure the people at bernie & f1 can't be happy
with ratings like that......even for a small tv market like ireland!

Blaster99

I'm sorry, but RTE got viewers who could also get ITV's coverage? The only way I could watch RTE (or Setanta's) coverage was with the volume muted. I knew more about what was going on than their commentators. I'm glad to see RTE decided to not waste money on it. Setanta should get cudos for showing the entire weekend including testing, that was cool.

digi2000

i'm taking it from the point of view of a sky subscriber only
who could only get f1 upto season 2004 on rte, utv(itv)was not available
until last november via sky.
I know Peter Collins did'nt know his ass from his elbow but
that isn,t that great an issue when your gettin something (practically) for free as opposed to paying setanta
i'm only interested in getting the punters a few extra quid in their pockets, €150 to be precise.....and i know they cover loads more sport but
i,m thinkin of the ordinary fan of f1 that was forced into a corner and subscribed to setanta

glineli

I get the sense that once Setanta is free in dublin to NTL subscribers, it is ok. If you listen to the last word they will always be plugging whats on setanta and also that gimp niall cogley is a regular guest. I wont subscribe to setanta until ntl subscribers also have to pay for it like we are meant to

watty

Doesn't NTL only have 1 Setanta channel compared to 5, 6 or is now 7 in Setanta's Sky Satellite package?

BrianD

digi2000 wrote:

on another note would it be possible that our friends at setanta are also
responsible for the loss of itv3 & 4 from our epgs?

Always the conspiarcy theory! Perhaps the real answer is that ITV aren't interested in their Irish customers.

Mossy Monk

BrianD wrote:

Always the conspiarcy theory! Perhaps the real answer is that ITV aren't interested in their Irish customers.

oh sweet jesus :mad: who gives a damn. thread locked if stuff like this appears again

bk

Blaster99 wrote:

I'm sorry, but RTE got viewers who could also get ITV's coverage? The only way I could watch RTE (or Setanta's) coverage was with the volume muted. I knew more about what was going on than their commentators. I'm glad to see RTE decided to not waste money on it. Setanta should get cudos for showing the entire weekend including testing, that was cool.

Well a lot of people (like my parents) don't want to pay extra for TV so they only get the bog channels (RTE, TV3 and TG4). These sort of people were badly hit by this. Setanata and Sky getting rights to the Rugby is gonig to hit my dad especially hard.

RTE's coverage was good as it didn't have many ads compared to ITV/Setanta
and the ads were better timed.

Setantas coverage was shockingly bad, one week Setantas audio feed got messed up and you could hear their sound engineer cursing on air!!

Blaster99

ITV could have been 95% ads and it still would have been more watchable than RTE's effort. Sometimes I would switch over to RTE during ITV ads and momentarily forget to switch back and after a while jump at the remote control to end that mindnumbing rubbish as quickly as possible. RTE should just buy ITV's coverage and be done with it. Or that would perhaps be more of a TV3 thing to do. Or perhaps cover A1 GP, which at least has some Irish interest in it.

I believe it's actually quite rare for F1 to not be FTA in a country. It's pretty much a principle of the sport that it should reach as many viewers as possible.

JohnC.

I forgot about this particular plus point with ITV going FTA. I really don't know any Sky users who subscribe to Setanta and those who did follow F1 had to go without last season. I did have NTL last year, so I could watch on UTV or Setanta, but chose UTV. Thankfully, I can still watch the ITV show now that I've got Sky as I certainly wouldn't subscribe to Setanta. I never watched it even when it came with NTL. Those in 4-channel-land (subject to reception) are still stuck though.

People in the UK like to complain about F1 changing from BBC to ITV (still, after all this time), but they don't seem to have it half as bad as us

BrianD

Mossy Monk wrote:

oh sweet jesus :mad: who gives a damn. thread locked if stuff like this appears again

Hang on Mossy - that's not fair! You are allowing somebody to post unsubstantiated claims in the OP and threaten to ban somebody because the issue a reasonable challenge?

Why would Setanta get ITV 3/4 (general entertainment channels) kicked off the Irish EPG? This is an unreasonable and unfounded claim.

However, it is not unreasonable to assume that ITv removed themselves from the Irish EPG because there was nothing to be gained as it as an overhead. Perhaps "aren't interested" is a flippant but a more likely explaination than the OP.

in regard to the blocking, I would say it is unlikely at this stage. RTE used to be 'blue screen' in the past for GAA as Setanta had the international rights. However, all fair in love, war and TV ratings battles.

In regard to the ratings - F1 may have lost viewers to UTV but Setanta will still have gained audience through the rights acquisition and that's what it is all about (from a stations point of view). Bernie still gets his moneyContent is king and who ever has it will get the viewers even if they come begrudgingly.

I have heard that Irish people spend approx €300 million on television each year so it's not as if they are afraid to pay for the content if they want it.

Mossy Monk

apologies as it does appear to be aimed solely at you. ITV3 and 4 have feck all to do with F1, unless highlights appear on ITV4 of course so please can we all keep the subject of ITV on the Irish EPG to the thread made specifically for that debate.

btw, i never threatened to ban anyone. do please re read

watty

Getting a FTA Sat system installed is not much more expensive than buying a VHS and a professional TV aerial.

And cheaper than most "main viewing" TV sets.

Unless a landlord forbids, really no-one needs to be "stuck in 4 ch land". A significant percentage of viewers in areas outside Dublin. Cork, Limerick cities can't even get decent reception of 4 terrestrial channels.

UTV seems like a good option to me.

bk

watty wrote:

Unless a landlord forbids, really no-one needs to be "stuck in 4 ch land". A significant percentage of viewers in areas outside Dublin. Cork, Limerick cities can't even get decent reception of 4 terrestrial channels.

Most people in apartments or rented accomadation (most of Dublin city at this stage) can't put up satellites.

As for my parents, they are just stuck in their ways.

watty

Most people can't put up Satellites. You have to pay the Russians, ESA or Americans.

Not many people can reliably fit dishes either