UPC & F1 Channel

starfish12

Hi folks,

Don't want to have a debate on the BBC/SKY fiasco, but am determined to see all the races live, and don't want to have to resort to setanta!

Just off the phone with UPC and have been told that its unlikely that they'll have the SKY F1 channel on launch in March, (if at all).

I had just naively assumed that it would be rolled into the Sky Sports package they currently offer for €33 a month but seems that's not the case.

The person I spoke to was very helpful, but had never heard of the channel etc. I just can't believe that they won't have it at all, so I'm wondering if any other boardsies have made similar enquiries, and what response they got from UPC?
Not too sure how my management company will take to a sky dish going on the balcony!!

Cheers
starfish12

forzacalcio

starfish12 wrote: »

Hi folks,

Don't want to have a debate on the BBC/SKY fiasco, but am determined to see all the races live, and don't want to have to resort to setanta!

Just off the phone with UPC and have been told that its unlikely that they'll have the SKY F1 channel on launch in March, (if at all).

I had just naively assumed that it would be rolled into the Sky Sports package they currently offer for €33 a month but seems that's not the case.

The person I spoke to was very helpful, but had never heard of the channel etc. I just can't believe that they won't have it at all, so I'm wondering if any other boardsies have made similar enquiries, and what response they got from UPC?
Not too sure how my management company will take to a sky dish going on the balcony!!

Cheers
starfish12

To be honest I really wouldnt pay attention to the customer service of UPC. Most if not all dont really have any clue about channels. Sky paid too much for this not to recoup as much as possible.

Sky keep HD and Atlantic for a reason. They dont really need to recoup any losses. Sky SPorts €33 on UPC, which as far as I know is very similar to Sky. The HD is there to entice people to sky. I reckon UPC will have it, its all just a matter of negotiations. At the end of the day F1 will still be available on BBC. They will want more people on Sky Sports so it does make sense to give the choice to as wide audience as possible.

starfish12

Thing is I think Id rather pay sky and get to see it in HD than pay UPC the extra €33 and watch it in SD whenever they happen to add it to their channels

forzacalcio

starfish12 wrote: »

Thing is I think Id rather pay sky and get to see it in HD than pay UPC the extra €33 and watch it in SD whenever they happen to add it to their channels

To be honest it was a knee jerk reaction that I got Sky SPorts. I paniced, I will be watching as many races on BBC HD as I can and I wont panic to watch them live but the thought of being able to see shows and practice etc is great.

Look what Sky did to the Premier League. They sucked people in to believing it was the greatest showon earth. La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga football were streets ahead. Sky sports News is just a propaghanda channel for their own shows. But it works. I even know this and Im sucked in. Whatever people say about them they will put on a good show.

The one thing I will say about UPC is that with Sky SPorts, Eurosport, ESPN and Setanta I have all the sports channels I want. ESPN, Eurosport and Setanta in HD too. 66 quid aint bad for that. Dont forget Setanta have the right s to F1 in Ireland for the 2012 season in HD. My only worry is they may change the race to SS1 which is an extra €15.

smurf22

starfish12 wrote: »

Hi folks,

Don't want to have a debate on the BBC/SKY fiasco, but am determined to see all the races live, and don't want to have to resort to setanta!

Just off the phone with UPC and have been told that its unlikely that they'll have the SKY F1 channel on launch in March, (if at all).

I had just naively assumed that it would be rolled into the Sky Sports package they currently offer for €33 a month but seems that's not the case.

The person I spoke to was very helpful, but had never heard of the channel etc. I just can't believe that they won't have it at all, so I'm wondering if any other boardsies have made similar enquiries, and what response they got from UPC?
Not too sure how my management company will take to a sky dish going on the balcony!!

Cheers
starfish12

U say u dont want to resort to Setanta, but i dont think Setanta will even be an option this year, i asked about this in another thread, i seen an ad on Setanta about all the sport their going to be showing for 2012 and F1 was not on on it.

I remember hearing RTE expressing an intrest for last year but are any of the Irish channels intrested in it this year?, u think with Sky RIP OFF Sports getting the rights for every race that there would be more intrest for Setanta or RTE to show it.

forzacalcio

smurf22 wrote: »

U say u dont want to resort to Setanta, but i dont think Setanta will even be an option this year, i asked about this in another thread, i seen an ad on Setanta about all the sport their going to be showing for 2012 and F1 was not on on it.

I remember hearing RTE expressing an intrest for last year but are any of the Irish channels intrested in it this year?, u think with Sky RIP OFF Sports getting the rights for every race that there would be more intrest for Setanta or RTE to show it.

Setanta confirmed before Xmas that F1 will be shown Live.

smurf22

forzacalcio wrote: »

Setanta confirmed before Xmas that F1 will be shown Live.

Thanks for that, hope its true cause i never heard or seen any confirmation about it

forzacalcio

smurf22 wrote: »

Thanks for that, hope its true cause i never heard or seen any confirmation about it

Their official Twitter has it, Im sure you can check there.

starfish12

no setanta have definitely got it live, what they haven't confirmed is if its on setanta ireland or setanta sports 1, but based on 2011 it will be world feed with no build up etc, which is often as good as, if not better than some races, hence why I'd rather watch full coverage over on Sky.

ivanc

Setanta HAVE confirmed that they will be showing ALL 2012 F1 races on their Irish channel (Available via UPC at no extra charge).:)

They don't know what the commentary situation is yet but have promised an update as soon as they know.

Clicky.

forzacalcio

ivanc wrote: »

Setanta HAVE confirmed that they will be showing ALL 2012 F1 races on their Irish channel (Available via UPC at no extra charge).:)

They don't know what the commentary situation is yet but have promised an update as soon as they know.

Clicky.

The problem is will they show them on Setanta Ireland or Setanta Sports 1! The latter requires €15 subscription. Might aswell pay the extra 17 euro for 4 extra channels!

StephenHendry

im in the same boat myself op, so it will be setanta for me, i will watch the races that the bbc are showing live

starfish12

I'm sure setanta will show them, but it really isn't comparable to BBC, and at this stage would 'happily' pay for it on UPC, as having enquired with mgmt co, I can't have a sky dish!!

surething25

Wonder if theres anychance of ITV jumping in and buying it back like it used to be!

smurf22

Lets hope Setanta dont make the same stupid decision they made with Moto GP, bbc decided not to show it in HD for the 2011 season so Setanta capitalised on it by having it in HD in our country, for me that was great so i started to watch it on Setanta instead of the bbc.

Then their corperate greed got the better of them and they made the stupid decision to switch it to Setanta Sports 1 thinking that we will pay to watch Moto GP on a standard def channel when its already being shown on another sd channel for free, obviously i switched back to watching it on bbc for free.

smurf22

surething25 wrote: »

Wonder if theres anychance of ITV jumping in and buying it back like it used to be!

Nobody wants it back on itv, they nearly destroyed F1's popularity in Ireland and in the uk countries with their policy of 50 ads within a race

icdg

smurf22 wrote: »

Nobody wants it back on itv, they nearly destroyed F1's popularity in Ireland and in the uk countries with their policy of 50 ads within a race

If you remember, ITV voluntarily gave up the rights to Formula 1, just like the BBC just did. Its an astronomically expensive sport to cover properly, because of all the travel involved. Of course you can do it on the cheap, like Setanta does, and just take the World Feed, but its not as good, is it?

The rights are sold and Sky Sports will have it now through to 2018. Setanta continue to have the Irish rights for this season (and I *think* 2013). I'd imagine that, if Setanta is still in business at that stage, it will be made very difficult for them to renew their deal with FOM.

As for this season, whether or not it is on Setanta Ireland or Setanta Sports 1 will probably depend on the scheduling of the race and what other sports Setanta cover that it may or may not clash with. There is at least one Grand Prix (either Abu Dhabi or Singapore, I can't remember) whose qualifying session clashes with an FA Premier League 3pm KO. There will also be French Top 14 Rugby matches that would clash with qualifying. and some Serie A games may clash with races. So it really depends what else is on as to what channel it goes on. I'd imagine that the races which are not on the BBC might somehow find themselves onto Setanta Sports 1 though.

marco2068

Or you can watch all the races on RTL on astra 19.2east. And listen to english commentry on http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/

forzacalcio

Virgin Media just announced will carry SKY SPORTS F1 - Good news for UPC, shows Sky do want to sell rights to rival cable operators

Minstrel27

surething25 wrote: »

Wonder if theres anychance of ITV jumping in and buying it back like it used to be!

No chance

Charlie-Bravo

Yeah its gonna be on Virgin, but with no HD AND you have to subscribe to the Sky Sports package. So I can see the exact same scenario happening for UPC - that you have to subscribe to the Sports package to get the F1 channel.

I don't have sky sports, so it's still Setanta for me on UPC (or else turn the Freesat dish around the corner for RTL).

amacachi

It'll be there for UPC if they want it. Someone else mentioned Virgin, I assume it's part of the contract or at least a gentlemen's agreement since the races are meant to be available on terrestrial TV. For the teams and sponsors to give that up and be exclusively on Sky would require an amount of money I doubt Sky would be willing to pay if they could. Putting it on Cable and the like will ensure a much bigger exposure than just on Sky's own satelite service.

starfish12

I've asked UPC Jason for this thought - thanks to Jason for replying;


Hi there

Virgin is not UPC, we are totally seperate. I cannot comment on deals that have not been completed, all I can say is that once new content is available to us, we will make it immediately available to our subscriber base.

Sorry I cant be more help

Thanks

Jason

amacachi

They're two different companies yeah, but the F1 teams will be pushing for the channel to be available to as many homes as possibly, what's UPC, 800k or something?

forzacalcio

I think the worry was that people thought that Sky will keep SKy SPorts F1 exclusivly to Sky Digital. Now that we know Virgin have struck a deal it means that UPC can also strike a deal, if they dont it will be down to UPC and not Sky!

starfish12

Ive asked Setanta on twitter if it will be on setanta ireland (free to air) or setanta sports 1 (subscription) and got the following response;


SetantaSports Setanta Sports
@starfish12 I think its going to be a mix but its yet to be confirmed

Anyone else think the sky races will be on setanta sports 1?!

Charlie-Bravo

I reckon it will be spread over the two channels with the FA Premier League matchs and French Top 14 Rugby in the mix. It'll end up being a situation of how big an audience each programme will get I reckon. I don't undertand why Setanta 1 is a premium subscription when Setanta Ireland, ESPN etc come with the digital choice and max packages on UPC. Very weird - they couldn't be making any real money off the extra subs from that. Sure, I'd buy the Sky sports sub quicker than the Setanta sub.

Cool_CM

smurf22 wrote: »

Nobody wants it back on itv, they nearly destroyed F1's popularity in Ireland and in the uk countries with their policy of 50 ads within a race

As much as I hated ITV, they did a lot for the development of coverage, punditry and analysis that wasn't there as much when it was on the BBC.
On the other hand, one thing that does spring to mind is that the Schumacher v Coulthard incident at Spa in 98 happened during one of their many commercial breaks and they rushed back to show delayed footage of it.*

*Actually, after watching the clip again on youtube, it mightn't have been this incident, but I do remember it happening for something major

forzacalcio

They even did it for Steven Gerrards goal for England in the World Cup in 2010!

forzacalcio

Anyone hear anythig yet?

jesusjones

At lease it will be on Setanta in some way shape or form hopefully theyll be more clarity soon have the sky sports package with UPC so surely theyll try and negoiate a deal to put the channel on the upc service.

Standard Toaster

Any update on this?

starfish12

they've been really pushing setanta having the races on twitter, so seems highly unlikely they'll get it

Donne

Hi Folks,

I know it doesn't concern UPC, but if you have the basic HD package on Sky, you'll get the Formula 1 channel for no extra cost. I rang them the other day and they confirmed it.

Just sayin' like.

Minstrel27

Donne wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I know it doesn't concern UPC, but if you have the basic HD package on Sky, you'll get the Formula 1 channel for no extra cost. I rang them the other day and they confirmed it.

Just sayin' like.

Yes. There was a thread about it weeks ago.