Eccelstone/Murdoch finally agree

chernobyl

F1 on Sky Box Office..yup SBO PPV per race.

British Sky Broadcasting and Formula One Management have reached an agreement to broadcast live interactive coverage of the F1 Grand Prix series on Sky digital.

Sky digital will offer exclusive interactive coverage with a choice of TV views across all three days of each Grand Prix weekend in the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

The new service will give viewers greater access to the sport with live in-depth coverage of each race and all practice and qualifying sessions through a range of interactive options, launched by pressing the red button on the Sky remote handset.

On race day, viewers will see live uninterrupted race coverage, choose from a range of alternative views, access a stream of statistics and gain exclusive access behind the scenes of the Grand Prix.

During qualifying and practice, viewers will be able to choose between different live feeds, view race preparations and access key highlights.

Sky digital will offer the interactive F1 service on a pay-per-view basis, with a one-off fee for each 3-day Grand Prix weekend.

The Formula One programming is the latest interactive application available to Sky digital viewers. The digital technology gives the band-width and interactive capabilities required to carry the most sophisticated broadcasts to millions of homes.

Announcing the new deal, Mr Bernie Ecclestone, CEO of Formula One Management, said: "We are so pleased to be working with Sky and excited that F1 can now offer British viewers such radically different coverage.

"It has taken time, with F1 investing heavily in the best broadcast technology so we can genuinely take fans closer. Now, alongside traditional race broadcasts, we can offer truly interactive coverage of Grand Prix weekends. It's going to be exceptional."

Vic Wakeling, Managing Director of Sky Sports, said; "Formula 1 followers are amongst the most technically aware of all sports fans, and they will be excited by this new service - the depth of the information now available, and the choice of how to watch every race.

"The interactive experience we have gained since the launch of Sky digital also allows us to work together to enhance and develop the service still further over the next couple of seasons. This is the future, and it is available now. The frustration of having to sit passively in front of a television set - wanting to know more, wanting to see something different - will be a dark and distant memory."

Sky digital offered the world's first live interactive football in August 1999; the Sky Sports Active service now offers a range of interactive options across nine different sports. Sports options include a choice of camera angles, alternative commentaries, statistics' databases and highlights streams.

This is essentially the same service as Tele+, i will check it out for australia to see whats different.

ONireland

Apparently this has been very unprofitable in other countries. Wouldn't know myself, never watch the races live. Only follow the last few laps and race results. Best part!

chernobyl

with Tele+ or Premiere Sport you bought a season ticket but with SBO PPV it wont loose money for sure.

Samson

My understanding from reading the piece is that we will still have our normal live F1 broadcasts (from RTE/ITV) side by side with the Sky interactive service.
Is this what the rest of you think ?

DMC

Oh yes, all Sky is offering is additional coverage.....

chernobyl

Sky is offering additional multiple angle coverage, no big whooo for some but when i got 6 angles last year i was in my element.

Mossy Monk

what would be great for this would be something like the Premiership+ deal. a one off payment for all the seasons races.

ONireland

What would be great for this is a TV wall, each screen showing each different feed. Then they could put Active dots on each one. If there were eight feeds, they could call it "Active8"!

spanner_head

I'd love to know how much it is on a pay per view basis.

Nero

Sounds great but, yeah, how much will it be per race weekend?.

Imagine if Murray Walker was doing the commentary, it may be worth it at any price for that alone !!!!

DMC

BTW, there is one thing that F1 fans will love to know about the new Sky coverage.....

No ad breaks.

Almost back to the good ol' days of BBC coverage.....

ONireland

You need a good ad break to break the boredom of 70 laps of the same course.

NeRb666

Originally posted by Mossy Monk
what would be great for this would be something like the Premiership+ deal. a one off payment for all the seasons races.

What would be better is if they just put it on Sky Sports Extra and stopped trying to milk more money out of us

chernobyl

Originally posted by NeRb666


What would be better is if they just put it on Sky Sports Extra and stopped trying to milk more money out of us

please stop showing your ignorance of "Digital F1 coverage", i would elabourate more, but your just a hater and i have no time for jo0z.

ONireland

Wouldn't you prefer to pay to have a professional select the best feeds from the race to show you?