Is it the last chequered flag for Formula One on BBC?

[4me2]

Is it the last chequered flag for Formula One on BBC? TV chiefs set to axe motor racing to save digital channels

Cost-cutting BBC chiefs are considering axing Formula One motor racing rather than shut down one of its digital channels.
Mandarins are believed to have identified both F1 and even its Wimbledon coverage as potential sports which may have to be dumped as it slashes 20 per cent from its budgets by 2014.
The BBC paid £300 million to screen F1 in a five-year deal which runs until 2013.





Rain-hit: Eight million viewers watched the Montreal Grand Prix, but the BBC caused outage by cancelling Antiques Roadshow to stay with the delayed race



But at almost £3 million a race, it costs more each hour than the most expensive dramas like the lavish Cranford and Dr Who.

The yearly cost of covering F1 is more than the entire budget for BBC4 which has won critical acclaim for its biopics of Enid Blyton, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams and Margot Fonteyn.
Lord Patten, incoming chairman of the BBC Trust has warned BBC4 could be closed if savings targets are to be reached because of the TV licence freeze until 2017.





Targeted? BBC's contract with the All England Club to broadcast at Wimbledon runs until 2014




But senior sources have told the Sunday Times that the channel may be spared if the £60 million annual cost of covering 19 Grand Prix around the world is saved.
Most F1 races attract between two and four million viewers except the British Grand Prix.
Last Sunday more than eight million turned in to see Jenson Button's British triumph in Canada, but the BBC sparked controversy by cancelling Antiques Roadshow to stay with the rain-hit race after it was delayed for more than two hours.
Seven hundred furious fans complaining to the BBC after the hit-show was axed.

The programme, which has been running for 32 years, was due to follow the conclusion of the Montreal race.
A package of money-savings proposals will be put to the BBC Trust in the autumn, which will include a reduction in daytime programmes.
If F1 was axed the BBC would be able to keep Wimbledon and renew its contract with the All England Club which runs out in 2014.
Its popular football highlights programmes like Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2 on Sundays is not thought to be under threat.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1PiQfE7aV

[blaggard]

They've been talking about this for a while now, the revenue from our licence fees will be roughly the same, fuck the digital channels, drop some of the huuuuge amount of Football coverage and make it fairer before axing these, I'm still smarting from the loss of Cricket all those years ago!

[4me2]

They've been talking about this for a while now, the revenue from our licence fees will be roughly the same, fuck the digital channels, drop some of the huuuuge amount of Football coverage and make it fairer before axing these, I'm still smarting from the loss of Cricket all those years ago!

Do we need that welsh shit s4C ?

[blaggard]

Do we need that welsh shit s4C ?

Exactly, lots of shite to lose before dropping this coverage and further lining Murdoch's pockets!!

[Nathz29]

only things worth watching on the beeb, F1, Match of the day and Family Guy.....

[Geko]

They've been talking about this for a while now, the revenue from our licence fees will be roughly the same, fuck the digital channels, drop some of the huuuuge amount of Football coverage and make it fairer before axing these, I'm still smarting from the loss of Cricket all those years ago!

Huge amount of football coverage?


Match of the Day and 5 Football League games a year?

[blaggard]

I'm talking about across the main 5 channels and yes, as a non football fan I can assure it's huge!

[Geko]

I'm talking about across the main 5 channels and yes, as a non football fan I can assure it's huge!

On BBC all there is about an hour of Match of The day during the football season. And a handful of Football League games each year. I can't imagine they'd be much of a cost saving there. Most Football fans have Sky because of the lack of football on Terrestrial.

The other channels don't have as much to lose from frozen licence fees as they don't receive as much of the revenue. But they don't have much football either. Champions League and Europa League, and some FA Cup. But it's the BBC who are looking for the cost savings so these channels are irrelevant anyway.

If I was asking for cuts, I'd say cut Eastenders as it is on every day almost and I am sure it lowers the intelligence of the viewers. But I don't think it would be fair to the 12 Million viewers who watch it. I also don't think the BBC should cut BBC4. It brings some good programming to the masses.


Maybe it's time the BBC inserted advertising into their programmes.

[Jack-daniels]

No more licence fee from me then!

[hoponbaby]

Scrap some of the extra radio stations that no-one listens to, keep radio1 & 2 and ditch the rest.

[blaggard]

Scrap some of the extra radio stations that no-one listens to, keep radio1 & 2 and ditch the rest.

There are plenty of people listening to the rest of the Radio stations and there is very little bandwidth to be had by scrapping any of them.

[Geko]

^^

And it's money they are after saving. The Radio station scrappage won't raise the £60M that scrapping F1 or BBC4 will.

I would be happy if the BBC made some money using product placement. It means that we wouldn't have to watch adverts, just that in Eastenders for example, everyone was commenting on how good the Magniers was that day.

[Sanj[UK]]

I only got into F1 because it was on the bbc..bugger .

[hoponbaby]

The total spend on radio station for 09/10 was £604 million, TV channels were £2351 million. £60 million for F1 is a lot of money but the total spend on sport is circa £300million so around 10% of budget.


The other thing is all this BS about cuts in the budget. The licence fee isn't being cut, just frozen so where the 20% of savings cobblers keeps getting dragged up in the press comes from is anyone guess. There is certainly plenty of scope for effieciency savings throughout the BBC though, from the huge costs of covering Glasto (how many staff) to world cup coverage (let's build our own TV studio for a month?!) down to the recent reports of how many are employed to do the news on Radio1 - surely that could be drastically slimmed, they already have BBC news channel.

[Geko]

The total spend on radio station for 09/10 was £604 million, TV channels were £2351 million. £60 million for F1 is a lot of money but the total spend on sport is circa £300million so around 10% of budget.


The other thing is all this BS about cuts in the budget. The licence fee isn't being cut, just frozen so where the 20% of savings cobblers keeps getting dragged up in the press comes from is anyone guess. There is certainly plenty of scope for effieciency savings throughout the BBC though, from the huge costs of covering Glasto (how many staff) to world cup coverage (let's build our own TV studio for a month?!) down to the recent reports of how many are employed to do the news on Radio1 - surely that could be drastically slimmed, they already have BBC news channel.

I agree.

There is definitely scope for a lot of small cuts which could amount to £60M.

[Sanj[UK]]

They shoudlnt even be shifting upnorth..think how much they have to cough up for voluntary redundancies, moving costs etc..stupid idea.

[Geko]

They shoudlnt even be shifting upnorth..think how much they have to cough up for voluntary redundancies, moving costs etc..stupid idea.

They are selling the Beeb headquarters in London though. Some serious money to be made there.

[blaggard]

Not to mention moving from a Historic building in London to the Midlands at huge expense, fucking ridiculous!!

[lloydi]

get rid of chris moyles, job done

[pattikins]

+ get rid of all the Cockney shite & bring back the test card.
Attachment 23340