I felt a little sad this afternoon, as I geared up (sorry for the pun) for the race from Brazil, because it was the last one of a live season [for me]. There will be no more. It's the end of an era.
As long I remember, Formula1 racing has been the sport of the rich. The figures involved in the sport are eyewatering. The teams make - and spend - millions over the course of a single season, the drivers earn millions for putting their lives on the line each and every time they climb into the cars, and the circuits spend millions trying to get onto the F1 calendar.
However despite the millions involved in the sport the viewership has never needed to be rich for Formula1 has always been shown on terrestrial TV, whether it be through the unbeatable coverage offered by the BBC, or whether it be advert interrupted on that bastion of poorly presentened sports coverage offered by ITV.
After today though, all that changes. Formula1, like so many other sports that the British public loves, will be stolen from the majority of us, and taken to a subscription channel, namely SkySports.
That in itself is wrong and a major mistake. It will reduce the viewer figures drastically next season, but of course viewer figures don't matter to those who are in charge of F1. It's money that rules them. And Sky, like they did with football, with rugby, with cricket, and with everything else, threw more money at F1 that any other broadcaster could justify. Money that they hope to recoup by charging fans extra money each month just for the privalige of watching the races on their channel.
And that brings me to the next point. Sky recently announced that they are launching a channel dedicated just to showing their F1 coverage, but it's not a channel included within the "standard" Sky pack. Oh no, it's a premium channel. You can't even take just their new F1 channel though - it comes as a 'bonus' channel when you pay monthly for their other sports channels. In other words, to get your fix of F1, you've got to pay for their golf, football, rugby, and other sports that you don't want. It's a very clever way of screwing the dedicated F1 fan out of even more money.
The BBC, like with premiership football, have been given 'rights' to show highlights of the races during the year, along with some live races, but who wants to watch a live race one week, and then not be able to watch the next 1, or 2, or however many, until they are allowed to screen another race live? And highlights / delayed transmissions don't work for F1. It's a live sport. If I don't see it live, I know what's happened thanks to social media and the F1 app on my phone. I don't need to wait for a replay on the TV to find out the results anymore. It's something that isn't needed in todays world. The delayed transmission model is a dinosuar from the olden days of TV.
And so, back to the BBC. Jake Humphries, David Coulthard, and Eddie Jordan have worked together as a fantastic team of presenters during the live races, and the support of their pit lane team of Lee Mckenzie and Ted Kravitz is unbeatable. Along with the production staff they have created some amazing TV, and some truly memorable features within their programmes (take the opening titles for this years race from Monaco that won an award). The red button F1 Forum added another aspect to the broadcasting of each and every race too. Mind you, there is one name missing from the list above though. That's Martin Brundle. He's already announced that he's jumping ship to Sky; Just like he did from ITV to the BBC when ITV lost broadcasting rights. That doesn't demonstrate loyalty to your employer, that demonstrates loyalty to something else. The green stuff. Mula. Cash. Reminds me of a man long ago who sold the freedom of his friend for 20 gold coins. Enjoy working for Sky Martin, and remember what happened to other former BBC staff who jumped ship (Adrian Chiles, Ray Stubbs to name but two recently).
So, as the race in Brazil ends, as Mark Webber takes the win, and we bid farewell to a record breaking season, I bid a fond farewell to F1. A sport I love, and will miss greatly.
Thank you Sky. Thank you Bernie. Another sport taken from me. I guess next year I'll be enjoying 'Bog Snorkelling', 'Worm wrangling' and 'Nepalese Football' on terrestrial TV. It's about all that's left to broadcast.
