Latest to come from a meeting today seems to suggest that the beeb will infact show the full race (obviously time shifted) instead of highlights for the races that they don't do live.
The general view seems to be that the concorde agreement isn't an issue. Bernie isn't completely stupid, he knows what's in the agreement as well or better than anyone, so he wouldn't do anything that he knows is against it.
Part of me isn't so bothered on a personal level. I'm a sky subscriber, so in theory it won't make a massive difference. That said, the cynic in me thinks it's unlikely that the coverage will be as good as it has been on the BBC for the last couple of years. The beeb's coverage has been getting better and better IMHO, and it's a shame to at least partially lose that.
That said, the "knowledge" in the beeb's coverage is debatable, they do miss a lot of things that are actually going on in a race.
The team's sponsorship is an interesting one. I wouldn't be surprised if it does cause some of the UK based teams some issues. F1 is a world wide sport, and this does only effect 50% of races in 1 country. However, it depends on how they have negotiated their deals. If it comes out that this does satisfy the Concorde agreement, but doesn't satisfy team's sponsors, they maybe they've negotiated something that they shouldn't really have done.
Just have to wait and see what happens I guess.
Btw - News corp do currently only own 39% of BSkyB, although as we know they have tried to buy the rest of it out as well.
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Matthew White
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