Loved the interview, genji, very good Back to the question: it's (a) for me too, sincerely. Like genji, I've long despised Murdoch's M.O., going right back to my teenage years so it's not a new thing However, money's very tight for me right now and I couldn't afford to opt for the whole Sky Sport package even if I wanted to. Plus, F1 is the only sport I love so it would be bad value anyway. That said, again like genji, if the Murdochs were forced out of Sky and I could opt for the F1 channel alone through my Virgin box, I'd might take it, even though I don't like their style. Incidentally, whenever I type genji, it changes to genii !
Other than Crofty and Brundel the sky team were poor. Georgie Thompson offers nothing accept boobs. Damon as much as I respect the man was hopeless and looked awkward. Most of the time they all looked clueless and at a loss for interesting things to say. I miss Eddie. The only positive for me is Croft who is so much better than DC. I hope they improve or I won't being getting up early to watch the pre show. Sent from HTC Sensation XE
Now we find out dear Maggie had a little secret tete a tete with Rupert. Hoping to stop the old goat getting The Times !!
Glad to hear the coverage sounds pants, thought BBC highlights were OK apart from the incomprehensible Scots guy in the pits, guess I will miss Kravitz. Sky is all style over substance, always has been always will be, and Brundle was getting stale anyway in my view so no sad loss there.
It sounded to me like she made the whole thing possible, or at least oiled the wheels for him. I'm also glad to hear their coverage is bad. Sky Sports is like X Factor on steroids for me - ugh. And yeah, Nick, I thought Brundle was getting stale too.
I like Sky's coverage on the whole. I like how they cut to Anthony Davidson with the "SkyPad" to analyse things rather than rigidly sticking with the FOM feed, a good example of this was when Alonso crashed and the session was red flagged. Would be a lot better if they replaced Georgie Thompson with Lee McKenzie though. I'd prefer it if they had DC alongside Damon Hill with the faceless bloke doing Jake Humphrey's job, I thought David Croft was alright, a bit of a gobshite but still did a good job, similar to when James Allen worked alongside Brundle.
Gary Anderson is Irish not Scottish and you should really listen to what he says because what he analyses is of the highest level. Don't know about Brundle getting 'stale' but he always offered quality features. Maybe got a bit too opinionated on the forum at times. I'll always remember him pretty much saying to Jenson after his first race with McLaren that he made a mistake in joining McLaren and that he was looking pretty stupid for doing so. And then Jenson goes and wins the next race in Melbourne and in 2011 beats his team mate in the championship. Shhhhhh.
I watched the Sky coverage and then the BBC highlights with friends later in the day. I must say the Sky build up was pretty shocking, they need both time to gel and they need to stop being so dry. The commentary however was near perfect in my view, with DC actually annoying me in the BBC version, I used to like him but I'm going off him ever more. If my mate needs his Sky Go login back then I'm yet to be convinced about the package as a whole.
I don't have Sky, but i thought the BBC was ok. I miss Brundle though, got to get used to Edwards, and DC having a bigger role. I'm going to try out 5live, see if the JA's are any good.
Watched the whole race from Sky on an online stream. David Croft wasn't as annoying as in the past but i did have 5 Live in the background at times as well and I thought James Allen was superb giving us plenty of detail. Allen definitely comes out tops in the commentator stakes today. Jaime Alguesauri was very good as well for a debut too. Jennie Gow in the pits did a good job in the pits far better than Natalie Pinkham and actually talks like she knows something about the sport. They are a small but intricate team on 5 Live that seems to work. They removed the in your face cocky naffness of croft and Pinkham and replaced it with proper knowledge. The Sky coverage benefits entirely on the basis of Martin Brundle. The presentation team of Simon Lazenby and Damon Hill is alright but seriously lacks the vibrancy, energy and charisma of the BBC's Jake Humphrey, DC and Eddie Jordan. It's all hellishly expensive is Sky's coverage but it looks short of the quality provided by the BBC the last 3 years. But today even though it was small and not extravagant the BBC in the form of 5 live comes out top over Sky.
Pros and Cons for Sky's coverage - Pros 1 - Like the analysing where cars are highlighted (and remain so) for things like the replay of the start. That sky pad thing could work well if they had it on full screen more. 2 - I think Croft and Brundle fit together quite well. 3 - Like the fact that they'll be showing GP2 from next week. Cons 1 - Get rid of Georgie Thompson, she adds nothing to the coverage. If I have to read another post that says 'yeah, but she's nice eye candy' I'm going to kick that someone in the plums. If that's important to some viewers then they need to have a look at their priorities. 2 - Crofty had a bit of a howler on recognising drivers. 3 - Coverage felt a bit cold without a lot of character. 4 - I was expecting a lot more post race analysis akin to the beeb's red button forum. 5 - Adverts! Yes it's not during the race but they're frequent enough to be annoying! Overall, I'd say it's still got a long way to go.
I think Croft is a lot better in races/quali because there's more to talk about so he doesn't waffle on about a load of crap. Thought it was funny seeing him and Brundle commentating before the race started, I'd just always assumed they were sat down, they looked so awkward. Agree with Boogie about the sky pad and I think they should get rid of Lazenby and Thompson who I'm not too keen on. One plus for me was the amount of the press conference they showed, I think they had three questions to Button and two each to Vettel and Hamilton rather than the 3/4 the BBC used to show.
Lazenby is ok imo, but Thompson is awful. WCB is 100% correct when he says he adds nothing to the coverage. The Sky pad is awesome.
I don't have Sky so am not in a position to comment about them, but from what I have read it seems they have someway to go to equal the BBC's standard of coverage. I would imagine it to be similar to ITV's coverage when they had it, only without the actual race being interrupted. The one thing that the BBC have always done well is the pre and post race analysis, and of course all without filling in any gaps with bloody adverts. I'm looking forward to the BBC's first race coverage of the China GP and wonder how many Sky viewers will opt to watch the BBC's coverage too?!
