[joff81]

people seem to think this is Bernie's and sky's fault for both dealing with the devil so to speak but what most people forget is that it was the BBC who actually screwed F1 fans over. it was the BBC who went to sky with a contract they couldn't afford and with a begging bowl agreed to hand it over for the few scraps the got in return. the FOM'S were tried because the BBC still had 18 months left on a contract they couldn't afford to honour.
The FOM could not sign a contract with another free to air channel starting 2012 as BBC still had the rights and there was a risk that F1 would not be shown at all if the BBC couldn't afford it.

the BBC agreed to sell their contract + right to exemption to sky in return for a highlights package to which the FOM agreed. the other solution was to wait for the BBC to fail to honour their contract, risk no F1 on TV until a contract was sorted and sue the BBC for billions in losses, a move that would of ended the BBC thats how bad the situation was for the BBC.

to be honest I don't think the FOM realized how tightly sky would hold on to SSF1 and its only now the FOM are realising how poor the viewing figures are on live races on sky compared to on BBC and now need a better solution to reach more viewers rathen than limited viewing sky offers.