F1 bbc hd?

[*sloman*]

Does any one know if the F1 will be on BBC HD?

[keef319]

apparently not!!!!! REDICULOUS!!!!

[chickendippers]

It'll be here if it is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbchd/programmes/schedules

[keef319]

Here's the latest from Seetha Kumar, the Head of HDTV at BBC Vision:

"We showed Top Gear's Polar Challenge in HD and, of course, I'd love to show the series. Who wouldn't? Our team has discussed this and we're talking to Top Gear to understand the specific production challenges. Regarding F1, we hope that this will be available in HD as soon as possible within our new contract, but this depends on demand from other international broadcasters as well as from us."

[Pushkar]

Terrible, you have crap shows like Doctors, Paradise World and Gardeners' World but no F1, BBC has no excuse especially since the majority of TV license fee goes to them.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by TaiLZ

Terrible, you have crap shows like Doctors, Paradise World and Gardeners' World but no F1, BBC has no excuse especially since the majority of TV license fee goes to them.

It's not the BBC's fault. Coverage of the actual F1 races are always provided by the local TV company (so the British Grand Prix will be filmed by the BBC), and not all of those companies have HD facilities. As such, the FIA apparently isn't allowing HD coverage at the moment.

The BBC cannot provide HD coverage as there are no HD feeds available.

[Turkey Machine]

F1 won't be on HD for a while yet - we've only recently had widescreen since 2007! The races are provided by FOM, apart from one or 2 which have local feeds. To provide HD, the cameras (all the cameras, trackside, and the onboard ones) need to be HD capable.

[Begize]

Bernie Ecclestone's company, FOM, produce the TV pictures for most of the races (except a couple - Monaco and Japan I think???). That's why they all have the same graphics etc. It's upto FOM to supply an HD feed and the broadcasters to take it.

Officially Bernie said that they were introducing HD from the end of the 2007 season onwards for some races but so far, only a a handful have been done and they were only for testing and promos. There have been some psuedo HD broadcasts and cinema stuff using upscaled SD pictures. Unofficially it's rumoured that most, if not all the races from the end of the 2007 season onwards have been at least partly shot in HD.

ITV actually used an HD ready satellite service to get broadcasts from the GP's from the start of the 2007 season even though they were not actually receiving an HD feed. The ITV shot stuff (their own interviews etc) was done on HD cameras but broadcast in SD. Was this ready for ITV to take and broadcast an HD feed if / when one became available from FOM? Was it just because the company they used was switching all the technology to HD to make it more future proof? Who knows.

I don't know what the BBC are using technology wise, but they have said they want to take an HD feed if they can, so I assume they must be doing something similar to ITV. Other broadcasters in other countries are also supposed to be "lobbying" for HD feeds too.

It seems then, that the question of "Will we get F1 in HD?" is mainly down to Bernie.

The thing is, FOM tried "enhanced" stuff before - interactive channels, extra views etc on Sky and in Germany but pulled the plug because it was too expensive and no one was prepared to pay extra for it.

Obviously someone has to pay for the HD equipment and you wonder if Bernie decides to pass that cost onto the broadcasters, will they pay?

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by Begize

Obviously someone has to pay for the HD equipment and you wonder if Bernie decides to pass that cost onto the broadcasters, will they pay?

I imagine that with the current financial situation now isn't a good time to be asking broadcasters for more money, and judging from the lack of advertising on the Braun cars in Australia, apart from Virgin that is, I don't expect there is a lot of extra money floating about in F1 at the moment.