Regular readers will know of my love for motor sport and how the British Grand Prix is on my planner year after year with tickets bought for the following year around four hours after the current race has finished. The television coverage over the years has been variable with advert breaks during ITV’s contract and lots of pre-race chat from the three stooges over the past few years when the BBC screened the events. Incidentally, did you know David Coulthard moisturises his face in the pit lane prior to being filmed (I have photos of this!)? Anyway, I digress...........from 2012 the BBC have sold out half the races to Sky therefore we loyal viewers on terrestrial television will only be able to watch 10 races live with highlights of the others later in the day (by which time the results will have been bandied about and there will be no surprises). Bizarrely the first two races of the season fall into the highlights category which seems strange as certainly the Australian GP is always a big event by virtue of kicking off the season. I got rid of Sky some time ago as there is little point in paying for far too many repeat and frankly crap channels showing everything from football matches in the 1970’s to shows demonstrating how to cover a loo roll in glitter.
I am left with two choices, either to put up with the BBC’s lack of coverage (which of course as a television licence payer I had expected to be able to watch all races live) or re-subscribe to Sky at an extortionate rate for their sports channel. A third option of course would be to follow the racing around the world but unless I win a substantial amount on the Lotto this will remain a dream (perhaps I could write to McLaren and say I should travel with them based on the amount of money I have spent on their merchandise over the past few years? Hmmm, there’s a thought). Whichever option I decide upon will not be a satisfactory result. What amazed me was the BBC claimed they wanted to reduce the F1 coverage to concentrate on other major sporting events such as the 2012 Olympics..............on looking at the F1 and Olympic calendars, only one F1 race is during the Olympics as August is the drivers rest month. You couldn’t make it up.
Perhaps the TV licence should be based on only paying for what you actually watch? In that case I would only be paying for the motor sport as I cannot think of anything else I actually watch on the BBC.
The Christmas shopping silly season is in full swing and I have been on an expedition with my Mum to try and make some headway with the remaining gifts I need to buy. We went to a local shopping village where despite there being around one hundred outlets to choose from, there was only one shop that had anything close to what was on the list. We had more success on the way home when we called into a couple of other shops and I managed to choose two of my own gifts! I love the element of surprise. Highlight of the day was spotting a group of oriental folk at the village scurrying towards the shoe shops with large, empty suitcases to carry their goodies home in. Having bumped into a friend who is from the local Exclusive Brethren community and hearing that they don’t celebrate Christmas (they have a family time week instead) I can see the sense behind belonging to an alternative branch of religion................no queues, no stress about getting the right gifts for the right people, a huge saving on postage...............the list goes on. Having said that, I would miss the annual event of watching my Mum trying to make custard on Christmas Day after downing a couple of glasses of champagne. Perhaps I will stick to tradition and join the queues a little earlier next year. Ho, ho, ho!
No comments:
Post a Comment