Going, Going.....Almost Gone

What is almost gone, I hear you ask. Premier sporting events on terrestrial TV, that's what. So the BBC has lost half the F1 races next year to Sky, what a surprise. Soon the sports fan will have no option but to subscribe to Sky as well as pay a licence fee. Premiership football has gone, test match cricket has gone and now half the F1 races as well.

Here in Austria I don't know how that will affect us. At the moment F1 is shown on the number 1 austrian channel, ORF1. Two years ago we had german Bundesliga matches on german TV channels....now it's only available on german SKY. Last year we had Wimbledon tennis on Eurosport....this year only available on german SKY....see the pattern. Sky is gradually devouring all the major sporting events and the fans are very low on the priority list. Football clubs couldn't give a toss, as long as they can pay obscene wages to the foreign stars they employ, and apparently F1 teams don't give a toss either. I read that they didn't want TV coverage to go from terrestrial TV for fear from the sponsors....but hey, when the money hit the table they had a change of heart.

So the sports fan is expected to pay through the nose to follow the sport that they love. Soon the World Cup will be on Sky and every other major sporting event will be on Sky......sad, but true.

I pay a fee here in Austria for the TV, like a TV licence in the UK. I get umpteen channels, german, austrian, spanish, italian etc. I can't understand any of them because I can't speak the language well enough. We do get Sky News though, what a wonderful channel. We also get BBC World News, well that is what it says it is, news from around the world. But Sky, supposedly should cover news across the UK as well as the world. Apparently it's been voted 'News Channel of the Year' at some point. Sheesh, they are so obsessed with american politics, They seem to broadcast every speech President Obama makes live. Plus, when they get a story, boy, do they flog it to death....I'm fed up with phone hacking, day after day after day, bleeding phone hacking. Then there was Libya, a world story no doubt, but day after day after day after day.

Anyway, that is my rant for today......:)