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Fans angry as ONE bumps Formula One to TEN

Motorsports fans unleash their anger on TEN, fuming over the loss of HD broadcasts and delays in SA and WA.

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Motorsports fans are fuming with TEN Network over its plans to switch Formula One coverage from ONE to TEN, losing both High Definition and in some cases, Live broadcasts.

From this Sunday night, F1 screens on TEN from 9:30pm instead of on ONE. Bizarrely, the Qualifying Race is Live in all markets on ONE on Saturday, but not the big race.

This results in the coverage airing in Standard Definition and it means viewers in South Australia and Western Australia -including Perth viewers following local lad Daniel Ricciardo- will be unable to see it Live as they have enjoyed on ONE.

The switcheroo comes despite the network having regularly plugged the HD broadcasts on ONE.

On its Facebook page, TEN viewers are fuming:

– So much for live and HD, just lost another viewer. sad as your AFL, and F1 coverage was about all i watched on C10. Now a viewer gone altogether.

– What a joke! Give us live F1 coverage in Perth and in HD

– No. Just no. I take it that TEN are happy for us to use other means to watch F1 since they don’t care? #boycottTEN

– And they will wonder why their ratings plummet due to the majority watching streams online

– Will be boycotting all of your channels and advertisers…F1 deserves to be on HD and live for all states. For shame Channel 10, FOR SHAME!

– Welcome to 2005. Thanks chn 10

– FFS really who makes these decisions? Do they actually watch or understand sport?

– Is a spokesperson for ten/one going to actually explain the reasoning behind this decision? They think more people will watch a netball repeat and a re-run movie?

The move is believed to be ratings driven, to shore up TEN’s dwindling figures on Sunday nights from 9:30pm.

TV Tonight asked TEN about the imminent changes and the fan fury.

A spokesperson said, “As of this Sunday, April 22, Formula One will be broadcast on TEN at 9.30pm. This allows all Australians to access the Formula One coverage in a consistent time slot every Sunday night.”

44 Responses

  1. Not the first time TEN have stuffed up motor sport coverage, but this is ridiculous. The sponsors are the key, lobby them and watch TEN change there tune. But as I suspected when FTA announced multi channels, just more f the same crap and not proper use of the bandwidth. With live motor sport at least they have the opportunity use the HD bandwidth for it’s true purpose. But that is logical and these clowns are not logical! Looks like Pay TV will be the real winner in the long term. Good on ya wanker TV managers!!!!

  2. No matter the sites set up or the 100s of Facebook posts the average viewer isn’t going to go online to find a HD streaming site or boycott TEN or it’s advertisers, no the only think that will change TENs plans for F1 this year is the ratings, if the F1 or other shows on Sunday bomb in the ratings then it might go back to ONE.

    The ratings tomorrow are going to be interest. ONE is sure to be way down without F1 to prop it up this Sunday, but will TEN see any boost in the numbers?

  4. Brekkie, SBS1 is still available in HD. There’s no government regulation stopping that. There’s similarly no regulation stopping any of the other networks doing that. They don’t because they believe they will make more money by not doing that.

    Come next year when analogue is finished being turned off, and things will change again.

  5. This isn’t going away soon. The Australian has an article up altho’ you’ll need an account to read the whole thing.
    theaustralian.com.au/media/ten-causes-outrage-with-f1-move/story-e6frg996-1226332816613

    Actually someone’s dumped the whole text into the comments on TenSportTV’s FB page.

    A couple of petitions have started up as has a boycott Ten/F1 FB account – facebook.com/BoycottTenF1

    Next thing to do is to pressure their main advertisers.

  6. I want to congratulate Ten on moving the qualy coverage forward from 3am to 1am. This is a huge step forward for the network and I think with there increasing ratings and profits the future is bright for TEN/ONEHD………………………

    Oh wait!

    Yeah no live HD GP. Profits are down. Ratings are down. Greg Rust looks like he is leaving (you heard it here first). Well I guess it is the 100th anniversary of the Titanic.

    I know most people dont like this but the only way to guarantee the best possible coverage, get F1 on pay TV. Right now I can watch pretty much every other motorsport category live from around the world, quali and races, without any issues except F1 and V8’s.

    We live in a motorsport third world country!

  7. It’s really a pathetic situation. The stations just keep screwing up and alienating their viewers with one stupid decision after another. What exactly was the point of touting the HD channels a few years ago? Was it so we could watch zoomed-in and blurry Happy Days reruns and marathons of Get Smart and Bewitched on 50″ TV screens? Utter madness with morons at the controls.

  8. Regarding the last statement
    “A spokesperson said, “As of this Sunday, April 22, Formula One will be broadcast on TEN at 9.30pm. This allows all Australians to access the Formula One coverage in a consistent time slot every Sunday night.”
    Living on the Sunshine Coast we are one of the last regional markets to shut down the analogue service and any serious party wishing to watch Television has already got access to Digital channels I challenge anyone to even name a friend relative or acquaintance that does not watch digital content.
    City Analogue granted is hanging on until June 2013 but I would argue that 99% of all motorsport fans are savvy to this and having worked closely with some of these people years ago can see through a poorly worded PR spin when I see it.

  10. @Goatracer – yep, I too withdraw my previous enthusiasm for Ten getting the rights to the V8s.

    I have also decided that I will be boycotting companies that advertise with Ten during the F1 broadcast. I know who the regular ones are but I will have to get the full list from someone else as I won’t be watching it on Ten unless it’s live.

    Makes a mockery of Ten recently promoting the live-timing app. That’s now completely useless for anyone who is intending to watch the race in WA/SA/NT.

  11. The casual fans that would want to watch it in prime time are small in numbers and could never make a ratings dent the true F1 fans such as me will only watch it live and have just only recently commented how well it lends itself to HD with so much colour and spectacle.
    I have been a huge advocate for Ten getting the V8 Supercar rights back but after this and many bazaar programming decision in recent times can only guess that there is a huge ego somewhere in programming that has power and will not be denied regardless of his/her obvious ineptitude.

  12. As someone who normally always goes in to bat for Ten on this site, this time I cannot. It seems to me TV in country continues to go backwards. Why are we not using the HD technology to its best. Ten really has made a massive mistake with this decision. Who the hell is running that station?

  13. Too right we are mad! This is one of the few sports left being shown in HD on the FTA channels and TEN go and ruin it and put it in HD.

    I have said it before and will say it again. Australia is in the dark ages when it comes to live awards ceremonies and live tv not to mention HD broadcasting as well. Australian TV is pathetic if you ask me. Can’t schedule shows on time, if rules are breached gets slapped on the wrist as the watchdog has no power. Then it comes to delaying sporting coverage because they feel like it. NRL on Sunday 1hr delayed, Friday night football delayed 2 hrs this week due to being played in NZ and we will know the result before kick off but also Friday’s 2nd match shown 2hrs delayed when it could be played LIVE on GEM or Go! The whole thing is a complete joke. Australian TV need to get with the times or shut down. Simple as that.

  15. time to start a twitter campaign directed at webber and ricciardo ? I don’t think ricciardo would like all his family and friends to not be able to see him race live.

  18. Isn’t the F1 the only thing that gives ONE any ratings share at all on a Sunday night? Doesn’t ONE’s market share add to TEN as a whole?

    So very silly…

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