Bit late to the party, but here goes
On the first hand it would obviously be best for all F1 fans in the UK to have the coverage continue as now on the BBC - it's 'free' to air or rather to own a TV you have to pay the BBC tax so after you have paid that it is 'free' and it broadcasts without ads which is obviously beneficial. Compared to the ITV coverage the BBC do a far superior job and it has been a pleasure to watch for the last two and half years, Legard aside.
However the BBC are under pressure to make cuts to their spending and obviously continuing to pay top dollar for F1 was not an option. Given that, the deal that has emerged is IMO about as good as we could have hoped for. Did we really want it back on ITV or, God forbid, Channel 4 or 5???
Once the dust settled yesterday and all the people that like to mouth off first and find out the facts second were brought back down to earth by the fact that the BBC intend to show the full length races it is not showing live, not just highlights and the fact that Sky do not intend to show ads during the races things actually don't look too bad.
If you don't want to pay for Sky you will still get to see 10 live races and 10 delayed (by a few hours) races on the BBC. If you absolutely have to see them all live then you pay for Sky, but surely that makes you an avid fan anyway and hence paying a few hundred quid to follow the sport you are dedicated to is neither here nor there.
Granted it's not as good as it is now, but really the way some people were going on in here yesterday frothing at the mouth and chucking insults around (even before they knew the whole picture) you would think they had some God given right to get F1 for free and that F1 had gone completely from free to air to pay TV
I also laugh at the people who say I have been watching the sport for 'n' years! So what? Why does that give them any more right than someone who started watching it 2 months ago?? For the record I have been following it for 35 years.... does that make me more important than those that have been watching it for less? No it doesn't!
Finally I would have to ask of all those of you feeling utterly put out by what is a fairly small change really what have you ever given to F1? Have you been to a race? Bought any merchandise? If not then I don't really think you have a reason to argue. You have had a sport 'free' for all this time and now you're going to have to pay a little bit towards it IF you want the same level of coverage as you get now... deal with it!
As to Sky's coverage, most of you may not remember that Sky did cover F1 for a year (in 2002 I think), it was on pay per view. I signed up for the whole season as the coverage was infinitely better than the ITV coverage of the time. If Sky can make that jump again from the present level it will be quite something. A lot will depend on who they get to present and commentate... the jury is out, but they did do a good job of it before and they have done a good job of football and cricket so let's see what happens.
Finally as to all these comments about other countries receiving the BBC feed and Sky possibly providing better pictures I would just like to clarify there is no such thing as a BBC feed and currently no opportunity for Sky to use additional equipment. F1 is broadcast solely by FOM (with the exception of Monaco and Japan where local broadcasters do the same job under FOM guidelines) and there is only one feed called the 'world feed'. That is relayed to the various commentary teams for different countries and that commentary is what the other countries receive e.g. Australia receive the BBC commentary over the 'world feed'. All that will happen is either these other countries will pick up a different commentary or provide their own or they may still use the BBC who will of course be commentating on all races as they happen with the broadcast of half of them being delayed in the UK.
In conclusion I really don't think it is as bad as all that. We don't have a God given right to watch any sport on free to air and at the end of the day F1, the BBC and Sky are businesses and this obviously makes sense to them. Are they right to be confident the fans will stick around under the new deal? Well we won't know that just yet, but these companies are not stupid. I remember when the Premier League deal was struck and lots of fans threatened to walk away etc. etc. ... the Premier League is now the most lucrative football league in the world and a lot of that is down to Sky!