F1 season pass 2021

[joshyf1]

Will this happen? If so I hope it's not going to cost too much more than £200 as I am on a limited budget as it is

[Anonymous User]

Yup I agree total waste of time! 

[Anonymous User]

Hi
If you look how now tv treat there customers it’s quite obvious they don’t have any customer care at all.They have a complete monopoly of F1 at the moment so they don’t care.

Harry

[TheGiantHogweed]

As I find NowTV one of the most painful things to cancel, I don't want to be doing that so many times over the year, so if the cost difference is only a few pounds with this 6 month deal, i would just about accept that.

From my calculations, if you buy this 6 months rolling deal at the latest moment, you will just about be able to cover the Russian Grand Prix weekend. This adds up to £150, but may involve skipping the practice sessions of the first race or miss the Russian grand prix (my maths is bad though)

Then if you buy a month pass on the 1st of October, this will cover 4 races including in Mexico on the 31st of October. So far, you are at £183.99.

The following month pass should be bought as this guide suggests:

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/lxfz1y/now_tv_2021_f1_season_uk/

On Saturday the 6th of November (just enough to cover the main sessions of this weekends race) to the 5th of December which just covers this weekend too. Now at £217.98. At this point you only have Abu Dhabi left. IMO, it won't be worth buying a month pass and it often isn't a very interesting race anyway unless the championship is still open. Anyway, with 2x £9.99 for qualifying and the race, it ads up to £237.96.

I would say that is worth it as you won't need to go through the cancelling procedure much during the first 6 months. That is horrible to deal with. You go through about 10 pages of them asking you questions on why you want to cancel with huge buttons trying to make you buy a deal again and making cancelling a complicated process. They then send you emails with links to buy it again for several days after. I want to cancel as few times as possible, even if it costs a tiny bit more.

[TheGiantHogweed]

One thing that does confuse me is the bullet points about the month membership compared to adding NowTV Boost.

https://www.nowtv.com/choose-passes/sky-sports/existing-boost

It says NowTV Boost is 1080p, which I believe is correct. But it says the standard sports month membership deal is standard definition! Is that true?? Standard definition when there was 1080I on freeview over a DECADE ago on free to air channels like channel 4 that technically didn't even require you to pay the BBC TV licence fee.

1080p should be the default now for any sort of pay TV. If it isn't 720p by default like it used to be (still not good), I think I will not accept it. It is just ridiculous.

[schnapps]

Hi @TheGiantHogweed 

Perhaps this linked below NOW maximum streaming quality table will help ?

https://help.nowtv.com/article/what-is-highest-streaming-quality-for-my-device 

[SweetBlitz]

If it isn't 720p by default like it used to be (still not good), I think I will not accept it. It is just ridiculous.

it is 720p by default.   Main reason I use Now TV over Virgin.  Though I also get boost for sport as it is worth the extra £2/month (retention offer).

[Anonymous User]

Cancellation is pretty simple and they soon get around to start offering you discounts. Its worth the minute answering the couple of questions. Last years season, after cancelling a few full price passes, we were down to £25/month then £19.99/month without asking. All for a minute or so's work. Whether that happens again this year is anyone's guess, but I've based my costings on it not happening and if it does its an extra bonus.

First thing I do after paying for the pass is cancel it. Then I don't have to remember to cancel it before it accidentally rolls over. So no risk in forgetting.

Paying month on month also reduces the risk of paying 6 months up front and the F1 schedule changing.  Last year with the F1 season pass, NowTV were proactive in fully refunding, but if you get a general sports pass and only F1 is affected, I don't think they will be so accommodating because they could argue that you still got benefit from other sports, even if you don't watch anything other than F1.

[Habib]

They are definitely not being fair, a quick look on the Ofcom website:

"Telling customers when their initial deal is up, and the best deal. Under new Ofcom rules
announced last month, broadband, phone and TV customers must be told when their contract is
coming to an end, and shown the best deals available, from February next year. Out-of-contract
customers will have to be given reminders and shown the best deals every year. This will help people take advantage of the wide choice of offers available. With more than 20 million customers having passed their initial contract period, we believe this could have a significant positive impact"

[Anonymous User]

@Habib that is interesting,

so if I'm reading this correctly (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2019/firms-must-tell-customers-abou... the new rules came in to effect Feb 2020, as nowtv has given out £20 deals to "select" customers then the £25 deal given to the masses is not the best deal? 

I think I will complain for the sake of it, the cost to now tv to justify will be mildly satisfying. 

[Saint1976]

@Anonymous User @Habib OFCOM rules would not apply. Now is not a contracted service. You are not fixed to a term length and you can leave the service anytime.

Those rules are for those who are contracted and their contact is due to expire.

[Anonymous User]

@Saint1976  ah ok seems about right now you mention it 👍. Although I'm pretty sure I pay a month at a time. I am being pedantic yes 😁

Tbf I'm going to go get a little black box instead 👍

[gavs82008]

@Anonymous User 

For TV memberships NOW has never introduced a contract. 
All you do is either in the past is pay £xxx up front for bulk purchasing at a discount or you get a monthly discount to pay for 3/6/9 months, but your always welcome to cancel whenever you want without a “cancellation fee”. The issue with bulk paying in advance is that you’ll need to keep your membership active to take full advantage of the £xxx paid up front. 

The only part of NOW that involves contracts is for broadband services.

[Habib]

non the less, NOW TV does not automatically cancel after the expired promotion period, and it carries on at the so called normal rate, the same as when a contract expires and it carries on at the normal rate, regardless the offer is not fair as different customers and new customers are being given a fairer deal than others. I've contacted OFCOM and my local trading standards, and also sought insight from Money Saving Expert. Will keep you guys posted 🙂

[TheGiantHogweed]

@Anonymous User 

The problem with cancelling this £25 per month deal though is that it expires early in april, so you won't be able to get the next few months at this price if you cancel and you can't guarantee that it will be £19.99 either. I myself found cancelling a nightmare. Going through around 10 pages with hard to find buttons and so much promotion trying to get back in. The 6 month deal currently looks the best value including paying for 2 more months after that and 2 day passes for the final race. If you just want qualifying and the race anyway. I think I will go with this. I still need to calculate if I buy this deal today or tomorrow to make sure the 6 months covers the race on sunday at Russia on september the 26th.

[Anonymous User]

@TheGiantHogweed 

Its not about cancelling the £25 deal, its about cancelling the £33.99 monthly.

A full season, bar 2 practice days and the FTA British GP can be done on 7 monthly passes. Thats £237.93 which seems the be the same amount as the 6 month deal plus a couple of month and day passes which appear not to give as fuller coverage.

Last year, it was only a couple of cancellations before NowTV started offering us the monthly on a discount, firstly £25 then £19.99. And these were not locked into 6 months so we could start the passes on optimal dates.

Without any further discount, £101.97 gets us the first 10 races, including the British GP courtesy of FTA Channel 4 coverage. If the £25/month offer was started today, that same point in time is covered by 4 months of the offer, so £100.

If the 6 month offer was not started until quali tomorrow, it will run out at Russia. So to complete the season, 2 monthly and 2 day passes are needed. Once a couple of day passes is needed to cover quali and race of Singapore, the 6 month @ £25 deal + 2 * day passes is a few penny's more expensive than 5 x monthly passes 169.95. The remainder of the season can then be covered on a couple of monthly passes. But if like last year, its possible that the monthly price will be discounted plus I am currently watching F2 and will later watch Fridays F1 practice which I would not be able to do if I had to wait to start the 6 month deal until tomorrow or end up on a more expensive combination.

From what I can see, the 6 month deal is not such a great deal. Plus don't forget to cancel the free 7 day boost. It seems to be a deal more for the benefit of NowTV than a benefit to Formula 1 viewers.

I might be wrong, but by being canny with the timing of the monthly passes, I'm no worse off than I would be by taking the £25/month offer for 6 months, but have everything to gain by future offers that may occur with better timing. The 6 month offer just seems to make up the shortfall between a continuous set of passes vs starting and stopping at optimal points in time.

I've already signed up for my first month and enjoying the new seasons coverage. I've already cancelled it too. One click of a button to cancel.

Of course, NowTV may just go and put their monthly pass price up....

[Anonymous User]

Ok After quite a bit of persistance with live chat I have managed to speak to someone that actually used a bit of common sense and got the £20pm, basically they have refunded £30 which brings the overall 6months down to £20pm.

I have BB with them and possibly the threat of losing that may have swayed the coversation slightly.

[TheGiantHogweed]

I can see your point now @Anonymous User 

But one click to cancel didn't seem to be the case for me. I found it so ridiculous that i took a screenshot of every page i went through in the process of cancelling it.

Like you say though, there could possibly be options that make it cheaper if i cancel after going for this £25 for 6 months, and I don't really lose out if I do cancel it anyway. It is just having to think about managing them every month that almost makes me want to just stick with the pass anyway. Or at least i will wait and see if i hear that many more people have got better offers when cancelling.

Just want to check, if i get this 6 month deal tomorrow, will it expire late enough that it can cover the race on Sunday the 26th of September at Russia?

[Anonymous User]

Can I just check, is the F1 offering on NOW TV still only a live stream with no on demand capability to watch the race in the evening if you have, oh I don't know, a job!!

I don't mind the price they're charging IF and ONLY IF they also offer the coverage on demand later that day.

I'm a paramedic so work all days and hours and am very rarely home during the day on a Sunday. Quite frankly the other half would leave me if I started insisting on staying home to watch F1 on the rare Sundays I'm actually off lol.

Any news on this front? Seems a massive gap in their offering to me. 

[Enapace]

@Anonymous User 

On Demand for Formula 1 Races is now a thing it normally appears 1-3 hours after the race ends to be able to watch in full. But unlike live it is only 25FPS not 50FPS sadly yet. Hopefully that is rectified later this year.

[Anonymous User]

Oh great. Is that for all the programs, so Free Pactices, Quali and Notebook etc as well as the race (OK, I know Notebook is on YouTube anyway, so that doesn't really matter)? 

[Enapace]

@Anonymous User 

Practice 1 is currently available but not sure why Practice 2 isn't