F1 on tv in the UK from 2019

Angel

Race Winner
Contributor
In a deal that I have just seen announced it seem that Channel 4 will still be showing F1 in 2019 and beyond. They will show the British gp llive and all other races as highlights. So if you can't afford or don't want Sky, you will still be able to see the action, albeit after it's happened.

To someone like me that is a big relief I have to say. It now means I will still get to watch F1 and stay here to discuss it with you lovely people. Okay so apart from one race it's all highlights but it's better than no coverage at all.



British Grand Prix to be shown live on Channel 4 and Sky in 2019
 
In Italy it's the same, as a result the viewers' numbers have decreased dramatically and F1 very often no longer makes the news, it has become little more than irrelevant for the majority of people.

I guess that the advertisers will be delighted, their audiences are going down throughtout Europe.

I wonder how long it will be before F1 will be again free for all in TV, they can't go on like this, a current sponsor is a client of mine and they are furious, they are locked in until 2020 and they see the spectators numbers go down in every market that matters to them, they believe that sponsoring (an) F1 (team) has been a wrong move and they will never do it again. If you think that the business model of F1 is to make your clients pay to watch some advertisements there is something fundamentally wrong because in this way you will retain the hard core fans (who apparently are getting older...) and lose the casual viewers, the ones who really mattered to sponsors. Sadly I hear that F1 has become almost irrelevant for the younger generations.

In Italy at least many viewers have switched to MotoGP
 
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im a lucky one. but I said this in 2012 & stand by it now its a dreadful decision sport needs to be free to air tv to generate viewers & generate media intrest. espically in this age where you Sky Netflix Amazon etc, for me at the very least I would have all 21 races on channel 4 then give sky sports the full package. because id rather have 5m viewers than 5m more money. you have to look at Cricket to see the detrimental effect its having & how they are coming back to the bbc. I can see by 2023 when deal up. channel 4 will be back with free live races

the only sport that I know that has any sense on this is the rugby. the last time the 6 nations contract came up they had a joint BBC/ITV bid or sky sports. they took BBC/ITV bid despite less money because they knew that media publicity is more important than a filling your pockets. as the 6 Nations council member Gareth Davies said "the need to keep the games on free-to-air channels was a strong motivator".
 
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Hmmm, well I put it in Formula One Discussion as I assumed it was about F1 and relevant. So I don't know how it got moved to scrutineering, I wouldn't know how to do that on this forum and I assume I wouldn't be able to do so anyway. It's a mystery then.
 
Great news F1 is still going to be on free to air even if it is just highlights. Hopefully they can sustain this until sky's deal finally ends in 2024
 
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Don't worry about it Angel

Any how, I expect the highlights will do quite well given that they will be shown at a more convenient time. I am surprised a deal went through as Sky love having exclusive rights to things. I guess Liberty may have had to compensate Murdoch.
 
Further details emerge about Channel 4’s 2019 Formula 1 coverage

For 2019's new deal, following a request from Sky, that gap is extending to three hours, meaning that Channel 4’s highlights edit for European rounds cannot start until around 18:55 UK time

bigger problem comes with the Canadian, USA and Mexican rounds. Based on the 2018 start times, Channel 4’s highlights edit for those races will not start until nearly midnight, a less than ideal scenario.
 
Yeh I will make do with highlights next year I think. There has been too many dull races this year to justify pay per view. It does mean that I am at least continuing to watch F1 in 2019 as I have been at a stage where I've been thinking this is my last season.

Feels like F1 is just keeping it's head above water at the moment. I hope it can tread water until 2024 and Liberty can hopefully agree a deal with anyone but sky. If it's not on free to air or at worst Amazon or Netflix then it will die a slow death.
 
To be honest I was thinking I wasn't that bothered about watching F1 in 2019, no way was I going to pay for Sky tv just to see more disappointing racing. The highlights deal means I can keep up with what is going on at least so I'll take that.

Oh and even if my lotto ticket comes good tonight and I win the top prize (£110 million) I still wouldn't pay for Sky tv on principle!

You're right Greenlantern101 if they're not careful F1 will die a long slow and painful death behind a pay per view wall, I predicted that when it first started to happen. I did hope Liberty would do something to address that issue, well I don't know how tied their hands are but they haven't done much yet that I can see. It's up to them to make the changes necessary to keep the audience they have and build a future one. Good luck to them I say, it's not going to be easy as things stand.
 
Unfortunately we are stuck until 2021. Because of the reasons above. I always state their is only 1 competition in England that can sustain popularity & pay tv. That's premier league / football league because 46 league matches every weekend. Fans are usually at 1 live or watching soccer saturday & so highlights work

Pay tv in current racing doesnt bode well, as i was thinking this could be 1 of worst decades for entertaining racing. If this 2nd best season & some races have been dreadful. But we can get near the action we get in F2 & lower budgets. Then hopefully the audience can come back. But that would require the teams thinking of the action not the selfishness
 
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