F1 TV coverage

Sky secures new exclusive Formula 1 television deal for 2019 | Autocar

This year Channel 4 has started showing Formula 1 on free-to-air television for the first time, taking over from the BBC in broadcasting live coverage of ten races and showing highlights of the other 11.

That deal runs until the end of the 2018 season, and it remains to be seen whether Channel 4 will be willing to show highlights when Sky’s exclusive deal begins the following season.
 
Don't get me wrong i prefer sky f1 coverage as it amazing with testing coverage + gp2/gp3 but saying that this exclusive deal that was announced is yet another disaster. free to air & viewing figures publicity vital for F1. I Cant believe f1 & bernie are making the made Same mistake as cricket who got hundreds of millions for exclusive rights because we're supposed to have the brightest brains in sports yet they are so short sighted. Because yes the money will be good but we are currently going to lose 85% of uk audience, which in any sport is ridiculous. & that 85% will result in Less publicity which will give Less sponsor revenue, More teams in financial trouble & More pay drivers

All you have to look at 2 huge events ashes & women's world cup Ecb took the money problem they won last ashes & it barely made a ripple in the newspapers because of low viewing figures of 450,000 compared with peak of 8m on channel 4 back in 2005.

Fall in Sky Ashes viewing figures leaves English cricket facing stark choices | Sean Ingle

Women's world cup could easily gone to sky/bt but they went for viewing figures & that world cup semi was massive when that heartbreaking last min was the talk of work the next day. Profile of the sport went huge
 
OMG. What will that cost? How ******* short sighted is that. Bernie? Screwing every last penny out "his" sport, before he drops dead. All so his darling daughters can buy themselves anything they want.
Best enjoy it while we can. Once Sky have the exclusive deal, the price will rocket.
 
I'm only guessing but I know Sky have done something similar with football in the past and put the occasional live match on Sky 1 to entice viewers. In the past they have also had free weekends when they have shown a whole weekend of free sports or made Sky Sports F1 free for a GP weekend.

You are right though, the only way you would be able to see it on freeview is if you pay for top up TV channels or something along those lines.

I believe you can subscribe to Sky Sports through Freeview so the only option Sky would have to show free to air qualification and highlights is to decrypt one of those channels for the duration of the highlights.

I guess with almost 3 seasons to ride the backlash before the new contract comes in, they will decide nearer the time. I would still bank a reasonable amount of money on the so called free to air stuff being only available to those with Sky services.
 
So it would seem that while Sky have the exclusive rights to broadcast F1, they have several options on the table regarding the race highlights and the British GP.

1) Broadcast the highlights package on a normal Sky channel such as Sky 1. This would be pseudo free to air as potential viewers would still have to have these channels as part of their normal TV package.

2) Broadcast the highlights on a dedicated free to all channel (including Freeview customers) under Sky's control

or

3) Let a terrestrial channel such as Channel 4 lease the rights to show the highlights packages / British GP.

In terms of commercial revenue generation options 1 and 3 seem the most likely however, some one at Murdoch towers will be doing the maths to work out if they will get more customers from F1 fans who currently only have Freeview signing up to a Sky package to watch the highlights as a minimum or will they make more money from a TV company paying an annual fee to Sky to show their highlights?
 
Yeah, and while they are there maybe they can ask the EU how they are getting on with Sauber and Force India's request to look into the anti-competitive way the commercial side is run. After all, they raised their complaint 7 months ago and we haven't heard a peep since.
 
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