Proof ( if it was needed ) Of Bernies Greed and lack of thought for us . http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35889736 Formula 1 will no longer be shown on terrestrial television from 2019 after Sky Sports announced it had agreed an exclusive deal to broadcast the sport. The broadcaster currently shares coverage with Channel 4, which took up showing F1 after the BBC ended its contract three years early in 2015. Sky Sports said the whole of the British Grand Prix would be broadcast on a new "free-to-air" channel. The five-year deal will also see race highlights shown on the free channel. Both F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone and Sky Sports managing director Barney Francis said they were "delighted" with the exclusive deal. However, some fans of the sport have taken to social media to express their disappointment at the deal. F1 fan site The PitCrew Online tweeted that it was "sad news", while journalist Dan Paddock wrote the move would not "just slash TV numbers, it'll drive away potential fans, engineers, journalists too". The BBC ended its deal with F1 early after BBC Sport was asked to deliver £35m of savings as part of a £150m gap in the corporation's finances following cuts. At the time BBC Sport said the decision had been made reluctantly and it realised it would be unpopular with audiences. Bernie & Sky , you can **** right off . BBC Radio 5 live it is for me .
Oh well that's me out as of 2019. Not paying Sky a penny. As for British race being Free to air, great a single race and only if you have a sat dish! I thought that 'free to air' was written into the teams agreement, I guess that was in days gone by! Once again Bernie focusing short term on his income not what is best for F1. This is going to hurt the teams finances, the sponsors will not pay as much as they will get massively less viewers.
Not trying to defend Bernie in ANY way but 'free-to-air' means it is not encrypted so a freesat box will enable you to watch the British race. By sound of it all other races will require a Sky subscription of one form or another.
I found an app called mobdro which you can cast to the TV from your mobile. quite good. Loads of channels including sky sports F1.
I still can't work out how this deal works for Sky. The amount of viewers and the price they're paying means they're valuing their customers at around £200 per person per year. When BBC had exclusive rights they were running at around £5 pppy.... Now to be fair Sky are already paying about £80pppy. Something somewhere doesn't add up, and I'm not just talking about for the fans.
I don't think you can value it on an F1 only basis. There under a lot of pressure from the BT/EE tie up and there obviously trying to monopolise certain viewing consumer trends. Obviously doesn't make sense to us, but there will be very clever marketing accountant in the back ground.
I think Sky bought the contract mainly to stop BT getting it. If you look at the way Sky structure their 'packages' they want to force people to pay a large amount. If BT were to get F1 it would strengthen BT's offering to become the home of motorsport. Sky want to stop any rival having marketable packages.