Sky Wins Full Formula 1 Coverage Rights; BBC To Air Half Of F1 Races

UK fans of F1 racing who have enjoyed watching the races live on free-to-air television will be disappointed to learn that the BBC has relinquished its exclusive rights to show all Formula 1 Grand Prix races. From next season onwards, the full rights to live F1 coverage will go to subscription-based digital satellite TV company British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), although BBC will still retain broadcast rights to half of the Formula One races.

Sky wins full F1 coverage rights
Sky wins full F1 coverage rights

This will be the first time that Formula 1 is no longer available in its entirety live to British viewers wishing to watch it on terrestrial TV. The Beeb is said to have been under financial pressure to keep its current level of live sports coverage (which includes Wimbledon tennis tournament and The Open golf championship) going. As a result of this, the UK public service broadcaster will now only be showing half of the races live, which means that only Sky Sports subscribers get to watch all the F1 races on their HDTV sets as they happen.

The new agreement kicks in next season, and is set to continue until 2018. The BBC has had to back out of its five-year Formula One contract two seasons early. The original contract would have cost the BBC £40 million annually, but instead of coughing up this amount of money, the organisation will now only be paying £20 million per season, while BSkyB will be picking up a bill of £45 million a year to provide exclusive, full and uninterrupted coverage of the Formula 1 races.

Formula One Management’s president and CEO Bernie Ecclestone had previously promised fans that all races would still continue to be aired live on terrestrial television. However, more recently he acknowledged that the Beeb had to make this move because of financial pressures, and that it was not just about what is right for the BBC, but also what is right for F1.

Ecclestone has moved swiftly to reassure Formula 1 fans that whilst the BBC did a great job with Formula One, the coverage on Sky is set be even better. He expects BSkyB’s broadcasting to attract a wider audience because the company is so experienced in delivering this type of content. This is something that Ecclestone took into consideration when he opted for Sky over Channel 4 who also bidded the same amount for full F1 coverage rights.

36 comments

  1. Changes to next years coverage. All the promises made by BBC and Bernie
    have gone by the wall.

    We have been watching all races, qualifying sessions for years and years and now we are only going to receive half of the races, unless we pay for Sky.
    We are pensioners now, and the only sport we watch is F.1. So where does it
    leave us. Fed up and demoralised. Unless we can watch them all, we will
    probably not watch any. The whole picture is necessary to build up the finale
    of F1 champion of the year.

    Think again Bernie and BBC…..

    June Jones

  2. Clearly it seems that the broadcasts will be of high quality, no advertising, etc … but… the issue is to pay another fee does not favor anything … For that you save and even see a GP once live! haha

    http://www.youtube.com/formulasantander

  3. The recent transgression from pure racing to manufactured audience excitement is comparable to the lack of viewing pleasure created by those teams with more financial backing allowing them to dominate the sport. It is also obvious that while the recent rule changes have made F1 more consumable for more fans it has also made F1 as a product more ‘sellable’ so it’s not really a huge surprise that a pay tv company has expressed enough interest to buy the broadcasting rights.
    While I agree that it’s sad that F1 is breaking a tradition of free broadcasting, I see it as being almost the same as the afore mentioned changes to the sporting traditions in F1.
    I would say embrace the change in the hope that the additional revenue gained by mr ecclestone (et al) is used to further increase the excitement in the sport and stop being so conservative, but I already pay the malevolent murdoch mob for access to needless amounts of televisual ‘entertainment’ so it’s an added bonus for me rather than an added cost…

  4. The BBC license was due to expire in 2013. At this time, it was envisaged that Channel4 or Five would bid for the rights. As the BBC is reducing funding, it would not be able to compete with these bids.

    Ben Gallop (Head of BBC Sport Interactive) is an ex-BSkyB employee. He comes up with a plan to sell-out the British Public and give BSkyB the rights to broadcast, and share the production costs. This means they save enough money to secure an extension and keep F1 in the grasp of the BBC.

    Forget that it would be better for the British License Fee payer to watch full free-to-air coverage on the BBC untl 2013 and then let the rights transfer over to free-to-air Channel 4. No – they think its better to keep control and screw the license fee payer by cutting the number of free-to-air races to 10, and then making them pay an extra £300 per year for the other 10.

    Shame on you BBC!

    I have complained to BBC, FOTA, BRDC, Vodafone, Santander, Red Bull and will be signing the Government petition when its launched on Thursday 4th August. We need to collect 100,000 signatures to trigger a parliamentary debate.

    Bernie + BBC – this will not go away until you offer the fans a real viable alternative to selling us down the drail!

  5. i will never pay sky to see formula 1 , after 22 years of f1 its over for me , this is just greed ,

  6. I totally agree with James – it is just pure greed, I won’t be watching either.

  7. Even though I have been an ardent F1 fan since it began, as I pensioner where do they think I can find an extra £300 from???? It just goes to show what Ecclestone’s word is worth!

  8. jeremy Closton-Jones

    I think this is absurd. what is the point of broadcsting half of the races for a world championship season.

    I look forward to the BBC employing the same logic to tennis & Golf and only showing 2 sets of the wimbledon finals and only putting cameras on 9 holes of a golf course!!!!!

    I wonder what would happen if I only offer to pay half my licence fee as I need to pay SKY the other half!

  9. Nigel Hywel-Jones

    Hmmmm, what about the rest of us around the World? I live in tiny little Bhutan and have enjoyed watching my favourite sport for a few years now here. Suddenly the pay-per-view boys enter the picture and that will surely complicate matters around the World. As others have written, if I have to pay (I more than likely will not be able to afford the cost) or if it becomes too complicated I will just give up. And Bernie will lose those famed audiences that he is so proud of. Nice one Bernie, nice one.

    PS: Looking at the comments this has obviously upset a number of us Jones’s!

  10. I have never commented on any thing like this before but motor sport and skiing are the only type of sports I watch and I have seen the coverage of both going down and down on the BBC over the years. I will not pay sky to watch F1 so that is one less viewer for their coverage. Why not kick some of the football coverage into touch and save money that way, or athletics. May be when the BBC have nothing left to show they will go back to televising motor bike scrambling on a Saturday afternoon now wouldn’t that be novel????

  11. 1
    Dislike this comment
    I won’t be paying £600 a year to watch all the F1 races in HD, and I don’t know any F1 fan that will be either.

    I also won’t be watching half the races on BBC either. The only likely result is that my interest in F1 will simply be seeing what the results were on Autosport.com on Monday morning.

    I’ll move to a different motorsport, MotoGP or something for my TV Thrills.

    I think Bernie has seriously overestimated the loyalty of F1 fans, and as a result, destroyed the sport in the UK. Mark my words, viewing figures will drastically fall, and sponsors will be unwilling to sustain the current levels of funding.

    F1 R.I.P

  12. I’ve always suspected the Murdoch family to be the bunch of crooks, they’ve recently been exposed as. I’ve therefore never been tempted to line their pockets, even further, by subscribing to BskyB .

    F1 is really the only sport I watch on TV, so this announcement comes as a big disappointment. As has already been said, there’s no point in watching half a season.

    It could happen that the organisers of the British Grand Prix will be the beneficiaries from all this. If I really do have £400 burning a hole in my pocket, I’ll get hold of a couple of tickets for Silverstone instead. At least I can take in the full excitement of a single race by being there in person.

  13. Shame on you Bernie and you the BBC.
    f1 is one of the only mainstream sports that hasn’t been ruined for the most by sky and greed. I have been an avid viewer over the years and was delighted when BBC regained the coverage but I am so disappointed in this decision that i probably won’t bother watching any of it. I urge someone anyone to override this decision before yet another sport is ruined by Murdoch.

  14. I like many others am gutted F1 is moving 50% of races to sky. Also like many others, F1 is the only sport I would wach on sky, therefore simply WILL NOT pay a subscription to watch 50% of a F1 season. Bring on the petition and parlimentry debate. How can Ecclestone and BBC get it so wrong?

  15. I won’t pay for Sky – on both cost and principal grounds – so I’m another lost viewer. I won’t bother to watch half the the races, so the BBC could save another £20m as far as I’m concerned, Ecclestone and Murdoch make good bed fellows, though.

  16. I cannot fathom how after so many years, BBC will let this go. But then, you have to consider the economics in Bernie Ecclestone’s mind. His empire is a money machine that is closely matched to broadcasting and advertising synergies.

    Ruber Murdoch’s empire is a financial perfect fit. BBC that made Formula 1 what it is today is not the business model Bernie sees Formula 1 becoming.

    Do you notice a couple of things not in this business model?

    1. Fans
    2. The sport itself.

    Bernie doesn’t care.

  17. There is a lot of butthurt on this board. All I can say is welcome to the 21st century. As long as I have access to F1 in 1080 I don’t care about the cost. I’m in Canada and I just download F1 for free anyways. As long as a British channel is producing you can easily get free access to it. Just please God save us from having to watch F1 on the Speed Channel.

  18. I don’t get the problem. I love F1 and although the bbc will only have ½ of the races LIVE they will still (as i’m interperating it), still have the other ½ not live – probably on later the same day.All the news articles i have read about this none of them have said the bbc will only have ½ the races, only ½ of them live. And even on Sundays grand prix the commentators actually said bbc would have ½ live and ½ with extended coverage.

  19. Why “fix” something that clearly isnt broken? (i know the real incentive is money but…) As well as the fees to pay, the year it will take sky to fully understand all the ins and outs of the coverage, there is also the question of who will be presenting it etc. Knowing sky it will be a blonde stunner with little to no specialist knowledge on the subject and…. Gary Neville!

    I have loved F1 since being 7 years old and it is mainly down to the fact that it has been on terrestrial TV. My parents, like a lot of others at the time, would pay for sky so Match of the Day and the F1 weekend were highly anticipated. Another unhappy F1 fan!

  20. Am I the only person here who thinks this is actually rather good? For the 8 million or so subscribers to Sky Sports I think this will not affect them at all, and the other 52 million are expecting far too much for their licence fee. As we can see from this article, the cost of the F1 coverage is absolutely massive, and I for one would rather pay a small amount to sky to continue the coverage instead of losing out on quality TV from the beeb. They have a limited budget and sometimes things cannot stretch far enough. If the BBC offered an increase in the licence fee to cover the F1 then the outcry from those who aren’t bothered about the F1 would be too big to comprehend.

    I personally think the fee needs to increase to cover the fantastic job the BBC do, but it seems to me that people these days just want to moan about anything and everything.

  21. Oh, and also, I for one would much rather have half the races on the BBC than all of them on ITV. I can still remember the stupid ad-breaks they had in the races where you would always miss something vital!

    I think Sky will muster up some sort of package for the F1 or even think about sticking them on PPV for those who refuse to purchase Sky Sports – And to get Sky Sports through freeview is only £10 a month don’t forget…

  22. ok so the beeb let us all down, theres no surprise there, why didnt it go to channel 4 theres no way im gonna pay £400 i have little time to watch tv anyway these days, i work longer for less money as most peple do, i used to watch f1 live too, looks like i will be saying goodbye to f1 , a sad day, and a very sad day for sports fans alike

  23. I think it sucks been a very big fan all my life if i cant watch all of it i wont watch any of it . And i think i talk for most f1 fans

  24. I have always been a big fan of F1 but now it seems this will disappear. I live abroad and had Sky until last year when I decided the cost of £42 per month was not good value for the quality of programmes I was receiving. I moved over to freesat and was, at least, still able to see my Sunday afternoon F1. Now, thanks to greedy Mr Murdoch, this will be no more.
    How many more sports will we lose to Sky? when will the erosion of BBC television sports coverage stop? I suspect that within the next ten years the BBC will become just a news channel and eventually be gone from our screens altogether and all of our mega huge plasma/LCD/LED TV screens will lie dormant unless you are wealthy enough to pay Murdoch the megalomaniac.
    Farewell and RIP F1.

  25. As a loyal fan of F1 since the mid sixties I am absolutely gutted that the Beeb and the ‘poison dwarf’are about to ruin a sport which I love. Having worked for 50 years & paid my dues to both the government & the Beeb I was looking forward to retirement later this year with the time to watch all the F1 practices, qualifying & the races. Unfortunately I did not bargain for the additional cost which as a pensioner I will not be able to afford. Hopefully the web will become full of details of how to watch without paying the Ausie Crook a single penny. As for the Concorde agreement this is just another example of how greed can ruin sport. F1 RIP.

  26. My wife and I truly enjoy watching the Formula 1 Racing at the weekend, but when we heard that full coverage was going to Sky, we were to say the least disappointed. This disappointment has now turned into anger and disbelief. I have found that if we wished to continue watching, we would have to subscribe to Sky to the tune of £40 per month. Clearly this expense is way beyond our means and the means of the average person in todays climate. So once again it would seem that Formula 1 will end up losing many of it’s followers. Clearly those who have a say, have now made this a sport for the rich, either by going to the actual venue, or by forcing people to pay the outrageous fees of sky to view the whole session. What were you thinking, more importantly what’s next, Wimbledon?

  27. After 20 odd years without missing an F1 race, I`m gutted and angry with the Sky deal. At first I blamed Bernie, but on reflection I do believe he tried to keep the Status Quo with the Beeb. My guess is that the villain of the piece is the lady at the head of BBc Sport, who probably has no interest in motor sport. But one thing for sure is that I won`t be paying for Sky at any price and will probably stop watching F1 altogether.

  28. i totally agree i feel lost im not into football /except moto gp and f1 what the hell im i suppose to do now??i had sky before and was only too happy to end my contract its all repeats/where do i go from here sad day for f1

  29. Hmm… Bernie says that this will increase the UK viewership. So,how’s that then mate? Going from free to air to pay per view? So, just to insult our intelligence a little further, you are actually suggesting that people will be falling over each other to pay for something that they get for free at the moment. So, to insult you your intelligence and skys viewing figures, I will be watching all of the BBC coverage and when not available live, I shall be taking full advantage of a live pirate streaming channel where i can laugh at Sky as they try to imitate their betters by giving us “in the ear camera shots”, along with live sweat statistics and “who has the best facial hair” competions where we will have to pay £10 for the privilege of voting.

  30. Like any sport this planet has ever known, restrict access to the grass route fan base and in time that sport will die. A fan lost is far harder to win back later. You think it’s just a numbers game Bernie? Pay attention, not only to what history has to teach, but also to the simple logic that applies here. F1 needs money and that money has to eventually come from the little guy. It can only ever start there and feed up through whatever means you’d care to follow. It doesn’t matter how many grotesque fat cat corporate line up to sponsor a deal, they have to attract and receive a payback. BBC were never my preferred choice for terrestrial transmission simply because I’ve never held the belief that it is fair or honest to hold a country’s population to ransom by charging a ‘licence fee’ where other broadcasters had to be innovative to create themselves and survive. Fans in many countries around the world had been reliant on the BBC stream to follow their passion to view Formula One and now they too will only have a taster thrown their way. It’s not just the hundreds of thousands of British Fans that cannot or will not pay for Sky. Absurd, considering the heartbeat of the sport was born and bred here. I’ve followed the sport all my life and my father was one of the pioneers as a driver and mechanic. That great line from the film Gladiator applies perfectly to both the BBC and Mr Ecclestone: “The time for honouring yourself will soon be at an end (your highness).” it’s a disgrace how the people who have made the sport what it is, are now being treated as superfluous. I am immensely proud of the fact that the Murdock Empire has never once received one penny from my pocket, not even to purchase one of their toilet newspapers, and it will stay that way.

  31. Now for a long time we give so much a way to sky so what next the grand national or Wimbledon so why not give it all away as a f1 fan its not good it was bad it going to ITV that time but it was free to air it time the British public stop putting money in to the pocket of a crock …..

  32. I am disabled but love my F1 is it a crime for me not to have the money to pay for Sky. I can not afford or justify that sort of extra money to enjoy the only sport I watch on TV. We have a great tradition in my house we stay up all night have a picnic and wine pate and goodies at silly o,clock in the morning to watch the 1st race of the season. we set the alarm and cuddle up under the blanket till its race time. Getting up to listen to the radio is NOT the same. Ecclestone and the others dont exactly need the money do they? Where as I do. I feel very betrayed by the BBC and yet again it shows who really runs TV in this county , definitely NOT the monopoly’s commission ad its most assuredly not for the people any more. . Selfish, money grabbing, and disgraceful as Jermey says lets have 2 sets of Wimbledon and 9 holes of golf a 50metre Olympic race and 1 lap grand national NO we WONT . We fought hard with Ecclestone to keep the British Grand Prix at Silverstone the FANS won, will we win this one I doubt it too much money in it for B.E. True fans are loosing out, pensioners, disabled and those on low incomes. Low incomes something B.E. doesn’t even know exists. Shame on you all.

  33. Ritchard Pittaway

    Fare well f1 not missed a live start since f1 arrived on itv can’t afford sky no way no how s myself and my 4year old daughter will no longer be watching REST IN PEACE OLD FRIEND

  34. So, I pay my licence fee like everyone else. I loath tennis, and I loath golf, I have been a fan of F1 since childhood. I shan’t ever subscribe to BSB, I’ve already paid for coverage.

    This is just a continued erosion of our meagre quality of life fired by the greed of a few. I shan’t be watching this year.

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