Formula 1 2019: A New Era for Sport on TV and Track

Formula 1's relations with the British public are undergoing a radical change this year.

For the first time in more than 40 years, UK audiences will not be able to regularly watch live coverage of the F1 season as part of their basic television program.

The only race available to watch live on free TV – requiring only a fee – will be the British Grand Prix.

Five-time world champion Great Britain, Lewis Hamilton, said during the pre-season that this development was "certainly not cool," remembering being installed to watch the grand prix live their childhood.

It follows a new contract between F1 and the pay-TV company Sky, signed by former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, before selling the sport to Liberty Media.

This contract extends from 2019 to 2024 and gives Sky the exclusive rights to broadcast F1 in the UK.

The deal provides that the British Grand Prix and highlights of the last races will be broadcast on free television. But it is up to Sky to decide where, as long as the point of sale meets the contractual requirement of "90% technical availability". This basically means that it has to act from a channel on Freeview / Freesat.

For 2019, Sky chose to sign an agreement with Channel 4, which took over in 2016 the former BBC contract to show about half of the live races and the others as highlights. No decision has been taken since 2020.

What will the free package look like?

According to official Channel 4 figures, last year, 65.7% of viewers watched F1 in the UK, according to official figures. He indicates that his average audience for live race coverage – flag lights – was 2.9 million. For the entire live race program, the average was 2.5m.

It aims to keep its programming as recognizable and distinctive as possible, despite the loss of live racing coverage.

On-air programming remains about the same. The most prominent personalities – presenter Steve Jones, badysts David Coulthard and Mark Webber and commentator Ben Edwards – are always there.

The only members of the staff on the air are former race drivers Karun Chandhok and Susie Wolff. Chandhok moved to Sky, while Wolff focuses on his business interests, including managing the Venturi Formula E team. He added Billy Monger, the 19-year-old British race driver who lost his legs in a accident in 2017.

And Stefano Domenicali – director of the Ferrari team for 2008-2014 and now managing director of Lamborghini – will be an expert for an undetermined number of races.

Sky has imposed a series of restrictions on C4 in the contract for major races, which will affect both the coverage of the race and what's going on around it.

For example, only 50% of the total duration of the C4 program can now be used for track coverage, up from 60% to 70% last year. They are not allowed to do interviews in what is called the "pen" – where all pilots are led to do a tour of the broadcasters after qualifying and the race – or in the pit lane. All pen interviews they use will have to come from Sky. The number of interviews that C4 can perform in the paddock is limited. And they were forbidden to do a "grid march".

None of these restrictions apply to the British Grand Prix Live.

In addition, the highlights programs can now only start at least three hours after the race, although this may be a blessing in disguise, as it places them in the evening prime time when the audience is potentially larger. .

C4 wants his program to retain its broad appeal. Like the BBC before, it's always been about producing something that will appeal to both the less committed casual audience and hardcore fans.

The heaven's offer

Sky wants to become the favorite place of F1 in the UK.

Last year, it had 34.3% of the total UK audience in F1 and the number of people watching its live coverage increased by 21.9% compared to 2017.

Its average audience for its live race program was 707,000 people, according to official F1 figures, which cover the entire show, and will therefore be lower than the race itself. There have been more than one meter spikes over and over. Sky would not provide exact numbers.

His presentation team remains pretty much as before, aside from adding 2009 world champion, Jenson Button, for some races, and Chandhok for the vast majority.

Operation Sky amounts to £ 1.2 billion over the duration of F1. This means that Sky UK's revenues alone account for about 11% of F1 business turnover and that Sky has become the main sponsor of the sport.

Insiders expect Sky's broad investment to give it some freedom over the restrictions placed on broadcasters in their contracts. Sources say that he plans to create a studio in the paddock at European races, for example, although Sky does not confirm it. F1 Executive Director Chase Carey is also part of Sky UK's board of directors.

Sky would not share its plans regarding the broadcast of the F1 other than its dedicated channel, but it will broadcast the Australian Grand Prix opening season – and probably each of the first three races – on Sky One, this which will increase the audience.

As for the future of the free component of the agreement, Sky would remain open minded. Two options are available to him: conclude another deal with a large free-form channel, such as C4, or place it on one of his own live channels on Freeview, the most prominent being Pick.

Sky is expected to test several races on Pick as a tester this year, but as long as C4 respects the terms of his contract and works with Sky rather than against him, Sky would not oppose it at this stage. relationship continuing until 2020.

What does this mean for audiences in F1 and the UK?

The risk for F1 in this new arrangement is that the British public drops considerably.

No matter what Sky does with its programming, it would be highly unlikely, based on previous evidence, to get close to the entire public broadcast in clear. If Sky achieved another 21.9% increase in live audience, it would increase to 862,000 people. This would be a drop of more than 58% from 2018 to 2019.

Few sports have thrived in terms of audiences and public engagement when they turn solely to pay television.

Football continues to attract a lot of interest, even if the Premier League is broadcast live only on pay-TV channels, the highlights being broadcast on free streaming via Match of the Day.

But football is the exception to the general rule.

Liberty has always emphasized that she sees the future of F1 broadcasting as a combination of free-to-air television, pay TV and what she calls OTT, or broadcast directly by the consumer on the Internet.

In other countries, F1 is already using an OTT platform. But this is not possible in the UK because the contract with Sky forbids it. In the United Kingdom, F1 television is the oldest in the 2025s.

But OTT will not please everyone and we still do not know if it will attract an occasional audience.

This is another form of pay TV. The public must know it and go get it. And there are questions about the level of appeal when a sport provides its own editorial content, with an inevitable impact on the independence of the coverage.

The risks badociated with pay-TV in sports are well established: many people will simply not be willing to pay to watch; and this limits the chance for an occasional audience to find it.

Social media has had an impact in increasing the number of ways that people could meet F1 – and by maintaining high gross audience numbers. But even if watching videos on the Internet arouses the interest of Internet users, the obstacles to watching large amounts of F1 and to create new committed fans therefore remain if the sport is only on pay-TV.

Weaker audience numbers also prevent teams from selling to potential sponsors, which is already a difficult task in today's global financial climate. And fewer people are watching what's happening, which reduces the appeal of F1 for big players such as Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, Honda and Red Bull, who are contributing to the global visibility given to their brands.

A reduced audience has other potential effects. A smaller audience means less interest and potentially lower participation. This could limit the number of pilots, engineers, mechanics, etc. budding in a country that is the epicenter of F1 for decades.

F1 takes a step into the unknown. Sport will earn more money later, but the long-term health effects in the UK remain to be seen.

All times GMT and are subject to change in the short term.