Sky and the BBC have been jointly awarded the rights to Formula 1 motor racing between 2012 and 2018. The BBC had been under pressure to shed Formula 1, because of the disproportion of cost to the number of viewers the competition brings in.
The £60 million (€68.4 million) per season cost under the previous contract is more per hour than major dramas such as Doctor Who and Cranford. It had been suggested that the cost of keeping Formula 1 was equivalent to the entire cost of running BBC Four. ITV, the previous UK rights holder, had also dropped the races on terms of cost.
The agreement itself comes a year before the current contract was expected to end.
Under the split rights half of the races and qualifying sessions will remain live on the BBC, including key races such at the British Grand Prix, Monaco Grand Prix and the final race of the season. Extensive highlights will be available for those races to which the BBC does not have live coverage.
Sky will show every race live with both broadcasters making using of online and mobile platforms.
Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, said: “This is fantastic news for F1 fans and Sky Sports will be the only place to follow every race live and in HD. We will give F1 the full Sky Sports treatment with a commitment to each race never seen before on UK television. As well as unrivalled build up to each race on Sky Sports News, we will broadcast in-depth live coverage of every session. Sky customers with Sky Sports will also be able to enjoy F1 across multiple platforms and devices, including Sky Go.”
Barbara Slater, Director of BBC Sport, added. “With this new deal not only have we delivered significant savings but we have also ensured that through our live and extended highlights coverage all the action continues to be available to licence fee payers.”
It is not the first time that Sky has screened Formula 1. The ill-fated Supersignal multi-angle service made a single season appearance in 2002.
