After a one-year break, pay-TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland will show the Formula 1 again in Germany and Austria.
The new agreement covers the 2019 and 2020 seasons across all race weekends.
The rights package, of which financial details have not been disclosed, includes the live broadcasting rights via satellite, cable, IPTV, streaming and mobile TV in Germany and Austria as well as the German-language rights in Switzerland.
Sky Deutschland will show the races both on linear TV in its Sky Sport subscription package and via streaming services Sky Go and Sky Ticket. The broadcasts will be in HD quality without advertising breaks during the races. An accompanying channel will offer additional camera angles and information.
Customers with the Sky Q box can watch all races live in Ultra HD on Sky Sport UHD.
The live broadcasts will also be available in all Sky sports bars and Sky hotels.
“With this great package, we will offer the best Formula 1 coverage on German television again from the new season,” said Dr Holger Enßlin, managing director legal, regulatory & distribution at Sky Deutschland, adding that the move was made “in response to the feedback from many customers wo missed Sky’s way of showing the Formula 1 last year.”
In January 2018, Sky Deutschland had announced its withdrawal from Formula 1. The pay-TV broadcaster argued that, in view of increasing rights costs, it wants to concentrate on sports events that can be shown exclusively, at least in part.
This is not the case with the Formula 1 as commercial TV channel RTL is showing all races live on German free-to-air television. Sky Deutschland’s decision not to acquire the pay-TV rights followed RTL’s renewal of the Formula 1 free-to-air TV rights for another three seasons until 2020.
After the Formula 1 withdrawal, many disappointed Sky customers cancelled their subscriptions. The pressure and the negative effect on its image are thought to have led to Sky’s return to Formula 1 coverage – despite the unchanged competition from RTL.
This year’s Formula 1 season will start on March 15, 2019 in Melbourne with the Australian Grand Prix.
