Channel 4 the new home of FTA Formula 1.

IIRC it's groups of 3 races. With an minimum 18 races per season, BBC had 1st, 3rd, 5th picks with Sky 2nd, 4th and 6th. Gentleman's agreement over the 19th and 20th races, which made up the 10 live races of the BBC contract with FOM.

If there is an 'odd' number of races in a season, Sky automatically get that one live and exclusive.

Originally it was BBC got its three picks then Sky's three exclusive ones.

In the first few seasons the BBC would pick Monaco, Britain and the final race as I default don't think they're bothered about Monaco now

Channel 4 will want to put their own stamp on coverage so I expect the lead presenter to change but most the talent to remain.

Looking at this from a Sky perspective, have they got anything to fear, especially when the rights come up for renewal?

Looking forward to Ortis making a return.

"Lewis Hamilton. Goodnight".

Channel 4 will do what they do with all other sports where they will go all for it for a few years then wind down and drop it completely, This has happened with World Athletics Championships, Cricket and NFL. At the same time if they treat F1 like they treated Cricket in the first few years Channel 4 and F1 may be onto a winner.

On another note I sincerely hope Channel 4 do all they can to keep Ben Edwards & David Coulthard in the commentary box for the next 3 years

Or course if there dont rate well, one has to expect winding them down.

Wells its on the cards since the BBC partnered up with Sky, I just knew they were going to drop it soon as that is announced.

Ortis Deely.


No chance - you can clearly see that's a 4 and that just won't do!


The time zone differences should mean Singapore isn't too much of a problem - indeed probably easier to show it live than have to schedule highlights later in the day.


I don't think anyone has the figure for F1 correct - I've seen £40m quoted as the fee over the three years, not for one year, which sounds about right compared to what the BBC use to pay for exclusive rights. This does make 2018 more interesting though as I suspect both ITV and C4 might end up bidding, while had they gone for ITV now I'm not sure C4 would be that bothered three years later.

C4 of course expressed interest a few years ago when the BBC/Sky deal came in so although this was a surprise this morning it's not completely out of the blue. Anyone got a copy of their bid document from a few years ago?

As for the ads - it's not really much of a commitment beyond the football/rugby standards considering F1 usually has an hour-long build up and they could probably have nearly as much to follow, so they can get probably 26 minutes of ads in a three and a half hour broadcast without any ads in the race. This of course means though they need to make the pre and post race content count. It's also I guess where it's an advantage to have half the races as highlights only - viewers might not see the ads one weekend but they will the next.

Was inspired by the fourse.
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/logopedia/images/2/20/Channel_4_Racing.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/150?cb=20150929205803

Which really is about the worst logo in this revamp - the previous one was much better.

This news of course now flips the argument about the racing back to ITV's favours - seems almost certain that if ITV had snapped up F1 they'd back out of their racing bid, but now C4 have content for 21 weeks a year which will rate better even when not live they aren't going to be so concerned about the possibility of losing the horse racing - although it would be a shame to see them step away from it. The two should largely sit side by side quite comfortably if the budget allows with the only change being that racing coverage on Saturdays with live 1pm qualifying is knocked back an hour.

But 9am in Brazil, when the Paralympic events start will be only be 11am UK - so there will be all sorts of events going on during build-up and race time. If they choose Singapore as one of their picks, they'll have to move the coverage of the Paralympics over to More4.

It'll be interesting which live races they'll go for. The attractive one will be Australia, and make their mark from day one - but unless they staff the team full of ex-BBC and Sky staffers, and hire the right presentation team, I.e a presenter who knows where the tyres go on the car, then the risk of 'World Athletics 2011 Mk 2' is amplified ten fold.

Better to do that early afternoon though with the morning heats than have to show the highlights around 4/5pm and have to relegate the main evening swimming and athletics sessions instead.

Of course though C4 can't pick the races they don't want to choose - they just have to hope Sky pick them as one of their exclusive rights.


Will be interesting to see what C4 do beyond the main coverage - I'd imagine practice would be on More4 certainly on the Friday. Back in 2012 their key selling point was about not hiding content for the red button but whether people use them or not I guess people would expect some supplementary content with the races themselves. 4Music is set up to quite easily access alternative streams if you've got a connected TV/Set top Box, so no reason additional red button streams couldn't be delivered in a similar manner for both F1 and the Paralympics next year.