Sky Sports to be the EXCLUSIVE home of F1 from 2019

That's a good reason for Pick not to count as sufficient. It should be on a channel almost anyone can get on Freeview.

F1 is not a listed event (not even the British GP) so the listing rules (which, I think, do still officially class the 'main five' channels as the only acceptable ones for broadcast, but this hasn't really been tested properly) aren't relevant here. It'll just be what Sky have committed to with FOM when it comes to FTA coverage. Given how BT have used the FTA content in their UEFA contract (hiding it away and doing absolutely no promotion of the FTA matches), there's a precedent for committing very little to the FTA side of the deal, depending on what the rights holders demand.

Ah - I though the British GP was a 'Crown Jewel'. If it's not then there's no real issue with it being on Pick. (For some reason I thought the British GP was a crown jewel)

James Allen, in a very in-depth analysis of the new deal, has stated that Sky are obliged to offer their FTA coverage to a channel that at least 90% of the population can access. I don't know, though, whether that's him getting crossed wires and is mistakenly quoting the listing rules (which don't apply in this case) or if he has genuine knowledge as to what the deal says. The rest of the article has very good information from somebody who knew what was going on, so it is entirely possible that it's the latter, although I expect it to be the former...

Do you think you could give us a link to it please?

My apologies - posting on my phone, so didn't take the step of linking the article.

Here you go - http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2016/03/analysis-the-numbers-show-why-formula-1-took-the-exclusive-sky-deal/

Always take these figures with a pinch of salt but if C4 were willing to pay 60% more for the terrestrial rights than the BBC were it stinks even more that they've been locked out of a potential bid for future rights before they've even really begun.

We

Had a good chat with a good source 150m + actually

F1 to go the way of cricket. Interest will dwindle in a boring sport already overrun by the money men.

F1 doesn't have a "grassroots" to sustain in the same way cricket does either - it's a sport participated in solely by those twenty odd drivers. Nor, outside of Italy's tifosi perhaps, does it have an ardent fandom who will travel to races (and it's a very expensive sport to attend - I would imagine the vast majority of attendees, who don't have a direct connection with one of the teams, only attend one Grand Prix per season).

Its not football or rugby or cricket. This is a sport whose only presence for most of its fans is on television. Remove it and it's out of sight, out of mind.