SKY "Rules" for Free to Air F1 viewing in the UK
Mar 13, 2019 22:09:56 GMT
unclebob and davidwilson like this
Post by Hoovie on Mar 13, 2019 22:09:56 GMT
This is from Formula 1 2019: A new era for the sport on television
For the first time in more than 40 years, audiences in the UK will not be able to watch regular live coverage of the F1 season as part of their basic television package.
The only race available to watch live on free-to-air television - requiring only a licence fee - will be the British Grand Prix.
The deal contains a requirement that the British Grand Prix and extended highlights of the remaining races must be on free-to-air television.
But it is for Sky to decide where, as long as the outlet satisfies the contractual requirement for "90% technical availability". This basically means it has to be a channel on Freeview/Freesat.
Sky has imposed a series of restrictions on C4 in the contract for the highlights races, which will affect both the race coverage itself, and what happens around it.
For example, only 50% of the total running time of C4's programme can now be taken up by the on-track coverage - down from between 60-70% last year. They are not allowed to do interviews in what is known as the 'pen' - where all the drivers are taken to do a round-robin of broadcasters after qualifying and race - or in the pit lane. Any 'pen' interviews they use will have to come from Sky. The amount of interviews C4 can do in the paddock is restricted. And they have been forbidden from doing a 'grid walk'.
None of these restrictions apply to the live British Grand Prix.
In addition, the highlights programmes can now not start until a minimum of three hours after the race, although this could be a blessing in disguise as it pushes them into evening prime time, when audiences are potentially bigger.
Sky is expected to trial a bunch of races on Pick [ a SKY TV FTA Channel on Freeview/Freesat] as a tester this year, but as long as C4 sticks to the terms of its contract and works with Sky rather than against it, Sky is said to be not opposed at this stage to that relationship continuing into 2020.
So that is how it will work - but this analysis is the most damning:
No matter what Sky does with its programming, it would be highly unlikely, based on past evidence, to get close to replacing all the free-to-air audience. If Sky achieved another 21.9% growth in live audience, it would rise to 862,000. That would be a drop of more than 58% from 2018 to 2019.
Dropping over half the TV audience in a single year is huge - and there must have been a big drop when F1 moved from BBC to C4 as well. I can't imagine the Team Sponsors are too impressed with this and their money into the teams has got to be dropping considerably as a consequence. Seeing how sponsor money goes to the teams direct and the TV money goes to the Teams AFTER Liberty take their considerable cut, be interesting how much extra they are making to compensate for cutting their audience so much?
For the first time in more than 40 years, audiences in the UK will not be able to watch regular live coverage of the F1 season as part of their basic television package.
The only race available to watch live on free-to-air television - requiring only a licence fee - will be the British Grand Prix.
The deal contains a requirement that the British Grand Prix and extended highlights of the remaining races must be on free-to-air television.
But it is for Sky to decide where, as long as the outlet satisfies the contractual requirement for "90% technical availability". This basically means it has to be a channel on Freeview/Freesat.
Sky has imposed a series of restrictions on C4 in the contract for the highlights races, which will affect both the race coverage itself, and what happens around it.
For example, only 50% of the total running time of C4's programme can now be taken up by the on-track coverage - down from between 60-70% last year. They are not allowed to do interviews in what is known as the 'pen' - where all the drivers are taken to do a round-robin of broadcasters after qualifying and race - or in the pit lane. Any 'pen' interviews they use will have to come from Sky. The amount of interviews C4 can do in the paddock is restricted. And they have been forbidden from doing a 'grid walk'.
None of these restrictions apply to the live British Grand Prix.
In addition, the highlights programmes can now not start until a minimum of three hours after the race, although this could be a blessing in disguise as it pushes them into evening prime time, when audiences are potentially bigger.
Sky is expected to trial a bunch of races on Pick [ a SKY TV FTA Channel on Freeview/Freesat] as a tester this year, but as long as C4 sticks to the terms of its contract and works with Sky rather than against it, Sky is said to be not opposed at this stage to that relationship continuing into 2020.
So that is how it will work - but this analysis is the most damning:
No matter what Sky does with its programming, it would be highly unlikely, based on past evidence, to get close to replacing all the free-to-air audience. If Sky achieved another 21.9% growth in live audience, it would rise to 862,000. That would be a drop of more than 58% from 2018 to 2019.
Dropping over half the TV audience in a single year is huge - and there must have been a big drop when F1 moved from BBC to C4 as well. I can't imagine the Team Sponsors are too impressed with this and their money into the teams has got to be dropping considerably as a consequence. Seeing how sponsor money goes to the teams direct and the TV money goes to the Teams AFTER Liberty take their considerable cut, be interesting how much extra they are making to compensate for cutting their audience so much?
