Sky Sports buy F1 Broadcasting Rights, F1 fan base set to decrease

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With the ongoing phenomenal changes in the world of sports, most of the sports are going for live streams and free broadcasting to increase worldwide popularity but FIA is going on a tighter stand for F1 as to get more money which make the sports availability online as paid only.

Since the inception of the Formula One, BBC has covered Formula 1 races. Until 1976, there were some odd races covered by BBC and there after full season till 1996. BBC Started the live coverage in 1990's with expansion to cover both Qualifying and Race.

In 1996, BBC lost rights to ITV and again started covering F1 in 2009 after a gap of 12 years. BBC made a contract for 5years in 2008. BBC now covers F1 Live also that is free to air that includes the inclusion of special Red Button by BBC. BBC covers Qualifying and Race along with all the three practice sessions.

But Recently on Friday, F1 Supremo Bernie Eccelestone penned the contract between F1 and the coalition of the BBC & BSkyB not all races will be broadcast on free-to-air television.

To say that it caused a stir in the fan community is a huge understatement.

Statistics

An annual subscription to Sky Sports costs around £470 but for the same sum you could buy three-day general admission tickets to six races including Monaco, Silverstone, Turkey and Canada.

It's little wonder therefore that a poll on one sports reporter's website showed that as of Saturday morning 81% of readers would not buy a subscription to watch F1 on Sky Sports. So how did this happen?

"The issue ultimately is the money that CVC Capital Partners, the owners, via Bernie, take out of the sport," is the explanation from another sports reporter and although it reflects the general opinion in F1 it isn't accurate.

The real reason for the new deal is much more straightforward than that - the BBC broke its contract of 5years deal and they wanted to reduce their F1 Coverage Budget.

It left the BBC with a decision: either break its contract by dropping F1 completely, a move which would have saddled it with a huge financial penalty, or find some way of reducing its annual fee. The most logical way of reducing its fee is to reduce the amount of coverage it gets and this is exactly what it did.

BBC has sold half of it's F1 rights from the 2012-2018 season. Sky Sports acquire exclusive rights for coverage in United Kingdom.

Ten of the races will be shown by BBC Live and other 10 as an extended highlights. The races will now will be interrupted by commercials also unlike before.

Era of BBC Free to Air races in UK is now coming to an end.

Sky Sports bought rights to all practice, qualifying and race sessions to every single Formula 1 Grand Prix for the next six seasons. The BBC are to broadcast 10 races per season, including the "key" races, such as the British, Monaco and Abu Dhabi Grand Prixs. BBC Radio Five Live will still broadcast all the races and qualifying.

Flash Back

The BBC got the rights to broadcast F1 in 2008 with its coverage beginning the following year. The reason that the rights were available in the first place was because ITV had broken its contract which was due to run until the end of last year.

According to the Telegraph and other media sources at the time, ITV dropped F1 in order to "save money which can be used to expand coverage of football."

Not coincidentally, at the same time as the BBC announced it had picked up F1, ITV announced that it had retained the rights to broadcast Champions League football matches as part of a deal from 2009 to 2012.

With ITV, the BBC's main competition, out of the picture, there was no chance of a bidding war inflating the price of the F1 rights when the deal was done in 2008.

More importantly, the BBC knew F1 was a distressed seller since ITV had broken its contract leaving it high and dry.

According to a report by the UK's communications regulator Ofcom, ITV was paying £29m annually under its contract which ran from 2006 to 2010.

Given that F1 was a distressed seller and there was no bidding war when it was sold, it is safe to assume that the BBC paid perhaps only a 5% to 10% premium on ITV's fee which would take it to around the £31m ($50m) figure estimated in F1 trade guide Formula Money. Even this has become too much for the Beeb to justify.

Sky Sports

Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting.

SKY has revolutionized the world of Sports with a high digital quality and coverage. With the inclusion of special effects and techniques they have changed the world of Cricket and Football.

They are the exclusive owners of many sporting broadcasting rights in UK and Ireland.

But the main problem with Sky is that, they provide coverage for a sum. That is it is a paid channel. A hefty sum has to be shelled out from your pockets to watch your favorite sports.

Sky sports will provide F1 with paid broadcasting and for some time some of the races will remain free to air on BBC. But BBC is already retracting from F1 and the broadcasting will be a property of Sky in the future to come.

Why BBC was better than Sky?

BBC have broadcasted free to air Formula One in UK over the years covering all 3 Practice Sessions, Qualifying and Race. BBC races were not commercialized as there were no ads commercials during the races.

Sky, on the other hand, is a paid broadcasting. It will also cover all the races including all 3 Practice Sessions and Qualifying. These races will be interrupted by commercials though earlier claims of no commercial interruption were rejected.