Lately, there has been a lot of talk about Formula One broadcasting rights. The result of all the talk is that, as of next year, F1 will move over to a pay-per-view format on Sky News, while BBC broadcasts only half the races and a few highlights in-between.
The format works as follows: BBC picks three races that it wants to broadcast. Sky picks three. And so it carries on until all the races have been taken. If there’s a race or two left over, Sky gets it.
While BBC saves some money by only showing half the races, and Sky gains extra viewers by broadcasting F1 races as of next year, Bernie Eccelstone and co. are, of course, the ones who walk away with the biggest deals. Having F1 races broadcast across two networks allows for more advertising opportunities and more money for him, as well as for the teams.
When asked about this deal, Eccelstone said that "It's super for F1. It will mean a lot more coverage for the sport. There'll be highlights as well as live coverage on two different networks now, so we get the best of both worlds.”
While this deal has resulted in British viewers having to possibly fork out extra cash and subscribe to Sky TV in order to view all the races, South Africans will be relieved to know that none of the broadcast dealings that Eccelstone is currently putting into place will affect our coverage of the sport. Supersport has assured CAR that it will be business as usual because they have a lone-term contract when it comes to broadcasting Formula One in SA.