F1 confirms free-to-air cutback for Italy

As Motorsport.com revealed last week, previous free-to-air broadcaster RAI had failed to reach a new deal for broadcast rights – leaving the door open for Sky to tighten its control.

F1 has therefore agreed a three-year deal with Sky, until the end of 2020, for exclusive broadcast and digital coverage on its pay TV channels.

A statement from F1 said that part of the deal includes that ‘at least four races’ - including the Italian GP – will be shown live on free-to-air channel TV8, which is owned by Sky.

Although the new deal is a blow to fans hoping to follow F1 regularly without having to pay for coverage, the sport’s media rights chief Ian Holmes said he was happy that the new Sky deal would deliver a more in-depth coverage overall.

“It is very important to have reached this agreement which will ensure that all the races will be broadcast live,” he said.

“Also, it is crucial to have maintained a free to air package of rights, which will always include the Italian Grand Prix, part of the Formula 1 World Championship since its origins in 1950.

“Sky Italia has shown a great commitment to the sport and will offer the Italian fans a deeper and broader experience than ever before, more hours and more quality analysis across Sky’s channels and platforms.”

Sky’s exclusive digital rights deal means that it is almost certain that F1 will not be allowed to offer its own OTT streaming service to Italy over the next three years.

Instead, it is likely that the service will be rolled out in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Mexico to begin with.

Sky Germany ditches F1

While Italy is heading away from free-to-air, Germany's pay TV deal with Sky will not be renewed, the broadcaster announced on Thursday.

While discussions with Sky Germany had been ongoing, the channel said that it was not interested in extending the contract while coverage was still available on free-to-air with RTL.

The potential arrival of F1's own OTT offering likely impacted on the situation too.

A statement from Sky said: "The market for licensing rights in sports has changed dramatically. Due to the rising prices, we want to concentrate on rights that we can purchase and use with high exclusivity.

"In the case of F1 that was not possible because it will be broadcast 100 percent on free-to-air. The decision was not easy, but it is our goal to offer fair and reasonably priced premium rights to our customers - that are not or not fully available free-to-air."

Sky has broadcast all F1 races and sessions since 1996.