Premier class before free TV off
Doesn’t anyone want to show Formula 1?
1/19/2023 7:24 am
Four races in the premier class of motorsport must be free-to-air in the coming season. After RTL’s cancellation, Sky is looking for a new partner, but it’s difficult. An unusual model now also seems conceivable.
After the cancellation of RTL, the pay-TV channel Sky is looking for a new free-TV partner for Formula 1. According to the contract with the motorsport series, four races must be free-to-air in Germany in the coming season. Only then does a new contract from Sky with Formula 1 take effect, in which there is no longer such a clause.
ARD and ZDF are currently not interested in Formula 1, as the German Press Agency learned. The first “of course took note of RTL’s cancellation of showing four races on free TV, as in the two previous years,” said ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky. “So far we have not dealt with this topic.” There was initially no official statement from ZDF, but those responsible for the broadcaster had recently stated several times that a racing series with combustion engines was not appropriate at the time.
The ProSiebenSat.1 Group is also currently not interested in a sub-license for the world’s most important motorsport series, according to company circles. RTL had previously decided against a new contract with the pay-TV broadcaster Sky, which acquired the TV rights for the German market and has been the only provider to broadcast all Formula 1 races since 2021. By 2020, RTL had also shown all the Grand Prix.
If Sky does not find a free TV partner, there are theoretically other ways to fulfill the contract with Formula 1. Free-to-air transmissions on the Internet via one’s own homepage or via YouTube would be conceivable. In that case, however, the pay-TV provider could not earn any money for a sub-license.