Channel 4 loses more than half-a-million viewers on Formula 1 coverage
F1 News
- Bobby Vincent
Due to Sky Sports F1's coverage of every single grand prix throughout the season, Channel 4 has lost an average of 518,000 viewers this year alone after only being able to show delayed highlights.
This season, the coverage of F1 has slightly changed; with Sky Sports now allowed to exclusively air all-but-one of the races per season. Whereas before, C4 had the rights to around half of the grands prix.
Channel 4's new deal gives them the rights to show the British Grand Prix on free-to-air television. Apart from that, though, the channel is only allowed to show delayed highlights to the races later in the evening.
Despite having to pay a monthly subscription to now watch Formula 1 races, the sport's research director Matt Roberts actually said at the start of the season, he thinks it will bring more viewers to the competition.
"Channel 4 will have the highlights next year and we have worked with them to ensure they show the races in a favourable time slot," Roberts said. "We estimate that we will actually have more viewers next year in the UK than we had this year."
However, according to Forbes, they have estimated that Channel 4 could lose as many as FIVE MILLION viewers in 2019 due to the new contract regulations.