F1 changes for Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia

Whereas for this coming season UK viewers still have the F! coverage from Channel 4 and Sky SPorts F1, Sky subscribers in Germany and F1 fans inItaly will have some changes.

In Germany, Sky Deutschland will no longer cover F1.

Reports suggest that the pay-TV broadcaster wants to concentrate in future on sports events that can be broadcast exclusively, at least in part, according to a spokesperson. This would not be the case with the Formula One as this was shown 100% on free-to-air TV in Germany on RTL, who recently extended its contract with the Formula One World Championship by three years until 2020 and will continue to screen the races free-to-air.

In Italy, a new deal means that Sky Italia will become the exclusive home of F1, with only 3 or 4 of the races being shown free to air onm Skys free to air channel.

From the 2019 season, Sky UK will become the exclusive home of live F1 races in the UK, with only the British Grand Prix to be made available free to air. No details have been released as to if this will be free to air on a Sky channel like Pick, or be sub leased to a main channel like BBC or Channel 4.