Grand PrixExternal linksWebsiteChannel 4 F1, commonly abbreviated to C4F1, is a British television programme dedicated to the coverage of Formula One motor racing and has been aired by the British broadcaster Channel 4 since 2016. Prior to 2019, half of the season's practice, qualifying sessions and races were shown live, with all other events covered in an extended qualifying and race highlights format. Sky Sports F1 is the official broadcaster of every F1 race of the 2021 season. However, this will tie down to an 18-month contract and you'll need to pay a one-time setup fee of £20. Formula 1 will adopt a revised race weekend schedule for 2022, with no official media engagements for drivers on Thursdays. On Fridays, practice sessions have been moved until later in the day, with first practice moved up from a typical local start time of 11.30am last season to around 2pm in 2022.
Second practice will also begin around two hours later in the afternoon at around 5pm, with Saturday qualifying sessions rescheduled an hour later to 4pm local time for European rounds. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – the final race of the 2021 season – is almost upon us, with the race weekend taking place between December at the Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. UK residents can watch every race of the 2021 F1 season, including the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sky Sports. Alternatively, you can watch every race with exclusive insights on F1's official streaming service F1 TV that's available in several regions worldwide, albeit at different monthly subscription price points. Both services can be accessed from abroad by using a good VPN, like ExpressVPN or NordVPN. This disgusting situation is in addition to the also quite unbelievable spectre of Steve Jones telling us during every single C4 F1 highlights program that we could have watched the race live on Sky Sports F1 instead.
If you're happy to pay a subscription fee so you can watch entire races live, then Sky is the only option in the UK. While Liberty operates an online streaming service – F1 TV Pro – you can't watch it in the UK because of Sky's exclusive deal. The Bristol Street Motors and Macklin Motors brands will sponsor Channel 4's 2020 coverage which includes live broadcast of 2020 FORMULA 1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX and highlights of all Formula 1 races throughout the season. Channel 4 will also be showing full live coverage of the British GP practice sessions and qualifying rounds in the build up to the Grand Prix from Silverstone on 19th July.
The TV audience didn't even rev up for the British Grand Prix despite it being shown live on Channel 4. It clashed with the men's final of Wimbledon as well as the final of the Cricket World Cup, which was won by England and was also shown on Channel 4. According to BARB, Channel 4's morning coverage of the cricket averaged 1.4 million viewers before it switched to the lower-tier channel More 4 when the British Grand Prix was being broadcast.
After the race finished the cricket resumed on Channel 4 for the final which was watched by 2.8 million viewers. F1, which is owned by Liberty Media and is listed on the Nasdaq with the ticker FWONK, began a new TV contract in Britain this year. It gives pay TV network Sky Sports the rights to broadcast exclusively all but one of the races live. For the previous three years around half of them were also shown live on free to air network Channel 4 which broadcast delayed highlights of the remainder. That deal came to an end this year and Channel 4's contract now just entitles it to show delayed highlights of all the races except for the British Grand Prix which was shown live earlier this month.
Whereas I wasn't asked for a user name and password to watch the Sochi Qualifying highlights program from Saturday on the same YouView box. FORMULA One returns with an early morning start time for the first race of the new F1 season. Here's how you can live stream the action online, including all the race highlights on Channel 4. Beginning 2019, Sky Sports hold exclusive rights to all races excluding the British Grand Prix.
In September 2018, it was announced that Channel 4 had agreed to a sub-licensing agreement with Sky, under which it broadcasts free-to-air highlights of all races, and live coverage of the British Grand Prix. As part of the arrangement, Sky will have rights to carry full series of Channel 4 dramas on-demand, while Channel 4 also acquired free-to-air rights to the Sky drama Tin Star. The deal bolsters Channel 4's motorsports offering as it also holds rights to show highlights from Formula 1, while it presents live coverage of the top motor racing series' British Grand Prix each season. Sky has the rights to show all the races live, while Channel 4 is normally limited to a highlights package, though does broadcast the British Grand Prix live. However, as revealed exclusively by The Times yesterday and confirmed by Sky this morning, a deal has been reached in which the satellite broadcaster will share the rights to Sunday's race.
Sky Sports F1 will show every aspect of the build up, including practice and qualifying as both drivers aim to gain a crucial advantage before the chequered flag. Additionally, every Sky TV customer will be able to watch everything from qualifying on Saturday to the race on Sunday, with the broadcast shared across Sky Sports and Sky Showcase. All the action from this iconic head-to-head will also be available to NOW members with either a NOW Entertainment or NOW Sports membership. Under the current contract subscription service Sky Sports broadcasts all sessions exclusively live, typically on its dedicated channel Sky Sports F1, with FTA Channel 4 showing qualifying and race highlights later in the day.
For the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, programmes for races 1-3 were presented from The Silverstone Experience as F1 limited the number of broadcasters on site. Clarkson, who works primarily for F1 TV served as Channel 4's paddock reporter, when they were unable to access the paddock. During coverage of the Hungarian Grand Prix, it was confirmed that they would have access to the paddock for at least the British and 70th Anniversary weekends. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are locked on 369.5 points at the top of the drivers' standings heading to Sunday's race at the Yas Marina Circuit. Now their winner-takes-all battle will be shown live on Channel 4, as well as on Sky Sports, who host all F1 races through their subscription services, having reportedly paid over £1bn for a five-year deal back in 2019. Channel 4 will continue to broadcast free-to-air highlights of every qualifying session and race throughout the 2021 Formula 1 season, plus live coverage of the British Grand Prix weekend on July.
Sky has announced a partnership with Channel 4 that will see Sky Sports' live coverage of the thrilling Formula 1 season finale shared with the whole country right before Christmas, on what could be an historic occasion for Sir Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton and title rival Max Verstappen enter the final race of the season tied on points, making it a winner-takes-all finale at the Yas Marina Circuit. The two drivers have enjoyed the closest title fight between rivals teams since 2012, and it marks the first final race decider since 2016. C4 also airs the British grand prix live every year, and you can now find coverage of the all-women's W Series and the all-electric Formula E world championship across its broadcast channels, its streaming service All4, and the Channel 4 Sport YouTube channel. Putting the live races behind a paywall angered fans but, as we have reported, F1 believed it would actually boost the TV audience. In December its global research director Matt Roberts claimed that F1 would benefit from the highlights being shown in Britain at prime time later in the day rather than the early afternoon slot that the live races had last year.
Getty Images Formula One's audience has crashed by an average of 533,000 viewers per race on free to air television in its home country of Britain this year driven by a move from live coverage to showing delayed highlights. So three and a half years on and things have gone from bad to worse with C4 and the availability of their race highlights program post race. This culminated in a race that had finished before 2pm UK time yesterday and was broadcast between 6pm and 8pm still not being available after midnight the following day.
Who knows when it did become available (I suspect not till somebody got in to the office today and pressed the "no one wants to view any more as they know the result so now our patheticl All4 server capacity can cope with the much smaller number of people who want to view" button). If you're travelling abroad and don't have access to any of the aforementioned services broadcasting F1 races where you live, then the best way to legally access these services is by subscribing to a good VPN service. A VPN basically tricks your computer into thinking it's in another country, thereby giving you access to online streams that would otherwise be foiled by a geo-block.
Not only that, it encrypts all your browsing traffic, meaning that every time you use the VPN on your device, all your browsing activity will be protected from any and everyone, including your own ISP and even hackers. UK pay-TV broadcaster Sky has announced a multi-year extension to its carriage deal with Channel 4, which keeps Formula One highlights and live coverage from the British Grand Prix on the commercial channel. Sky has exclusive rights to screen F1 races live in the UK from the start of next season as the shared agreement it has had with terrestrial stations on the BBC and Channel 4 since 2012 ends following this year's campaign. Channel 4, who normally only have rights for a highlights show in the evening after a race, have struck a deal for live coverage in Abu Dhabi, with the race starting at 1pm UK time on Sunday afternoon. Channel 4 will broadcast the Formula One season finale live on Sunday after reaching a deal with Sky to share the television rights. Despite the fact that so many sporting events were cancelled in the past twelve months, along with spectators being barred from being able to see their favourite teams live, there is still reason to be optimistic for sports fans.
The previous deal, which ran from 2012 through 2018, and which Channel 4 took over from the BBC in 2016, enabled the terrestrial broadcaster to show half of the events live – including the season finale. Sky's schedules show that the broadcaster will simulcast their race day offering across Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event, but not via Sky Showcase, as they did last month for coverage of the US Grand Prix qualifying session. You'll get comprehensive IndyCar Series coverage as well when the next season starts in February 2022.
What Time Is The Grand Prix Highlights On Channel 4 Today Sky also recently aired the Race of Champions, a fun off-season tournament uniting racing drivers from different series in identical vehicles, on its sports service. Lewis also congratulated Max in his post-race interview, and he and his dad Anthony were also seen hugging and chatting to the new world champion moments after the chequered flag. At the same time, an audience of 6 million watched Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final on BBC One leaving the British Grand Prix in third place.
BARB's data reveals that the race was watched by 2.2 million viewers which is a reduction of 23.3% on the previous year when it wasn't up against the Wimbledon final. Sky Sports F1 will carry live build-up on Sunday from 11.30am in UHD with the 'Sports Recap' function available throughout the race, which is due to start at 1pm. The live race will then see Sky Sports' coverage aired across Sky channels and Channel 4, including the Sky commentary team and expert analysis. Sky has announced a partnership with Channel 4 that will allow the terrestrial broadcaster to screen Sunday's race live – it already has the right to screen highlights of the race – Sky Sports will also show Saturday's qualifying. Coverage of the 2020 and 2021 seasons is sponsored by Bristol Street Motors and Macklin Motors.
It was announced at the Turkish Grand Prix that Edwards would step down following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, his replacement was announced a week later as Alex Jacques who joins from F1's official television channel, including for F2, F3 and Esports. He has also worked for BBC Radio 5 Live in a similar role at the occasional race. Also it was later announced that 'pen interviews' would be taken from F1TV with Lawrence Barretto joining the team as paddock reporter. The new commercial deal penned between Sky Sports and Channel 4 has allowed British fans of the Formula One to tune in via free-to-air television on certain occasions.
This new deal means that highlights of all Formula 1 races and live coverage of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix will continue to be shown on Channel 4. Tonight at 8.30pm, Steve Jones is joined by David Coulthard and Mark Webber for highlights of the opening Grand Prix of the 2021 Formula 1 season, which comes from Bahrain for the first time. Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton is favourite to reclaim his crown and gain a record eighth world title, but other teams will be looking to pull out a shock win and take the fight to Mercedes. 2021 promises to be an exciting season with new and returning teams, new drivers, including Michael Schumacher's son Mick, and new circuits in the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia. Channel 4 has coverage of 10 live races including Monaco, the British Grand Prix and the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Sky Sports F1 will carry live build up on Sunday from 11.30am in UHD with the 'Sports Recap' function available throughout the race, which is due to start at 1pm. The live race will then see Sky Sports' coverage aired across Sky channels and Channel 4, including the Sky commentary team and expert analysis. Hamilton stands on the brink of history - victory in Abu Dhabi would clinch an eighth world title and confirm him as the greatest F1 driver ever. This unique final race will go lights out with the two leading drivers on equal points, the Yas Marina track providing a 'winner takes all' close to an epic season.
On Saturday, a combined audience of just over 2 million viewers watched Channel 4's and Sky's Sprint programming, including build-up and post-session analysis. The Silverstone weekend was Channel 4's only live action of the season, the broadcaster sharing live coverage with Sky Sports. You used to be able watch races live on RTL Germany but Sky Germany now has exclusive rights to show live races in Germany as well. I used to like when things were earlier as it left time in the afternoon to do other things.
The later start times just make it feel like it's taking up more of the day which on top of the increased number of races just makes it feel like I have less time to do things i used to once enjoy doing on weekend afternoons. The schedule released by the FIA does not include any sprint races, as the sprint race format has yet to be formally adopted into the sporting regulations for the 2022 season. Sponsors.formulamoney.com BARB's data shows that Sky has not compensated for the declining audience on Channel 4.
The number of TV viewers watching eight of the first ten races on Sky increased but it actually decreased for the Spanish and Chinese Grands Prix. It gives a net increase of just over 2 million viewers on Sky and deducting this from the 5.33 million lost by Channel 4 leaves approximately 3 million who are no longer watching F1 at all in Britain. Sponsors.formulamoney.com All but one of the races was down on 2018 with the biggest casualty being the Bahrain Grand Prix which lost 44.6% of its audience. The exception was probably the last race that F1 would have wanted fans to watch in their droves. This was last month's French Grand Prix which was seen on Channel 4 by 280,000 more viewers than the previous year.
In contrast, we forecast in December that Channel 4 could lose as many as five million viewers in 2019 due to the new contract as its highlights shows attract far fewer viewers than the live races. In fact, official figures show that Channel 4's F1 broadcasts have already lost more than five million viewers even though the season has not yet even reached the half-way stage. The fastest VPN we've ever used – and our favourite for streaming – is ExpressVPN. It gives you speedy access to servers across the globe, so you won't miss any F1 action and you can use it on five devices simultaneously. It's well worth the money to watch lag-free F1 streams regardless of where you are in the world.
The VPN has 24/7 customer support and has successfully completed an audit to prove that it doesn't log or store any user data. Our readers get three months free on the one-year plan and all plans include a 30-day no-questions-asked moneyback guarantee in case the service doesn't meet your expectations. If you choose the annual plan, you'll have access to even more features, including the option to watch over 600 historic races from the past years and stream exclusive F1 documentaries featuring some of the biggest names that have shaped the sport.
If the first 21 races of the season have proved anything, it's that Verstappen is perfectly capable of stopping an in-form Hamilton from grabbing an eighth title and becoming the most successful F1 driver of all time, ahead of German great, Michael Schumacher. Ultimately, it will all come down to the finest of margins at Yas Marina, where drivers will race a newly shortened circuit – adding another unknown to an already nail-biting finale. All this leaves the season's two protagonists locked on 369.5 points apiece. Verstappen is still officially ahead on race wins, but everything is now set up for a dramatic final showdown in Abu Dhabi to decide who is the 2021 F1 champion. Channel 4's team of Steve Jones, David Coulthard, Mark Webber and Lee McKenzie will provide build-up to the race for 15 minutes from midday before handing over to Sky for their pre-race coverage and Sky's live coverage of the race itself. The races usually air on Sky Sports, and are also available on Sky's streaming service, NOW – as long as you have the NOW Sky Sports Membership, which normally costs £33.99/month.
The first race of the season has a 6am start time (and the clocks have gone forward, don't forget), so its an early morning for F1 fans looking to live stream the opening race. In an interview with GlobalData Sportlast year, Aarti Dabas, Formula E's chief media officer, explained how the series would seek a broadcast partner to provide "channel consistency" through linear television coverage in its next rights deal in the UK. Skysports.com/f1 – has all the latest news, interviews, features and video content, including previews and race highlights. "We are excited that Sky will make the grand prix on Sunday available to Channel 4 viewers so everyone can tune in live for the thrilling finale to this epic season," he said. But a deal has been reached to show the Abu Dhabi decider on terrestrial television, which will include each channels showing their own pre and post-race coverage with Sky's race commentary used by both.
Channel 4's usual highlights programmes, which air several hours after qualifying and the race respectively, are set to remain in place as originally scheduled. "We've chosen to gift the race to the whole country at Christmas through our partnership with Channel 4, so everyone can be part of a huge national moment as Lewis Hamilton goes for a historic eighth world championship title. The figures bring together those that watched Channel 4's highlights package and those who watched the races live on Sky, excluding pre- and post-race analysis for the latter. Sky have seemingly reacted to Channel 4's qualifying conundrum by opting to simulcast their live coverage on their new Sky Showcase channel, enabling more viewers to watch qualifying across Sky, Virgin Media and BT TV. The other way to watch for free - especially if you want to watch races live - is to use a VPN and stream them from broadcasters in other countries which show races on free-to-air channels . Channel 4 continues to show extended, free-to-air highlights of qualifying and every race, produced by the award-winning Whisper.
In the end it was Max who won his first title, passing Lewis on the final lap of the Abu Dhabi grand prix following a controversial interpretation of the existing safety car rules in the FIA Sporting Regulations. Mercedes unsuccessfully attempted to protest the decision and later decided to withdraw an appeal. And in the aftermath, there were calls from some fans for Formula 1 race director Michael Masi to step down or for the FIA to dismiss him from the role. I imagine some of the later evening/night start times are going to make it hard for those without Sky who rely on Channel 4's highlights that are either going to air very late that day or early morning the next.
I didn't like the later start times for qualifying/races introduced a few years ago & really don't like how qualifying is going to be an hour later again. Mouse 30 past versus on the hour makes zero difference in that regard & even if that were the case, COTA, Mexico, & Canada would also share 30-past start times, or possibly all events, but at least all North American ones. The current highlight format of the show has proved popular with fans, fusing opinionated analysis and well-informed news within an entertainment show style with slick graphics.
Perhaps as a hangover following the tedium that was Paul Ricard, only 1.73 million watched Channel 4's Austrian GP highlights show, despite the fact that it was the best of the season to date, and the first race this year to be won by someone other than a Mercedes driver. Sky and Channel 4 are pioneering a programming partnership to provide continuing coverage of Formula 1 racing on the channel. As part of the deal, selected Channel 4 programmes will be released on the Sky and NOW TV subscription platforms as box sets and some Sky original programming will be shown on the free-to-air channel. Although it is correct that the Sky contract was signed before Liberty bought F1 in 2017, it has been an advocate of Pay TV right from the start.
