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03-01-2020, 08:12
UK Formula 1 ratings shunted by move to pay-TV DetailsJoseph O'Halloran | 02 January 2020 The season may have seen home-grown now legendary driver Lewis Hamilton rack up his sixth championship win but UK viewing figures for the last Formula 1 season have fallen way down the grid since a change in access.In 2016, the UK’s leading pay-TV service Sky Sports nabbed rights to be the home of premium racing for the UK and Ireland from 2019 to 2024. Under terms of the deal, Sky Sports offers offer live coverage of every Grand Prix, with the British Grand Prix available on a free-to-air basis on broadcaster Channel 4 with whom it has a strategic partnership spanning content, technology and advertising services.For the 2018 season, Channel 4 had the rights to show up to ten races live in the season, not just the home Grand Prix.Yet despite this and other innovations such as Ultra HD availability, viewing figures released by BARB have shown that the season showing marked falls in viewing compared with 2018. Indeed, as reported by The Independent, UK viewers for the 2019 season fell down by 13.6% to 54.8 million in all. Sky’s new deal saw viewers rise by 2.2 million to 20.1 million while Channel 4 saw viewers of its highlights drop by 10.8 million compared with 2018 to cumulative total of 34.7 million.