F1 on U.S TV Moves to ABC/ESPN

[cosworth151]

NBC has chosen not to renew it's contract to broadcast F1 in the U.S., citing Liberty Media as a direct competitor.

“Although we take great pride in having grown Formula 1’s visibility and viewership since we became its exclusive U.S. media rights holder in 2013, this will be our last season with the series. In this case, we chose not to enter into a new agreement in which the rights holder itself competes with us and our distribution partners. We wish the new owners of F1 well.”

The coverage will go downhill. Only half as many races will be on live, broadcast TV next year. For the 1st time in years, Monaco & Canada won't be on live, broadcast TV. No word on whether they will keep NBC's outstanding broadcast team.

Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/formula-1-moving-espn-abc-tv-2018

[Dare]

Why even show a race if it's not live. Hope they don't try
and stop streaming

[Jericoke]

Why even show a race if it's not live. Hope they don't try
and stop streaming

ESPN isn't broadcast TV, it's cable, the races will still be shown live.  You'll just have to pay for it.

(Fun fact:  Disney is well known for being very wealthy. In addition to animated movies, live action movies, theme parks, cruise ships, Pixar, Marvel, Muppets and Star Wars intellectual property... literally half of their annual profit comes from ESPN)

[Dare]

The F1 on NBC was on cable too. I'm so used to Sky now that even though I have ESPN I'll still stream Sky

[Jericoke]

I've been happy with Sky coverage, though I expected we'll be getting the ESPN coverage in Canada.

I haven't seen the US based coverage since SpeedVision was simulcast in Canada  (Yes, 'Vision'... before Speed Channel).  The coverage they offered then was dull and uninformed (as compared with the BBC coverage).  I assume ESPN will be better than that

[cosworth151]

NBC had 4 free to air live races every year (Monaco, Canada, U.S. & Mexico). ABC/ESPN will knock that down to 2 (U.S. & Mexico).

NBC has very good coverage. Far better than the old Fox/Speed. I have to admit that Speedvision was one of my all time favorite cable channels. They always offered outstanding coverage of a wide variety of different series.