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More Formula 1 and 2nd League – RTL signs deal with Sky
As of: 11:16 a.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
There will be seven races to watch on German free TV next season
Source: AFP/JEWEL SAMAD
RTL and the pay-TV broadcaster Sky have agreed on a two-year cooperation. It’s all about Formula 1, and from next season there will be more races to watch on free TV. The package also includes new football rights.
Formula 1 fans can look forward to seven Grand Prix on free TV in the future. The pay-TV broadcaster Sky is entering into an initial two-year partnership with the long-standing rights holder RTL. The agreement announced on Tuesday also stipulates that all qualifications and the first race of the season on March 2nd in Bahrain will be shown on all RTL platforms.
The dominance of Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen also cost Sky many viewers last season. The pay-TV channel lost around 20 percent reach compared to the previous season. On average, 782,000 people watched the Grand Prix this season. In the previous year there were an average of 980,000 people.
In Nico Hülkenberg in the defeated Haas there was only one German regular driver this year, Mick Schumacher is only a replacement at Mercedes. Nothing will change in this constellation in 2024. There will be no Grand Prix in Germany next season either. The last time there was a race in Germany was in 2020, when the Nürburgring stepped in during the corona pandemic.
Three 2nd league conference calls per season
RTL, the regular channel for German Formula 1 fans from 1991 to the end of 2020, had broadcast four races via sub-license in each of the past two years, but decided against a new contract at the beginning of the year after declining TV ratings. The search for an RTL successor was unsuccessful, which is why Sky showed four races as free-to-air live broadcasts via YouTube, TikTok and Sky Sport.
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As part of the cooperation with RTL, Sky will in future be able to show two games of the Europa League or Europa Conference League per match day. In addition to Formula 1, RTL also receives the rights to one English Premier League game per week and three conference calls from the 2nd Bundesliga per season.
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