British F1 fans get one free-to-air race with £1BILLION Sky TV deal

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British F1 fans get one free-to-air race with £1BILLION Sky TV deal

The British Grand Prix will continue to be free to watch

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 8 May 2026 08:14

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F1's new broadcast deal in the UK is worth a reported £1billion, but F1 fans in the UK are only going to get one race per season that is free-to-air.

Sky Sports and F1 signed a new contract earlier this week that keeps their partnership going until at least 2034, meaning Sky will continue to be the home of all F1 race weekends until that season.

Sky Sports have held the rights to the sport since 2012, but until 2018, several races per season were still shown on free-to-air TV in the UK.

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From 2016-2018, that was with Channel 4, who showed half of the season's practice, qualifying sessions and races. However, since 2019, Channel 4 have only been able to show live coverage of the British Grand Prix weekend, with the rest of the season only being able to be viewed live with Sky Sports or F1TV in the UK.

Channel 4 do, however, show highlights of every competitive session each weekend, allowing fans to get their F1 fix for free.

With the new Sky Sports F1 deal, this will remain the case, and Channel 4 will only be showing the British Grand Prix live and free.

The new contract is reported to be worth £1billion, showcasing the ever-growing popularity of the sport in the UK.

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Sky Italia F1 deal continues with free-to-air coverage

While British F1 fans may be a little hard done by the fact that there is only one of the 24 scheduled races for 2027 that will be shown on free-to-air TV, the Sky Italia deal has much more coverage for F1 fans in Italy.

Sky Italia will show ever grand prix live as part of their new contract with F1, but the Italian Grand Prix and 'several other race weekends' will be shown free-to-air on Italian channel TV8.

This deal will be similar to the early days of Sky's coverage of the sport in the UK, which saw BBC and then Channel 4 showing several races.

The renewed deal in the UK means that we will continue to see the likes of David Croft, Martin Brundle, Ted Kravitz and Bernie Collins on our TV screens for several years to come.

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