F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone is "facing a huge backlash from fans" after agreeing to a £300M ($425M) deal with Sky Sports that "threatens to wipe live coverage of the sport from terrestrial television screens for the first time," according to Kevin Eason of the LONDON TIMES. The satellite broadcaster will have exclusive rights to F1 for six years from '19, "meaning the end of Channel 4 coverage, which started only last weekend in Australia." Instead, Sky "will offer only the British Grand Prix free to air, plus highlights of the other 20 races in a season." No decision has been taken on "how the British round at Silverstone and the highlights package will be broadcast; it could be offered to a terrestrial broadcaster, such as the BBC, ITV or Channel 4, or broadcast on a dedicated Sky platform, which would be available on Freeview." The drivers, led by Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel, are "alarmed at the loss of fans from circuits and television, and by Ecclestone’s business plan to push the sport on to pay-per-view channels for higher fees." The BBC was "a casualty, forced to abandon coverage at the end of last year as the corporation was unable to justify the cost" -- almost £40M ($56.7M) a year. Sky is "refusing to say how much the deal is worth" but there was speculation Wednesday that it could be more than £50M ($71M) a year, "making this the richest television rights deal in the sport's history." As if to "illustrate F1's waning appeal, crowds for one of the most popular grands prix of the season were down 24,000 to 272,000" (LONDON TIMES, 3/24). AUTOSPORT's Ian Parkes reported Channel 4 will "take stock of Sky's announcement regarding its exclusive new Formula 1 deal before deciding whether to pursue a highlights option from 2019." Asked whether C4 would wish to continue as a highlights-only provider from '19, C4 Head of F1 Stephen Lyle said, "It's a bit early for that because we've only just picked up the news. As far as I'm concerned the news that broke yesterday doesn't affect our contract we have at the moment so nothing has really changed on that score in terms of how we are approaching it. We'll obviously look at it and then look at what to do from 2019 onwards" (AUTOSPORT, 3/24).
