Sky Sports F1

Beginning at the 2016 Formula One season, Canadian F1 rights holder TSN began to simulcast Sky's coverage, including the pre- and post-race programmes and in-race commentary.[17]

For the 2018 Formula One season, Formula One's new US rights holder ESPN (which is a minority stakeholder in TSN, and whose parent company was, at the time, intending to acquire Sky through its purchase of 21st Century Fox) similarly began using Sky Sports F1's commentary, along with a simulcast of the pre-race show and some of the post-race show if necessary.[18] However, after criticism over its handling and timing of adverts during the race coverage of the 2018 Australian Grand Prix (at times cutting off announcers mid-sentence), ESPN announced that it would broadcast the remaining races of the season with a single presenting sponsor, and no commercial interruptions.[19] For the 2019 Formula One season, Welcome to the Weekend and Pit Lane Live also became available on the digital subscription service ESPN+.[20]

The 2012 season started on 16 March (live practice) from the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Australia. Sky Sports broadcast every practice session, qualifying session and race live. The season passed 19 countries on the way. Formula One visited places as diverse as China, Bahrain, Belgium, Italy, and also United States for a Grand Prix taking place in Austin, Texas at the brand new Circuit of the Americas. The season came to an end at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix on 25 November 2012.

On 7 March 2012, Sky Sports F1 revealed their theme tune for the 2012 season, "Just Drive" by Alistair Griffin, which has been re-recorded with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Rodolfus Choir.[21] (Incidentally, the original version of the song was also used as the BBC's ending theme for 2010).[22] The 43-second opening credits feature archive footage of former world champions and memorable F1 moments from 32 Grands Prix between 1950 and 2011. The theme tune is also used on The F1 Show and for Classic F1. 2014 saw a rearrangement of the theme to go with their updated titles. Sky's original arrangement is still utilised for its coverage of Classic F1 races.

During the 2012 season, Santander UK was the official sponsor of Formula One coverage on Sky Sports F1 in a deal estimated to be worth £3 million.[23] The coverage has more recently been sponsored by Shell until 2014. From the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix, FairFX sponsored coverage on Sky Sports F1 for the rest of the 2015 season.[22]

The season opening Australian Grand Prix, the first to be broadcast exclusively by Sky, had an average audience of 526,000 viewers between 4.30 am and 9 am on 18 March, with a five-minute peak of 1.02 million as Jenson Button took the chequered flag. The BBC's live coverage of the same race last season averaged 2.13 million viewers, a 51.1% share of the audience.[24]

Sky Sports won "Best TV Broadcast Award for Outstanding Coverage" at both the 2012 FIA Prize Giving Ceremony (following Sky Sports F1's debut season presenting Formula One)[25] and again in 2013.

Beginning 2019, Sky Sports holds exclusive rights to all races excluding the British Grand Prix. In September 2018, it was announced that Channel 4 had agreed to a sub-licencing agreement with Sky, under which it will broadcast free-to-air highlights of all races, and live coverage of the British Grand Prix. As a condition of the deal, Channel 4 agreed to give Sky the right to carry full series of its drama programming (including its curated foreign dramas collection Walter Presents) on its on-demand platforms. In exchange, Sky also sold a free-to-air run of its own drama Tin Star to Channel 4.[26][27][28]

On 9 December 2011, Sky announced their coverage team for the 2012 season.[29] The presentation team currently consists of:

Former team:

In February 2012, it was announced that Sky Sports F1 would also broadcast the GP2 and GP3 series live. These series were eventually rebranded as the FIA Formula 2 Championship and the FIA Formula 3 Championship respectively [36]

• Formula 2 – Formula 1's feeder series
• Formula 3 – Feeder series for Formula 2

Sky Sports takes the world feed commentary for Formula 2 and Formula 3, which comes from Alex Jacques (Will Buxton from 2012-2014), who is usually joined by various co-commentators, mainly F1 reserve drivers such as Karun Chandhok (2011, 2013-2014, 2019) or Jérôme d'Ambrosio (2012) and Luca Filippi (2013-2014), Davide Valsecchi (2013-2014, 2016-) and Gary Anderson (2014). Since 2016, Jacques has been joined by 2012 GP2 champion Valsecchi for F2 events. Johnny Herbert and Rosanna Tennant are more recent members to the commentary and reporting team.

Sky Sports F1 aired the opening round of the 2012 IndyCar Series season, the premier level of American open wheel racing.[37] Rounds 2 and 3 were then aired on their usual channel, Sky Sports 4, before the fourth round, the São Paulo Indy 300 moved back to Sky Sports F1. Since then, all the other rounds were aired on Sky Sports 4 and sometimes on the Sky Sports Active service. Motorsport commentator and presenter Keith Huewen was the regular host of the coverage.

The IndyCar Series moved to BT Sport in 2013, but returned to Sky Sports F1 in 2019 under a new contract by Sky's new owner Comcast, which also holds the entire U.S. domestic rights to the series were also assumed by sister brand NBC Sports. It is similar to The Open Championship, which airs in Britain on Sky Sports Golf and in the United States by Comcast's The Golf Channel.[38][39][40]

Between 14 December 2015 and 5 January 2016, the channel was temporarily renamed Sky Sports Darts with coverage dedicated to the 2016 William Hill World Darts Championship.[41]

• The F1 Show;

The first programme to air on Sky Sports F1 was its weekly magazine show; The F1 Show. Initially presented by Georgie Thompson and Ted Kravitz (apart from the launch show, which was presented by Simon Lazenby), then by Kravitz and Natalie Pinkham, as of the 2014 season, it is presented by Natalie Pinkham or Rachel Brookes with contributions from David Croft, Paul di Resta/Anthony Davidson, Johnny Herbert/Damon Hill.

• F1 Legends;

A series of interviews with some of the greatest names in F1 history hosted by Steve Rider. Sometimes is captioned Architects of F1 and features non-F1 drivers, but ex-F1 engineers and famous technical directors. This series has now ended and no new interviews have been filmed.

• F1 Report;

Presented by Natalie Pinkham or Rachel Brookes and regular analyst Marc Priestley. In the week before or after a race, the programme looks in further depth at some of the stories and incidents that featured or may feature in race weekends. This series has been replaced by Welcome to the Weekend, a Thursday race weekend show with a similar format. It no longer features Marc Priestley.

• Classic F1;

Coverage of an F1 race from the archive corresponding to the current race that weekend.

• Ted's Notebook;

A topical show presented during pre-season testing, as well as Qualifying and Race days. Presented by Ted Kravitz.

Various other documentaries have been shown about F1 history. These include 1970s season reviews produced by Brunswick Films.

During the 2012 and 2013 season (beginning at the 2012 British Grand Prix), they aired the new McLaren cartoon Tooned before each live race. It featured the current McLaren drivers as themselves and comedian Alexander Armstrong as Professor M.

Sky Sports have a device called the 'SkyPad', used by the likes of Anthony Davidson and Ted Kravitz. It is used to show highlights and past features of the race commencing, such as mistakes by drivers. The SkyPad also has a virtual car which comes out of the screen and is used to illustrate technical innovations.