List of Formula One broadcasters
This is a list of Formula One broadcasters and 'World Feed' producers. Formula One, the highest level of circuit racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, motor sport's world governing body, can be seen live or tape delayed on television in almost every country and territory around the world.
It attracts one of the largest global TV audiences after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games, with a total global audience of about 352 million people for the 2017 season.
Overview
Television and other media broadcasters all take what is known as the World Feed, the live broadcast of a Formula 1 Grand Prix, which, since the first TV rights were sold in the 1970s, has been produced by a Host broadcaster from each nation for their home race, for example TF1 for the French Grand Prix, the BBC for the British Grand Prix, RAI for the Italian Grand Prix and so on.Starting with select races in the 2004 Formula One World Championship, the World Feed has been gradually produced by [Formula One Group|FOM] television production, the in-house media company of Formula One Group, for every round of the F1 World Championship.
Originally, FOM started producing an enhanced digital version of the World Feed from the 1996 season, when the F1 Digital+ service was launched via satellite on a subscription base. The service offered additional features to the standard, single analogue television feed of the sport, which digital broadcasters had the option of taking up and broadcasting on their own digital interactive television platforms, such as channels dedicated to onboard cameras, cameras in the pit area, additional cameras focusing on action involving cars lower down the running order and live timing data.
This led to a two-tier system between 1996 through 2002, which was unique in the sports' industry, where F1 races could be watched simultaneously for free via the World Feed produced by the local broadcaster and on pay-per-view or subscription base via the enhanced digital satellite World Feed produced by FOM for F1 Digital+.
The race coverage shown on regular terrestrial TV was produced by a local broadcaster and provided to all other broadcasters around the world. By comparison, the majority of the coverage shown on the F1 Digital+ service was produced on-site at each Grand Prix venue by Formula One Management. The operation involved transporting around 200 tons of equipment to each race. To transport the equipment required 18 trucks for European rounds or two Boeing 747 jumbo jets for fly-away races. At the race venue, a 1200 sq m air-conditioned tent was set up containing the majority of the equipment. The service was run by Eddie Baker, and the tent was colloquially referred to as Bakersville.
When the F1 Digital+ pay-per-view service was shut down by Ecclestone at the end of the 2002 season, due to financial failure, FOM gradually started taking over the production of the World Feed in select races where the local broadcaster could not guarantee a consistent production on international level.
In 2004 new television overlays were introduced which closely reflected those of F1 Digital+, reintroducing elements such as the lap counter, track status indicators and rev counters. Team Radio was broadcast at the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix and was available at every race from the 2006 season onwards.
The biggest innovation of pay per view was a permanent production team at every Grand Prix, establishing consistent quality over the variable nature of host broadcasters. The success of F1 Digital+ in this area resulted in Formula One Management gradually taking control of the World Feed in the subsequent seasons. From the 2007 season Formula One Management directed the TV coverage of all but three races, and for the 2008 season this number was reduced to two: the Monaco Grand Prix, produced by Télé Monte Carlo, and the Japanese Grand Prix, produced by Fuji Television.
The World Feed produced by the local broadcaster was often criticized for focusing heavily on local drivers and teams, especially by international viewers and critics during the late 1980s and early 1990s, whilst missing key moments of the race.
Although, to be fair, sometimes even the FOM digital feed happened to miss key live moments, like, for example, the infamous crash at the start of the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, whilst the local broadcaster managed to broadcast the entire incident.
This is due to the nature of the FOM TV production style, which is story-based, tending to focus on a particular situation of the race, thus delaying the cut to other live situations, and in that particular occasion in Spa 1998 was focusing on the lead of the race, completely missing of the most iconic moments in the history of Formula One.
The differences between the local broadcaster and the FOM TV production styles could have been observed until the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix, which was the last F1 World Feed to be ever produced by a host broadcaster, Tele Monte Carlo. Whilst during other races of the 2022 world championship, FOM tend to have a story-focused television production style, Tele Monte Carlo focused heavily on live situations, cutting very rapidly, sometimes erratically, from the lead of the race to the back of the field, even to the pit, depending on what was live happening in the race, using static cameras, while from the 2023 Monaco grand prix FOM used dynamic-zooming cameras, more story-focused segments and large pan-out to the city skyline, depending on what was supposed to be the focus of the story to tell to the audience.
Being geographically based in the UK, FOM has been accused several times for focusing heavily on British drivers and UK-based teams, by increasing their team radio broadcasting and video coverage. This was particularly notable during the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the season finale where both McLaren and Ferrari arrived fighting for the Constructors' Championship, but FOM only showed live cameras from the Woking base.
More recently, the FOM World feed has been criticized for becoming too show-based and less faithful to factual and action-based broadcasting. This was evident during the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, where Ferrari General Manager Fred Vasseur criticized FOM TV production for distorting and cutting radio communications between Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer in order to add more drama to the event. On 24 March 2025, FOM denied the accusations, stating not all radio communications between Hamilton and his engineer were broadcast due to other situations in the race, but the image damage for Ferrari remained.
In the end, both the FOM feed and the local feed had pros and cons.
From 2023 onwards, FOM started producing coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix, thus completing the World Feed production takeover of all F1 races started with select races in 2004.
From a technical standpoint, the World Feed has been produced in 16:9 widescreen since the 2007 Australian Grand Prix. Host Broadcasters trialled widescreen broadcasts for local viewers sporadically prior to the 2007 season – FujiTV and Australia are some of the broadcasters who did.
From 2006, Fuji Television filmed and broadcast the Japanese Grand Prix in high definition for their domestic audience. For the 2011 season, FOM released a high definition feed to broadcasters for the first time, and for 2012, the footage was filmed with 5.1 channel Dolby Digital surround sound audio. From 2017, footage began being broadcast in 4K ultra-high definition.
Alongside the main World Feed, formerly known as Super-Signal Feed during the F1 Digital+ era, FOM also produce a Pit-lane channel, showing shots from the pitlane and alternative camera angles, along with detailed weather and tyre information, and extra team radio. FOM also produce Onboard channels, showing live video from cameras installed on the drivers' cars. The channels switch between different cars throughout the session. FOM also make available a Driver tracker channel, showing live positions of all the cars on the track during a session, as well as a timing screen showing live lap-times and circuit sector information. In addition to the 20 driver onboard streams, viewers will also be able to experience the Battle Channel, a split-screen co-produced by FOM and Sky Sports UK, focusing on a battle between up to three cars. Furthermore, FOM produce a Data Channel, giving live timing and live data relating to pit-stops, tyres status, weather updates, FIA statements and other information about the session, as well as a Highlights Channel, rolling highlights up to the current point in the race.
Currently, broadcasters offering the enhanced coverage of these FOM-produced extra channels include Sky Sports F1 (UK), Fox Sports (Australia), Sky Sport F1 (Italy), Movistar F1 (Spain), Sky Sport (Germany), Play Sports (Belgium) and Art Sport, thus reaching a total of twelve countries. Out of the 9 on board channels, Fox Sports Australia only shows the Master onboard channel to its viewers, whereas Sky Sports F1 makes all the on board channels available. The Pit lane, Driver Tracker and Live Timing channels are available to Sky viewers in the United Kingdom.
In 2018, FOM launched an over-the-top streaming platform known as F1 TV, providing live commercial-free coverage of all races including access to all on-board cameras. The service launched initially in Germany, France, the United States, Mexico, Belgium, Austria, Hungary and parts of Latin America.
Broadcasters
United Kingdom and Ireland
In 2011, Sky Sports signed a seven-year deal with the BBC, to show live Formula One on Sky in the United Kingdom for the first time. The deal which ran between 2012 and 2015 saw Sky Sports show live coverage of every session of the season on their own F1 dedicated channel, Sky Sports F1. Sky Sports F1 show all races and qualifying sessions live. In 2016, Sky extended their contract to 2024, and will be the exclusive live rights holders in the UK and Ireland from 2019; the British Grand Prix and highlights of all other races will be shown free-to-air, on a channel which has "90% technical availability". At the same time it was announced that Sky will broadcast all events in ultra-high-definition from 2017.Sky Sports F1 have broadcast every practice, qualifying and race since 2017 in 4K Ultra-HD, exclusively for Sky Q 2TB customers.
BBC. The BBC had shown Formula One until 1996, after which the rights moved to ITV. In 2009 they returned to the BBC after ITV decided to exit Formula One. The BBC showed all races live for the next three seasons until the commencement of their deal with Sky which saw the BBC broadcast live coverage of half the races and all 20 races had "extended highlights". They also showed live coverage of practice and qualifying sessions from their live races. The deal set that the British Grand Prix and the final race had to be shown live on the BBC.
For each Grand Prix the BBC showed "extended highlights" of the race just a few hours after it had been broadcast. Late afternoon for early hours races and/or early evening. Late evening races were shown on the day and repeated on Monday evening. The BBC Radio 5 Live coverage was unaffected.
Due to financial pressures, the BBC ended their television contract early after the 2015 season, transferring their rights to Channel 4 until the end of the 2018 season. Sky Sports F1 remained unaffected and BBC Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra's coverage was extended until 2021.
Channel 4, like the BBC before them, always shows the British Grand Prix and the final race live. Non-live races have "extended highlights" of the race shown a few hours after it has taken place. Highlights of races held early morning are broadcast mid-afternoon, with afternoon races shown early evening and late evening races shown later in the evening. Their live broadcasts for until were Bahrain, Spain, Europe, Britain, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico and Abu Dhabi.
In July 2018, it was understood that Channel 4 were in final negotiations with Sky and Liberty Media to continue with the free-to-air rights. Channel 4 shows sprint qualifying and races; Grand Prix qualifying and races as extended highlights. From 2019 to 2022 Channel 4 airs the British Grand Prix live plus the remaining races as highlights. In 2021, Sky Sports F1 partnered with Channel 4 to broadcast the season-concluding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix|Abu Dhabi Grand Prix] live and free-to-air. In 2022, Sky recently extended their contract to 2029, and Channel 4 until 2023. In July 2023, Channel 4 extended their contract to 2026.
United States
Cable television network ESPN aired Formula One races in the United States between 1984 and 1997. From 1998 to 2000, coverage was split between Speedvision and Fox Sports Net. From 2001 to 2012, Speedvision had full coverage of the championship, with select races also airing on broadcast networks.On 14 October 2012, NBC Sports signed a four-year deal to broadcast Formula One races in the United States. The majority of its coverage was broadcast by the pay channel NBCSN, while four races were aired by the free-to-air NBC network per-season. The network also streamed additional camera feeds through its digital platforms.
On 4 October 2017, ESPN announced that it had acquired rights to Formula One under a multi-year deal beginning in 2018. ESPN had previously broadcast Formula One from 1984 to 1997. The majority of coverage will be carried by ESPN2, but two races will be carried on the main ESPN channel, and three races, as well as an afternoon encore of the Monaco Grand Prix, will be broadcast free-to-air on ABC. Unlike the previous contract with NBC Sports, Formula One will retain over-the-top rights, ESPN will reportedly not pay a traditional rights fee, and it was originally announced that the broadcasts would rely primarily on the world feed. However, it was later announced that ESPN would utilize Sky Sports' coverage. On 22 October 2022, ESPN recently extended their deal until 2025. Starting in 2023, five races will be aired on ABC, with Monaco to be aired live on the network for the first time. Ahead of the 2025 United States Grand Prix, Apple TV obtained five-year exclusive streaming rights to the sport from 2026 onward.
Australia
The Nine Network began airing Formula One races in Australia in 1981, initially with delayed race highlights. This was followed by their first live F1 telecast via satellite of the 1981 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder.Nine's coverage continued until 2002. They used the BBC commentary team until 1996, and then the ITV commentary team from 1997 to 2002.
In 2000, and not being happy with the coverage Australian viewers were getting of international races, FOM boss Bernie Ecclestone struck a deal with Fox Sports Australia to show the Malaysian GP live and uninterrupted. Viewers were concerned when the Channel 9 intro was shown but were relieved when a different host appeared, Peter McKay was the co-host. Fox Sports showed the usual short highlights of qualifying, followed by the full qualifying results. Then instead of returning to the studio and they went live to the uninterrupted local feed for the pre-race coverage. This was the first time Australian viewers would see the traditional 5 minute FOM FIA Formula One intro with its iconic music. After that, the ITV commentary was connected. The entire race including the cars doing their slow down lap and the action in parc ferme were shown. The podium was shown with ITV comments - unfortunately there was interference with the satellite causing artifacts to appear, the host apologized when ITV went to a break. The English press conference was shown in full. This was a one-off however until 2015.
In 2001, Digital TV arrived in Australia, and the Australian Grand Prix was produced and broadcast in native widescreen on Channel 9 Digital for 2001 and 2002. For National Viewers watching on Analogue TV, they received a letterbox version of the Feed, while international viewers got a standard 4:3 feed. As a result of Digital TV, the fatality of Graham Beveridge in 2001 was captured on the widescreen cameras, which lead to very few replays or analysis being shown.
In 2003, Network 10 started broadcasting the Formula One World Championship after the Nine Network dropped the rights in 2002 after 22 years of coverage. Network 10 used the ITV commentary team and then the BBC team, when they got the rights back. After BBC left F1 in 2015, Channel 10 started using Channel 4's coverage.
For 2003 only, the Australian Grand Prix was produced and broadcast nationally in native widescreen on Channel 10 Digital. The same set up as Channel 9 was used for Analogue TV and international viewers.
When FOM took over the broadcast in 2004, the local coverage was reverted to 4:3 – from 2004 to 2006, only the Channel Ten studio, pit lane reporters cameras and support races' onboard cameras were in widescreen. This caused digital TV viewers to get a bright red or yellow border to fill the 16:9 blank space when the FOM cameras were being shown.
The Australian Grand Prix from 1985 to 2006 was the only event that had all sessions shown live in Australia. All other races were either shown live or tape delayed depending on other commitments and time zone differences, with only short highlights of qualifying or major incidents during practice shown in the lead up to the race coverage.
During the Channel 9 era, BBC commentary was complemented with Australian motorsport commentary experts at the Australian Grand Prix, then used the BBC for 1996 and ITV commentary teams from 1997 to 2002 without any Australian motorsport commentary experts alongside.
During the Channel 10 era, Channel 10 used their own in house commentary to allow the optimisation of ad breaks at the Australian Grand Prix only.
In 2007, all qualifying sessions were shown in full either live or on tape delay.
In 2009, the Australian F1 telecast moved to One SD and HD.
When One HD was rebranded, the coverage returned to Channel 10.
On February 13, 2015, Network 10 and Fox Sports signed a five-Year Deal starting in 2015 until 2019, Network 10 broadcast 10 races live including Australian Grand Prix and the remaining races shown Highlights, while Fox Sports broadcast all Practices, Qualifying and Races.
On September 30, 2017, Network 10 dropped its remaining Formula One international live races; it retained the broadcast rights of Formula One Australian Grand Prix live races and rest of the races being highlights, beginning with the Malaysian Grand Prix. Fox Sports live coverage continued unchanged for the next five years, until 2022.
On March 23, 2022, Fox Sports extended their contract to 2026.
In 2023, Network 10 quietly dropped the highlights packages due to poor reception. They however were committed to broadcasting live coverage of the Australian Grand Prix only until 2026.
Also in 2023, Foxtel users were able to get F1 TV Pro for free.
F1 TV
In 2018, Formula 1 launched a subscription service called F1 TV with live streams of every F1 session and support series. The service includes many other features including live telemetry, on-demand views of each car and replays of historic F1 races, as well as exclusive shows. F1 TV restricts viewing to the country of residence or the EU, and requires the user to have a valid credit card in that same country. Due to rights restrictions, if outside the EU, it is not possible to watch F1 TV from outside one's home country.Starting in 2026, as a result of Apple acquiring the Formula 1 broadcasting rights, F1 TV users in the United States are required to obtain an Apple TV Subscription to watch F1 TV's live sessions with the exception of archived footages, exclusive shows, and other live telemetry.
2026 broadcasters
These are the broadcasters for the 2026 Formula One World Championship.Official internet broadcasters
– Rights in Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Timor Leste.– Rights in parts of North America, South America and the Caribbean.
– Rights in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
World Feed producers
Current producers
Since the 2023 season, all of the races are produced by FOM.Former producers (1950–2022)
Below are the previous World Feed Producers for Grands Prix from 1950 until 2022.- Between 1997 and 1999 the Brazilian GP World Feed was produced by FOM. What was shown was a reduced version of the F1 Digital+ main feed, mainly lacking onboard angles and without the pay per view graphics. Rede Globo continued to produce an alternative National Feed for Brazilian viewers.
- In 2001 and 2002 the US Grand Prix was broadcast locally by ABC Sports. However, they did not ever produce the World Feed.
- In 1991, the French GP was broadcast in France by La Cinq, which held rights for F1.