Sky Sports gears up for F1 with dedicated channel

Filed under: Motorsports, UK



There aren't a lot of television stations in the world dedicated entirely to cars. On this side of the Atlantic, we have Speed and Discovery's new Velocity channel, and the latter isn't even all cars all the time. But now, the UK is getting its own dedicated Formula One network.

Resulting from the BBC's forfeiture of part of its F1 contract to Rupert Murdoch's Sky network, Sky Sports F1 is launching this year in high definition. The channel will carry the grands prix themselves throughout the entire season, without commercials, as well as all the practice and qualifying sessions. In between race weekends, the channel will show interviews, magazine programs and re-runs of races.

Sky Sports F1 will be provided to existing Sky subscribers as part of their bundle, but it will also be available through other providers like Virgin Media, which has just signed on to the deal as well. Sky has also been lining up a roster of talent to cover the races and provide the commentary, including former F1 drivers Martin Brundle, Anthony Davidson and Damon Hill, the 1996 World Champion who most recently signed on.

As for race fans here in the colonies, we'll soldier on with Speed's coverage (with occasional races broadcast on Fox) and TSN in Canada.Sky Sports gears up for F1 with dedicated channel originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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