RTL ends F1 broadcast after 30 years

[lio007]

F1TV is not all that bad...when it works. I think they screwed 2 races last year...gave a $5 rebate each time. But do they really think they can get away with charging full price for this year!?!?!

I will await a 50% sale...they will not squeeze me for full price for a half-arsed season. I assume many feel this way. I also wonder how many folks they loose that will never come back?

F1TV extended my 1-year subscription by 2 months for free.

[Wouter]

Click on the Press release (both), so you can read it.

[maxxer]

Sad news for german F1 fans. RTL ends F1 broadcast at the end of the 2020 season.
https://newsabc.net/f1-shock-for-german ... broadcast/

No good news in general for the sport.

Also here in Austria it's uncertain if broadcaster ORF will continue after 2020.

And there we go f1 was all free on eurosport with senna prost mansell schumacher then it became pay tv on sky and suddenly it was boring not enough overtakes and overpaid pundits repeating themselves over and over and over

[MtthsMlw]

This might be interesting for people in Germany using F1 TV Pro.
Basically if you want F1 TV get an annual subscription now. Until 26.06!

[FrukostScones]

This might be interesting for people in Germany using F1 TV Pro.
Basically if you want F1 TV get an annual subscription now.
https://twitter.com/F1Help/status/1275093841637445632

WTF!

[Phil]

I dont watch RTL (ORF is way better), but damn, this is very big news. :/

Edit: i thought Liberty was better than that, than to continue this trend of putting everything behind the paywall.

[Tzk]

So german viewers got 4 options:
1. Get Sky and obtain F1TV acces through Sky
2. buy a yearly subscription of F1TV right now and keep it till 2024
3. use a VPN to get F1TV as currently
4. use a VPN to stream ORF/SRF

Right? Thats ridiculous, what a bulls* move by Liberty! Looks like this all happens because Sky paid for exclusive rights... Now i remember why i hated Sky so much...

[Phil]

So german viewers got 4 options:
1. Get Sky and obtain F1TV acces through Sky
2. buy a yearly subscription of F1TV right now and keep it till 2024
3. use a VPN to get F1TV as currently
4. use a VPN to stream ORF/SRF

Right? Thats ridiculous, what a bulls* move by Liberty! Looks like this all happens because Sky paid for exclusive rights... Now i remember why i hated Sky so much...

Can the Germans not receive ORF/SRF? I wasn't really aware of that, I assumed they could, as we here in Switzerland can receive pretty much all the German broadcasters too. Unless, SRF/ORF are special because they are "state broadcasters"?

I feel particularly bad about this move, because Germany has always been big on motorsports - I would have thought easily 2nd behind the British. The problem I have with the "paywall" is because only people will get it who want to watch it. You're effectively pulling it away from casual observers who might tune in when they don't have anything better to do with the potential to expand the viewership beyond the fans the sport already has.

You're also eliminating young viewers who don't have access to their own subscriptions and are limited by what their parents sign up on.

Really a daft move, that already started when F1 did it in Britain.

IMO - this is something that Formula-E has done well. Pretty much free to watch, streamed on Youtube (or at least used to be) and if they come to your city, it's a big event that, if I recall correctly, doesn't even cost an entry free (only if you want to be seated at a podium). Easy way to get viewers and expand the interest. On the other hand, F1 just seems to be losing.

[Oehrly]

Can the Germans not receive ORF/SRF? I wasn't really aware of that, I assumed they could, as we here in Switzerland can receive pretty much all the German broadcasters too. Unless, SRF/ORF are special because they are "state broadcasters"?
[...]

Mostly we in Germany can not receive the Austrian ORF and Swiss SRF.

ORF is encrypted over satellite and only Austrian residents are eligible to for obtaining a decryption module/card
Furthermore, it is obviously geoblocked online.
The only way of receiving ORF in Germany is terrestrial television. But for that to be possible, you need to live very close to the Austrian border.
It's basically the same for SRF.

The German state-owned television channels are not encrypted over satellite. Therefore you can receive them in wider parts of Europe (big enough satellite dish required). I think they do use selective geoblocking online but only for the content which they need to licence from somebody else. Or maybe this content is just not available online at all? I'm not really sure about that.

I'm now seriously considering getting a yearly F1TV Pro subscription. Although I'm not happy about them only offering 25fps currently. It's a bit ridiculous for a paid service offering fast-moving images of the worlds "most technically advanced" motorsport racing series to not have 50fps streaming in my opinion.

[Oehrly]

This might be interesting for people in Germany using F1 TV Pro.
Basically if you want F1 TV get an annual subscription now. Until 26.06!
[...]

Where do you get the "until 26.06." from? I can't find anything about that?

[MtthsMlw]

This might be interesting for people in Germany using F1 TV Pro.
Basically if you want F1 TV get an annual subscription now. Until 26.06!
[...]

Where do you get the "until 26.06." from? I can't find anything about that?

[R_Redding]

With no RTL ..my uk choice is now radio ,sky or nothing. I would have gone for the F1-TV internet , but the Sky deal forbids that in the UK.

I'll probably just stop watching.

[Tzk]

Can the Germans not receive ORF/SRF?

Nope. As pointed out above: via satellite it's encrypted and via terrestrial or cable you need to live next to the border. Streaming is also geoblocked.

In germany only the HD channels need a HD card, low-res content can be watched without any lock. That's why RTL was so popular as you can watch it from BE, NL, AT, CH and GER without any restrictions.

[Phil]

I guess Switzerland has some sort of agreement with Austria then, so that we can receive ORF. Thank god for that. The SRF broadcast is horrendous. I would not wish it upon anyone. The only positive thing about SRF is that there are practically no ads and we get it in HD. I also never watch RTL because the amount of ads used to drive me insane and only ever tune in for the post-race stuff when Niki Lauda was part of it. The ORF stuff is very very good though. IMO just shy of what BBC/CH4 used to offer when they were on air when it comes to the level of competency and quality of it. BBC/CH4 (and Sky) just excel in the sheer number of content, interviews, paddock stuff and more post-race stuff (as well as higher post production), but that's just me being spoiled.