Significant drop in F1TV price in France

Significant changes will occur for French F1 viewers. While the official TV broadcaster remains Canal+, which has just signed a new contract until 2022, French fans will now have a much more affordable option.

Indeed, Liberty Media took advantage of the start of the season to announce a new pricing strategy for the French territory. While for the first two seasons, it was necessary to pay €189.99 for a 12-month subscription, making this single channel much more expensive annually than a movie streaming platform like Netflix. As a result, the viewership through this channel remains anecdotal compared to a sport that attracts nearly 2 billion viewers over a season.

For the 2020 season, it will cost much less as the annual subscription is reduced to €64.99, or five euros per month. The monthly subscription has dropped to €7.99. For this price, it provides live access to all F1, F2, F3, and Porsche Supercup sessions during a race weekend. The difference in treatment between Canal+ and the Sky channel is obvious: In the United Kingdom and Italy, where Sky holds the rights, it is now impossible to benefit from the Pro subscription, and only the Access option offering summaries is available.

One can thus note a true strategy to increase the value added to the platform, as demonstrated by the excellent initiative to create a series on the 2019 F2 season, indelibly marked by the Spa-Francorchamps tragedy. This series has its rightful place, as it caters to the most devoted fans, whereas Drive to Survive, produced and aired by Netflix, conversely broadens the audience to include those who wouldn’t naturally be drawn to the sport.

With this strategy, if F1 hopes to gather crowds on its platform, it must address major technical constraints. Starting with the fact that it does not support Chromecast or AirPlay technology, which allows video to be cast from a smartphone to a television.

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr