F1 on BBC iPlayer in 2009

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British F1 fans should be able to continue watching Formula 1 online live in 2009 as the BBC has announced that BBC1 and BBC2 will be made available via its iPlayer.

With BBC3 and BBC4 already available via iPlayer it seems certain that, whichever channel BBC uses to show F1 in 2009, an online simulcast version should be available. Viewers should also be able to ‘save’ F1 broadcasts via iPlayer to re-watch later.

However the BBC blocks non-UK viewers from being able to access the iPlayer, so its live F1 broadcasts may not be available outside of Britain.

There are still no hard details on whether the BBC will broadcast F1 in high definition (HD) next year.

BBC Vision director Jana Bennett said:

The launch of BBC One and BBC Two online completes our commitment to make our portfolio of channels available to watch on the internet. From 27 November licence fee payers will be able to watch BBC programmes, live, wherever they are in the UK on their computers, mobile phones and other portable devices. Through iPlayer and series stacking, they’ll have the option to catch up with them later.

(More here – sub. req.)

Martin Brundle recently confirmed he will be one of the F1 commentators next year, and he is expected to partner Jonathan Legard.

More on watching F1 live one: Watching, listening to and following F1 live online

More on BBC F1 coverage in 2009

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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32 comments on “F1 on BBC iPlayer in 2009”

  1. Alex Cooper
    19th November 2008, 13:15

    The BBC show MotoGP on iPlayer at the moment. I’d be surprised if it didn’t appear on there.

  2. Tom
    19th November 2008, 13:45

    I really hope they show friday/saturday practice as ITV did.

  3. ceedas
    19th November 2008, 13:57

    All the practise sessions will be available through the ‘red button’ too, as will a number of support races, so I’ve heard.

  4. DG
    19th November 2008, 14:00

    Thats strange, non-UK residents can listen to radio shows online, so why not watch TV shows too? Surely BBC want to capture as big an audience as possible for F1?

  5. Milos
    19th November 2008, 14:02

    @ DG – BBC only has TV rights for UK, they can’t poach on viewers from territories where some else spent millions for the rights :-)

  6. Profile Photo

    Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
    19th November 2008, 14:05

    Alex – What was the image and sound quality like over iPlayer?

  7. Lustigson
    19th November 2008, 14:06

    @ DG and Milos
    It’s probably Bernie who says the Beeb can’t broadcast online outside the UK, rather than the BBC not wanting to do so.

  8. DG
    19th November 2008, 14:23

    Lugiston, good point, but even Bernie would realise that the BBC World Service and Online reaches parts of the planet even he hasn’t heard of yet – increasing his potential market…..

  9. James
    19th November 2008, 14:36

    Sadly (for me living abroad) the BBC charter expressly forbids it from broadcasting television outside of the UK. This is not the case for radio. From the iPlayer rubric, they are working on an “international verison”, but how limited the shows they can broadcast in that case remains to be seen. The issue is much more general than Formula One and, for once, has nothing to do with Bernie.

  10. Journeyer
    19th November 2008, 16:04

    Methinks the iPlayer’s security will really get tested next year. The ITV feed was never properly secured. Will the BBC’s 1-year headstart help keep the hackers at bay?

  11. Mussolini's pet cat
    19th November 2008, 16:24

    There are some websites that mask the origin of your web surfing to enable you to bypass these restrictions. I didnt tell you this………

  12. TommyBellingham
    19th November 2008, 16:27

    Alex – What was the image and sound quality like over iPlayer?

    Its very good indeed.

    I’m at uni, it seems stupid that BBC show live TV on the internet and want us to pay for a TV licence

  13. Internet
    19th November 2008, 16:49

    To those hoping to bypass BBC. Don’t get your hopes up. BBC have notoriously hard systems to crack. It will be fun reading all the non-UK viewers beg for ITV to come back next year.

  14. Striay
    19th November 2008, 17:08

    if you8 can see practice through the red button gr8 coz we get BBC TV here in Spain.

  15. beneboy
    19th November 2008, 18:30

    TommyBellingham

    I’m at uni, it seems stupid that BBC show live TV on the internet and want us to pay for a TV licence.

    The TV licence doesn’t just pay for BBC TV.

    It includes the cost of public service radio shows, all BBC T.V. channels, part of C4, E4, More4 etc, BBC on-line & the digital conversion that is currently under way in Britain.

    Advert free & James Allen free F1 next season will be worth the license fee alone :~)

  16. Sush
    19th November 2008, 19:42

    Alex – What was the image and sound quality like over iPlayer?

    most excellent *does air guitar*

    although can take a while too load, and buffer… but thats my laptop me thinks, 1300mhz athlon, 1gig of RAM.

  17. Sush
    19th November 2008, 19:45

    I’m at uni, it seems stupid that BBC show live TV on the internet and want us to pay for a TV licence

    of course you need to pay the licence for that.

    guess what, if you dont have a TV in your house but you have an FM radio, you need to pay TV Licence too. BBC RADIO1

  18. Terry Fabulous
    19th November 2008, 19:53

    Meanwhile over here in OZ we started the year with Channel 10 showing races delayed by hours.

    Yes, not only did we have ads, we also missed Bundle’s gridwalk, had no practise sessions and races were delayed! Malaysia started at 5pm and they broadcast it at 11pm!!

    However, sanity prevailed throughout the year and they started broadcasting every race live on their HD station. But still no gridwalk and with ads.

    However, next year we apparantly have a dedicated Sports channel, big news for us with our rubbish TV, which we will be watching for a lot more F1.

    Very excited.

    Although we will still have ads and not expecting gridwalk.

  19. Terry Fabulous
    19th November 2008, 19:56

    129 days

  20. Toby
    19th November 2008, 22:42

    Terry Fabulous – I’m in Melbourne. What’s this about a sports channel? Where can I read about it?

    James – Even if it had to do with Bernie, I don’t see him allowing worldwide internet broadcasts. F1’s stock would drop for each country’s F1 broadcaster, simply because their revenue comes from internal advertising. The only way I could see it happening is if we all watch it through our host broadcaster’s websites, where they could show their ads, and after paying huge subscription fees to FOM. Too difficult to set up imo, and not worth the risk to the bean counters.

  21. AmericanTifosi
    19th November 2008, 22:43

    Ah, great. No easy online F1 watching for foreigners.

  22. Robert McKay
    19th November 2008, 22:57

    guess what, if you dont have a TV in your house but you have an FM radio, you need to pay TV Licence too. BBC RADIO1

    Untrue.

    From the TVL website:

    Do I need a TV Licence to listen to the radio?
    No. You do not need a TV Licence to listen to the radio.

  23. chaostheory
    19th November 2008, 23:07

    i dont think it has anything to do with Bernie. Its bbcs policy or something cause i cant watch anything from them from where i live.

  24. Rui
    19th November 2008, 23:46

    http://www.truveo.com/Viewing-the-BBC-iPlayer-outside-of-the-UK-NO/id/249974080

  25. Yusuf
    20th November 2008, 0:45

    I tried watching the Germany v England match on the german zdf website which was showing live streaming. Since I am not a resident of Germany, they obviously blocked me.

    So I searched for some transparent German proxies which I did, and was subsequently confirmed by geoip that my location was Germany, Hamburg.

    Armed with this new German ip and proxy, I went to ZDF and was still blocked. So how did they know?

  26. Pink Peril
    20th November 2008, 1:52

    Yes Terry Fabulous – do tell ! Is that another Ten HD channel?

    I’d give anything not to have the ads. If I need a loo break or whatever, I can just pause TiVo and not miss a minute of the action, ads or no.

    And I can choose when to have the break – not when the TV station tells me I have to :/

  27. Anonymous
    20th November 2008, 2:50

    In Australia, Ten are setting up a brand new sport channel which will show live Formula 1 races.

    I don’t know about qualifying, practices, or grid walks, but I heard about a one hour qualifying and practice highlight section before the races.

    It will be broadcast in both standard and high definition.

  28. Terry Fabulous
    20th November 2008, 3:20

    Thanks Anonymous

  29. Sush
    20th November 2008, 10:09

    Do I need a TV Licence to listen to the radio?
    No. You do not need a TV Licence to listen to the radio

    I stand corrected! :)

  30. Rui
    20th November 2008, 13:06

    Yusuf

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server

    Take a look at Intercepting proxy server

    You can make bbc’s iplayer work with greasemonkey(firefox extension)

    http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=855976

  31. Doodis
    28th November 2008, 8:22

    hi,

    I posted a review of the ways to access BBC while you’re abroad:

    http://blog.watch-bbc.info/2008/11/28/how-to-watch-bbc-when-youre-abroad.aspx

    Please check it out and let me know your comments.

    cheers!

  32. Diamond Housand
    1st May 2010, 5:40

    You people can see cable channels on your PC over on these places.

    http://justin.tv http://bit.ly/cHzC97

    Booyah..

Comments are closed.