F1 TV streaming service

F1 TV to launch in 40 countries but VPN access will be blocked

2018 F1 season

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Formula One fans will be blocked from using virtual private networks from accessing F1 TV in the regions where it is not being made available at launch.

F1’s director of digital and new business Frank Arthofer said “best-in-class content security” will be used to stop fans using VPNs to access the new service.

F1 television camera, 2017
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“We’re working with our technology partners who are yet to be named – with the exception of Tata – who will be part of the product to put in place best-in-class content security and protection,” he said.

“That’s always been a fairly conservative position we’ve taken from a Formula One perspective. Put another way, we’ve been aggressive in protecting our IP and will continue to do so on this service.”

However F1 TV could eventually be made available to fans in regions where the service isn’t being launched initially. “In the markets where we haven’t carved the [digital] rights out, like the UK as an example, we’re very open to working with our partners to consider a path to up-selling this product to our broadcast partners’ customer base,” said Arthofer.

Formula One is launching its F1 TV Pro service which will bring live streaming of F1 races over the internet without a pay television subscription for the first time. Arthofer said it will be available in “about 40 countries at launch”.

The full F1 TV Pro service will give fans access to onboard streams from all 20 cars plus the world feed and three other channels, “one of which will be a data channel and two others are still in development,” said Arthofer.

“So actually it’s a bit groundbreaking from a sports perspective in that for the first time ever one individual sport will be streaming 24 different feeds from the same event on a live, simultaneous basis.”

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F1 is targeting two groups of fans with the F1 TV product which it hopes to launch in time for the first race of the season in Australia, said Arthofer.

“Firstly it’s fans who don’t have cable but are Formula One fans in a given market where it’s available on a pay-TV basis and they’d like to subscribe directly,” he explained.

“And the second demographic is the super-hardcore fans. We have by our estimates around 500 million Formula One fans in the world, about 5% percent of the world’s population, which is quite a number. If even conservatively 1% of that customer base is a super-avid hardcore fan, that’s 5 million addressable audience to who would potentially be willing to pay the incremental fee for what is really the best way to watch Formula One in the market.”

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93 comments on “F1 TV to launch in 40 countries but VPN access will be blocked”

  1. And IT savvy people will be working just as hard to circumvent the security. Its an unfortunate fact of life in the IT world these days that “best of class” security is only that for a fairly short period.

    I like the idea of what they are doing – I currently have to pay Fox in Australia to view races and we get pretty good coverage that costs quite a bit per month but I’m wondering if the proposed price point for F1 TV is a bit high for a single series in comparison to similar services like Netflix that offers a wider range of content?

    1. The IT-savvy people won’t even need to work as hard. All FOM and partners can do is block IP addresses from known VPN providers. Any computer on the Internet with an appropriately geo-located IP address (e.g. in one of the countries where the service is available) could be used to forward traffic to anywhere else.

      I think the price point is excellent – F1 is the only reason I buy NowTV passes, and that works out much more expensive over the course of the year (hence why it won’t be available in the UK)…

      1. Where did you see a price?

        1. The F1 site has this article that states:

          Pricing for F1 TV Pro will be offered on a monthly basis of USD$8-$12, and annual rates will be priced according to market.

          1. I’m TOTALLY in with this program. I’d gladly pay that much per month to see the entire weekend with no adverts and no filtering of pre/post race content by the US coverage! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

            Now, PLEASE make this available for our F1 Brothers and Sisters around the world. Everyone should have this option if they want it.

        2. Does anyone know why F1 is quoting a price *range*: $8-$12? What is the difference between the $8 and the $12 service?

      2. Exactly. Anybody creating a VPN connection to their on-line aunt (in one of the serviced markets) will be never be blocked. They can only chase/block IP addresses which are (commercially) widely used.

        I would not be surprised if F1 sites with fanatic followers will bring fans together to create those ‘private internet tunnels’ ;)

        PS big applause to Libert; they have jettisoned F1 into the 21st century within 12 months.

      3. > Any computer on the Internet with an appropriately geo-located IP address (e.g. in one of the countries where the service is available) could be used to forward traffic to anywhere else.

        And what has that to do with a standard VPN service one can buy?

    2. OMG this is like a comment from Bernie himself. Or someone euqually unaware of the situations.
      Who has the time to do this. It will only be done if it’s super easy.

    3. He says “best in class” because he is some VP who doesn’t understand computers, or understands but wants to sound cool or give an ambiguous answer. Blocking IP addresses of VPN servers itself isn’t rocket science. You start by blocking the most popular ones, that already gives a pretty good coverage and then the word spreads out that “VPNs are blocked”. You might find smaller VPN provider that isn’t yet blocked, but then one day it get blocked too and you’re back to square one. Are you going to an 1-year subscription of a new VPN service every other week?

      Netflix has been pretty successful at this, and I’ve seen much much smaller streaming services do the same.

      1. They just have to prove to the likes of Sky who they have sold rights too that they have gone to all reasonable measures not to act as competition to them. Alternatively they could provide compensation to Sky for estimated lost subscriptions. There are companies who have collected a lot of data on VPN usage on a country by country basis, through surveys in order to determine how the consume content. Sky should be negotiating with them as we speak. In fact all media companies should be lobbying Governemnts to ensure they are allowed to compete with this service. Teams also need to ask, how does/will this affect TV money?

  2. What are the 40 countries?

  3. Anything can be reverse engineered

    1. @x-f1-x Actually, no it can’t, not now or the near future at least. Possibly in a future of quantum computing, but various encryption technologies are not yet open to interpretation.

      Workarounds on the other hand, will happen.

      1. It’s not the actual protocols that gets hacked, its the hardware/software running the protocols.

    2. Someone who can figure that out on their own probably has a good enough job that pays well to the point where they can afford the subscription to begin with.

  4. Probably that the system blocking vpn will also block some people regular connection as it will be considered vpn due to the configuration of the network provider… Expect a lot of problems on that front at the first few races.

    Or maybe they have to announce it to be in line with the current contract in place (UK).

  5. Do we have a list of the 40 countries?

    1. @phylyp When we know, you’ll know!

      1. That’s your slogan right there!

        1. What was wrong with ‘F1 First’ and ‘Make F1 Great Again’ ;)

  6. Well, i’m hoping some clever people are beavering away at circumventing this! Frustrating to hear, to say the least.

    1. The issue is local TV rights. I am sure they want to provide the service to 100% of countries in the world, and would’ve if it was possible.

      Over here we have (not-so-)Supersport who have the monopoly on any sport that is worth anything globally, so no circumventing that. It’s the same in many other countries.

      1. Sorry, perhaps I should have been clearer – circumventing the VPN issue, not the contract.

        1. I’m sure if you google something like ‘vpn block’ there will be solutions out there. Prohibition rarely works…

          1. VirtuaMcPolygon
            28th February 2018, 22:07

            I suspect they will also be letting users only sign up with local billing addresses and credit cards. Liberty already do this for Sirius XM stopping non US and Can people subscribe to the service.

      2. Willem Cecchi (@)
        28th February 2018, 13:55

        Dewald, waar daar ‘n wil is, is daar ‘n weg. :)

        1. Vertel on net hoe

          1. Vertel ons net hoe

  7. Yeung Cheuk Hin
    28th February 2018, 12:01

    Please be available in SINGAPORE 🇸🇬!

  8. Did you realise that the world now had 10 billion inhabitants? Man, these F1 guys really have knowledge none of us have.

    1. Ha ha. Good spot. But the super-hardcore fans wont mind.

    2. just want to know the next level after super-hard. Does this work like tyres?

      1. Apologies for bold, no idea how…

      2. We may see ‘Die-Hard’ tyres honoring the die-hard fans of F1.
        On the other end, we may have (care-a)-‘damn-soft’ tyres for the rest of the world–95% of the population according to FOM.

    3. I’m all for sarcasm, but in terms of ballpark figures, 5% is extremely close to 6.58%, and a lot more intuitive.

    4. “The world” only has 300 million people, the “rest of” apparently has 3 billion doppelgangers.
      Hbo and netflix have made zero efforts to stop vpn, why? It hurts more than it recoups, hbo doesn’t care if you are sharing your account nor if people are watching their shows on hbo online rather than to whom they sold the rights. ISP don’t report every pirate on the web, because otherwise why have internet, for communications only?

  9. I can see this going to the European court, consumers (in the uk) are being forced to sign up with one company to access content when there is a cheaper alternative being blocked.

    1. @emu55 good point, I think it goes against the free trade deal laws in Europe. However if this is based in the states I think there won’t be much to discuss I’m afraid. A bit like Netflix and Amazon that have different content depending on region

    2. If that was even approaching a working argument, the EU would have stamped on most Pay-per-View years ago.

    3. Here’s what I found relating to the case of pub landlords in UK using foreign decoders to show Premier League matches, as you can see, it seems pretty messy and relies on a lot of technical points regarding enforceable usage of copyright etc.
      https://www.sports.legal/2016/12/pubs-football-and-satellite-decoder-cards-the-latest-instalment/

      Reading that I can imagine any court that was launched on that issue would be long and drawn out.

      Also of course, come 2019, (2021, whenever Brexit actually does happen) the Uk will no longer be subject to those EU laws. And I believe sky has the Uk rights (including online) signed up until 2024?

      I did read in an article yesterday that Liberty suggested they could discuss with Broadcast partners in certain territories who hold online rights, ways of collaborating to offer F1 TV to fans in those countries as well. Be interesting to see where it goes.

  10. As cool as this sounds, and as much as this is exactly what I wanted as a cable cutter in the States – I do think I’m going to miss Crofty, Brundle, and the rest from Sky.

    But at least it won’t be on the execrable ESPN with its constant commercials and preemptive scheduling that makes you switch to a ESPN2 if you want to see the conclusion any particular sporting event.

    1. @zapski i am guessing you missed the news about sky/ESPN for 2018?

    2. I’m also prefer the Sky commentators. Is there any new about the who will be doing the Englis commentary on the F1 TV Pro service?

  11. Here’s some more information from the media Q&A on F1 TV including what’s in the video archive:

    https://www.racefans.net/2018/02/28/f1-tv-archive-will-bring-include-new-80s-and-90s-race-video-to-fans/

    1. That is great news. Historical races from the authoritative source. Awesome!

      It would be nice if Race Fans could have a weekly feature of a past noteworthy race (a brief race review/recap), so that newer fans like me can have a nice guided experience to watch specific worthwhile races.

      While access to a vast library is nice, I don’t see myself going and watching entire past seasons at a time (nor would I have the time).

  12. It feels like I’ve been waiting ages for a service like this and then we can’t get it in the UK because of the existing SKY contract in place!
    I guess we get to let others test and troubleshoot the service before us. But will there be many F1 fans left by the time they get to push this out to the UK?

    1. You will have to thank Bernie for that one, he signed the Sky deal (till 20125!) just before he sold it!

  13. Fingers crossed then!

  14. I really hope they continue to make an OnBoard-Mix available as they have for many years now (The one that is FOM directed & includes the rev-counter) as I would prefer been able to put that up on a 2nd screen alongside the world-feed & not have to worry about switching between all 20 cameras myself.
    https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4709/40492975092_05ed1dab07_o.jpg

    I just like the ease of starting up the OB-Mix & been able to just leave it. With other categories such as Formula E that just offers the individual OnBoards I find I just don’t bother as trying to switch between them myself takes my focus off the racing & I always find that it messes up the sync with the world-feed everytime you switch.

    Not saying I don’t want them to offer all the OnBoards, Just that I hope they do that & keep the Mix.

    1. @stefmeister i agree with that.
      for as nice as having all the onboard cams would be i dont want to having to be distracted through a race having to try and find what shot is currently the best to watch. the onboard camera mix that has been around for 20 years or so in one form or another was way more useful given how it had a dedicated director who often ensured it was following the best action.

      giving access to all the camera individually yet doing away with the onboard camera mix is not a good idea and makes it less useful than what we already get. give us both all the cameras and have a dedicated and directed onboard camera mix just as we have had for many years now. give us more but don’t take anything that we already had away, especially something as useful as the onboard mix was.

      1. I agree – replacing the onboard mix with total freedom across all on-board cameras may be too much to deal with. It may be better to limit to, say, 5 well-directed on-board streams. Or best of all, having both options of either following any driver, or choosing from some of the directed on-board mixes. Done properly, having both options would not require any additional video bandwidth.

        However, currently the directors of the 3 cameras that Sky offers on the red button aren’t doing a great job of focussing on the action. They clearly need simple software that uses the timing data to calculate when a driver is on a slow lap during qualifying, as they are clearly unable to see this, or are too busy and understaffed. The software could even do the switching on their behalf.

        For the race, they should develop an even simpler piece of software that feeds the viewer the drivers who have the smallest time gap to the car ahead. If only a few close battles are taking place, then dedicate a stream to a rearward facing camera from the car ahead of the small gap. Or switch to a driver who just set a personal best sector. If they can figure out how to broadcast 25 streams simultaneously, they can write this simple “AI director” software.

        I expect one day in the future they will move to 360 degree cameras allowing the viewer to not only choose which in-car camera to view, but also to pan and zoom the ‘camera’ to follow the action (this would choose which part of the image to view – the camera would not physically rotate). Again, this could be better served with assistance from AI software, which could use timing data (and maybe later GPS and telemetry) to automatically follow a car drawing alongside, perhaps with the option for director and maybe the viewer to override it. This is not as trivial as my above idea for an AI choosing streams, but is all very doable. And a lot easier if you’re only streaming the drivers on hot laps or battling each other.

        Also, F1 should copy Formula E’s new idea in the on-screen graphics showing the drivers’ race positions. FE vertically space them out according to the time difference between each pair of drivers. If less than about 1 sec, there is no gap; if 1-4 secs, they give a half-line gap; and more than 4 secs get a full line’s gap. It looks a bit untidy on screen until you understand this, but after that it’s extremely intuitive. The actual numbers can be shown sometimes too. F1 instead expects us to do some mental arithmatic to instantly picture who is battling, which not everybody enjoys.

        As for hearing that Bernie is effectively still screwing us over, well, all I can say is, first Brexit, now this. Why do I bother with this country? And is stealing still stealing when the shopkeeper refuses to sell you the thing you want based on where you live? OK… maybe it is…

        Anyway, on the whole, it is an exciting path by Liberty – I just hope I get to see it without getting ripped off even more.

        1. Pretty much my view of the situation. I’d sign up to the Pro channel in a heartbeat, if the wretched Murdoch-owned Sky (in the UK) weren’t gobbling up all the footage. Another five or six years to wait???

  15. “In the markets where we haven’t carved the [digital] rights out, like the UK as an example, we’re very open to working with our partners to consider a path to up-selling this product to our broadcast partners’ customer base,” said Arthofer.

    So, in the UK if I don’t want to pay Sky to watch F1 coverage from next year, I’ll have the opportunity to pay Sky an inflated price for a direct F1 service which is available in many other markets of the world because Bernie decided to screw the UK as he didn’t understand what the word “digital” meant (other than the single digit salute he gave to the UK for TV rights) – Remember, Bernie is for life, not just for Christmas… the gift that keeps on giving.

  16. There’s no way to ‘block’ decent VPNs other than blacklisting every VPN server IPs in the world, which is a flawed solution. Don’t worry much as it will be as ineffective as Netflix VPN blocking for example.

    1. Actually there are technical approaches (other than blocking VPN IP addresses) to blocking VPNs which work well. China is successfully doing that now. I don’t know what approach Netflix uses, but it also very successful at blocking VPNs.

      But those in countries without F1 TV Pro can still go to the F1 subreddit and find reliable HD F1 feeds for every race, so no tears, please.

  17. Tenniel O'Brien
    28th February 2018, 14:06

    We have Bernie Ecclestone to thank for granting Sky exclusive television rights to the sport for 5 years between 2019 and 2024. I’d rather not wish my life away but the sooner 2025 comes around the better. Can’t see sky dropping their prices or making Now TV any cheaper! Hopefully Sky’s already deteriorating sports service continues in that fashion!

  18. Any list of countries available? The initial 40 ?

  19. When is Sky UK contract up? Would FOM get more money from charging 5 pounds a race weekend for this than they currently get from Sky? (if you divide number of viewers on Sky by race weekend over the season against what they pay). Sky are so annoying that they have whole F1 channel and only 30 minutes every night for testing updates. Why not have people at the circuit all day for proper reporting none stop? Car launches, where are these live or an in depth report afterword’s (loads of these on Youtube). Why not have a proper technical person to go through the launches and testing as it happens? Currently have to put up with that idiot Ted Kravitz who is unprofessional and thick.

    1. Ted is great, he’s worth the price of admission alone.

      1. As a clown I agree but for proper technical insight? You Tube has many great independents doing analysis but why can’t Sky do this and cover launches and testing in depth? For the amount you have to pay most the time it’s just a loop of silly 15 minute interludes like Johnny Herbert in a pie eating contest.

    2. I miss my man Will Buxton. This new deal with streaming scared NBC away from F1 after last season was over. I’ll miss Leigh Diffy, Steve Matchett, and David Hobbs. Leigh is sticking with NBC and David retired. Hopefully at least Liberty can put Will to work on F1 TV.

  20. So here’s something to think about. This news has reminded me that this is the last year there will be F1 available to watch FTA in the UK. This is sad news, because I can’t afford to pay for Sky, so realistically next year I’m probably not going to bother watching F1, and likely won’t again until at least 2024, if I haven’t lost interest completely by then. This is speaking as a lifelong fan, whose interest in F1 was kindled in the 80s watching my heroes battling it out on the television. Watching the F1 was a father-son pastime.

    What strikes me as really sad about this, is that my daughter just turned one; She enjoys motorsport being on the TV because it’s bright and colourful and makes interesting noises. But it was always my hope that as she got older and more able to understand what is happening on the screen, she might enjoy spending time with me, watching today’s heroes as I once did with my Dad three decades ago. Because of Sky and Ecclestone, this now seems incredibly unlikely. I’ll find other ways of spending quality time wiht my little girl of course, but it probably won’t be motorsport related, and in all likelihood she won’t grow up to be an F1 fan in the way I did.

    That’s what I find so gutting about all of this; it makes people have to work very hard to be F1 fans, and for those who know nothing about it, making it disappear completely behind a paywall will more or less guarantee that there will be no new fans in the UK.

    1. There will probably so many more secondary live streams of this content; I feel like FOM will have a hard time squashing those. Silver lining!

      1. @rpiian If they bother anyway – I mean I don’t think they really want to not give the UK the service it’s just that Bernie did….yeah

    2. You have to take a nice night of sleep and lower your progesterone levels. Or write an hollywood argument called “Lady F1” and I’m sure you’ll get nominated for the oscars.

      1. @peartree Literally no idea what this means whatsoever

        1. @mazdachris you sound depressed, you have a young kid and a mazda so sleep time and money are not easy and you show it. Just looking on the bright side here, and teasing. Have you seen the oscar nominated film “lady bird”, it’s such a basic, banal story, it’s not a good film. Your story however is a niche story a film based on the struggles of a young parent that can’t afford to watch a passion that lives within his own country, gripping.

    3. You’re only realistic choice is to use NowTV. I think its around 8 quid a race – still cheaper than getting full Sky

      1. It’s a vaguely acceptable choice for half the season, but for the whole thing? If you want to watch qualifying as well you have to pay £11 for a week pass. On a 21 race calendar that’s setting you back £231. And for that money, you’re getting a poor quality (not full hd) stream you can only watch live with no catch up. It’s a rubbish service which is way overpriced.

        1. What’s the minimum cost to get Sky with F1? Annoyance is cannot get basic package and just add the F1 channel you have to pay for all the chav ball as well. Then again that 231 for Now TV for year is drastically less than many mobile phone contracts, possibly get a SIM free phone contract with a cheap Chinese smart phone online and probably pay for F1 on Now TV and still come out in the black?

          1. They’re doing a deal at the moment for new customers where you can get the Sky Sports package for £40 pcm for the first 18 months, then £58 pcm therafter. For existing Sky customers it’s £18 per month on top of your existing subscription.

            So the cheapest option for Sky Sports on Sky is £480 per year. I’m not sure what access you get to catch-up/recording facilities with that, as it’s not clear from the advert and I’m out of the loop with Sky these days.

            I wouldn’t mind the NowTV offering if it let you watch the race on demand. There have been times when I’ve paid for the week’s access then for whatever reason missed the race (this is something that can happen a lot when you have a newborn baby), and so I’ve not got to watch the race at all and wasted my money.

            As you say, it’s annoying because most of the cost of Sky Sports is there to subsidise Sky paying huge amounts to secure the broadcast rights for the footbore. If it was a tailored package akin to motorsport.tv, or something with broader reach like Eurosport Player, then I would be interested.

  21. Does this mean that F1 will not be renew Sky’s contract after 2024 (when the current one runs out)?

    1. Well, Virgin Media does happen to be owned by Liberty, which is terribly handy.

  22. Claiming you will block VPN access is just another way to say “I know nothing about IT”

    1. Exactly right – as an IT guy phrases like that just make me think – challenge accepted.

      My guess would be they aim to block ‘the majority’ of commercial VPN offers – it wouldn’t be too hard to find their IP ranges and block those. Of course the super hard core IT guys could launch a EC2 instance or VPS and roll their own solution – but that probably isn’t a major (volume) concern.

      If they were to target devices (specifically iOS) then geo blocking through an app that uses GPS is a lot easier and harder to circumvent.

  23. so looking at the list of feeds it seems there taking stuff away from us.

    it’s the 20 onboard cameras, the world feed & 3 others one of which is data & the other 2 still been worked on.

    up until now we had the world feed, onboard mix, pit lane, timing screen, driver tracker, data channel & highlights channel. yes having all 20 cars onboards is nice but i really hope they keep at least the onboard mix and pit lane channel alongside them, the onboard mix especially is way more useful than the 20 individual feeds.

    having the 20 individual onboard feeds but doing away with onboard mix would be like giving everyone all the track cameras but doing away with the world feed. yes you have more video options but i bet most would rather just stick to the directed world feed/onboard mix & not have to worry about doing all of the switching around the feeds themselves.

    give us more for those that want them but please do not take any of the exiting ones away, especially something as useful as the onboard camera mix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  24. Ι saw a pick on Twitter about the 40 countries…
    No Greece,no Holland,no Brazil,no Uk…

    https://twitter.com/RoksanaCw/status/968874339495022592?s=19

  25. I’m sure ‘Globo’ has a deal with F1 and this service is never going to be allowed in Brazil. Viewers will be stuck forever with the dumbest broadcast of the world. Main topics for this year will definitely include:
    – blame someone or something for the lack of Brazilians drivers in f1
    – how F1 was much better in the 80s
    – nonsense about the {halo, PU, tires, etc}
    – rain might come any second and save this boring race
    – if hamilton, after completing 40 laps on ultra softs and now running ultra hards with 15 laps to go, has to pit again, we will have a fight for the race
    – williams knew massa was better but needed the money
    – the official broadcast plays too many radio messages
    – blame the quality of the audio when they completely fail to translate the clearest radio messages ever
    – completely miscalculate the gap necessary to make a pit stop and keep track position

    I can’t wait.

  26. Any word on what sort of live commentary will accompany the streams, if any?

    1. @estesark They will be taking commentary from the various broadcasters already producing commentary in that language.

      For instance the English language option will use Sky’s commentary, The German language option will use the RTL commentary & so on…..

      However all the Pre/Post race content as well as all exclusive features will be produced by FOM using a team that will be officially announced next week. Expect it to include many of those you already see on official F1 social media content (Will Buxton for instance).

      1. Oh same will be true for archive content, They will use commentary from the various broadcasters from the time (BBC, RTL, RAI etc….).

        And I also believe there will be a no commentary option for all feeds both live & archive (Where possible).

      2. If Will’s doing the interviews, I’m buying F1TV. I just wish it would launch on Android TV so I can watch it on my new tv. Stuck with the 22″ until they make it available.

      3. @gt-racer
        The English commentary will be from Sky UK
        The French commentary will be from Canal+
        The German commentary will be from RTL
        and the Spanish commentary i’m assuming will be from Canal+ Latin America, as they have the rights there.

        Will you be restricted to a particular language based on your geo-location, or can anyone choose between English, French, German & Spanish commentary?

        Finally where does this leave FOM’s own pre & post race coverage from Buxton & co, will that be in English regardless of what race commentary you’re listening on?

  27. Constantijn Blondel
    28th February 2018, 19:23

    I’m prownot the first one to point this out but the ‘look at how many parallel live streams we have’ angle has been out- and pre-wowed by WRC’s all live in terms of technical and logistic prowess.

    That’s just an observation. I think the new age of F1 is pretty cool just … like the sport itself, and the caliber of drivers and competition, WRC is just a bit more … oh well, I still love F1, and go Max! :)

    1. Constantijn Blondel
      28th February 2018, 19:24

      *probably not.

      I don’t know what my phone was thinking there :)

  28. Did they really say “willing to pay the incremental fee”?

    I’d much prefer an incidental fee.

  29. Think they got a better solution than blocking VPN
    All they need is to block the payment from countries not allowed to join.
    So you may use a VPN but how do you pay for the service?

  30. Regarding how they will block your VPN…. From the FAQ:

    Q: How will I pay for F1 TV?
    A: You will be able to pay using any of the major credit cards. In order to authenticate the country in which you live, both your IP stream and credit card address will have to match an authorized F1 TV market.

    Meaning that unless your IP (via VPN) and credit-card match – it won’t work.

  31. Considering EU laws, they can’t block access to the streams e.g. to German costumer travelling within EU borders. And VPN companies have ways to circumvent geo locks. It’s not like F1 came with the idea first. Viewers are able to watch UK restricted content on bbc and sky websites easily.

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