Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

F1 testing to be broadcast live on F1 TV Pro

2019 F1 season

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The first test of the 2019 F1 season will be broadcast live on F1 TV Pro, Formula One Management has announced.

Eight hours of testing will be broadcast each day from February 18th to 21st on the official live streaming service. A one-hour review show will be broadcast at the end of each day, and after each day of the second test, which runs February 26th to March 1st.

F1 TV Pro is available in 40 different countries. Viewers in other regions will also be able to watch testing live. Sky has announced it will screen five hours of testing per day on its F1 channel.

“By broadcasting testing for the first time, we are ensuring F1 TV Pro subscribers are rewarded with all the latest action from pre-season,” said F1’s director of digital, licensing and new business Frank Arthofer.

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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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21 comments on “F1 testing to be broadcast live on F1 TV Pro”

  1. Very nice that this is being made available in all countries that have F1 TV Pro.

    Eight hours of testing … A one-hour review show will be broadcast at the end of each day

    Again, very sensible they’re providing a one-hour review, that should be enough to cover the key action of the day.

  2. And Canada is left out again.

    1. Yeah noticed that too. Just checked the TSN website and no mention of covering any testing via Sky, since that is whose coverage we see.

    2. Well the TSN/RDS contract expires at the end of this season so hopefully FoM will get back the online rights in Canada for next season onwards (seems to what has happened in other countries where existing deals expired), even if the TV rights still remain with TSN.

  3. Why is it only for F1 TV Pro?
    Is it the TV contracts that prevent it?

  4. Oh good, another way to not be able to watch testing if you live in the UK and don’t fancy giving Sky your money.

  5. Its a no brainer to do this.
    They clearly need more time to test the improvements to the service before Melbourne and you simply can’t accurately simulate the demands of a live broadcast with real people watching via real data connections.

    I have a feeling that Sky are only broadcasting the test because they were approached first in order to provide the coverage for F1 TV.

    1. @eurobrun Sky are broadcasting it because they have always said that if testing coverage was made available they would take it, It’s something they have been pushing for for a while & don’t forget they produced live coverage of the final Barcaleona test themselves in 2013.

      This time around it’s an FOM production & they won’t be taking Sky’s coverage since Sky won’t be showing each day in full. The test’s start at 9am & F1TV will be covering everything from then, Sky won’t start there coverage until 1pm.

  6. Yeah, pretty good. Sigh, I am a bit sad, because I will be in the Netherlands, recovering from an OP until end of March – I can use Ziggo to view the AUS GP, but not my German f1TV pro account from here (maybe w. lot of VPN trying?) for testing. Oh well :)

    1. Your German F1TV account will work while your in the Netherlands & since I believe F1TV Pro will be available in the Netherlands this year you should have access to the live coverage.

  7. Can anyone confirm that this thing actually works without lags in decent quallity? At list how was it close to past season end? I didn’t get it from the start cause they were huge complains on performance issues.

  8. Having never seen testing coverage before are there pundits for 8 hours or is it just a raw feed of the track?

    1. MOTOGP show testing once the season is finished. Each day im pretty sure is 6/8hrs live coverage. There are pundits and it is surprisingly very interesting. They do get access to the garages and riders etc. Not sure how much access the coverage would get with F1 though as usually it looks very guarded once they do test. F1 needs to take a leaf out of the MOTOGP book and allow the viewer better viewing access inside the team

    2. @eastman There will be commentary & some coverage from the pits/paddock but there will be limited access to the teams and also very likely relatively limited running on the track as there always tends to be for the first test.

      The first test is always the least interesting in terms of track running because it’s more about gathering data than doing fast laps. There also tends to be a lot of time spent in the pits checking things over & with only 1 car from each team running it can get very dull very quickly which is why i’m so surprised they decided to cover the first test rather than the second.

  9. I don’t get it… Here in Greece, we could watch F1 live (paid subscription) from CosmoteTV (Friday and Saturday Practice, Qualification, and Race) and FTA from ERT (only the races and some of them not even live). F1 TV Pro was not an option and I get it because that agreement happened 3 years ago (no F1 TV available then). Cosmote TV lost the F1 rights for the next 3 seasons though and now ERT (FTA) will provide the coverage for all three days live. But with worst coverage for the end viewer because while Cosmote TV NEVER showed ads during all the sessions, ERT shows nothing but ads…

    Why isn’t F1 TV PRO available in Greece for us that paid a subscription to Cosmote TV (30 Euro per month) just to watch the F1 Races??? Why shouldn’t die-hard fans have the chance of paying to get better coverage in order to watch the sport they like when the option, the technology and the platform to do so is already there??????

    Why make me break the law and try to find illegal live feeds when I am willing to pay for it (I am, 6 years now (Cosmote) and will stop doing so when my subscription expires because they lost the F1 rights)…

    And for those ready to say that Sky commentary sucks (F1 TV PRO commentary) because it’s biased etc, you have never heard the Greek commentary… They do what they can and while they are not biased, they lack technical knowledge and still try to explain technical stuff… Not pretty at all…

    1. Its not availible because ERT(FTA) pays more than you.

      1. LOL!!!!!! Best timing in the world?? :) hehehehe!!!!

  10. Is F1 TV pro going to be available in the uk this year?

    1. No. Check back in 2025 (thank you, Sky, for exclusive online rights in the UK preventing alternative options until long after everyone else can do them).

  11. Jonathan Teague
    27th January 2019, 10:18

    Even the 2018 races in the F1 TV Archive are geoblocked so UK users cant even watch them even though we were promised access to the archive!

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