BBC's F1 Deal With Sky Explained

The BBC's Formula One (F1) coverage will be back once again in 2012, bringing to life all the key action for viewers as the season unfolds - but in partnership with Sky.
Sky and the BBC have made key announcements about how they intend to cover F1 next season in the first year of their controversial new rights-sharing agreement, with Sky immediately launching a dedicated F1 channel in High Definition.
The BBC made the deal with Sky which will see the corporation broadcast only half the races live, announced that it would be showing the remaining 10 races in 'extended highlights’ programmes.
BBC coverage includes live TV broadcast of 10 Grands Prix, including Monaco, Silverstone and the season finale from Brazil, plus extended highlights of the other 10 races. All 20 Grands Prix will be live on BBC Radio 5 live or 5 live sports extra.
The BBC’s Head of Formula 1, Ben Gallop said: "We’re really looking forward to 2012 and what promises to be another great year of Formula 1 on the BBC. With presentation from the track at every race, we’ll be there every step of the way to tell the story of the season.
"Through a mix of live coverage and extended highlights, we’ll have the best of the action from both on and off the track, plus all the news, analysis and big-name interviews.”
Several Grands Prix will be live on BBC One and BBC HD in 2012 – China (15 April), Spain (13 May), Monaco (27 May), Europe (24 June), Britain (8 July), Belgium (2 Sept), Singapore (23 April), Korea (14 Oct), Abu Dhabi (4 Nov), Brazil (25 Nov).
The BBC’s coverage of all live races remains as comprehensive as ever with all the action on and off the track across TV, HD, radio, online, red button and mobile. All three practice sessions will be live on the red button and streamed live online.
There will be full coverage of both Qualifying and Grands Prix live on BBC One and BBC One HD, plus the one-hour Sunday evening highlights programme on BBC Three and BBC HD. Once again all races and qualifying sessions that start before 10am will have a full repeat on terrestrial TV later in the day. The F1 Forum will continue on the Red Button for an hour of comment and analysis after the race programme for all live races.
For those Grands Prix not shown live on BBC TV, the current ambition is to bring the best of the action to viewers through extended highlights on BBC One and BBC One HD.
Qualifying highlights will be 75 minutes. For early morning Grands Prix (those in the Far East time zone), two hours of highlights will be shown at 2pm, and for European time zone races, 90 minutes of highlights will be shown at 5.30pm. The full narrative of the weekend including, news, interviews, pictures and highlights of all sessions on track will also be available on the BBC Sport website and there will be live coverage of both qualifying and the race on radio.
All broadcast content will be available on the BBC iPlayer
Highlights and Qualifying of the Hungarian Grand Prix will be shown on BBC Two as this falls during the Olympics.
Meanwhile Sky will show live uninterrupted coverage of all 20 races and will be available to all Sky customers who take both Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 or the HD pack of channels. It will launch in March.
(BMcC/GK)