Rumour: BBC to stop live F1 from next year….

One rumour doing the rounds at the moment is that apparently the BBC are looking to pull out of Live F1 coverage all together next year.

It may simply show some form of highlights package, like it currently does for its “non live” races.

It has been almost two years since the BBC announced it would no longer screen every F1 race live, and would share Formula One broadcast rights with Sky TV until 2018. This was also announce in Hungary – the venue for this weekends race!

But these deals can be changed. In fact, the last two F1 television broadcasting deals in the UK were curtailed or altered before they reached their final year (ITV in 2008, BBC in 2011).

In previous years the Concorde Agreement, the F1 “commercial rulebook”, has had a requirement to broadcast some races on free-to-air television. However the Concorde Agreement ran out last year, and the sport does not currently have a commercial agreement in place.

F1 viewing figures fell by over 12% in 2012, the first year of the Sky deal.