How to watch F1 on TV?

knightstyle

What is the best way?  We are with Virgin for TV and BB.  Looked at the Virgin prices but they want me to pay £31.75 extra a month for it!

400ixl

Unfortunately Sky have an exclusive deal for live F1 in the UK, even the F1 TV streaming service does not allow you to watch from the UK (and they have been known to cancel contracts for VPN use).

Channel 4 does broadcast some races live that Sky agree to and most on a delayed (+2.5 hours is the contractual requirement) schedule.

So very limited I'm afraid. NowTV (part of Sky) for offer monthly or day subscriptions, but from what I can see, the Virgin offer is cheaper, especially if there is more than one race in a month. BT likewise, but you need more services I believe.

Don't know of any other way to do it legally.

PZ19

Nearer start of season use now tv.  They may have  an offer.  Your first port of call is to ring virgin and see what they are willing to add sports channels for.  As it’s contract price rise time. Call up click thinking of leaving and say you want the sports channels but too expensive, so thinking of going to sky (currently £41pm) they will quote you price, probably too much, say you want to cancel, you then get through to cancellations dept who may well offer you another cheaper price.  From then on if you are happy then with what they offer you, accept it or play the cancellation game, put your 30 day notice in and hope for a retentions call.  Be aware they don’t ring everyone, but anytime within that 30 day period you can withdraw your cancellation and continue as now on your current contract.  Also make sure to say you want sky sports in Hd.  Virgin normally charge £7 extra for that

knightstyle

Thanks, that confirms what I found.  So will probably stay with the Chanel4 offerings, just so frustrating as I  have to pay for a lot of things I do not want just to watch F1.

Bigphil1474

OP, I upgraded my Virgin bundle last year to include Sky sports and HD sports, the price went up by about £18 a month, and I was paying now TV £20 a month at the time, so win win. Our contract was up with Virgin though - we took up a new bundle so some of the saving may have been made anyway.

I think they have 23 races this season - if you are happy with just watching the race, you can get Now TV sports day passess that cost about £10 - they last exactly 24 hours so usually can;t include qualifying as well as the race on one pass. So for 23 races that's £230 ish, equivelant to £23 a month for 10 months. You can then obviously not buy a pass when the race is on C4, which would reduce the price. Now TV often do a Formula 1 season pass - last time i got that it was about £180 for 10 months but that was a few years ago - this is the best deal and does include all the sports channels as well. You can go full Now TV sports pass anyway, which starts at £33 p/m ish, but if you cancel within the first month, you usually get an offer to stay for about £20 a month. Can be hit and miss though, but if you can get it for £20 a month and there's 3 races in a month, then that's cheaper.

As above, I'd give Virgin a ring and see what they can do rather than just looking at the prices. Or try online chat via the MyVirgin website - waiting times are long at the moment, but they will do the chat on WhatsApp so you can get on with your day. Managed to renwew my dad's package yesterday and saved him a tenner a month for a better package - from start to finish was about 5 hours, but I was able to work while waiting for them to respond.

knightstyle

Thanks, I will be away from home with poor internet for some of the year so will probably go for just the chanel4 stuff. 
Currently pay Virgin £29.99 a month for 100BB, basic TV and a home phone.