I think there were enough viewers to justify the expense purely on numbers but F1 is one of the more divisive sports as some people absolutely hate it and yet their licence fee is going towards buying the rights for it. In the UK I would expect the viewing figures to go down as over 6 million people watched the Silverstone GP whilst not everyone can afford or get Sky and F1 is one of sports where you usually either watch most races or just one or two rather than watching half a season.
The main issue is that the BBC had an existing agreement that ran for another two years that they could have just held on to and then let Sky have everything afterwards which would have probably been a better option. Hopefully the teams / Pirelli will block the deal as there is an agreement for F1 to be on free to air TV.
The main issue is that the BBC had an existing agreement that ran for another two years that they could have just held on to and then let Sky have everything afterwards which would have probably been a better option. Hopefully the teams / Pirelli will block the deal as there is an agreement for F1 to be on free to air TV.