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[Deuce]

Just signed up to ask a question... How do I do this???

I understand that here in the UK Sky have the rights, so I understand why my F1TV subscription has its limitations regards live content. But there appears to be no legal option in the UK to watch the majority of old races. F1TV has about a third of the old races, that's it. Sky shows old races more or less at random, I can't get the 2015 sotchi race 'on demand' for example.

How can this be? The race footage clearly exists, and people in the UK want to hand over money to watch the old races... how can no one be offering a way of buying the races? I can't think of any other example of something being impossible to buy to watch outside of F1 lol, it's crazy!

Not to mention it invites piracy - I have googled this looking for a solution and endless threads I find result in probably perfectly decent people resorting to searching for torrents, as unbelievably the pirates are making a better job of distributing historic content than the official channels do. An issue compounded by the fact that even the races that are on F1TV, don't automatically play in the language I have selected in my account... On my desktop I can change the language in the video player but on mobile it's not possible.

Am I missing something here? Is there a service I am not aware of? Or is it literally watch illegally or don't watch?

[myownalias]

I also have a subscription to F1TV, and the old races are patchy, there are a lot of "in review" programs for the races, but not full races.

I'm living in the USA, so I am free from restriction due to broadcast rights contracts. From my understanding, it's a work in progress situation as F1 add races from yesteryear.

[Deuce]

Yup, and to be fair they have continued to add new old races to the archive. I guess one day it'll get there.

We won't ever get the F1TV experience you do in the States though, at least not until they stop being so reliant on SKY licensing income.

[myownalias]

We won't ever get the F1TV experience you do in the States though, at least not until they stop being so reliant on SKY licensing income.

It was the same here until 2018, NBCSN had exclusive rights, which happen to end this year when F1TV launched, NBCSN declined to have a non-exclusive contract, so ESPN picked up F1 for free, using the SKY broadcast. So maybe, something similar will happen when the SKY contract ends, I can see Liberty wanting total control of F1's broadcasts.

[Deuce]

We won't ever get the F1TV experience you do in the States though, at least not until they stop being so reliant on SKY licensing income.

It was the same here until 2018, NBCSN had exclusive rights, which happen to end this year when F1TV launched, NBCSN declined to have a non-exclusive contract, so ESPN picked up F1 for free, using the SKY broadcast. So maybe, something similar will happen when the SKY contract ends, I can see Liberty wanting total control of F1's broadcasts.

That's my hope/dream! The exclusive rights have been round several networks here in the UK, currently split between two networks, with half the races available for free on one, and the other half requiring a subscription on Sky!?

I don't mind paying, just want an easy life and all races in one damn place, and all on demand. Since it's 2018... Seems reasonable!

[myownalias]

A possible option could be to use a US-based VPN, then sign up to F1TV, it doesn't ask for an address, just 'country of residence', and select USA.

Just make sure you're connected to the VPN before signing and et voila.

I don't know if this will actually work with F1TV, but I have used the reverse, use a UK VPN to access the BBC, ITV etc with great success.