US sports broadcaster ESPN has agreed a deal with Sky Sports to bring the UK pay-television broadcaster’s coverage of the Formula One motor-racing series to its audiences.
In October, ESPN struck a multi-year deal to replace the NBC Sports division of media group NBCUniversal as the US rights-holder to Formula One.
The deal will commence with the 2018 season and brings F1 back to its original television home in the US. ESPN and ABC will televise all 21 races in the championship, with the latter network having aired the first Formula One race ever broadcast in the US in 1962.
More than 125 hours of Formula One programming, including all practice sessions, qualifying and races, will air live and in replay across ESPN and ABC platforms in 2018. However, ESPN will aid its return to F1 coverage through utilising the coverage of Sky, F1’s UK rights-holder.
ESPN and Sky Sports production personnel will work together on the US presentation, with Sky Sports producing special segments that will appear on various ESPN platforms to supplement the television coverage.
The agreement was reached between ESPN, Sky and Formula One. The 2018 F1 season gets underway on March 22-25 with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.