With the 2009 season of F1 returning to the BBC, questions have been asked about the availability of broadcasts over the internet.
Having acquired the rights to televise F1 in March last year, twelve years after losing the sport to ITV, the BBC promised that they would be using the web to deliver coverage. Now they have confirmed that the race and qualifying sessions will be broadcast live over the internet for UK consumers. Following that, all footage will be available to download over their digitial distribution service, iPlayer, which allows files to be stored and viewed for up to 7 days.
“The qualifying and races will be streamed live on the BBC website for UK consumption and the BBC1 F1 transmissions will be available on the iPlayer.” Richard Carr, senior F1 producer on BBC TV Sport
The first race will be the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, Melbourne, and will be held on 29th March.