Formula 1 on Tivo8k: the race weekend in your time zone and your language

Who carries Formula 1 on the Tivo8k list

Formula 1 sells its television rights market by market, usually for several seasons at a time. These are the broadcasters that hold it in each country in recent seasons, all of them channels in our list:

• United Kingdom and Ireland: Sky Sports F1, a channel given over to the sport, in English.
• Canada: TSN in English and RDS in French.
• Australia and New Zealand: Fox Sports 501–507 and the Kayo channels in Australia, Sky Sport NZ across the Tasman.
• Europe: Canal+ in France, Sky Sport IT in Italy, Sky DE in Germany and DAZN ES in Spain, each in its own language.
• Sub-Saharan Africa: SuperSport, in English.

In the USA, Formula 1 is not on a channel in our American groups at the time of writing, so viewers there can pick the English commentary from Britain, Canada or Australia instead. Rights move between cycles, and each broadcaster decides which sessions it airs live, so the guide on race weekend is the reliable source.

Formula 1 broadcasters in the Tivo8k list

• Sky Sports F1
• TSN 1–5
• RDS
• Fox Sports 501–507
• Kayo channels
• Sky Sport NZ 1–9
• Canal+
• Sky Sport IT
• Sky DE
• DAZN ES
• SuperSport 1–13

Reading the race weekend on your own clock

A standard weekend has practice on Friday, more practice and qualifying on Saturday, and the race on Sunday; sprint weekends trade some practice for a short Saturday race. Sessions run at local time wherever the circuit is, which is why the season seems to move around your week. A European race starting at 3 p.m. at the track in summer lands like this:

The rounds in Asia and Australia flip the picture: the race falls in the European small hours or early morning, and in the American night before. Rather than doing sums every fortnight, set the right time zone on the device that runs your player, open your broadcaster in the guide on Thursday, and every session shows at your own hour. The Tivo8k EPG explained covers listings that drift by an hour after a clock change.

One race, five languages of commentary

Because each country’s broadcaster brings its own commentary team, the same race can be heard in English from Sky Sports F1 or TSN, in French from Canal+ or RDS, and in Italian, German or Spanish from Sky Sport IT, Sky DE or DAZN ES. For a home where one person grew up on French coverage and another on English, that settles the remote before the formation lap.

Where a broadcaster sends extra audio on the same channel, such as a second language, your player’s audio menu lists it: TiviMate keeps it in the playback options, and IPTV Smarters Pro with Tivo8k puts it under the audio track button, though labels move between versions. When only one track arrives, switch broadcaster instead. French speakers will find more on the French-language page.

Picture and engine sound in the living room

Where a broadcaster produces its coverage in 4K and sends it that way, you see the cars in 4K; everything else comes in FHD or HD. Racing is fast and full of fine detail, so judge it on your own screen during a session rather than trusting a label. The 4K page lists what your device and line need, and a cable to the router steadies a two-hour race better than Wi-Fi does.

A race has the most layered soundtrack in sport: engines passing, team radio, commentary on top. Where a feed carries 5.1, a soundbar on ARC or eARC spreads it across the room, provided the player passes it through untouched. If the soundbar shows stereo during a surround feed, the Tivo8k soundbar walkthrough goes through the player and television settings. Many televisions also add motion smoothing that makes camera pans look oddly fluid; try the sports or game picture mode, or turn the smoothing down, and judge for yourself.

Overnight rounds, replays and the rest of the household

Not every session is worth an alarm clock. On channels that keep an archive, the guide lets you start a session that has already aired from its beginning, which suits qualifying in the middle of the night or a race that clashes with a family lunch. Archives differ in length from channel to channel, so check that your broadcaster keeps one during the trial; catch-up on Tivo8k shows how it works in each player. Until you have watched, keep away from the news channels and your phone’s notifications.

A race weekend also collides with everything else the house wants to watch. One screen means one stream, so a race on the big television and a film in the bedroom need two: $25 for a month or $119 for a year, with three screens at $35 a month and five at $49. All plans and screen tiers open every channel, so the screens are the only difference. Football, the NFL and the rest are mapped on the sports channel map.

Other sports on Tivo8k

All of them on one page: Sports.