Viasat Renews Baltic Rights to Formula One

Viasat Broadcasting has retained on to its exclusive Baltic broadcasting rights for the FIA Formula One motor racing World Championship through to the end of the 2014 season.

The rights, sale acquired from Formula One Management Limited, include broadcast coverage on free TV, pay TV, mobile devices and the Internet. Premium pay-TV channel Viasat Sport Baltic will air coverage in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania of every race weekend live, including the practice and qualifying sessions. Free-TV viewers in all countries will be able to see recorded coverage of the races on their local TV6 channel, following the race.

Viasat has had continuous broadcasting rights to Formula One in Estonia and Lithuania since 2002, and in Latvia since 2009. The 2012 Formula One World Championship season begins the weekend of March 16 to 18 with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne and ends with the Brazilian Grand Prix in São Paulo on the weekend of November 23 to 25.

Karolis Dapkevicius, the head of Viasat Sport Baltic, said: “The Formula One World Championship is one of the sporting world’s most attractive properties and F1 has a huge fan base worldwide. We are delighted to extend our rights for another three years and be able to continue to bring viewers extensive coverage of each race weekend.

“This adds to what is already the strongest and most varied sports broadcast coverage in the Baltics, with English Premier League and UEFA Champions League football, the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, Euroleague Basketball and the FIBA Basketball World Cup already available on our channels.”

by Ismail Uddin