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Originally Posted by broadrun96
That is bandied about often as the death knell of anything on TV in the UK. Honestly asking what else is predominantly on free OTA as I have lived in a world of most everything outside of American rules football moving to cable and increasing in viewership over the 80s-10s. That's now falling but that's a trend for most everything not on-demand, just some things are faster than others like the NFL.
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Still on FTA in the UK is some major soccer, such as World Cup and European Cup, the Olympics and other athletics, some skiing, rugby and even some motor racing including possibly the major European saloon car championship, the British Touring Car Championship. Plus more besides such as horse racing, tennis including Wimbledon and some cricket.
On the other hand, F1 viewing figures make for miserable reading. Since pay per view was introduced and only half the races are shown live on FTA, the audience has dropped by 50%. As Midgetman says, when the FTA stops at the end of the 2018 season, the fear is that that audience figure will plummet even further, leaving less than a quarter of the original figure. It just costs too much; SKY has had to reduce it to £18.00 ($24.33) per month on top of the basic package of £40 ($54) per month. But it just too damn expensive for most people.
And what's most galling to me as someone who has followed F1 for over 50 years is that BCE gave his undertaking that, whilst he was alive and in control of F1, it would always remain on FTA. He decided to break that undertaking in his pursuit of even more money that he will never spend. Although his two daughters will do their best to burn their way through it.