Dear Axel,

We are writing to inform you of upcoming changes to F1 TV in France to ensure compliance with anti-tobacco advertising legislation in France and its territories. Live sessions for F1, F2, F3 and F1 Academy will still be available via F1 TV Pro. However, the following programs will no longer be available on F1 TV Pro from July 11, 2024:

  • Replays, summaries, and pre- and post-race shows for the entire 2024 season.

  • Archives of races from previous seasons.

  • All shows and documentaries such as Tech Talks, Jolyon Palmers Analysis and F1 Icons.

Due to these changes, we are offering you two options.

Option 1: Continue your subscription and renew at a reduced price.

As an annual subscriber, we offer you F1 TV free for 6 months, after which your subscription will automatically renew (in accordance with our terms of sale) at the new reduced price of 49.99 EUR. This means that you can continue to use F1 TV without paying any additional fees until your next renewal on May 9, 2025. Please note that this will take effect from your next renewal after July 11, 2024. The price of your annual subscription previous one was 64.99 EUR.

Option 2: Cancel your subscription

If you are subscribed via our website, you can cancel your subscription via this link. You can also contact our customer service here.

Important :

The next time you log in to F1 TV, a window will appear asking you to consent to these changes to maintain your subscription.   We understand that this change may cause inconvenience and we apologize for this.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our customer service.

Sincerely, The F1 TV team

  • BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.comOP
    182·
    5 months ago

    Great, now F1TV has become completely useless to me, as I rarely watch Grand Prix sessions live…

    The alternatives are either:

    • trying to subscribe to and watch F1TV from abroad using a VPN (though I understand there has been a recent crackdown)
    • subscribe to Canal+, which costs 30€ a month
    • sail the seven seas?
    • give up F1 and watch WEC?
    • CptEnder@lemmy.world
      4·
      5 months ago

      Use a VPN and set your login to the States, welcome brother! Collect your NASCAR shirt and shotgun when ya enter! Ironically I had to use a VPN when I was living in France to use mine (US account though).

      Tubi or Roku here in the States has free replays too I think. Maybe has same option for you in Fr?

    • flauschke@feddit.de
      3·
      5 months ago

      I actually drove to another country to subscribe to f1tv because it’s not available in Germany and subscribing with a VPN doesn’t work anymore.

      Uh I mean, I heard that somebody did that

    • ZeldaFreak@lemmy.world
      2·
      5 months ago

      We Germans had this a few years ago. Sky Ticket was more expensive than Sky Q and offered less. I went with an IPTV Sky Box in year 2, because Sky Ticket was cheaper in the first year. The IPTV Box does kinda suck though. I get Free TV in HD for free but no ability to record and no 4K and HDR option, though it even got announced a while back.

      To be fair, Sky has some exclusive series or at least exclusive for a year or so, so its not a total waste. And you still get ads (I don’t speak about the sponsors on track). At least not during a race but right after the race during the inlap.

    • WFH@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      Do you know someone willing to share his MyCanal account? That’s what I do because I still want to watch F1 but I’m not giving a cent to those fascists at bolloré.

  • dlatch@lemmy.world
    9·
    5 months ago

    How does this work? Why is it allowed for live sessions but not for replays? And I am guessing it’s due to vaping sponsorships, since tobacco sponsorship isn’t allowed in F1 in the first place?

    • BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.comOP
      6·
      5 months ago

      My guess is that F1TV don’t want to bother with blurring every tobacco and vape sponsors in live session and every replays like Canal+ does.

      • dlatch@lemmy.world
        8·
        5 months ago

        I guess it will be something like that, but you’d assume it’s 1) less of an issue to blur a replay compared to a live session and 2) if you’ve already blurred it live, you don’t have to do it anymore for the replay.

        Either way, shitty that they just cut their offering. Sorry for the Frenchies.

        • BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.comOP
          3·
          5 months ago

          Your assumptions are valid, but I think it does not make sense to put the resources do this only for a single market and not globally.

      • WFH@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        5 months ago

        Canal+ uses the the international feed though, live or replays. Tobacco ads are only blurred for highlights.

    • AlexisFR@jlai.lu
      4·
      5 months ago

      These laws have been a thing for decades now, and now just in France. it’s really weird.

  • AlexisFR@jlai.lu
    7·
    5 months ago

    Well I guess I can say welcome to WEC now lmao.

    FOM are pathological at this point.

    • BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.comOP
      6·
      5 months ago

      Well, there are vapes sponsors now (considered as tobacco in French law) and there’s the issue of past seasons replays with tobacco sponsors.

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.world
    1·
    5 months ago

    oh no! looks at the dozens of methods of watching replays for free anyway

    That being said though, would be good if people start recording live feeds of french commentary for hosting later.

  • Hal-5700X@sh.itjust.works
    26·
    5 months ago

    Sounds like a problem with the French government. If the French government never passed the law. Where be no problem. Still sucks.

    • BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.comOP
      8·
      5 months ago

      Ads for tobacco have been outlawed for decades (I remember tobacco sponsors being blurred on broadcasts in the early 2000s), but somehow F1TV did not have to comply until now.