Despite the most exciting world championship fight in many years and despite the Schumacher factor: Formula 1 has seen an extreme decrease in viewers on TV broadcasts even before the last race on Sunday in Abu Dhabi.

Due to the sale of the media rights to the pay TV broadcaster Sky and only four free TV races on RTL, the world's most important motorsport series in Germany has to cope with a minus of well over 50 percent overall.

The 17 races of the previous year had totaled more than 75 million spectators.

It won't even be 35 million this season.

While the series itself is a loser among viewers, at least one of the television stations can feel like a winner.

Sky outbids RTL

After losing the football Champions League rights, Sky invested in Formula 1 exclusivity and thus gained motorsport spectators.

An average of 822,000 people have watched the 22 races to date, after 550,000 had been calculated for 17 grand prizes in the previous year.

"Our goals have been met in every respect," commented the Sky Manager Karl Valks, who is responsible for motorsport, of the 50 percent increase for his station.

From the point of view of the rights expert Christian Frodl, who used to work at Sky and now at the Klinkert law firm, the purchase of his former employer was “worth it”.

The number of viewers can be seen "from a pay-TV point of view."

Frodl went on to say: “More exclusive Formula 1 races at Sky will create added value for existing subscribers and thus ensure customer satisfaction.

At the same time, through more exclusivity, there was an opportunity to develop market potential. ”However, Sky did not want to publish how many new customers there actually are.

The pay-TV broadcaster had outbid the free-TV provider in poker for media rights and, according to the then RTL sports director Manfred Loppe, offered twice as much.

That is why, as of this season, all races are only available to Sky customers, including the Grand Prix that will be decisive for the World Cup on Sunday.

The thesis that scarcity increases demand does not apply, at least to Formula 1 in free TV.

An average of 3.28 million TV viewers watched the four races on RTL, after 17 broadcasts last year with less spectacular results and without newcomer Mick Schumacher.

Andreas von Thien, Head of Sport at RTL News, said: “The interest in Formula 1 on free TV is still unbroken.” He spoke of “strong ratings”.

In the coming season, RTL will again be able to show four races parallel to Sky.

"We are pleased that Formula 1 continues to be an important part of our extensive live sports portfolio," commented Frank Robens, who is responsible for sports rights.

And what does Formula One Management (FOM) get from the Germany model?

"From the Formula 1 perspective, the contract enables higher revenues and is therefore economically understandable," explained sports and media expert Frodl.

On the other hand, there is "less public attention." He considers it a "challenging balancing act between profit optimization and branding."