Sky are to launch a new Sports channel, free at no extra cost to all Sky TV customers. The channel, called Sky Sports Mix, brings with it “a range of great moments from some of the world’s biggest sporting events”.
The press release states that the channel will launch this Summer, and will include live sport, including football (La Liga and MLS), golf and international cricket. But, will Sky Sports Mix contain any Formula 1 action?
The answer at this stage is that we simply don’t know, the press release does not explicitly confirm it one way or the other. It certainly seems that Sky Sports Mix will primarily feature lower-tier action, but will occasionally dip into middle and higher-tier events, the press release references “a select number of Premier League and Football League matches.”
Given that Sky are simulcasting Formula 1 on Sky Sports 1, you have to assume that F1 could feature on Sky Sports Mix in some form once the channel launches. Sky Sports Mix is presumably a response to BT Sport Showcase, although the latter has not been promoted a great deal by BT.
Update on March 18th at 16:50 – Thanks to Jess Numan in the comments for the heads up: Sky Sports News have confirmed that non-exclusive races will be simulcast on Sky Sports Mix. I really can’t see many people venturing away from Channel 4’s live programming later in the year to try F1 on Sky Sports Mix, no doubt the idea is to tempt viewers away from Channel 4.
It is worth noting that Sky Sports Mix has been mooted for a while. Last year, there was a survey surrounding a potential ‘Sky Sports Select’ channel, which has turned into Sky Sports Mix. By the looks of things, the F1 part is coming through to the final product. It would be a much more effective marketing strategy in my opinion to air one or two Sky exclusive races on Sky Sports Mix, but it appears Sky are not going to take that approach. In any event, I have e-mailed Sky for comment on this and will post when I get a response.
Motorsport Broadcasting 
The difference of course with this to BT Sports Showcase being that this will not be available on Freeview i assume?
Correct
Wasn’t there plans for “Sky Sports Select” which was going to show some of the 10 races that the BBC had live free to all Sky TV customers?
Yes – this has been in the making for a while, there were a few surveys around the subject last Summer. But, there’s nothing concrete to suggest that Sky Sports Mix will contain F1 action yet.
It will show the non exclusive live 10 (the c4 live ones) f1 races, mentioned on sky sports news
Brilliant, thanks for the information. Will update the post soon…