How to watch Formula 1 in Ireland

Formula 1 is the sport with the simplest answer and the longest season. One broadcaster, ten months, and a calendar that starts in Melbourne and ends in Abu Dhabi with a fortnight off in August that nobody seems to have told the teams about.

Who has it this season

• Free-to-air Highlights Review
  • Free

  Channel 4's free highlights deal runs to the end of 2026. We found no free highlights deal for 2027 yet.

• NOW All of it Review
  • €14.99/day pass A day pass covers one day of it.
  • €38.99/month

  Sky Sports F1 has every practice, qualifying, Sprint and Grand Prix live in Ireland to the end of 2034.

• Sky All of it Review
  • €45/month (12-month contract)

  Sky Sports F1 has every practice, qualifying, Sprint and Grand Prix live in Ireland to the end of 2034. Same channels, on a 12-month Sky contract.

Rights and prices checked 2026-09-19. Standard prices; intro offers can be lower.

Sky Sports F1 holds exclusive live rights in the UK and Ireland to every practice, qualifying, Sprint and Grand Prix, plus F2, F3, F1 Academy and the Porsche Supercup, and in May 2026 it extended that to the end of 2034. In Ireland that means Sky on a contract or NOW without one; both carry the same channel.

Free-to-air is the open question. Sky’s announcement says live home-nation races and highlights of every Grand Prix will be shared free-to-air, but it does not say with whom, and Channel 4’s highlights deal only runs to the end of 2026.

The cheapest way to watch most of it

NOW Sports Month membership from March to December, cancelled for January and February. Ten payments, every session of every race, no contract. Watch for NOW’s intro offers, which are cheaper per month but carry a 12-month minimum, so the summer break stops being free.

If you only watch the big ones, buy Sports Day memberships. One covers 24 hours of every Sky Sports channel, which is a Sunday race and, if you start it late on Saturday, qualifying too. Two a month is cheaper than the monthly; three is not, and the finder does that sum for you.

The Sky Sports add-on on a 12-month contract gets you the same channel for the whole year. It only wins if you also want the football and the golf, in which case read the Premier League guide and the golf guide and add it up.

What’s free

Not much, and less than there was. Nothing live is confirmed free in Ireland for 2027, and the highlights question is above. The Sky Sports F1 channel is not on Saorview or free satellite.

The calendar

• 2026: 23 rounds on Formula 1’s calendar, Australian GP 6 to 8 March to Abu Dhabi 4 to 6 December, with the Spanish Grand Prix on 11 to 13 September.
• 2027: 24 Grands Prix, opening in Bahrain and closing in Abu Dhabi, ten Sprints, with Portugal returning in June and Türkiye in October.
• Cancel in January and February. Nothing runs, and the teams are busy painting cars.

One channel, ten months, no contract. Sort me out with the finder, or go straight to the source.

The NOW review covers the picture-quality question, and a streaming stick puts the app on any telly. Everything else is on the watch index.