Formula One can be seen live or tape delayed in almost every country and territory around the world and attracts one of the largest global television audiences. The 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix attracted an average live global TV audience of eighty-three million viewers, with a total of 154 million viewers tuning in to watch at least some part of the event.Official figures from FOM for 2006 that state Formula One television broadcasts were witnessed by 580 million unique viewers during the 2005 season and average viewing figures for 1995–1999 were 50 billion.It is a massive television event; the cumulative television audience was calculated to be 54 billion for 2001 season, broadcast to two hundred countries.
In 2005, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montréal was the most watched of the races, and the third most watched sporting event in the world.
During the early 2000s, Formula One Administration created a number of trademarks, an official logo, and an official website for the sport in an attempt to give it a corporate identity. Ecclestone experimented with a digital television package (known colloquially as Bernievision), which was launched at the 1996 German Grand Prix in cooperation with German digital television service "DF1", thirty years after the first GP colour TV broadcast, the 1967 German Grand Prix. This service offered the viewer several simultaneous feeds (such as super signal, onboard, top of field, backfield, highlights, pit lane, timing), which were produced with cameras, technical equipment and staff different from those used for the conventional coverage. It was introduced in many countries over the years, but was shut down after the 2002 season for financial reasons.
TV stations all take what is known as the 'World Feed', either produced by the FOM (Formula One Management) or the 'host broadcaster'. The only station that has any difference is 'Premiere'—a German channel that offers all sessions live and interactive, with features such as the onboard channel. This service was more widely available around Europe until the end of 2002, when the cost of a whole different feed for the digital interactive services was thought too much. This was in large part because of the failure of the 'F1 Digital +' Channel launched through Sky Digital in the United Kingdom. Prices were too high for viewers, considering they could watch both the qualifying and the races themselves free on ITV.
Bernie Ecclestone had announced that F1 will adopt the HD format near the end of the 2007 season. However, details of the races to be covered and the means of showing the content have yet to be announced. Also it was announced early in 2008 that the BBC would be broadcasting F1 for five years, starting in 2009, regaining the rights from ITV who had been broadcasting it since they got the rights in 1997.However, on 31 December 2008, Roger Mosey, Director of BBC Sport announced that F1 would not be broadcast on BBC HD because "no HD world feed is available".
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