If you are a leading blue chip brand the audience reached by Sky F1 program is tiny, not worth investing your sponsorship dollars in when other sports have a huge following, well done CVC/Eccelstone and their unlimited greed!
Almost all live sport will soon move to pay TV, because enough viewers have demonstrated that they are prepared to pay to make this model a commercial no-brainier.
F1 fans have had a good run on free-to air, all live Cricket has been on pay TV for years.