The FIA’s new Formula E series has announced its first television deal. It involves Fox Sports, which will be broadcasting the series to over 90 countries, including Canada, Australia, Latin America and some European countries. The series, which will run from September 2014 to June 2015, is expected to gain significant publicity leading up to the season due to the use of electrically powered racing cars.
Formula E’s CEO Alejandro Agag told WSJ: “This is a key moment in the history of our young championship. To sign a deal like this over a year before the first race with a global brand of this kind ensures that we make accessible our championship to hundreds of millions of people.”
A UK broadcasting rights deal is expected to be announced as well today. The FIAFormulaE Twitter account has began following @FoxSports, and also @SkySports and @SkySportsNews, so it looks like Sky Sports are odds on to screen the series. It would be their first motor sports acquisition since they won the Formula 1 rights in 2011.
Update at 10:12 on August 9th – Jack Nicholls says on Twitter not to expect a UK broadcasting announcement today.
Motorsport Broadcasting 
I might be old fashioned but I shall not be watching this, it’ll be like having the telly on mute.
Well you are clearly a prick.
I’ll give it a go, but golf cart racing doesn’t do much for me.
And some of the bizarre rules are a joke, one proposal is for extra power to be given to the driver that gets the most phone/text votes prior to the race.
It’s clearly aimed at the under 12s.
I read that earlier, I laughed. Premium rate phone in’s sounds horrific. That won’t work in 2014 in my opinion. Maybe ten years ago, but not in this day and age. Why not tweeting? Whichever driver gets the most tweets gets the fanboost. Would be a nice way to increase interest and exposure to the series too which could help in the long run.
Oh man is that for real? That’s just stupid. Having a spec series is one thing, but that is something else. I was looking forward to Formula E replacing A1GP’s slot in the off-season, but now I’m not sure I will. Certainly a different breed of “racing” entirely. The cars don’t bother me, but gimmicks that one above certainly do.
Any fan input to determine the outcome of a race is an awful idea.
Enough people think F1 stewards determine race results, throwing in Eurovision voting into FE will turn it into a farce.
Why not go the whole hog and have them driving clown cars and rescuing a princess from a tower while attached to a bungee cord, and playing the joker at their favourite circuit.
‘E’ Sans Frontières here we come
I wonder if the ‘E’ really stands for Ernie, because he did drive the fastest milk cart in the west.
Bazinga!
At the end of the day 1 extra boost is unlikely change the outcome of 90% of races, so I don’t see what the fuss is all about. I think this is less likely to effect the outcome of a race than DRS is, which is just as artificial.
@Michael Roberts
But DRS is available to ALL drivers, whereas ‘Fan Boost’ will only be available to the fan boy’s favorite driver, why not just give the little darling a 10 second head start.
It’s an example of dumbing down so as to attract the vacuous Playstation set.