F1 Digital +

"F1 Digital +" was the name of the pay-per-view television service of Formula One coverage between mid 1996-2002.

The service offered additional features to the normal television feed such as camera channels for onboard camera, pit camera and a results option where you could view the live timing.

In later years, the service featured different style overviews to the standard feed, including additional features such as a lap counter and race control updates. At the 2002 United States Grand Prix, the digital feed was available for free on the normal channels, such as ITV. Although the option to change to a different camera was not available, the coverage was more extensive, featuring the overlays, additional cameras and team radio from the channel.

The UK version of the channel, which was only available for the 2002 season, was commentated on by Ben Edwards, Damon Hill and John Watson, with pit lane reports from Peter Windsor.

Although the service was at the cutting-edge of sports broadcasting, it was never financially viable and was terminated at the end of the 2002 season.

F1 Digital + has a 'cult' following on the web these days, with F1 Digital + YouTube videos highly sought after. F1 Digital + YouTube videos are also regularly deleted from YouTube by FOM.

Trivia

* The service was dubbed 'Bernie-Vision' as the service was run by the F1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone.
* ABC Sports used the service for its coverage of the 2001 United States Grand Prix and four grands prix in 2002 (the Monaco Grand Prix, Canadian Grand Prix, Italian Grand Prix, and United States Grand Prix). For its telecast of the 2001 U.S. Grand Prix, ABC decided to supply its own commentary team of Bob Jenkins and Eddie Cheever. In 2002, ABC used the default UK commentary team of Ben Edwards and John Watson.
* The overlays were used in the game Formula One 2003 for the Spectator Mode option.