Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

We’re talking about feelings today.

Towards the end of last week, the grand collection of small collections of hive minds I like to call “Sports Twitter” was buzzing with love for a brand-new tournament—the women’s IPL. The first few matches have garnered good viewership and provided ample sporting entertainment, besides further test-driving systems for a tiny little sports broadcasting upstart called Reliance Jio.

But there was another, albeit much smaller, event unfolding on Sports Twitter at the same time, but of the opposite nature. 

Formula 1, after years, doesn’t have an official TV broadcaster in India anymore. Because Formula 1 and Disney+Hotstar, its last online streaming partner, were unable to renew an agreement to continue the broadcast. The only other way to legally watch the racing tournament is through a subscription to the official streaming site F1 TV. A subscription that costs about Rs 2,500 (US$30) a year!

Formula 1 fans in India are justifiably disappointed, intermittently lashing out at and appealing to everyone—right from the FIA or Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (that’s French for Federation of Rich Car-Loving Adrenaline Junkies. Okay no, it isn’t, but close enough) to Disney+Hotstar, which, by the way, is already losing rights to HBO shows by March-end and therefore doesn’t really need another burn. Fans’ words, not mine.

What’s going on? And what do fans do when the rug is pulled from underneath their feet?

Great expectations

Why Formula 1 doesn’t have a broadcaster in India this season is pretty easy to answer, because it has said it itself. Formula 1 feels its property wasn’t valued enough. 

Here’s Formula 1’s Ian Holmes, Director of Media Rights and Content Creation, being quoted in Autocar India about the tournament’s discussions with broadcasters in the country.

As for Hotstar, whose contract with Formula 1 ended last year, it’s in the middle of a clear move towards profitability, already having let go of the super-lucrative but expensive IPL digital rights.