“They have been trying to buy the TV rights from us for a long time, but we won’t because they are not free-to-air television broadcasters. Sky are doing an incredible job but if you look at their audience they are nowhere. With their figures it would be almost impossible for teams to find sponsors. That would be suicidal.” – Bernie Ecclestone, May 2011.
Everyone knows that you take what Bernie says with a pinch of salt, but even by his standards today’s revelation that BBC and Sky are to share the coverage from next season – with the Beeb getting only half the races while Sky get all of them – was quite something.
It took everyone here in Hungary – including most of the BBC staff (commentator Martin Brundle said he found out only last night and was “not impressed”) – by surprise. And when people are surprised they tend to react emotionally.
Indignant fans have unleashed their outrage via the medium-of-choice these days: Twitter.
Many of the concerns raised are valid. Some are complaining that they cannot afford Sky and will not get to watch the entire season live; others are nervous that this news is the precursor to a full-blown NewsCorp buyout of the sport and fear what that might mean for F1, particularly in light of ongoing investigations in to the phone-hacking scandal. Nearly everyone feels duped.
Perhaps fans were lulled into a false sense of security by Bernie’s assurances and the teams’ apparent intransigence over the issue (FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh made it abundantly clear on a number of occasions recently that the teams absolutely required the coverage to remain on free-to-air for their business models – Bernie answered reassuringly that that was what he wanted too).
In short, there is a strong whiff of betrayal in the air.
But once the shock and outrage dissipate this may not be the disaster that everyone is painting it to be. The short answer is it is still too early to say. We don’t have enough detail yet.
As Whitmarsh pointed out: “I don’t think anyone should be immediately reacting to say this is good, bad, or indifferent. What we need to understand is whether the large audience we currently enjoy in Formula One will be maintained. I think we also need to understand exactly how this is being done.”
What we can be sure of is that Sky will do a brilliant job of covering the sport. The nuts and bolts They have revolutionised the coverage of football in this country with the Premier League arguably the biggest sporting phenomenon of our age (although, of course, many would accuse Sky of having ripped the heart out of the Beautiful Game and that too is a valid point, too. Perhaps the most important point… but on this score, plus ca change…Formula One long ago decided it was a commercially-driven sport).
Given F1’s basic requirement (to make money) it is then about creating the TV model which will provide F1/the teams with the best returns given the economic climate. And that is not by losing fans in their droves. We will see if Bernie/the teams have managed to achieve that. It is unclear at the moment to what extent the teams were aware of this deal and whether they might challenge it.
The media landscape is shifting at a extraordinary rate and the concept of a sport such as Formula One remaining on one free-to-air platform outdated. The potential of F1 in terms of media coverage is vast and largely untapped. Mobile phones, internet TV, iPads. No one yet knows how it will all work or whether the audience will rise/fall but both Sky and the BBC have a strong track record.
The fact is the BBC was never going to keep paying what it was paying. Something had to give. Fans have been spoiled by what they have had recently and any change to the status quo was always going to provoke a storm of protest.
But F1 is not leaving the BBC. It has been almost overlooked amid the howls of outrage that the BBC has in fact extended its coverage for another five years until 2018. Half the races (the best ones) are remaining on terrestrial free-to-air (which is much better than you get with football on the BBC), while the rest of the season will be covered by highlights shows. That is still get a very good service for the licence payer. And for those who do have Sky it promises to be a fascinating era with different commentators/innovations.
Of course, there remain lots of unanswered questions – about NewsCorp, about how it will all work, about affordability. The proof will be in the pudding.
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