""Formula One's commercial landscape set for huge change

Anybody know what this is about?

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=45726

 

Maybe interactive..viewer chooses camera, etc?

 

Can someone who knows what this article is referring to chime in, please? Customer Cars...?

 

My guess:

A camera in every car, and a way to access this directly on your TV.

 

Could F1 be leaving "TV" and moving to a purely Web based platform...

 

Bernie is selling his stake?

 

More likely... Bernie near a deal to be allowed to take it with him.

 

i heard multiple cameras so you can watch your favorite drivers. direct streaming to ipad

 

Sounds more like a change in the management structure or profit distribution scheme than any TV feature. Unless of course they're over hyping it. Which never happens .

 

I lol'd

 

Hmmm....don't know how I feel about being limited to a small screen (and I'm hope I'm not), but since I just bought an iPad, this sounds interesting. I'm weary about cost though.


Mark

 

It's funny reading how this development will make F1 more accessible to fans around the World, In the UK We've lost half of the live races from the BBC (the main national channel), the live qualifying and the three free practices we used to get live! (all because the BBC say F1 is too expensive).

Now if you want to watch all of the F1 on TV in the UK, you have to have SKY TV.

So what's the difference you ask?

In the UK, if you have any equipment capable of receiving BBC TV programmes you have to have a TV license (at a cost of £145.50 [@$230] per year), by law.

So last year, F1 (all three free practice sessions, qualifying, the race and the post race live forum programme) cost Me £145.50 basically.

This year for My £145.50 I get 10 races live and 10 races shown in a "highlights" programme later in the day.

So if I want the full F1 season I need SKY TV.

This means for 2012 I would need to pay £145.50 for My TV license + £149 for a SKY HD box + £20 per month for the sports channels (and if I want F1 in HD that'll be an addition £10.25).
That means instead of paying £145.50 for a year of F1, I'd have to pay £534.50! (0r £657.50 per year with HD).

Okay, that's not the end of the World financially, but it is 3~4 times what I was paying.

At least for this £534.50 (or £657.50) I'd be getting all 20 races live and "free" (as in -no additional cost for each race), but give it another couple of years, based on how SKY TV tends to operate (like drug dealers*), and on top of these SKY fees, each race will end up being pay per view only (I estimate for @ another £20 per race, so I reckon My original £145.50 F1 will one day cost @ £1000 [$1580 per year! ).
And to make matters worse, 15% of My money would be going to Rupert Murdoch! (No thank you!!! )

F1 becoming more accessible to fans?, probably, but at what price though?



(* The inference to drug dealers is based on the method Drug dealers use in that they initially give their product away free to get the customer base hooked, and then charge more and more for the product once they are the sole supplier).

 

The people at Pitpass are generally a bunch of morons - petty, superficial, arrogant and generally obtuse, especially when it comes to subtleties.

The 'article' is just a placeholder so they can boost their egos later by telling everyone that they knew about this first, before any other press outlet reported it.

What a bunch of school children.

 

God bless America.
And the Nascar subsidised SPEED channel.

Gotta go; Its time for a Bud.

 

BTW; Helmet cams ?

Huge fail.

 

Other than how they show where the driver is looking at a given time the seem to be a gimmick.