8.6m TV viewers lost due to Bernie's deal with Sky - how will Liberty respond?

So, what's the solution ?

 

I use a satellite connection to Astra 1, and watched a number of races on RTL live. In other cases, I watched Channel 8 from Italy when the channel (part of the Sky network) broadcast the races live.

 

Here in Italy I could see all of them live including practices on Sky. Makes for nice Saturday & Sunday afternoons, though some were time delayed depending on the location of the race.

 

Same here in France where Canal Plus has exclusivity (except for four races: F, MC, B, I) and charges but I usually find a live stream (with the Sky commentators) that is not blocked by France and free. Usually someone here helps me find it too so thanks again

The whole situation is ludicrous and bad for the sport, let's see how liberty takes that curve in the next few years in all the markets...

 

Liberty has to strike a balance between free viewing (larger audience, lesser income), against pay-viewing (reduced public but more revenue).
Equally, if Sky pays £120M a year, as you say, it rightly expects some exclusivity for that fee.
If the teams want to be paid at the end, they have to accept that GPs can't be broadcasted to the public for free.
I don't know if Liberty has any leverage to renegotiate that contract, but I guess not.
In the end, F1 is a show, and the public has to pay for it; at the circuit or at home in front of the TV.

 

The larger distinct issue facing the sport and future. Interesting article - https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/28395224/the-environment-pose-f1-biggest-challenge-2020s

 

By all means, F1 must eliminate all risk and reduce its environmental impact to zero. If not less.

 

A perception problem but it’s something that has impact. I’m certain F1 can continue as a sport somehow. FE is having an impact to F1 future identity

 

Don't use social media until you watch it on <recorded> TV

 

Pay $80 per year to F1.com and get all the races... was my solution unless I am going to a race. Seemed cheap to me to get all the angles and content.

Robb

 

That's my solution.

 

At that price, it seems like a bargain.
I really don't know what people are complaining about !!!

 

But it doesn´t work in many countries. And even then I´ve read around here that the streaming crashes more often than Andrea De Cesaris.

Both teams and Liberty are gettng the quick cash from pay per view channels, but that doesn´t bode so well for sponsors and the popularity of F1. I don´t know how this model will work in the long term.

 

This stuff has a long term impact on the viewing base. Once habits are established they are hard to break. If a fan knows the outcome and doesn't find it interesting, he will find something else to watch or do. Once he is used that pattern, or if the alternative is better, he could be lost. Now project that on "fans" under 35. They have the attention span of a gnat. And are interested in all manner of silly things. In the US, viewership for all major sports (baseball, football, basketball) are down. Younger viewers are attracted to scores and scores of alternative sports, even ax-throwing competitions.

 

And Liberty wants to expand to at least 25 races per season. Don’t they get it? When the product becomes commoditized fan enthusiasm will diminish, not increase. As it is, these are the only races that I make an effort to watch: Monaco, England, Belgium, Austria, Italy and Japan.

 

Maybe they do but when it comes down to it they are a business and their primary interest is always likely to be in their profits today not in 20 years time when the current set of executives will be long gone and living off their bonuses and gold-plated pensions. In other words, it is an inevitable consequence of the nice little scam Bernie and Max dreamed up of selling F1 to Bernie on the cheap and then onto whoever came along with enough cash.

 

True that 25 races seem far too much. The ideal should be around 12 or 15 a year maximum to keep some prestige to GPs.
Too many races dilute a championship, I think.
I too give priority to traditional tracks like Silverstone, Spa, Monaco, Monza and Suzuka that stood the time.
Most of the other circuits don't last for long, mostly the street circuits people want to get rid off after a few years.

 

I wouldn't call it a scam.
Bernie organised F1 into a business, where organisers pay for holding races, TV pay for broadcasting them, and teams get paid for their participation.
Before that, it was anarchy where organisers dictated their terms and teams ran threadbare budgets only funded by sponsors.
Bernie's model worked well for some time, but now Liberty tries to turn it into a money spinning business to recover their investment.

 

This is exactly what is happening to NASCAR: An inherently boring product, made worse, not better, by a seemingly interminable season and gimmicks intended to make it more “exciting.” I wonder if anybody at Liberty and FIA ever said, “Let’s figure out what NASCAR is doing wrong and then do that”? Sometimes it seems that way.

 

It was a scam. The scam was in cooking up a deal between them (i.e. Max and Bernie) and selling to Bernie at a knock down price. Ecclestone organised the teams when they weren't organised and deserves credit for that. But he ended up a billionaire so he did just fine out of it and they've ended up where it is isn't run by a sporting organisation for the good of the sport, it is run by a business for the good of the business.

 

Too many races, and Liberty is going to replace real tracks with street circuits that no one cares about. Liberty is going to milk this cow until there's nothing left but hooves.

 

I am not saying that Bernie didn't help himself largely by organising F1, but his influence has been beneficial, I think.
Before FOCA, F1 was very disorganised with circuit owners offering start money only to the teams or drivers they wanted.
Apart from Ferrari, the teams were grosly exploited by the circuit owners, and many couldn't survive for long.
Circuit owners pocketed the gate money, and TV rights, whilst the teams got nothing. They had to pay for their logistics too.
At one GP, 39 cars turned up for qualification for a 20-car grid: it was a complete shamble!
With FOCA organising F1, successful teams became rich, just look at Williams, McLaren or Red Bull for example.
Of course F1 is a business, like any other sport !

 

But you're talking about the 1980s. That really isn't relevant to selling everything to him many years later and then letting him selling it on (more than once) to the highest bidder. In any case, it is entirely possible to argue that, thanks to Bernie, all that happened is that the teams had more money that they then waste. You only have to look at the absurd structures the paddock is filled with to see that. Then they argue about budget caps. Plenty of teams have come and gone before Bernie and after.

It is possible to have a business that isn't only focused on the short term balance sheet but F1 isn't one of them.