BBC to end Formula 1 television contract early

~Mike~ · 22 Dec 2015 at 11:05

deuse said:
So channel 4 has already put money in to Whisper Films. So could this be a come back for Jake Humphrey as the main man and DC for the rest?

Having Jake back would be an excellent move but how would this work with his BT Sport job?

NooBish AbbZ · 22 Dec 2015 at 11:23

Normally just watch the highlights on BBC iPlayer but i've seen a couple of races this season on Sky, and not sure if it's just me but their presenters are pretty poor. It's as if they're just a group of kids and come across as very immature.

Probably won't watch it any more if it moves to C4, shame really, although the races are generally pretty boring

deuse · 22 Dec 2015 at 12:02

~Mike~ said:
Having Jake back would be an excellent move but how would this work with his BT Sport job?

We won't know for a few weeks. But what makes me feel it MAY happen is that
Sunil Patel, DC and JH started the company. And it's that company that got BBC all those awards. Fingers crossed.

edit=http://www.whisperfilms.co.uk/people

clv101 · 22 Dec 2015 at 12:11

Skeeter said:
What we are witnessing is F1 being dropped from free to air TV and becoming Pay TV only. Its just happening in slow motion.

Indeed, it's a shame really. The focus on extracting revenue like this is shortsighted as in the long run it erodes the number of viewers/fan.

Skeeter · 22 Dec 2015 at 12:32

clv101 said:
Indeed, it's a shame really. The focus on extracting revenue like this is shortsighted as in the long run it erodes the number of viewers/fan.

The teams are paid in $ not fans, though.

FOM is making more money than ever due to the shift towards Pay TV services across the globe. The result is FOM profits are up, and as the teams get about 65% of that, the Prize money the teams are getting is also up. Last years prize fund payout was the biggest in FOM's history IIRC.

Less people paying to watch F1 is better for the sport than more people watching it for free.

And this is all irrelevant anyway if your just talking about the UK, as we account for about 3% of the global audience or something like that.

clv101 · 22 Dec 2015 at 13:04

Skeeter said:
The teams are paid in $ not fans, though.

Less people paying to watch F1 is better for the sport than more people watching it for free.

This is exactly the shortsighted view I was referring to. Yes, more money can be extracted in the short term by charging existing fans - but at the cost of developing new fans.

Without a shadow of a doubt, if F1 had not been free to air when I was a kid I'd have no interest in it today.

Skeeter · 22 Dec 2015 at 13:11

Moving to Pay TV is a much longer looking view than sticking to free TV and then seeing half the teams go bust in a couple of years.

The TV rights money is quite literally the only thing holding the bottom half of the grid up. If FOM had stuck with free to air TV globally you'd have probably see Marussia, Sauber, Force India and Lotus all vanishing of the grid over the last couple of years.

oldbag · 22 Dec 2015 at 13:14

Unfortunately f1 for me isn't that exciting these days so its not worth paying for sky. And technically it's never been free since we pay a licence fee.

this_is_gav · 22 Dec 2015 at 13:33

oldbag said:
And technically it's never been free since we pay a licence fee.

It can be free to view on iPlayer, so long as you're not watching it live. You don't need a TV license for catchup TV.

Alibaba99 · 22 Dec 2015 at 15:47

deuse said:
They will get between 2-5 million viewers at each race, that they never had before.

I think sky will be the most worried about this. They've never had a channel showing adverts like they do before.

I'm hoping chan 4 does a great job and maybe buy the whole season in 2019 and beyond

I wouldn't be surprised if BT are in the frame when these current contracts come up for renewal, and they have very deep pockets.

Slam62 · 22 Dec 2015 at 16:04

Well f1 doesn't get that many viewers on sky, so I very much doubt all the BBC viewers will move to c4 ,

F1 currently relies on the circuits to pay as far as I understand, not sure how big the TV money is, will have to do some research.

If the TV audience drops , the governments who subsidise the circuits won't bother.

Skeeter · 22 Dec 2015 at 16:20

Slam62 said:
F1 currently relies on the circuits to pay as far as I understand, not sure how big the TV money is, will have to do some research.

Massive, is the answer:

Topco’s revenue comes from six sources. Starting at the bottom, sales of vending and concession stands at tracks brought in $33.9 million in 2013, the latest year for which accounts are available. Junior series GP2 made a total of $34.1 million from selling cars and parts to its teams whilst F1’s corporate hospitality outfit the Paddock Club had revenue of $87.8 million.

Next up is $259 million from selling trackside advertising at each race and sponsorship of the series. This comes from companies such as parcel delivery service DHL and luxury watch maker Rolex which are both official F1 partners. The two remaining sources of F1’s revenue are the biggest – fees from hosting and broadcasting races. They each bring in roughly the same amount and in 2013 it came to a combined $1.3 billion.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2015/05/31/f1-revenue-accelerates-past-fifas-to-16-2-billion/

TV Revenue is about $750m!

F1s biggest single contract is a TV deal:

F1’s biggest pay-day is believed to have come from the contract with German broadcaster RTL which was signed by Mr Ecclestone in 1991 and is still in place today making it one of the longest-running television deals in F1. This alone has generated $1.4 billion in revenue.

That works out at about $60m a year. The Sky F1 contract is rumored to be £25m (~$37m), with BBCs at £7m (~$11m), so the UK TV deals total a not to shabby $48m year.

V F · 24 Dec 2015 at 14:23

Slam62 said:
Well f1 doesn't get that many viewers on sky, so I very much doubt all the BBC viewers will move to c4 ,

F1 currently relies on the circuits to pay as far as I understand, not sure how big the TV money is, will have to do some research.

If the TV audience drops , the governments who subsidise the circuits won't bother.

How do you know that?

Slam62 · 24 Dec 2015 at 14:45

V F said:
How do you know that?

Try this

https://f1broadcasting.wordpress.com/tag/ratings/

Slam62 · 24 Dec 2015 at 14:57

And a quote from that website

> BBC records lowest average in modern times
> Sky average drops back to 2013 level
> Only two out of last eight races increased year-on-year

At the end of the day it doesn't pull in the viewers and costs a lot of money.

It won't get more viewers on C4 that is certain.

So the F1 business model of gouging what fans are left for more and more cash marches on.

oldbag · 24 Dec 2015 at 16:20

If F1 goes away from free TV, it's on it's way to death and indie teams.

V F · 24 Dec 2015 at 20:09

Slam62 said:
So the F1 business model of gouging what fans are left for more and more cash marches on.

Bernie is a real visionary.

youtube.com/watch?v=-Y2TKb66dyU

Duke · 24 Dec 2015 at 20:23

Classic

Skeeter · 24 Dec 2015 at 21:06

oldbag said:
If F1 goes away from free TV, it's on it's way to death and indie teams.

A) The UK market is utterly insignificant to F1 and its teams
B) Pay TV puts more money into the sport than Free to Air

In terms of sustaining the sport, free to air TV is a bad thing.

Slam62 · 24 Dec 2015 at 21:08

Hmm a sport getting fewer viewers is good for it, that won't last long.