F1 for sale?

Broadcast wise I'd like F1 to stay with BBC as it is, but if the BBC deems the expenditure on it is excessive and doesn't renew it's contract, I'd actually prefer Sky coverage over the ITV coverage we used to have.

News corp own Speed TV and they do a good job of F1 coverage already. Both football and cricket have done well from Sky coverage, so I can't say I'd be too worried if that was the outcome.

Unlikely though, as long as the concorde agreement is in place it has to be free to air afaik.
 
Shimmy said:
Broadcast wise I'd like F1 to stay with BBC as it is, but if the BBC deems the expenditure on it is excessive and doesn't renew it's contract, I'd actually prefer Sky coverage over the ITV coverage we used to have.

News corp own Speed TV and they do a good job of F1 coverage already. Both football and cricket have done well from Sky coverage, so I can't say I'd be too worried if that was the outcome.

Unlikely though, as long as the concorde agreement is in place it has to be free to air afaik.
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News Corp buying Formula 1 does not mean it will be broadcast on Sky!
 
Skeeter said:
News Corp buying Formula 1 does not mean it will be broadcast on Sky!
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I didn't say anything about News Corp buying F1, and yes I'm well aware of the situation.

I was talking exclusively about F1 coverage.

Can take your shouting somewhere else thank you.
 
Competition regulations.

Owning F1 means you own the licencing and therefore have the power to decide who broadcasts F1. You therefore could not give those broadcasting rights to broadcasting company you also own without breaking competition rules. A while back News Corp were looking to buy Manchester United FC, but were blocked by the competition regulators on the grounds it was a conflict of interest and against regulations to own the club and show matches on Sky Sports.

Murdoch owning F1 would mean they wouldn't be allowed to give exclusive rights to a Sky Sports channel, or any other channel only available on the Sky network. I assume they could share coverage with other channels or broadcasters, buts the primary channel would have to be one not Sky owned (I assume it could therefore go to Motors TV or Eurosport, or such like).

Bottom line, Murdoch buying F1 doesn't mean it will go to Sky, and I expect this is the exact reason Bernie doesn't think it will happen. If Murdoch wants to broadcast F1, buying the sport is not the way to do it.
 
Not necessarily. Buying F1 would allow Murdoch to negotiate out the free-to-air clause. Presumably if the broadcasting rights were then decided in a fair and open manner such as a straight-up auction he may then be able to get it past the watchdog. Well, maybe.

Tbh I don't think there's much in it for Sky to broadcast F1, I doubt it would gain them many more subscribers (you'd have to be mad to subscribe to Sky Sports just for an F1 race every 2 weeks) or advertising revenue.
 
Broadcasting on free-to-air has nothing to do with wether Murdoch could buy F1 and broadcast on Sky. You simply would not be allowed to own the broadcasting rights to a sport, and own a broadcasting network, and give your own network the broadcasting licence for the sport you own without breaking competition rules.

Getting the free-to-air clause of of the Concorde agreement would be a piece of cake.
 
Ferrari need to stfu. They seem to have this opinion that F1 would die without them. It wont. However, how Ferrari would survive if it left F1 is another matter. Their global marketing is off the back of their F1 involvement. Ferrari need F1 more than F1 needs Ferrari, they just wont admit it.

The Concorde agreement is agreed by all the teams, the FIA and the F1 owners. If News Corp wants a new one written , they simply have to make the new agreement benificial to the Teams and the FIA and they will sign. And this is simply just a case of money.
 
If F1 goes to Sky then I'll boycott it from my life and pretend it doesn't exist.
 
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