Motorsport Off Topic Thread

I'm looking forward to F1, this season.
New rules.
RBR on the backfoot.
My biggest worry was RBR would continue their winning run and win 90% of races this year, but it looks like this won't be the case.
I think we should see a good fight this year.
 
Duke said:
Whether BSkyB or VM get a big stake, they will sell the rights to all other PPV providers but it would be likely to drop from Free to air.
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Its not that simple. Competition law prevents a Broadcaster of a sport also having a stake in it (or more specifically, a stake in the area that decides the broadcaster, which FOM does). Murdoch was blocked from buying a stake in a football club because BSkyB have the TV rights.

BSkyB couldn't buy a stake in F1 and still broadcast it on Sky. Likewise if VM buy a stake they couldn't broadcast it on their own channels.

Its why, back in the day, I said the best thing that could happen to Free to Air F1 was for Murdoch to buy a stake in F1, as that would have prevented him broadcasting it on Sky Sports. Being the Broadcaster and governing the Broadcasting Rights are mutually exclusive, you can't be both.
 
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Skeeter said:
Its not that simple. Competition law prevents a Broadcaster of a sport also having a stake in it (or more specifically, a stake in the area that decides the broadcaster, which FOM does). Murdoch was blocked from buying a stake in a football club because BSkyB have the TV rights.

BSkyB couldn't buy a stake in F1 and still broadcast it on Sky. Likewise if VM buy a stake they couldn't broadcast it on their own channels.

Its why, back in the day, I said the best thing that could happen to Free to Air F1 was for Murdoch to buy a stake in F1, as that would have prevented him broadcasting it on Sky Sports. Being the Broadcaster and governing the Broadcasting Rights are mutually exclusive, you can't be both.
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Just out of interest - Im guessing they could buy (an interest in) F1 and use it as a promotional tool in England while giving the transmission to free to air in the UK - and therefore promoting Sky in every other country in the world? Im guessing they have a presense in other territories.

Im guessing it probably wouldnt be cost effective - even for a small stake in FOM - but maybe when other markets are more mature it might be worthwhile
(I dont know how much Sky are making from the F1 channel currently, but to write that income off in regards to marketing, wouldnt be too difficult I would imagine compared to profits they are making)
 
It would certainly be a strange move if they can't try and tie up the TV rights at the same time somehow...

Would they not be able to still 'bid' for the rights against each other even if one was invested in it at a stake holder?
 
Skeeter said:
Likewise if VM buy a stake they couldn't broadcast it on their own channels.
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Does competition 'law' extent to subsidiaries?

As Virgin Media would be purchasing the rights from a parent company (Liberty Global) and considering they themselves wouldn't be purchasing the stake, rather it's a joint purchase between Liberty Global and Discovery Communications, and Liberty Global isn't technically (not from my knowledge) a broadcaster in it's own rights, i wouldn't have thought it'd be an issue.
 
I'd assume so, as the deal to buy a stake in a football team that was blocked was for News Corp.

FOM hold the broadcasting rights and decide who will broadcast in each country. They couldn't award TV rights to a company they share an owner with, as it would effectively mean they award a contract to themselves.
 
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