Sixteen different grand prix venue organisers have recently singed onto a letter that speaks to the concerns that they have for the future of Formula 1. Amongst other issues Liberty Media’s unwillingness to have an open and productive dialogue with various race organisers was raised as one of the concerns.
Another issue raised by race organisers is the introduction of new venues. While the sport should rightly seek out new venues to ensure the evolution of the sport new races should be not introduced to the detriment of existing events. But more worrying was the issue of long-term interest in the sport as more and more fans lose access to viewing F1.
Formula 1 has, nearly, ensconced itself completely behind quite an expensive pay wall and the financial burden on fans is beginning to tell. Pay TV has had a significantly negative impact on viewership as most cannot afford to fork out the monthly DSTV premium in South Africa, nor the monthly subscription charge for Sky in the UK. While Liberty Media has introduced a dedicated streaming service in F1TV, an admittedly spotty service in its infancy, it is only available to countries that do not have an existing broadcasting contract to exclusively air Formula 1 content.
It makes little sense to force people into paying exorbitant subscription fees because the reality is, as proven recently, that they will opt for something less expensive instead. Handing any company a monopoly has never been good idea. Because ultimately these companies are able to hold viewers to ransom knowing that the content cannot be obtained anywhere else. The blunt reality is that Multichoice and the like do not have consumers’ best interest at heart. For them the bottom line is not improving and delivering a world-class product but instead ringing every last possible cent out of the consumer’s pocket. If this isn’t the case, and I’m pontificating a completely false narrative then I challenge Multichoice to bundle together their sports channels and sell it at a rate less than what a premium subscription would cost. However, I feel fairly certain that this would never happen.
But as much as I bemoan the cost of a premium subscription companies like Multichoice and Sky aren’t the only villains in this story. It must also be taken into consideration what broadcasters have to fork out for these exclusive rights. This price, set by Liberty Media, is what almost instantly discounts free-to-air channels from even coming to the table. Let it be known that I am by no means a math whizz or marketing expert but surely more eyeballs equals more opportunity to sell products which means more revenue to advertisers. Therefore, it would, in a world ideally driven by logic, make more sense to broadcast F1 content on free-to-air channels.
Alas, though unlikely we will have to live in hope that something changes in the near future. For now the best we can hope for is that all Formula 1 fans are eventually given access to subscribe to F1TV.
