F1: proof that it's about the money, not about the fans
Formula One has done what many fans will see as the worst possible deal: it's sold exclusive platform-independent rights for two dozen Asia / Asia Pacific markets to a company that would rather show adverts than racing.
The deal between Formula One Management and ESPN-STAR Sports will last for five years - and cover all media from satellite to terrestial, from radio to mobile and internet.
ESPN-STAR has been broadcasting Formula One for seventeen years but in recent years has angered fans with a level of advertising that is disruptive and ruins the racing experience. Recent races have had four laps racing, two laps adverts with this pattern repeated for the opening section of the race. As the race settles down, advertising is less intrusive but in the last twenty laps of a race it is again boosted. Missing the action is a common feature. And in addition, to interrupting coverage, ESPN-STAR also runs graphics across the screen, sometimes doing nothing more than advertising the fact that adverts will shortly be shown. And that's in addition to reducing picture size so that ads - and channel promos - can be run around the bottom and sides of the screen.
The deal is particularly galling for fans who had held out hope that national broadcasters would buy-in ad-free coverage from the BBC which takes over platform-independent broadcasting for the UK. The deal locks out that possibility and Singapore's Channel 5, which will run the inaugural race live at the end of this month will no longer have the rights to broadcast after this year unless it buys secondary coverage from ESPN-Star. Malaysia's RTM suffers the same fate: the rights to the F1 race belong to FOM, not to the national entities that pay vast amounts to present races.
Included in the deal is India which will later get its own Grand Prix and Hong Kong - where many fans have already lost coverage as it is not included in some of the major cable providers' packages.
So now we know: FOM just wants the money. Fans want the racing.
Guess who lost?
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