On Friday morning, it was announced that the BBC and Sky will share the UK F1 coverage rights from 2012. Here are my thoughts…
The response to this deal has been overwhelmingly negative, rather naive and, quite frankly, full of bollocks from people who think they know what they are talking about when they don’t. So, not wanting to miss the opportunity to put my own thoughts in, here are mine…
To be honest, the deal isn’t a complete surprise. The timing is, of course, unexpected and on the face of it, the deal has come out of the blue. However, there have been rumours for a while that the BBC were looking to possible drop the F1 coverage entirely, as it costs in the region of £60 million a year. Their contract was to run until the end of 2012, but some thought they may end their coverage after this year. Of course, going back to the end of 2008, ITV ended their F1 rights contract one year early too.
So, the first question to ask is probably, why would the BBC want to end their contract early, or renegotiate it?
- They can’t afford it any more. F1 coverage costs them £60 million a year, and some people at the BBC deem that too much. BBC Four costs the same amount to run for a whole year (though it is crap);
- They overpaid for the rights in the first place, by bidding more than they needed to, mainly because they had lost so many of their prime sports to other companies. They probably realise now that they didn’t need to pay so much for them.
The next question then has to be, what were the options going forward?
- Negotiate to continue the current coverage, at a lower cost;
- Giving up the rights to another free-to-air broadcaster, that being ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5;
- Giving up the rights to Sky;
- F1 moving to a pay-per-view model in the UK;
- Sharing coverage between multiple broadcasters.
Of course, options three, four and five were all ignored in discussions about the subject in Britain. The first two options were the only ones most people thought about. This is mainly because of the Concorder Agreement, which it seems everyone is an expert on…
Well, anyone who claims to know about the Concorde Agreement is either high up in an F1 team, FOM, a lawyer, or lying. It’s a secret document. It’s not in the public domain. So, when people says “they can’t do this because it’s in the Concorde Agreement”, ask them, have they read? Where did they get it from? DO they know, or are they just guessing? That said, I’m now going to tell you something about the Concorde Agreement…
It is a myth that the Concorde Agreement states that all F1 must be on free TV in Britain. The Concorde Agreement does not, as far as I am aware, mention Britain at all, but does say that in strategic territories (and I don’t know if these are specified in the document or not), F1 must be provided on free-to-air TV. However, it does not specify how this is presented – it does not say it must be live, or that all should be, or prevent some F1 coverage being provided by pay TV providers. Thus, provided there is at least some coverage of F1 races in strategic territories (of which Britain would be one). FOM can do deals with other broadcasters too.
Because of this, option one is not a valid option. There is no need for Bernie Ecclestone to accept a deal where the BBC keep F1 coverage but pay less. It’s not his problem – it’s the BBC’s. Bernie Ecclestone’s job is to sell coverage in line with the Concorde Agreement, maximising F1′s commercial income stream from TV rights and to keep F1 within the view of the general public. He has no need or duty to cut the BBC a cheaper deal.
Of course, option two does look like a good option. Why not just give the rights to ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5? Well, ITV gave up the F1 rights because they couldn’t afford them, and you’re living in cloud cuckoo land if you think there’s any way Channel 5 could afford them. Channel 4 would be the most likely of the three, but in all likelihood, they could only compete on a commercial basis with Sky out of the equation – just look at what happened with the Test cricket for evidence of that. The switchover to digital does appear to have stretched Channel 4, and it is questionable that broadcasting F1 would be a realistic possibility for them.
So, option three… and again, this is not possible, mainly because of the Concorde Agreement. Sky cannot own complete rights to F1 as it is not a free-to-air operation. This is a complete non-starter for F1 in Britain. Option four is the same – it’s basically the same option as Sky, but as a standalone package. Of course, the eagle-eyed will remember F1 has experimented with pay-per-view F1 in Britain, about ten years ago. I liked the idea then, I still like it now. We’ll come back to this.
This only really leaves option five, where all F1 coverage is available on Sky, and some coverage is available on the BBC. Under the deal the BBC and Sky have signed, there will be coverage of all F1 races on free-to-air TV, with half of races live, and half shown as extended highlights. Yes, it’s not ideal for everyone, but it’s unrealistic to expect that F1 should be provided completely free. So, this way, everyone gets at least some of what they want. F1 stays free-to-air, although less is less comprehensive, TV rights money doesn’t go down because of the Sky deal, and the Concorde Agreement is satisfied. Of course it’s not perfect, but what can you do when the BBC refuse to stick to the agreement they signed?
Other Options
There are two other options that I am sad haven’t been considered. The first is PPV F1, where you either pay for each race on a dedicated channel, or pay for a whole-season pass. This was tried about ten or so years ago, but was abandoned as there wasn’t a huge uptake. I liked it at the time, and think with all the extra data and HD and everything that is available now, more people would be tempted by it. Also, many people would be prepared to pay £10/race for F1 than £50/month for Sky Sports. You could also throw in a discount for existing Sky Sports subscribers, although that would complicate matters.
The second idea is that FOM could provide coverage on their website. Dorna do this with MotoGP. For less than £100/year, you can watch everything on their website. They used to use this for GP Masters, but obviously, the series disbanded rather quickly.
So, in sum, yes, it is frustrating that F1 will no longer be completely free in Britain, but to expect it to be completely free is to be either naive or in denial of the commercial reality of F1. At least some F1 will be available free in Britain – it isn’t in many countries.