If you’re a motor racing fan like I am, and you happen to have Foxtel, then chances are good that you’re as happy today as a pig in you-know-what, for the subscription television provider announced on Friday morning that they had secured broadcast rights to the entire Formula One World Championship Season beginning in 2015, which means every practice, qualifying run and race live and in full high definition. If you don’t have Foxtel, this is probably something more akin to a kick in the guts.
There had been some suggestion that a Foxtel deal was in the works, but conventional wisdom suggested it would be completed in time for the 2016 season. Instead, pay television subscribers will get to enjoy the excellent Sky Sports UK coverage via Foxtel, and what a treat that will be.
In the context of the countless hundreds of hours of motorsport Foxtel will be showing in 2015 and beyond, it seems rather strange that they elected to axe their SPEED channel halfway through last year, but, despite that, you cant argue with their commitment to ensuring viewers see all of the best motorsport in the world.
Of course, their V8 Supercar deal has been much ballyhooed – and also includes complete coverage of everything going on over the course of a V8 race weekend, including live and in-full broadcasts of all support series – and let us not forget exclusive coverage of the World Endurance Championship (including it’s crown jewel, the 24 Hours of Le Mans), the IndyCar Series (including the Indianapolis 500), World Rally Championship, NASCAR’s three national series as well as two-wheeled MotoGP and World Superbike action. A large chunk of this coverage will be live and uninterrupted, and that is fantastic for those who have the means to afford Foxtel.
The flip side is that there are many who do not, and it seems to be one blow after another for those who rely on free-to-air television for their motorsport fix. First came the news that they would only see 6 live V8 Supercar events over the next five years, with the rest condensed highlights on delay, and that came on the heels of losing free-to-air coverage of the Moto2 and Moto3 support categories for the big boys of MotoGP.
Now, another blow. The announcement that Network Ten’s live quota of Formula One races will be cut in half – from twenty down to ten – is bad enough, but the devil is in the detail of the press releases this morning, and the key point is that those other ten races wont simply be shown on delay, but instead condensed into a one-hour highlights show. Throw in a few minutes’ worth of ad breaks per hour, and the usual on-camera stuff at either end of the broadcast, and viewers without Foxtel will be lucky to see thirty minutes of a race that runs for around triple that time.
A lot of this offloading of motorsport rights is to do with Channel Ten’s precarious and well-documented financial issues. And Foxtel is right there, happy to snap up what the besieged free-to-air network cannot afford. You only need to look at the ratings to know that Ten is losing money hand over fist, and anyone who pays even cursory attention to the world of television and broadcast rights knows that things such as MotoGP, Formula One and V8 Supercar rights do not come cheaply.
It’s hard for Channel Ten to compete with Foxtel, who obviously have the money that subscribers pour into their coffers each month, and, with Ten on the financial ropes, they’ve clearly seen this movement to Foxtel – it’s called a partnership in the press releases, but it’s an uneven one at best – as a way to save some money.
Strictly from a business standpoint, you can’t fault Ten for doing what they’ve done.
Nor can you really fault Foxtel for stepping into the breach to claim those broadcast rights and deliver what is unquestionably going to be the best motorsports coverage Australia has ever seen. Obviously, those in control of broadcast rights will go where the money is, as the AFL, NRL, Cricket Australia and Super Rugby folks have previously done.
This broadcast model is similar to what has been in place in Europe and North America for some time. Take NASCAR for example: since the turn of the millennium more than half of their Cup Series races have been shown on cable. BBC and Sky share Formula One in the United Kingdom in a similar fashion to the deal in Australia. In many ways, Australia was one of the last bastions of full and free coverage of motorsport.
The giant losers here are the motorsport fans around the country who cannot afford pay television. First they lost the majority of the V8’s and now they’ve lost the majority of the Formula One season. That’s after losing MotoGP support categories. Once upon a time, too, NASCAR was on free-to-air (via One-HD) and going back further, IndyCar. Now, they are exclusively pay TV properties.
There was a huge backlash on social media and elsewhere when the V8 Supercar-Foxtel deal was announced, and that came well out from the start of their deal. The Formula One season is just weeks away from commencing in Melbourne, and there are doubtless many fans who will feel cheated. Some simply will not be able to switch over to Foxtel, and face the prospect of missing most of the season. If F1 is your favourite sport and you can’t afford Foxtel, you’re going to be filthy. Social media will be interesting over the next few days.
With the world’s premiere categories, both two- and four-wheeled, now either completely or mostly ensconced on pay television, motorsport coverage in Australia has changed forever, and whilst some will herald this as a great day/week/month for motorsport, for many, this is a sad day, the end of viewing habits as a lot of people know them.
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