Two weeks ago signalled the first time that a V8 Supercar race meeting was exclusive to pay television. It has caused quite an uproar, particularly on social media, where the call for boycotting both Channel Ten, Foxtel, the V8 Supercars and all associated sponsors is really gaining hold.
It’s understandable that people are upset about the changing circumstances, and there’s no doubt that the trend is a worrying one for people who can’t justify having Foxtel installed. More and more motorsports covering is heading for pay TV.
Just in the last two years, we’ve seen categories that once had a home on free-to-air – Moto2, Moto3 and NASCAR’s Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series – go exclusively across to pay television. Earlier than that, former Channel Ten staples, the World Rally Championship and IndyCar Series (remember the Monday evening replays hosted by Bill Woods and Neil Crompton?) have become Foxtel exclusives. It’s been tough for some fans for a long time.
In America and Europe, big-time motorsport has either been wholly on cable for or at least has a major component on subscription television. It’s been like that for a decade or more, including for big series’ like Formula One in Europe and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in North America. Really, Australians should count themselves lucky that we’ve had such a good run with free-to-air coverage here.
Channel Ten’s financial situation has been well documented, and you can only imagine the money being thrown at them by Foxtel to have a stake in Formula One and MotoGP, arguably the two most popular motorsports categories on the planet – and certainly the most recognisable forms – and also V8 Supercars. For a struggling network, Foxtel’s willingness to open it’s chequebook doubtless helps ease some of the monetary pain.
What startles me is the preponderance of Facebook groups and comment on other social media platforms that I’ve been pointed to in recent times – recent, as in the last few weeks, even after Symmons Plains and Malaysia – from mostly V8 fans (but a sprinkling of Formula One followers, too) who claim to be diehard fans. These diehards are completely shocked and dismayed by an arrangement they claim to have known nothing about.
To which I say this: we have known about the new V8SC television deal since late 2014. How much of a diehard fan can you be if you’re just discovering this news now? I’m a diehard AFL, hockey and motorsports fan and I devour information on all those sports from various sources on a daily basis, at the very least. I know all the major happenings within those sports, especially changes to broadcasting!
Contrary to popular conspiratorial belief, there has been no subterfuge. This news has been out there for some time! All one needed to do was to read the original press release, or one of the handful that have followed since to understand what was going on. Admittedly, V8 Supercars have tried to bury the crux of the detail regarding free-to-air coverage – that there would be six rounds live, and the rest presented as hourly highlights on Ten and One on weekend evenings – way down the page, well after spruiking every session of every race weekend live and commercial-free on Foxtel.
Even so, it was there to be read, and most people did. I’m getting a little sick of people not bothering to take the time in the 12+ month time between the announcement of the deal and it’s actual inception to understand the changing face of their favourite sport’s coverage situation, and now blowing up a giant storm about it. Unless you lived under a rock or have been overseas for an extended period of time, people complaining about how the new deal has blindsided them is crazy.
Another gripe: Channel Ten’s slogan this year has been ‘The Home of Big Event Motorsport’, not, as it once was, ‘The Home of Motorsport’ and people who claim otherwise on social media and crucify Channel Ten for false advertising in claiming to be the latter rather than the latter need to either and not broadcasting all the V8 events like they “said” they would, are either in need of glasses, or are bending reality to suit their cause.
There’s no false advertising here. Trust me: the network’s lawyers would never have allowed the old slogan to run, because that would be misleading. Calling themselves the home of big-event motorsport is dead on. Why? They broadcast the Clipsal 500, Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000, Australian Formula One and Moto Grands Prix, and some of the other big events on the Formula One calendar. Anyone who’s paid attention to the ads would have seen that.
I can understand casual followers perhaps not understanding the situation, but to see posts from people who also post shots of rooms in their house latterly crammed full of V8 paraphernalia and, at the same time, claim not to have known what was happening is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think? If nothing else, surely Channel 7’s lengthy farewell to the sport at the end of the Sydney 500 last year might have piqued some interest and led people to research the situation a little further? It’s all there at your fingertips, with a simple Google search.
I get it – people are upset that their favourite sport has, and is, going through a change in how it is presented to the fan base. I genuinely feel sorry for people whose situation means they can’t afford it, but for so many people to say that they had no idea it was happening until they tried to watch the Symmons Plains round on Channel Ten the other weekend seems…well, ludicrous.
The debate on whether this has been a positive move for V8 Supercars, based on eyeballs able to see the 5-star coverage, is another debate for another article.
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