Paying for F1

[vintly]

Below is a quote from Jeri's recent post on the 'Glock: Nothing to do with sport' thread. It's meandered into another discussion, so I thought I'd take up one aspect in a new thread.

However, I wasn't being sarcastic when it comes to getting sponsorship out of the sport.  If we want the teams to make the money directly off of fans, then we as fans need to pay directly into F1, eliminating the need for sponsors.

According to James Allen on Twitter today:

You Tube is to start selling subscriptions to channels - typically $1 to $5 per month. (i.e. like Netflix). There are #f1 possibilities here

This was explored in more depth back in April last year by Dan Ross: http://www.motorsportmusings.co.uk/2012/04/youtube-future-motorsport-coverage/

This could be good news all round - could it mean advert-free GPs streamed to any device?

[Scott]

Most smart TV's now will broadcast Youtube.  It would be great, but I guess is still many years away.  For one thing the current TV contracts wouldn't allow it, with all the broadcast rights being sold country by country, youtube broadcasts would contravene them and somebody would be up in arms. 

[lkjohnson1950]

Bernie's single biggest weakness is that he doesn't seem to get the internet. F1's presence is not what it could and should be. Sky or some other broadcast provider could arrange with YouTube to stream a race on a pay per view basis. F1 would pick up extra viewers and the TV guys would collect extra revenue which Bernie could hijack. Should make him happy.

[Jericoke]

Bernie's single biggest weakness is that he doesn't seem to get the internet. F1's presence is not what it could and should be. Sky or some other broadcast provider could arrange with YouTube to stream a race on a pay per view basis. F1 would pick up extra viewers and the TV guys would collect extra revenue which Bernie could hijack. Should make him happy.

I think Bernie gets the internet just fine. 

Remember last year when Anonymous took down the F1 website during the Bahrain Grand Prix?  Bernie does.  He knows better than to charge the fans for something he cannot guarantee (promoters are a different kettle of fish...).

I know that if I paid $5 to watch a race on Youtube, and it didn't work, I wouldn't try again. 

[Scott]

I suppose it might be counter productive for Anonymous to take down Youtube since so much of their own material is on it, and to take down the entire YouTube domain would enrage a lot more people than just F1 fans.   

[lkjohnson1950]

Amazon, Hulu, and iTunes do a pretty good business in pay per view video. Admittedly it's reruns and pre-recorded but I don't see why they couldn't provide a live feed with the same level of competence.

[Scott]

Absolutely.  Certainly there are global sponsors like Shell and UBS who would probably even be happy to sponsor it with the odd ad as well. 

[vintly]

Bernie, being about 150 years old, is rather old school, so maybe can't / doesn't want to get his head around YouTube and the internet's live streaming potential.

In hindsight I'm keen on GPs being streamed online, but YouTube is synonymous with crap phone videos, talking dogs and epic fails - it's ugly! F1 could be better streamed from an F1 site, simple.

Anyways we'll see, I hope it happens soon.

[Jericoke]

Bernie, being about 150 years old, is rather old school, so maybe can't / doesn't want to get his head around YouTube and the internet's live streaming potential.

In hindsight I'm keen on GPs being streamed online, but YouTube is synonymous with crap phone videos, talking dogs and epic fails - it's ugly! F1 could be better streamed from an F1 site, simple.

Anyways we'll see, I hope it happens soon.

Bernie attempted On Demand/Pay Per View TV long before it was fashionable and it was a disaster.  FOM is not fundamentally opposed to new revenue streams, however, they are once bitten, twice shy.

As I previously stated, until they can guarantee a flawless online experience, I don't think they'll even try.

[lkjohnson1950]

It would help Bernie reach people like Alia, who said once it wasn't possible for her to get SKY even if she wanted to.

[Scott]

Same here.  If I could get every race in english, I would pay for it, but I don't even have the choice where I am.

[Irisado]

I don't think that any sort of pay per view is the way forward for F1.  The Sky fiasco has already caused a lot of ill feeling in the UK, and, as Jeri says, it didn't work out too well for Ecclestone when it was tried before.

Also, call me old fashioned, but I like watching television, on a television, not on a computer screen, or even worse, a mobile phone.

[lkjohnson1950]

In the not too distant future, your television will be a computer screen. I could hook either of my computers to my TV right now and stream whatever I could find. I'm pretty happy with SPEED's coverage of F1, but what happens this year is way up in the air, so it would be good to have an alternative.

[Scott]

I can stream to my TV now.  Had Youtube on my TV for almost 2 years.  I don't care what format it comes into the house, TV is TV. 

[vintly]

Smart TVs have already blurred the line between computer and TV - the PC is just another channel on the TV remote, and with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse there's no need even to hook another computer to it, wirelessly or otherwise.

I agree with you Irisado, watching a decent TV set is always better than a mobile or computer screen, but if there's the choice then you needn't miss a GP just because the TV is being used by someone else. Or as a car passenger, or at the office, onlibe screening would be very handy!

Of course, Sky Go already caters for that, and a very good job it does. Borrowing someone's Sky ID during last season I watched a GP on an iPad on a 3G network - no problem.

In the UK at least, Sky have this neatly sewn up, unlike Virgin or anyone else, and it works well because one company is in control of the tech. Virgin's 'TV Anywhere' is still awful. Streaming on YouTube, apart from looking awful with those ads and 'suggested videos' everywhere, would entail re-negotiating ALL other TV channel deals - a nightmare. So I guess it will be a while if GPs get streamed anywhere else other than via Sky Go.

As for pay-per-view - if you wanna watch them all then we already do don't we??

Edit:

One thing's for sure, streaming shouldn't be left to the teams! Ferrari's online launch was lo-resolution! And I've just watched a pitifully poorly synched Mercedes launch on YouTube. Incredible - cars to die for but video tech from the dark ages.