In what might be described as ‘the holy grail’ of the modern F1 fan, Liberty Media looks set to launch the much sought after streaming service for F1.
Having recently bought a controlling stake of 19.1% in F1, CEO Greg Maffei of Liberty Media told analysts today in a quarterly earnings call that a streaming service “makes a lot of sense for them and us.”. There are “things to be worked through I don’t think it’s insurmountable” when quizzed about the seemingly impossible amount of TV rights deals the new F1 owners would have to wade through.
Liberty Media already own the Atlanta Braves, and Greg Maffei thinks that baseball is “much more complicated” when it comes to sifting through different deals held by the teams and Baseball’s governing body. It’s generally considered that Baseball is “the most advanced in terms of getting an over-the-top product.”.
Another company of which Liberty owns a controlling stake is Live Nation, a live entertainment company. It’s probably that they’re to be used as an already proven method of ticket distribution that “can be helpful to Formula One” through its Ticketmaster subsidiary. Extra’s would include helping set up venues, and stage concerts around F1 race weekends.
Maffei thinks the new stream service unlikely to replace traditional methods of the sports consumption straight away. He admits that “we don’t yet see wholesale substitution” for traditional pay TV yet but the probability is that eager fans across the globe will lap up such a service despite the likelihood it’ll start as a US only idea.
I started out wondering how a 19.1% stake in “F1” can be a controlling interest. That’d be unusual, especially for what I thought was a very tightly held arrangement of companies.
Anyways, in a coupla seconds of searching, I got to here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2016/11/08/exclusive-liberty-media-boosts-f1-investment-by-13-million/#434b0cc62cac
Dunno who this guy Sylt is but the article makes for interesting reading if you can get past the dreary business-speak.
(If it’s in Forbes then there must be some kind of truth in it – regardless of the fact that those guys will be the first against the wall when the revolution starts. Viva Drumf!)
According to Joe Saward, he’s Bernie’s mouthpiece.
I would gladly pay a subscription to have streaming access to live races, recorded ones and would even pay premium rates for stuff like following a driver on-board on demand.
It always boils down to price: I wouldn’t be so quick to jump the gun.
Where I live (Spain) there’s no direct streaming (and when there was, the commentators were dreadfully incompetent). There’s only one large “sport” package which sets you down nearly $100/month (yes, per month). So I’d be very interested to see it streamed via internet with decent commentary, but if they charge based on the rest of the offers (say, a $50/month would still be competitive here), it could be preposterous. We’ll see, but this is good news nevertheless.
Thanks judge.
I agree Walter but just as an open question to all, what would be a reasonable price to pay for a full weekends viewing?
I have just cancelled my Sky subscription because of this as I felt £90 per month was beyond a joke for free view TV and 20 races.
Just as a note,when HD first came to TV I bit the bullet and paid the extra £5..yep,that included F1 so I was happy:)
For a streaming service,maybe including a few ads I would happily pay £5 per race. Anymore and I will find a free stream.
About time, bring it to UK.