Sky also secures the rights for Italy
After the United Kingdom, it is Italy's turn to succumb to the allure of News Corp, which has reached an agreement with RAI to broadcast part of the Formula One races on the pay satellite package Sky. This raises questions about the future of F1 broadcasting on a free channel in France.
The British satellite bouquet Sky has just obtained the same agreement as in the United Kingdom: eleven races live exclusively and nine shared with the public channel RAI. This is another breach of the stated intention in the Concorde Agreements, which aim to prioritize free broadcasting of F1 races over pay channels. After the agreement between the BBC and Sky for the period 2012 – 2018, the channel of News Corp conglomerate has now added a new country to its hunting board: Italy.
Once again, the question arises of finding the right balance between maximizing television revenues for FOM and the audience (and consequently the advertising impact for sponsors). Public broadcasters in the Euro zone are increasingly struggling to meet Bernie Ecclestone’s demands while their governments impose budget cuts to address their own chronic deficits.
The Italian example clearly shows this bidding war put in place by *Sky*. According to information from James Allen, the new agreement provides for an annual payment of 65 million euros, nearly double what *RAI* was paying until now. The same inflation could be observed in the United Kingdom as the new contract provides for an annual payment of 60 million pounds sterling, whereas the Beeb was paying “only” 40 million pounds sterling.
The question is likely to arise for France as well. Until now, the private channel TF1 broadcasts F1. However, it now faces aggressive competition from the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, which has just launched two channels entirely dedicated to sports, BeInSport 1 and 2. It has already secured the rights to Euro 2012 and 2016, as well as a large portion of Ligue 1 and the UEFA Champions League. F1 could therefore be the next target for the channel.
French fans will get a first taste of what it could be like from this weekend, as TF1 has decided not to broadcast the Canadian Grand Prix live. The reason given this time is not the sacrosanct 8 P.M. news broadcast, but the holding of the first round of legislative elections. Fans will therefore have to turn to the group’s pay channel, Eurosport…
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
