The FOM launches the tender process for broadcasting F1 in France

This announcement was made during the weekend in Hockenheim, which was the worst timing since TF1 recorded its worst European audiences during the German event. Indeed, the arrival of the Tour de France on the Champs-Elysées competed with Formula 1, while the French beyond the Côte d’Azur enjoyed the pleasures of a true summer Sunday. This resulted in an audience of 2.4 million viewers and an audience share of “only” 21% in the time slot, which is well below the standards of the leading French channel.

In 2011, a withdrawal from F1 was mentioned by Nonce Paolini. Thus, the CEO of the channel, in statements reported by Le Figaro, declared in April 2011: “We will see if we renew the contract, but in any case, for now the Formula 1 figures have been in constant decline for several years. We must acknowledge that the Grand Prix events are becoming less and less exciting. The figures no longer meet our expectations and the contract that was signed at the time.”

But since then, the situation has significantly changed in the audiovisual and sports landscape. Thus, Bernie Ecclestone has opened the door to shared broadcasting between a pay channel (Sky) and a free channel (BBC and Sky) in the same country (England starting this year, Italy next year), which he had always refused to do in order to expose the sport (and its sponsors) to the largest possible audience. This is confirmed by the initial figures in the UK, as Sky has attracted 500,000 subscribers, while the BBC is capable of gathering twelve times more for certain events!

The situation in France is also significantly different, with the arrival of a very aggressive new player: Al-Jazeera via its two channels, BeInSport 1 and 2. They have already snagged the entire broadcast rights for the last Euro football tournament, while TF1 and M6 shared the rights for free channels. But more importantly, the Qatari channel has managed to secure the prestigious Champions League, which was a flagship attraction for both Canal+ and TF1. The two channels now have unutilized funds that they could potentially contribute to Formula 1.

This is especially true for Canal+, which could choose to broadcast the events on both its pay service and free-to-air since the Competition Authority has just authorized its acquisition of Bolloré’s two TNT channels, Direct8 and Direct Star. We could, therefore, envision the same distribution as between TF1 and Eurosport: qualifying on pay TV, the race on free-to-air.

TF1 might be even more inclined to share the broadcasting (and thus the related costs, estimated at about sixty million euros per season) due to the new configuration of the F1 calendar. While the European events (and the night race in Singapore) fill a relatively empty time slot, the Grand Prix held on the American continent fall at 7 or 8 p.m., coinciding with prime time and the news broadcast hour. However, F1 will have three events in North America in 2012 with the addition of Austin and even four in 2013 with New Jersey. Out of a total of 20 races, TF1 could thus “naturally” miss 20% of the championship, which might lead the private group to seek partners to reduce its overall cost.

We will therefore have the answers to all these questions in the coming weeks, especially since the major media decision-makers are gathering at the London Olympics.

With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr