The date: Friday 29th July 2011.
The location: Budapest.
The time: 07:00 UK.

The press release went out. The paddock left to clean up the mess, as the fans looked on in shock and disbelief. “BBC TV and Sky Sports have been awarded the live rights to Formula 1™ between 2012 and 2018”, were the words at the top of the press release.

It was something that the majority of Formula 1 fans in the UK feared would happen. The move was a result of the licence fee settlement the previous Autumn, which meant that the BBC had to tighten budgets in all departments. It was either Six Nations, Wimbledon or Formula 1 that was going to be chopped. Axing Wimbledon or the Six Nations, both of which have been BBC staples for decades, would have been extremely controversial, especially when you consider the number of people that play tennis and rugby at grass roots levels.

The axe swung towards Formula 1, as the BBC entered a deal with Sky Sports. The move was controversial, more so considering that the sport in the UK was at its peak in popularity. Despite Sebastian Vettel’s dominance, the majority of races in 2011 peaked with over six million viewers. Since then, numbers have dropped. When Formula 1 bosses wonder why some fans are more vocal than previously in relation to the current on-track product this season, I’d give the same answer that I gave to BBC’s chief F1 writer Andrew Benson on Twitter: “People are more likely to complain about something that they have to pay for rather than something that is free to air…”

So, why did the BBC go into allegiance with Sky and not another free-to-air broadcaster? Unfortunately for BBC, ITV had already allocated budgets for 2012 to cover the European Championships, and therefore could not be considered. Channel 4 were also not considered, despite their interest in securing the rights. I mention this in light of yesterday’s news that the Six Nations rights will be shared between BBC and ITV from 2016 to 2021. There are some similarities between the two, but also some interesting differences. The main similarity in both cases is that the original BBC contract ended early. For Formula 1, the BBC contract was originally 2009 to 2013. BBC renegotiated the contract in the middle of 2011. BBC’s current Six Nations contract was scheduled to last until 2017, except the shared offering with ITV means that the new contract will begin with immediate effect. The reasoning though is different. BBC were always going to get into discussions with the Six Nations Council at this stage it appears. However, Sky Sports also tabled a bid, which led BBC to go to ITV, tabling a joint bid to knock Sky off to stage left.

The key difference between the F1 situation and the Six Nations situation is that the BBC were able to bring ITV as partner on board for the rugby, which they couldn’t do for the F1 due to the point made above. The benefit of any joint BBC and ITV bid is that it is far more compelling for a rights holder to accept a joint bid from free-to-air broadcasters than a single one from a pay-TV broadcaster given the extra exposure that it would bring to the championship. However, BBC were left with no other choice. Had they not gone into partnership with ITV, then they risked either losing the Six Nations completely or needing to go into partnership with Sky Sports. The reaction to the last partnership would be a lot more volatile than the former option…

We’re half-way through the current Formula 1 contract. What happens next? For the next six to nine months, nothing. As mentioned earlier, the current contract between BBC, Sky and FOM runs out at the end of 2018. With the recent licence fee settlement that played out earlier this week. At the moment, no one knows what BBC Sport’s budget will or will not be in the years to come, but one thing is for sure, it will be lower, hence why BBC could not justify outbidding Sky for the Six Nations. The situation is complicated, and there are a lot of different factors that come into play. Do BBC and Sky want to continue their existing relationship? Or would BBC prefer to be in partnership with another free-to-air channel? And where does BT Sport fit into this, if anywhere?

My gut instinct tells me that the deal will be renegotiated before the end of the contract. By renegotiation, I do not mean BBC pulling out the contract. What I mean is BBC and Sky renegotiating their existing contract, in order to extend it to around 2021 or 2022. This assumes that the BBC are happy with the current product, the current viewing figures, what they are currently paying compared with what they are getting and whether they can afford to pay that much. If BBC cannot pay that much, could we realistically see a situation where the BBC only broadcasts only the British, first and last races live? I don’t know. But I definitely think the current deal will be renegotiated early, from the BBC’s longer term perspective that probably is the best option rather than letting the contract run until its end. It would also be to Sky’s benefit as well, as it would mean that BT Sport do not get a look in. Running the contract to the end risks BT Sport and Sky Sports fighting over the live contract alone, should they wish to. However, it also depends whether FOM wishes to take the money or the viewers. As motorcycling fans will know, we’ve been in this position before.

ITV’s F1 contract was meant to last until 2010. They exited in 2008.
BBC’s F1 contract was meant to last until 2013. They renegotiated in 2011.
BBC’s and Sky’s current F1 agreement is meant to last until 2018. I suspect 2016 will be a very interesting year in F1 broadcasting…

Over 200 blog readers in the past two months have given their thoughts on how they have consumed Formula 1 both so far this season, and also in 2014. The findings are not meant to be representative of the entire population, but merely a snapshot of what readers of this blog think. The survey was uploaded to the blog in early May, with readers adding their thoughts and comments until the beginning of June.

The main comment from the outset is that the number of respondents year-on-year dropped from 353 respondents last year to 201 respondents this year. There are multiple reasons for the drop in responses from a blog perspective. 2015 has been a quieter year on the motor sport broadcasting front and I have had more real life commitments in the first half of the year, meaning that in turn the blog has been getting less hits, hence the survey getting less responses compared with last year. Which is fine, as I mention above, the survey is meant to be treated as a ‘blog snapshot’ rather than anything more.

General Conclusions
– 17 percent of readers have changed their viewing habits between 2014 and 2015
– 56 percent of readers are aged 35 and under
– Consumption of races has decreased

For the first time since I started this survey, I asked readers for their age and gender and it was interesting to see the responses. Unsurprisingly, the majority of people who completed the survey are aged between 16 and 34, this amounted for 52 percent of the responses. It is interesting, because one assumes that there is a similar demographic split on the majority of motor sport websites. I call it interesting as TV viewing typically skews old, such as BBC’s British Grand Prix coverage which probably had an average age in the late 40’s. But the difference in skew is not surprising given the rise of social media.

Overall, 17 percent of readers have changed their viewing year-on-year, compared with 20 percent in 2013 and an almost identical percentage versus the survey that I did on the blog this time last year. 17 percent is a typical number and no bigger or smaller than expected.

Audience trends
– Blog readers tune out of F1 coverage
– BBC TV and Sky Sports feel the brunt with drops

There is only one real trend here. Year-on-year, blog readers are watching less Formula 1 action, irrespective of whether the race is exclusively live on Sky, or whether live coverage is being shared with the BBC. The raw drops vary depending on what you compare. The lowest drop of 2 percent is when you compare BBC’s race highlights year-on-year, compared with a 7 percent drop for Sky’s exclusively live coverage. A few comments from blog readers in the PDF attached at the bottom of this post allude to the fact that, over the years from 2012, they are less inclined to watch the highlights programming as they do not feel as attached to the coverage as previously.

Interestingly, for those readers that have the choice, just over two out of three people watch Sky’s coverage all year around, preferring them to BBC’s coverage.

Change versus 2014
Looking at whether people are more or less likely to view BBC and Sky this year, it appears that there has been a slight swing of around two to three percent away from Sky and towards the BBC. In the context of the number of responses, we are talking about four or five people that would have swung it the other way. Examining the comments made, and the usual topics crop up, notably Sky’s pricing again, although there is clearly a divide between those who love Sky’s coverage and those who hate Sky’s coverage.

As I said at the beginning, the survey is by no means definitive, but is there to just give a snapshot of the picture from my blog readers. This post is just my reading of the results, however for full disclosure the survey results are below. Like last year, the comments as well as the survey results are worth a read. There were not as many comments as last year due to the smaller results size, but I’ve picked out around 30 comments which I thought were worth a read, and in my view clearly show the vast range of opinions that blog readers have concerning F1 broadcasting.

The full survey results can be found here, and a selection of detailed comments from a variety of readers can be found here.