Is F1 dying?

[ears]

TV rights is to be a thing of the past, I can't envision my kids who are growing up with netflix, youtube, amazon and so on will ever be interested in paying for the traditional TV when things can be had on demand.

I can't quite follow this one.

You're right that IPTV is taking over from the more traditional broadcast media, but they still need to have the rights to something in order to make it available to watch, whether that's through terrestrial, satellite or IPTV.

The word is that Amazon want to compete with Sky to show English Premier League football, but they'll still need the rights to do it.

What I'm interested in is whether, in trying to address the decreasing viewing figures, the new owners of F1 elect to turn down the mega millions from the likes of Sky and Amazon in order to make the sport accessible on TV to everyone who wants to watch it / try it.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

I can't quite follow this one.

You're right that IPTV is taking over from the more traditional broadcast media, but they still need to have the rights to something in order to make it available to watch, whether that's through terrestrial, satellite or IPTV.

The word is that Amazon want to compete with Sky to show English Premier League football, but they'll still need the rights to do it.

What I'm interested in is whether, in trying to address the decreasing viewing figures, the new owners of F1 elect to turn down the mega millions from the likes of Sky and Amazon in order to make the sport accessible on TV to everyone who wants to watch it / try it.

Not IPTV, VOD (Video On Demand).
Services like Neflix and HBO are VOD.
The coming generations won't accept having their favorite TV show start at a set time of day when they've grown up bingewatching the entire season in two days at their own leisure.
Of course live sport events will have to start and end at certain times, but TV as we know it will die sooner rather than later, I hope.
In the future I suspect that Liberty Media will make sure to not write broadcasting deals that lock them out of having the customer just subscribe to a streaming service directly from them instead, cutting out the middle man which looses them money.
Look at MotoGP, they already have a brilliant all access pass that you can subscribe to from their own website giving you epic streaming of their races (so I'm told at least by friends of mine who care about racing on two wheels).

 

[ears]

But any form of exclusive subscription paywall will lock out the causal or potentially new fan.

The question for F1 is can they take the hit, make the long term investment and put F1 out FTA in most countries?

 

[Erik Springelkamp]

F1 on RTL in Germany is not behind a paywall (but in between extensive advertising).

Ziggo in NL has put F1 on an open channel in their general TV package since public interest sky-rocketed because of Max. They use it as advertising for their own subscriptions.

However, the increased interest has blocked live streams for races like ADAC GT Masters here that are now offered behind paywalls in NL.

There are all kinds of mechanisms at work. Maybe they will lock F1 again once they attracted enough fans.

 

[JayOTT]

It really depends on how the FIA and Liberty Media react to what is almost certainly going to be record low attendance and viewership numbers in 2018. I hate to bring it up so often, but I couldn't care less about Formula 1 now that the halo is a thing, and I know there's many others out there who will feel the same way.

There have been other good points raised, such as the lifeless tracks with tarmac run-off and impossibly high admission fees, but there is no one entity that shows just how out of touch the FIA is with the fans that keep the sport going than Formula Thong.

So when the fans desert them, how will the FIA and Liberty react? Will they admit fault and try to win back the fans? Or will they double down on Formula Thong and ensure the sports demise?

 

[Rob Every]

I can't believe people are so up in arms about HALO.

I would think that is the last thing to make you stop ever watching F1 for a while! While I agree it looks awful, using that is a prime motivator to stop watching the sport seems odd.

It has been on the way out for a long time, basically since the hybrid era

 

[F_B]

While the racing is boring now the cars still look good. With the introduction of Halo next year the cars will look like shitboxes and the racing will still be boring. Yaaaay! To be more serious: imo there’s too much going wrong in F1 (too dominant manufacturers, predictable racing, DRS, KERS, Halo, a driver should be the star not the car, sterile race tracks etc). Liberty will have a lot of work to do in order to make this series enjoyable again. Now it’s just a series for engineers and/or Mercedes fans. There's no real racing.

 

[Coffer]

Depends on what your definition is. In terms of viewership, no, Liberty Media will see to it that the viewership rises again. In terms of the quality of the viewership...... yeah, it's going to die a slow and painful death, and once that happens, motorsport as a whole is doomed. It'd be fine if it was just the fanbase that would inevitably degrade into the laughable kind you see in US sports where they know absolutely nothing and are just there for the likes of Liberty Media to siphon money out of, but the teams themselves are doing much of the same, with Ferrari seemingly being the only exception remaining (and even then, Marchionne is doing much of the same but for his own sake).

Once the elitist nature of F1 disappears, the sport will be 100% gone. Sadly, it looks like this is exactly what's going to happen over the next few years.

 

[Mark Ratzenbacher]

No, it´s not dying, it is already dead.

Luckily through the last decade other motorsport has become more present in the media. I can watch now live and in free-tv MotoGP, Formula 3, VLN, EnduranceRaces, SuperGT, ADAC Masters, DTM, Nascar, Indycar and the list goes on.

Hyping F1 as the pinnacle of motorsport is pure marketing and every motorsport-enthusiast who isn´t focussed on only one series easily knows it. Who really needs a resurrection of F1 ? It needs to be re-invernted from the grounds and then be called Formula 1+.

 

[JayOTT]

While I agree it looks awful, using that is a prime motivator to stop watching the sport seems odd.

None of the other potential motivators for not watching bothered me nearly as much.

I like the hybrid power units, and have always felt that engine noise is overrated. Natural aspiration is going extinct like the carburetor, so I think it's a good thing that F1 finally modernised their engine specs.

Of course we'd rather not have DRS, but the technical regulations, especially from this year onwards, make it a necessary evil. Those old school races from the 90's and 00's that nostalgia tries to tell us were better, were in actuality quite s*** with very few on-track overtakes unless it was wet.

The main thing aside from the Halo that really irks me is the reduced free-TV coverage. A real pain, but Australia was fortunate in that we still get half the races live and highlights of the other half, so it wasn't as bad as it could've been.

But turning the cars into thongs on wheels when the shield was a viable alternative... I just cannot get over it.

 

[ohi]

It might be a combination of me getting older and F1 getting less exciting, but I agree with someone else here that now and then I fall asleep a while during the race.
To quote my dad: "I remember in the good ol'days" when my pulse went a little higher just before the start.

On the other hand, just to deny I am too old for this, when I watch MotoGP, my hands sweat before the start and I am not even close of sleeping. I am totally exhausted after every race, no need for workout.

For you who haven't seen MotoGP, see Austria and I believe it was Japan (in the rain) and the last race when Marquez just had to cruise to win the champion.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

To quote my dad: "I remember in the good ol'days" when my pulse went a little higher just before the start.

This still happens to me, so I'd say its more a case of you than the sport.

 

[ohi]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/formula-1-overtaking-slumped-half-2017-986173/
"Russian Grand Prix in Sochi, where just one pass was recorded." is this really correct? One pass in the whole race?

I don't mind that there is one or two teams winning, as long as the tv producer finds fights for positions somewhere in the field. But I have the feeling that there has been fewer exciting moments in every race this year.
In contrast to MotoGP where there is furious racing from lap 1 to the end in almost every race. Maybe an unfair comparison, but it is entertaining.

 

[Benutzername]

F1 is dying? This question is asked every year.

I guess back then they werent too happy abput the brand new ugly rear wings of the cars.