Turns out this past season Formula 1 has suffered a large drop in global viewership, something in the 30 million viewer range. FOM attributes this to scheduling conflicts with night races in different crucial time zones and bad performances by drivers from large markets. Whatever the reason, this influence the about of money the FOM can squeeze out broadcasters at contract time and with many crucial contracts and rather than offering a better product they would want to charge a premium for an HD feed. Ecclestone in THIS article on PitPass makes the classic chicken and the egg argument demanding assurances. F1 at the forefront of technology eh? KERS was forced on everyone but not HD because FOM would need to make the official investment? Isn't LG a technology partner? doesn't make any sense, even YouTube is 1080p now...(hit full screen on the video below)
Meanwhile one of the channels mentioned in the article above, SKY-Italia voted with their feet and did not renew their Formula 1 contract for this season.
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Yup no F1 in HD is simply ridiculous. This is at least in the top five reasons that Bernie is irrelevant and should get out.
ReplyDeleteNot showing F1 in HD is simply ridiculous. I remember CART being shown on HD Net over four years ago, and they didn't have any money at all! It makes you wonder what other dumb things go on behind the scenes that we don't know about.
ReplyDeletepart of the issue is that in Europe HD tv is still a big mess and even though they started earlier they have way less programing than here in the US for example. But it F1 really wanted to make an impact in the US they should at least offer HD to Speed. It's just lame not to.
ReplyDeletePull your finger out Eccles.
ReplyDeleteIf Isle of Man TT can be captured in glorious slow motion HD, why not the pinnacle of technology in motorsport.
I would expect HD 3D at a minimum.
At least in hte mega LG survey there was an option for preference for HD. I hope everyone voted unanimously.
I forgot about the Isle of Man in HD! That pretty much throws Bernie's argument right out the window. The TT course probably requires four times as many cameras as F1 would need and I can't imagine they have a lot of money to spend.
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