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Foxtel is well placed to assume Network Ten’s mantle as the “Home of Motorsport”, having broadcast all MotoGP categories as of last weekend’s season opening Qatar Grand Prix and with V8 Supercars to come next season.
Fox can lay claim to live and for the most part exclusive coverage. Ten will screen just six V8 events live, and only the MotoGP main event – entailing neither qualifying coverage, nor the often more enthralling Moto2 and 3 categories.
We’ve been told not to worry though – one-hour evening V8 highlight packages ought to soften the blow. Somebody just forgot that it’s 2014, and consumers don’t want a watered-down package.
The solution is to invest in a Foxtel subscription, but if you can’t afford it, too bad. This is an outcome which has left many with an understandably sour taste in their mouths.
Coupled with Fox’s existing portfolio through SPEED or Fox Sports – NASCAR, IndyCar, GP2 and 3, WSB, WRC and World Endurance Championship featuring Mark Webber to name a few – there aren’t many categories left wanting except the biggest scalp of all, Formula One.
Incumbent broadcaster Ten’s contract expires at the conclusion of 2015, coinciding with the final year of the current Australian Grand Prix contract.
It doesn’t take a genius to realise that the future of the category on the network – and by extension, free-to-air television – hinges largely on the success of negotiations to retain the event.
Even if the Victorian government extends, one can imagine a scenario where Ten maintains live coverage of the event with Foxtel picking up the rights to all other races.
In the UK, pay TV network Sky Sports has enjoyed live coverage of all races since 2012. Free-to-air BBC broadcasts half the races live and the other half in hour-long highlight packages – not too dissimilar to the model V8 Supercars will implement from next season.
The Beeb had previously enjoyed exclusive coverage from 2009, only to conclude that too much money was being spent, having paid through the nose to regain the rights from ITV.
A similar outcome could be envisaged here, with selected events such as Australia, Monaco, Britain, Italy, the season finale, and perhaps the early and late season flyaway events which are in the same time zone as Australia. This equates to roughly half the events being screened live, with the rest given the highlights treatment.
The only circumstance in which a move to Foxtel would be palatable is if if they were to simulcast the Sky or BBC feed from intro to outro, thus gaining invaluable coverage from the ground in the lead-up to and often heated aftermath of qualifying and races.
While Ten’s current coverage isn’t exactly tip top, with little by the way of in-depth pre-race analysis, regularly ill-timed ad breaks, and sporadic high definition, it is live and free – something tens of millions in the UK would die for.
All sport is seemingly headed this way. We must brace ourselves for any of the above coming to fruition, and be grateful for what we have in the meantime.
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