21/06/2017
NEWS STORY
No sooner had FOM boss Chase Carey finished his criticism of the previous management of the sport, than Sean Bratches, who is charged with heading the commercial side of the business launched his own attack.
The American is particularly unhappy with the deal which sees Sky Sports get exclusive live coverage of F1 for five years beginning in 2019, a move which will end live free-to-air coverage in the UK and which will surely heavily impact viewing figures and revenue, not only in terms of broadcast rights but sponsors aware that in the UK their logos will be seen by fewer fans.
Bratches places blame for the deal, which he sees as short-sighted, squarely at the feet of the previous management and the sport's former owners.
"Free to air is critically important to us," Bratches told the FIA Sport conference in Geneva. "My vision as it relates to media rights is a hybrid of free to air and pay.
"Our plan is to balance the two but have a prominent, over the year, free-to-air voice," he continued. "That is important from a fan, sponsor and relevance standpoint. There is the cauldron full of cash on the pay side and on the other side of the scale you have brand and reach.
"My view is a 30/70 model of free-to-air to pay," he revealed, "where you have a number of grands prix to be on free to air and then we can play and toil with the pay side to generate revenue that we can reinvest back into the sport."
Asked if he might try to renegotiate the deal, he said: "That deal is an agreement that we inherited. They are done between adult parties at an arm’s length and my suspicion is that Sky is very happy and we are going to honour and respect the deals that were in place when we arrived."