F1 cost to SpeedTV

[Shadow]

Anyone have any idea of what SpeedTV pays Bernie and his group for the rights to the F1 races? I think Speed will have 13 this year and its parent Fox 4.

Did anyone bid against them when they got their current 3 year contract?

[TorontoWorker]

Anyone have any idea of what SpeedTV pays Bernie and his group for the rights to the F1 races? I think Speed will have 13 this year and its parent Fox 4.

Did anyone bid against them when they got their current 3 year contract?

I believe Bernie sells the rights for domestic TV to local F1 race rights holders *if* that country holds an F1 race. In this case the domestic TV rights would be held by the USGP - one Tony George. Bernie charges TG a fee for both holding a race and for the TV rights. The Speedway decides who and how much these rights are while getting a mark up in the process.

At least that is how it works in the UK and as well as Canada. In Canada, ASN Canada Inc sells the rights to the Canadian GP within our shores. In fact if you violate some copyright for ANY F1 race telecast in Canada - it's ASN Canada that takes you to court instead of Bernie or the FIA or the rights holder to the race you F'd with or taped.

For countries that do not have an F1 event - the countries ASN has the rights to any FIA racing shown on TV. In return, they get to keep part of this fee for funding their operations and the rest is split between the FIA and Bernies F1 management company which further divides the money between his firm and the race teams. Simple as mud. I would be willing to bet that TG gets to keep less then 20 cents on the dollar of TV money. His greatest cash flow are the food and beer tents and *some* suites. The high end catering is part of Bernies group run by his good friend Paddy who was a wrench on his team many years ago.

This is not to say that Bernie does not have a veto over the fee charged or who gets the rights - just saying that TG does his dirty work for the US market. As far as how much? Don't know. One would think that it is what ever the market will pay. The US race from what I gather is one of the cheapest based upon the need for F1 to be in America and America not really giving a F**k if they are or not. I base this upon ratings only.

Take the uk. The price paid per ticket or seat for a weekend at their race is mental! In US dollars an avg 3 day seat is over $600 dollars. The fee that ITV pays is also way out there to the point where years back the BBC - the public broadcaster could not think of paying and let it go to the private guys who had more ways to raise funds. But the number of F1 fans in the UK on a % basis who watch F1 is huge compared to say - Turkey.

[eiregosod]

good info TorontoWorker.

[eiregosod]

Paddy the Caterer. Did a little search turns out he's paddy McNally

http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft00351.html

"The McNally-Ecclestone links go deep. In the early 1990s, for example, when Ecclestone was struggling to make the sale of TV rights a success McNally took the risk with Ecclestone and, through a company called Allsop Parker and March, paid the FIA $37m a year for the TV rights. He made a $28m profit on that deal."

actually the deal was with JM Balleste. Ballestre was afraid that the FIA could be underpaid if the TV rights didn't raise enough money. Balleste sold McNally the FIA's TV rights (30% of all TV revenue for a fraction of the real worth.

from atlasforums
"I notice today at Hockenheim that the Paddock Club was literally on top of the pits. 3-day weekend passes are 2,100 Euros per person, at the USGP it was $4,300 US per person. At Indy they had slots for 140 people. They have other options which I didn't check out."


The BBC panorama special from 1998 (sorry its a transcript) very important reading
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/panorama/transcripts/transcript_16_11_98.txt

I must do some more digging on Paddy McNally

[Shadow]

TW, are you sure that ASN handles the rights to the Cdn GP? I'd think that Normand takes in those bucks, not ASN Canada.

What I was asking about however was info on the SpeedTV rights payments for races other than the USGP. Surely that money goes to Bernie and his new associates? If not, what the hell did they pay a billion plus for?

[TorontoWorker]

TW, are you sure that ASN handles the rights to the Cdn GP? I'd think that Normand takes in those bucks, not ASN Canada.

Yes.

Roger Peart President of ASN Canada awards the rights to FNL in some shady backroom deal that usually rolls over every five years. Roger and Bernie split the fee from FNL and FNL then promotes the race including paying the City of Montreal their fee and agrees to hire from the local mob, oop's I meant unionized City workers, to put the track together. Fat boy gets his cash from the event sponsor, a small part of the TV take, local signage (not the F1 contracted ones), vendor site fees, beer and food for the great unwashed, parking fees and of course seat and standing room ticket sales. He even charges for tee shirts for the workers, (not kidding).