READ any Facebook comment thread these days and you are almost guaranteed to come across someone having a bit of a titter about the fact that their favorite racing category is locked behind a paywall.
In Australia, the only way you can see every Supercars round, every Grand Prix, every IndyCar race, every MotoGP race and just about everything else of consequence is to fork out the cash and pay for Fox Sports, or their streaming alternative, Kayo.
Australia’s largest free-to-air network, Channel 7, has the rights to Supercars but only for six live rounds – the remainder relegated to late-night highlights or a package uploaded to their own streaming service.
The pay-versus-free debate remains a passionate launching pad for fans despite the fact that it’s coming up on a decade since most of top-level motorsport went behind a paywall in this part of the world.
Of course, when you do put motorsport on free-to-air all you do tend to get is people complaining about the adverts, which is ironic given it’s the way TV has worked about since Noah was a young lad dreaming of animals and boats.
It’s also very rare to find someone who can take the middle ground, either; most people are either passionately on the ‘I won’t pay for TV’ side of things while others are almost evangelical on their argument that the High-def, ad-free world of Subscription TV is the best thing since bread became sliced.
I’m in the latter, by the way, but I understand why people might not want to get the credit card out and that’s fine.
It is unlikely you’re going to change people’s minds, either, despite the fact that the world of broadcasting is changing almost as quickly as the automotive world is.
The problem is like everything money drives almost every single part of the equation here.
These days there are really only three or four ways of getting your motorsport on TV.
1/ You’re paid by a major pay TV network to air your product, or you’re on the support program to a category that is
2/ You’re paid by a major free-to-air network to air your product
3/ You pay a free-to-air network to air your product
4/ You pay for internet streaming
Now if you’re in the first two options you’re either Supercars or F1, or you’re kidding yourself.
Fox Sports remains the largest single investor in Australian motorsport and spend that to get exclusivity of a product people want to watch, be it Supercars or F1, therefore drawing subscribers.
Channel 7 are more involved now than they have been for 15 years, which is positive, but their deal means that Foxtel is still the primary partner, so they only get the big events and not the full schedule.
The rest of the sport either pays to play (or in this case, be played) or has done deals to make it as cost effective as possible – such as covering the costs of the production and so on.
Streaming is growing in popularity and there are plenty of options for racing fans these days, and it’s also affordable for categories to showcase their wares.
The problem is, it’s still not a viable option for a commercially-oriented series because it still lacks the critical audience mass to make it a worthwhile sell to sponsors.
One day, probably soon, that’s going to change. Kayo Sports is already investing in unique content for their streaming channels and it won’t be long before they stream practice sessions or races via their app rather than it airing on Fox Sports.
Channel 7, via their 7 Plus application, already has exclusive streaming content from Shannons Motorsport Australia Championship rounds to support their free-to-air coverage of TCR, S5000 and so forth.
But a full-on shift to exclusive streaming is still probably a few years away, until the numbers become viable for a streaming service to invest and for a category to accept as a viable way to show off their sponsors, teams and drivers who are accustomed to more traditional ways of viewing.
But watch out, because YouTube, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon or Twitch have much bigger war chests than the traditional networks and a fanatical intent to build their audiences.
It won’t be long until they flex their muscles and even further fragment the way we consume our favorite sport.
Will that be better? Will it be cheaper? Will F1 being shown on YouTube, for example, stop the people who hate the fact it’s not on free-to-air TV any more from complaining? I suspect the answers are, Not sure, Probably and almost certainly no.
Times are changing – but in the meantime, fans are just going to have to deal with the way it is; whether you pay for it or not.
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