With the 24 Hours of Le Mans now over, I want to reflect on something that I found quite interesting during the event. Something that, instead of making me ask “why doesn’t F1 do that”, has me asking “why can’t F1 do that”.
What I’m talking about is something that Porsche did. They broadcast the first 4 hours of the race on Facebook live and the rest of the race on their website. Naturally, it wasn’t the race broadcast complete with commentary and replays, but rather a live stream of their cars’ onboard cameras.
The ability to steam a team’s onboard camera is nothing new and in fact it’s far from what a series like IMSA does, where they broadcast the entire race broadcast on their website for free. But if Porsche can broadcast their onboard camera for the entirety of the world’s most popular sporting event, why can’t Formula One teams do this during a regular race weekend?
The answer is no secret: It’s the broadcasting rights. Broadcasters pay millions in order to have the rights to Formula One, so they would think it’s unfair for a team to broadcast the race for free and they see it as competition. With major broadcasting contracts having been renewed before the sale to Liberty Media, it seems the new owners having their hands tied for quite some time when it comes to broadcasting.
But I think the broadcasters have to ask themselves whether they think drivers and teams sharing uncut race footage is serious competition to their company or whether they could let things go in benefit of the sport.
There is no way that a live stream of the onboard cameras is competing with race broadcasts. Although it’s a cool way to get fans engaging with teams and giving a fresh perspective into the sport, it wouldn’t be a fan’s first choice to watch an entire grand prix. Most fans would choose the professional broadcast with commentary, replays, tickers and a camera that actually moves between the action.
However, the onboard cameras would be a cool feature that surely some fans would find enjoyable and likely use. Whether each team gets to broadcast their own camera or the sport handles the broadcasting of the cameras, I really do hope that Liberty Media adds a feature like this in the future.
Formula One is at a point where we need to start looking at other successful sports to see what they are doing. This will give us the idea of what works and what doesn’t. Onboard camera streaming works.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
