Paid F1 'app' to debut in June

http://www.motorspor...une-ecclestone/

I have not clue what he means with paid F1 app, they already have the live timing app, maybe they will live stream the races using a new app?

http://www.motorspor...une-ecclestone/
 
I have not clue what he means with paid F1 app, they already have the live timing app, maybe they will live stream the races using a new app?

Hmmmm, not sure where they do their market research?

Early this week, Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali urged the F1 chief executive to embrace the internet, as the "young generation" does not want "to see an entire race for one and a half hours".

 

Is this statement true, or does it simply justify keeping full coverage on channels that pay for it and an app that acts as a marketing tool based on the unknown?

What it means is "I will make even more money from this, so sign up now..."

What it means is "I will make even more money from this, so sign up now..."

It's not a crime to charge money for something that people want. If you don't want it, don't subscribe. 

I for one am looking forward to what it offers. I'll be out of town this coming GP weekend and will miss all the sessions. An app like this can let me catch up. 

Edited by boldhakka, 10 April 2014 - 08:53.

It says in article you posted what it will be

"a new website and 'app' that offers subscription-only video options, improving on the current three minute race highlights edit put to music."

You are right, I think I read the article too quickly 

"We're planning a new app; it's a decent-size project," Ecclestone confirmed. "It's something that we are working to get right."

Everyone else is years down the road.

Bernie, just hold on tight to that content. Keep it where no one can see it.

Ah well that's just one more thing I won't be subscribing to.

I'm missing a lot of races this year due to travelling, so i would happily pay for an app with the option to, say, watch a race live for £5 extra. But I doubt this will be part of it. 

Another option will be a kangaroo-TV style app... now that would be amazing. 

That sounds like they'll be offering race highlights, not live streaming as some certainly wish for.

Indeed, but a step down the road of inevitability.

Indeed, but a step down the road of inevitability.

If they offered pick your own feed of all or any camera, the ability to follow your favorite driver around the track, basically your own custom feeds, or those made by any fan (for the lazy or technically challenged) then we might have something to trumpet.

It is all possible for a billion dollar show like F1.

If they offered pick your own feed of all or any camera, the ability to follow your favorite driver around the track, basically your own custom feeds, or those made by any fan (for the lazy or technically challenged) then we might have something to trumpet.

 

I'm interested in knowing how much per month you'd be willing to pay for something like this (assuming it was well-executed). 

I'm interested in knowing how much per month you'd be willing to pay for something like this (assuming it was well-executed). 

(bear in mind I don't bother with cable now because I'm really only interested in f1 and don't want to pay $80 or whatever it is here for Just a couple of races with their BS  commentary and feed.

I'd pay $50 - and expect basic level goodies. Say one of the main feeds and a few teasers thrown in. Then they could dangle "in game purchases" so if some aspect of a race interests you, you can upgrade to a better level for $10-15 on the day.

I do think allowing fans to offer their own feed/mixes could be attractive. Make the digital possible come alive and be a feature. VJs.

Edited by Murl, 10 April 2014 - 10:45.

Well people without smartphones/tablets were whining in a different thread they didn't have a desktop equivalent to the iOS/Android app .... perhaps this will be it. I doubt it will involve live streaming for the simple reason it would instantly devalue the hundreds of contracts FOM has with the various TV networks around the world. Next day highlights, perhaps

That poor old cash cow must be as dry as the Sahara by now.

Doesn't sound great for what it says there. Will it just be highlight clips? Most sports have those kicking around for free.

If there were onboards available so you could rewatch the race from the perspective of your favourite driver, that's something I could be interested in. 

It's a shame there's still no livestream. Now I just watch some pixely livestream every race, even though I'm very willing to pay for an official livestream. But I don't want to have a television subscription since the only thing I turn my TV on for is F1.

Well people without smartphones/tablets were whining in a different thread they didn't have a desktop equivalent to the iOS/Android app .... perhaps this will be it. I doubt it will involve live streaming for the simple reason it would instantly devalue the hundreds of contracts FOM has with the various TV networks around the world. Next day highlights, perhaps

Maybe, I assumed "app" meant phone/tablet. Desktop version would be great.

'as the "young generation" does not want "to see an entire race for one and a half hours"'

What a load of rubbish. Are they seriously now trying to aim a pay product at an audience that cant be bothered to actually watch a whole race. If the demographic they are trying to aim their products at are so disinterested in F1 they really on to a losing strategy. They need to cater to an audience that actually likes Formula One, not one that does not care about it.

I am sick to the teeth of people trying to dumb the sport down at the same time as constantly saying it is rubbish. I dont believe any other sport does this to itself.

'as the "young generation" does not want "to see an entire race for one and a half hours"'

 

What a load of rubbish. Are they seriously now trying to aim a pay product at an audience that cant be bothered to actually watch a whole race. If the demographic they are trying to aim their products at are so disinterested in F1 they really on to a losing strategy. They need to cater to an audience that actually likes Formula One, not one that does not care about it.

 

I am sick to the teeth of people trying to dumb the sport down at the same time as constantly saying it is rubbish. I dont believe any other sport does this to itself.

I wonder about the age of the people at FOM, aside from Bernie who's obviously a geriatric. This app sounds like something people in their 50s dream up to appease the "young whipper snappers who can't concentrate on things for more than a few minutes due to the advent of the internet." That's not what a good web strategy for the sport should be about. It should be providing data, streams, interviews...the ability to make fan videos...things that flesh out the sport in greater depth. People aren't going to start watching or continue watching the sport based on access to some rehash video clips.

Bernie is obsessed with the casual fan. But the sport has now moved entirely to a pay TV platform in most countries. It's the people that really love the sport that are now supporting it rather than the casual consumer of advertising on FTA television as it was in the past.

Edited by goingthedistance, 10 April 2014 - 14:40.

F1 didn't get it's audience by making people pay for everything. I can understand paying for something if it means you get more for your money. At the moment the business plan is charging for what once was free and not offering anything more. 

FOM asap needs to hire some marketing agency and remodel their whole approach to image, advertisement and actions like this app story, there's no way around it. More often than not I get the feeling that the things they do are outdated or indeed planned by people who don't have any sensibility for the targeted audience. Someone who can't be bothered to watch a full race isn't going to pay for snippets of it, end of. Even the FIFA or UEFA who are run by a bunch of corrupt old farts manage to sell a better product.

This does NOT mean that they should subjugate the technical or sporting rules under marketability aspects, which is exactly what was done with stuff like DRS. Especially in times where people get retro-affine, some sense of simplicity in terms of regulations and the focus on the sports core assets, exciting cars and driver personalities, could do F1 a big favour.

Edited by Jovanotti, 10 April 2014 - 14:56.

I can accept paying for things if it truly makes the experience better. I would pay for a PC/Mac app with a full timing suite, driver radios, on board cameras and other such things. None of which would appeal to or be required by the 'casual' fan.

They need to offer the basic product (ie the race) for free and then make money from the additions such as an app that offers the above. So offer the race to free to air stations, put the qual and practice and the race on pay channels (ie Sky) for those why want more and then a full on data rich app for the real fanatics (like us who chat and read about F1 all the time).

Bernie is out of touch and whilst he has done a lot of good for F1, like Max Mosely at the end, its time for him to go. If his last act can be buying F1 back from CVC and putting it onto a better business model who's goal is not pure profit but actually making the most out of the sport, he can then retire.

And if anyone mentions the phrase 'the show' or 'the spectacle' again I will scream. If you dont find enjoyment out of watching F1 then you clearly wont be fussed by gimmicky changes (double points, I'm looking at you). Could you imagine Football making goals count for double in the last ten minutes of the match, or Golf allowing extra large cups on the last few holes? Or boxing where in the final round weapons are allowed if you are down on points? Of course not. Stop messing with F1, let the cars race, give some of the profits back to the teams so they can develop the cars, stop creating stories (looking at the 'cars sound wrong' journos) just to fill air time and column inches and talk about the racing.

Went a bit off topic, and my rant is now over. This could easily be an amazing season with a head to head race in equal machinery for the championship with a damn close battle behind amongst a large number of teams that are very closely matched. This is a very different offering to the last few years of Red Bull/Vettel dominance. 

It's not a crime to charge money for something that people want. If you don't want it, don't subscribe. 
 
I for one am looking forward to what it offers. I'll be out of town this coming GP weekend and will miss all the sessions. An app like this can let me catch up.

'as the "young generation" does not want "to see an entire race for one and a half hours"'[/size]

It's a shame there's still no livestream. Now I just watch some pixely livestream every race, even though I'm very willing to pay for an official livestream. But I don't want to have a television subscription since the only thing I turn my TV on for is F1.

I'm missing a lot of races this year due to travelling, so i would happily pay for an app with the option to, say, watch a race live for £5 extra. But I doubt this will be part of it. 

 

It may be, actually. This has been an option long discussed and many of the fans have expressed similar thoughts. Prior to having TATA as communications partner, it wasn't quite prudent to embrace such a move. Still, as far as I understand, the issues with the multiple sides of the copyright are still being discussed. 

On the flip side of the coin are the TV producers who will inevitably lose viewers, so it's not a simple task. Based on that, all I can tell is that "F1 on Demand | PPV" option is under consideration. 

I'd consider paying for an app that replays the whole race, or maybe lots of highlights.

I don't have the recording facilities to record races myself, or the geographic location to be able to watch most of the broadcasts live.

'as the "young generation" does not want "to see an entire race for one and a half hours"'

 

What a load of rubbish. Are they seriously now trying to aim a pay product at an audience that cant be bothered to actually watch a whole race. If the demographic they are trying to aim their products at are so disinterested in F1 they really on to a losing strategy. They need to cater to an audience that actually likes Formula One, not one that does not care about it.

 

I am sick to the teeth of people trying to dumb the sport down at the same time as constantly saying it is rubbish. I dont believe any other sport does this to itself.

I quite agree. If a group of people have a low attention span or are disinterested in F1 in the first place, then they are hardly likely to pay for an app to watch bits of it. I doubt the app will be cheap either as every with Bernies brand on it carries a premium. I remember the official F1 app on iOS was £19.99 a few years ago and a mate of mine bought it and it was nowhere near worth the money when the same content can be found on the internet free of charge. If it was £3.99 or something like that, it would be a different story and convenient.

Everybody I know who is interested in F1 has gained this interest from watching the races. People aren't going to pay for something on the off chance they might like it. They need exposure and it needs to be free exposure. Dumping the sport behind a pay wall with subscription TV and paid for apps might make a lot of business sense to a load of billionaires who have forgotten what the world is like outside the F1 paddock, but in the real world it doesn't work like that.

Its nice they are bringing out something to match other sports in terms of digital content, but at the same time it sounds like a small gesture for maximum profit rather than offering a worthwhile service. The "younger generation doesn't want to watch a full race", my backside. Out of touch, much?

What I want them to do is release every race from the archives in bluray and digital versions (1080p60). 

Scrooge will never let it happen. Maybe when he falls off the perch, but more likely he would use dark magick to outlive all his potential customers.

New app concept:

Allow customers to take whichever camera, mic feeds they are prepared to pay for.

Rent out a big hall, or bar.

Set up big screens in different parts of the venue so as to mimic each corner/part of the circuit.

Turn up the volume.

Come in Bernie, your time is up!

What I want them to do is release every race from the archives in bluray and digital versions (1080p60). 

They could release every race, but considering the imaging and filming technology that was available at the time, I don't think you're going to get any quality close to 1080p. For purely technical reasons. They might use upscaled 1080p, but that isn't the same as genuine 1080p (out-of-camera 1080p that is).

Could be good, but Bernie's history in pricing options suggests it'll be too expensive for my tastes...

it makes you wonder if anyone involved in the sport had any clue what modern audiences actually want.

They don't. They keep taking down youtube clips of races. What for? What do they think is going to happen? People don't see an overtake on youtube and rush to pay for a subscription?  WTF? 

The equation is simple:

More free content -> more audience -> more chances to make money

It is not:

Less free content -> less audience -> more money. 

What is their plan of getting more new viewers/subscribers? There is none. The only chance is that children that are raised in a family that watched F1 buy a subscription when they move out of home. How probable is that? Even I go to my parents place to watch the races and I'm 30 and married. When I was young everyone watched the races because they were free. Now only the die hard fans like us that watch the races. There is only a few of us in the world and I don't think we are growing as a group.

Pay for highlights? WTF not worth it. If it was pay to live stream and such then that would be a good offer depending on the price of course. 

The live timing app is nothing but the first cookie in the trail. They're not going to offer a comprehensive package (for which you will pay for) until you pay for every individual component first.

Its fairly simple

Why not try it on?

It probably costs a few hundred grand to develop this app, they are just cashing on the smart phone and tablet generation. Simply trying to get more money out of more people.

Doesn't take a genius to work out what they are doing.

It won't last long if people don't buy into it, just like pay per view, so the answer is simple, don't buy into it.

Unless you want to pay even more money than you do already to watch F1 on something not much bigger than a satnav screen.

To me it actually suggests that they are struggling with tv figures and are trying to get more markets interested, which I believe is the news behind this idea

, it would be free with a Sky sub and a tablet.

So they are trying to appeal to people who don't have SKY, but want to watch on a tablet, fairly small audience I woudl imagine, but anything to get more money.

Why not just wait to see what the app offers for what price when it's published in less than two months?

They don't. They keep taking down youtube clips of races. What for? What do they think is going to happen? People don't see an overtake on youtube and rush to pay for a subscription?  WTF? 

 

The problem is there's apparently some (in my opinion ludicrous) copyright laws that mean if you're proven not to have hunted down every infringement, no matter how minor or actually beneficial, your whole copyright ensemble is open to challenges.

The answer to that would be FOM putting up selected highlights and snippets on Youtube, so they retain control and ownership. Not as good as having the sense to let fans market the sport for free (as they want to, with old races, overtake clips, etc), but a lot less blinkered than the current ethos.

improving on the current three minute race highlights edit put to music."

DO NOT PUT IT TO "MUSIC".  

I want to see full races.

I do not want to see MTV style "edits".

I want timing that I can restart later, since I seldom can watch the races live in the States.

I want all races available.

I want extreme technical detail in non-race segments.

I want a straightforward interface without post-Star Trek the Next Generation inspired graphics.

I want this available on my desktop as well as my phone.  

Thanks.

Modern media is not free for all.  That's just how it is.  Unless you are going to pay for a subscription to provider or pay per view you won't be able to see the entire product.  Even wide appeal sports like both kinds of football (the real kind and the kind you guys play with a round ball...    ) have migrated some of the content to a pay platform.  It's been that way in the US for some time and the market has adjusted to it.  You won't see a wholesale move for complete races online until the distribution contracts change in that they will provide more revenue for online than broadcasts.  As stated in  a prior post, it would just devalue the deals that have.

FOM once again has been slow on the technogloy and strategies for digital media.  I think it's due to the fact Eccelestone is older and not tuned into what the current trends are as well as the core demographic being older and a bit beind the curve.  Though not as far behind as FOM.  It' likely that even if there were people at FOM that have an eye on what is happening in digital media (and I'd bet there are),  it could be that Ecclestone has created an environment where those around him aren't likely to offer new ideas that they think he may not like.  All other top tier motorsports have had significant mobile and online presence for quite sometime with comprehensive apps and features.  For the most they don't show full races live because right now the live races are the bedrock of the traditional broadcast revenue.  For the first time last month online advertising revenue matched broadcast revenue.  Once online/digital media ad revenue starts to out pace traditional broadcasting you'll see more changes toward online programming.  It should happen in the US in the next 5 years or so if current trends keep going.  Until then the content is going to be available on whatever platform (in this case TV) offers the most revenue.

They're not going to show the full race because it will detract from the local TV audience, which detracts from the price the broadcasters are willing to pay.  Bernie is going to charge for highlight reels.

The problem is there's apparently some (in my opinion ludicrous) copyright laws that mean if you're proven not to have hunted down every infringement, no matter how minor or actually beneficial, your whole copyright ensemble is open to challenges.

 

The answer to that would be FOM putting up selected highlights and snippets on Youtube, so they retain control and ownership. Not as good as having the sense to let fans market the sport for free (as they want to, with old races, overtake clips, etc), but a lot less blinkered than the current ethos.

One doesn't lose the copyright because of non enforcement.  Trademark law requires you actviely protect the mark but copyright is yours regardless of if you enforce it.  Like with the music industry FOM issues take downs not only as a way to protect the right but also to set an example so others don't see them as lax in enforcing the right.  If the violation was really aggregious they could start sueing people but I don't see that for most rank and file F1 fan uploads.

Highlights to music? No. This is motorsport, not a YouTube fan tribute.

They're not going to show the full race because it will detract from the local TV audience, which detracts from the price the broadcasters are willing to pay.  Bernie is going to charge for highlight reels.

He really has no clue. App people are used to something new and fangled. Especially to PAY for, ffs.

Yesterday's newspaper = i-chipwrapper.

I'm missing a lot of races this year due to travelling, so i would happily pay for an app with the option to, say, watch a race live for £5 extra. But I doubt this will be part of it. 

 

Another option will be a kangaroo-TV style app... now that would be amazing. 

You can always watch a race live or even FP if you have a tablet or laptop when travelling for free, you just need to know where to look and a good anti virus installed.