As stated above, FOM provide the World Feed for every single Grand Prix apart from Monaco - I believe the unique nature of the Monaco commercial agreement prevents them doing so here.
Since I don't think it's well documented, I'll give a brief history of how we got to FOM producing below.
The FOM team started out as a FOCA TV unit in the 80s and early 90s, they would supplement what the local host broadcaster (e.g. BBC for the UK, CBS for the USA etc) provided. Often this would be additional pit lane material and 1-2 extra angles around the track, which would appear in FOCA highlights packages.
FOCA also introduced and managed onboard cameras for the cars, sharing these with the host broadcasters.
In the mid 1990s as the sport was booming Bernie Ecclestone saw an opportunity to create a pay per view service on digital television. The service with the rather clunky title of F1 Digital+ was launched on a trial at the 1996 British Grand Prix to German viewers. It fully launched in 1997. This service provided full FOM coverage of each race complete with their own track cameras and complete onboard access. A large number of streams were produced:
1. Super Signal - Essentially the pay per view world feed combining all of the below
2. Track A - Track coverage of the leaders
3. Track B - Track coverage of those behind
4. Onboard - Onboard Mix
5. Pits - Pit Lane Channel, including extended replays and interviews
6. Highlights - Rolling Highlights
From 1996 until 2002 therefore you had 2 broadcasts from each race, one from the host broadcaster which the vast majority still watched and one from F1 Digital+. The pay per view service though was a commercial failure, casual fans weren't sufficiently bothered by the better coverage to pay for it. When it finally launched in the UK in 2002 (its final season) it barely made any impact on ITV's viewing figures. The only region it enjoyed anything approaching popularity was Italy where it was getting around 500,000 viewers a race, but rampant piracy through cardsharing didn't make it particularly profitable.
F1 Digital+ was closed in 2002 and a large proportion of the FOM TV staff were made redundant. A skeletal team continued into 2003, largely to support the German broadcaster Premiere who continued F1Digital+ 'Lite' with just the World Feed, Onboard channel and Pit Channel.
During this period there was much discussion within the paddock on what to do. To those who viewed F1 Digital+, including all of the pit lane, it was clear that one direction team was a huge leap forward and beneficial for the sport. However, as always, no one could agree on who would pay for it.
Three options were on the table from what was shared at the time:
1. Resurrect F1Digital+ into an FOM Permanent Feed (eventually chosen)
2. Contract to the ITV team to become the permanent host broadcaster
3. Contract to the WIGE team (responsible for Germany and Austrian host feeds) to become the permanent host broadcaster
Eventually Bernie went with Option 1, but it took a few years to get in place. From 2004-2006 FOM would primarily cover the fly away races, whilst the existing host broadcasters covered Europe. The revolution finally happened in 2007 when before the season FOM took control of most rounds, with only Japan, Brazil and Monaco holding out. FOM took control of Brazil 2008 (just in time for that epic title decider) and Japan in 2012.
A single FOM host feed has undoubtedly been beneficial to Formula 1. Their coverage is far better than the individual host broadcasters. However, the concerning trend in recent years is that - as far as I can tell - their remit has changed. In the early years of operation they followed the F1 Digital+ model of best possible coverage. Nowadays, the angles and direction seems heavily focused on displaying trackside and CGI advertising.
Edited by Incast, 23 December 2014 - 11:37.