Ljs: F1 executive Bernie Ecclestone will keep Rupert Murdoch guessing to the end

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

F1 executive Bernie Ecclestone will keep Rupert Murdoch guessing to the end

A move to Sky is by no means certain, but TV rights negotiator Bernie Ecclestone is adept at the unexpected

Bernie Ecclestone has long been adept at the unexpected in business; his decision to sell the rights to broadcast Formula One from ITV to the BBC in 2008 was as much a surprise to the teams involved in the sport as it was to ITV, which had no idea he had been contemplating a change. It was indicative of how he likes to operate and it makes it tricky second-guessing what might happen should, as has been reported, News Corp make a bid for F1 as part of a consortium.

While Ecclestone is the public face of the sport and negotiates the TV rights deals on behalf of Formula One Management, which represents the teams, he is, in fact, employed to do so by the real owners of the business: CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm. Any bid by News Corp would be aimed at CVC.

The teams themselves would be unaffected. Their main concern is that the hugely lucrative worldwide TV deals that keeps their expensive business operating would continue; any deal with any broadcaster would guarantee this, because without it the teams would simply pull out.

Of more concern would be how the new owners may expect Ecclestone to agree a deal for those rights with a new broadcaster, in this case clearly Sky. It has been suggested that the shift back to the BBC was because of a desire Ecclestone had to see the races run uninterrupted by advertisements, which may be well be true but is unlikely to prevent a switch to the satellite broadcaster if they become the new owners of F1.

It is a move that would leave the BBC in a precarious position. The deal struck in 2008 was for five years and was seen as a coup for the corporation.

At the time Dominic Coles, the BBC Sport director of sport rights, described F1 as "a crown jewel of sports broadcasting". Fans' reactions have been positive, the audiences were up in 2010 and a nip-and-tuck season that went to the final race last year has been succeeded this year by rule changes that have made the spectacle even more gripping.

Last weekend's race in China was one of the most exciting for more than a decade.

Formula One has been a palpable success for the BBC and is the final non-ringfenced sport for which it owns the rights. All of which may well have not gone unnoticed at News Corp. Or by Ecclestone (who has previously broadcast a special F1 service as a pay-per-view programme on Sky) ? a man unlikely to stand in the way should new ownership herald a new direction.