JULY 11, 2008

Great news for F1

With all the hullabaloo surrounding the British Grand Prix last week one event was rather overlooked, although it is worth a mention for its is very good news for the F1 world.

With all the hullabaloo surrounding the British Grand Prix last week one event was rather overlooked, although it is worth a mention for its is very good news for the F1 world. The UK Trade and Industry Creative Industries and Motorsport Showcase took place at St Jamess Palace in London, the aim being to highlight the links between F1 and various other industries. The event was hosted by Trade and Investment Minister Lord Jones and the speakers included Sir Jackie Stewart, Sir Martin Sorrell of advertising giant WPP and HRH The Duke of York.

Sorrell pointed out that WPP is very positive about the growth of advertising in live sport, reckoning that this will be growing by 13% per annum for the next few years. Advertisers are flocking to live sport as it is constantly fresh and many viewers want to watch the action as it happens, rather than when they know the result, and thus do not employ ad-skipping technologies that are now available if they record other TV shows.

This means that TV companies remain keen on sports rights as they provide better return on investment than other shows, particularly re-runs. As original programming remains expensive to produce the attraction of live sport is that it delivers a finished product with limited outlay necessary. Motor racing is expensive to cover, given the length of the circuits, but the packaging of the sport by the Formula One group means that there are now only a handful of local host broadcasters left.