OCTOBER 11, 2003

A new TV rights salesman for F1?

Bernie Ecclestone is a busy man and the business of selling the television rights in Formula 1 is becoming a bigger and bigger task, although Ecclestone's abilities as a salesman have been highly impressive in recent months as he has negotiated new TV deals for the sport. However it seems that he needs a bit more help and this may help to explain the recent appearance at the United States Grand Prix of Michael Payne, the marketing chief of the International Olympic Committee. The word in athletics circles is that Payne may be moving on from his role at the IOC and that his future may lie with Formula One Management.

It is also worth noting that we hear that next year will see the return to Formula 1 of the FOM mobile television facility, which will be taking over the role of host broadcaster for a number of events. The ultimate aim appears to be for FOM to be host broadcaster of all the races and the technology which was used for the pay-per-year coverage up to the end of last year will return but will be available for all TV channels - although no doubt the better coverage is going to cost them more money...