Formula One Group, the commercial rights holder to the Formula One motor racing series, is considering removing live streaming rights from its official broadcast partners to launch its own online streaming platform, according to the Autoweek website.
The rights to broadcast F1 races live online currently lie with each of the sport’s broadcast partners. They have to geo-block the footage to ensure it cannot be accessed by viewers outside the country in question.
Formula One Group is considering removing the online entitlement from each broadcasting contract so that it could charge viewers to watch races live on its own website, Formula1.com.
The proposal is located within the 498-page prospectus for the planned flotation of Formula One on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
On page 144 the prospectus states that: “We are in the initial stages of developing our digital media assets. The right to stream races online is typically licensed out to our broadcast partners around the world but we may consider changing our model and exploiting them independently in the future. As the exclusive rights holder to the World Championship, we have the benefit of controlling both our online platform and content which gives us a wide range of opportunities to monetise our rights, including through internal and third party solutions.”
Autoweek reports that Formula One Group could implement the plan in a short space of time as 56 of F1's 63 broadcasting contracts expire before the end of 2015.