Sounds great, but if you broadcast it for free on the internet, where does major revenue come from? Its widely acknowledged that the reason why F1 has become so profitable, is because Bernie has signed TV contracts worth many millions.

As I did mention there would be two options for internet streaming, one that was ad supported, so free to the viewer and paid for by advertisers, kind of like how free to air tv works, and the second option, which is the viewer pays a subscription fee, and therefore doesn’t have to watch ads. This is where the revenue comes from. It’s kind of like buying direct from the wholesaler. The creator sells the content to the consumer at the same price as a TV station would sell subscriptions or advertising in a normal situation. When you sell to a third party, i.e. TV stations you cannot charge as much as selling directly to the consumer, because TV station needs to be able to make some profit. So streaming over the internet is reducing the splitting of revenue between parties and at the end of the day ensures that a greater percentage of the revenue comes back the creator, and that’s how the revenue is made. Just cause it’s free to the consumer, it doesn’t mean it isn’t profitable, take Google for example.

The TV contracts the FOM have signed makes Bernie and the FOM a lot money, but I don’t think the F1 as a sport on the whole actually makes much money from the TV deals. It seems like the teams get a very small proportion each, and the tracks, well they all seem to lose money. So who is really making the money?

It might be pie in the sky thinking, but it doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work.