When Liberty Media took up the reigns of the sport 11 months ago, revamping the sport’s Television coverage was one of their agendas, so as to provide the viewers with a better experience, a more closer association with what was taking place on the circuit.
The commercial chief, Sean Bratches has said that plans to improve the TV show have started taking shape and the viewers will be greeted to revamped camera angles and an enhanced graphics package.
Liberty believes that this new change will give the fans a better way to experience the sport.
“We will totally revitalise the way F1 is produced,” Bratches said.
“We are going to close the apertures, focus intently on the racing, and lower the [positioning of the] cameras – because the lower the camera the higher the realism of the speed is.
“We will also have 25 spotters around each grand prix to call back to race control and tell them where overtaking is about to take place.
“From a graphics stand point we will have a brand new package – putting them in a local language and also putting MPH in countries that use MPH. We are doing a lot to amplify the experience.” he added.
What Liberty also wants to do is that bring about such a change in F1 that it attracts even the average onlooker, someone who isn’t quite fascinated by the cars.
They want to make F1 a global sport, that is enjoyed and understood by any and everyone.
“We have this fictitious idea of a 22-year-old person who is not an F1 fan but who has a friend who is an avid friend and tells him to watch [a race],” he said.
“So when that person tunes in, we want them to understand what is going on.
“Ross Brawn, who is one of the legends of the sport, said he would come into the middle of a GP during his three-year retirement and not even know what was going on. So we are trying to make it simpler to help convey what is happening.” he added.
Will OTT find a way into F1?
A new F1 OTT device will be accessible to some selected countries, something that is a drastic step in F1 history.
We are going to launch in China, USA, Latam, other than Brazil, Germany, France and a number of other Nordic countries,” Bratches said.
“It’s been a very complicated proposition. With the media rights agreements we had this year, previously none of them would have permitted us to do that. But we have managed to come to terms in many of the territories, and we think we have done so in a win/win way.” he added.
Liberty is also looking to launch F1’s first ever marketing campaign, hoping to reach out to a larger global audience.
“We will have our first marketing campaign for F1. The concept of it is ‘engineered insanity’.
“These two polarised concepts are amazingly played very well in F1 together and there are so many elements played in the sport – that we have built a marketing campaign around that.
“We are also rebuilding our website. We’ve a brand new eSports platform. There will be four fan festivals this year. We are detonating the fan zones at GPs.
“We have just launched Hot Laps, which will be epic. We are also totally reappraising the Paddock Club.” he concluded.
