Huge pockets of Formula One’s audience now face a choice: pay to watch coverage or read about it in the newspapers (or, ahem… sports websites).
It’s a huge mistake to take the sport behind a paywall at all. Faced with digital distribution of TV content, audiences can time-shift anything they want to watch and pull it up at their whim on almost any device.
But sport is different. Sport is the one thing that people will habitually sit themselves down to watch when it’s happening, as fans know all too well the enjoyment diminishes dramatically if the result becomes known (something that’s increasingly difficult to avoid in the omni-connected age).
What’s more, the teams rely on the enormous viewership to attract sponsors, which Formula One needs to deal with before 2019 when free-to-air coverage will become a thing of the past.
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These are all things I’ve been thinking about for the last two or three years, so I read with interest this week’s article on Autosport quoting Sir Martin Sorrell, board member of Formula One’s major shareholder CVC Capital Partners, who is tipping that virtual reality will revitalise Formula One’s viewership and generate additional revenue streams.
“When Sky UK started to broadcast there was an argument that audience would come down because it is pay TV,” he said.
“But the actual quality of the production and the use of technology and the engagement of the viewer is much better than it ever was. The product is simply better.
For 20 years now, Sorrell has been spruking the marketing potential of the digital era. In his 1996 article for the Harvard Business Review, which mostly focuses on interactive marketing techniques like email databases and the blossoming potential of the World Wide Web, he wrote:
“Faced with the possibility that interactive media could transform our ability to build brands and communicate with the consumer, executives and their corporations should be experimenting and learning now.
“None of us can afford to wait or to buy the necessary skills in five years’ time. We can’t afford to assume that the new media will be unimportant.”
This is exactly where we find ourselves with virtual reality at the moment. Sure, if Formula One management had sunk billions of dollars into something like 3D television coverage as it was gathering steam, they would have lost out.
When I ask the pundits around F1 circles why the sport is such a laggard when it comes to embracing social media and digital distribution, they respond that Bernie Ecclestone tried it once, lost a lot of money in the process and isn’t keen to do it again any time soon.
But virtual reality is something altogether different, and it could be time for Formula One management to take a leap of faith.
Unlike expensive, high-end, 3D-compatible TVs, virtual reality is already easily attainable. Just look at what Google Cardboard has done to bring a virtual reality experience to the masses – and if you don’t fancy taking the DIY route, you can pick up a plastic headset that you can slot your mobile phone into for less than $40.
Just because Formula One unsuccessfully dipped its toe into the digital waters once upon a time, doesn’t mean that they should never contemplate another splash.
What’s more, if management expects the entire Formula One audience to come with them, it needs to give them a credible reason for doing so. Simply telling their global audience that they have to pay for something they used to get for free won’t do for the vast majority.
Best of all, there’s no need to wait until virtual reality becomes a viable option for supplementary coverage, we can start right now. There’s no reason why content like a driver’s blistering pole lap, or a pivotal pit stop could not be filmed using virtual reality and released online – either for free as a way of promoting both the sport and testing the appetite for such a move, or as part of a premium content package if need be.
Williams and Ferrari have shown that the technology is already capable of delivering a 360-degree immersive experience having already used it to produce some onboard footage and garage tours.
One of the main things holding back virtual reality from being widely adopted in the sporting world is that an immersive experience for a game played on a field requires a camera to be placed in the dead-centre of the pitch, which limits the experience when the action is further away from the middle of the ground.
This problem that isn’t present in Formula One – we already cherish the cameras mounted above the drivers’ heads.
What’s more, virtual reality will heighten the experience of being onboard a car; imagine being able to turn your head to see just how far alongside Lewis Hamilton the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo actually got at the recent Monaco Grand Prix.
Digital delivery has another added benefit in providing unique customisation profiles. Let’s say you want to see every pit stop during a race, how cool would it be to have your race coverage automatically cut to the pits and show you the view from the front-right engineer every time a car comes in?
Or maybe you’d prefer to ride onboard with your favourite driver for the entire race. Or dynamically switch to whichever cars are involved in the closest battle at any time. Or see for yourself whether shifting weather conditions mean it’s time for a driver to change from wets to slicks.
The opportunity is truly huge.
Just as Sorrell argued in 1996, we can’t afford to wait and hope that virtual reality comes and goes thus validating our stagnation. In five years time, virtual reality could easily be mature enough to serve up a Formula One weekend’s full broadcast, and there’s already a low-risk path to embracing this new paradigm.
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