Advanced Television

F1’s Carey: ‘2019 true OTT launch’

March 5, 2019

By Colin Mann

Formula One’s Chairman and CEO, Chase Carey, has suggested that the forthcoming season will mark the true commercial launch of its OTT service. Speaking on the Liberty Media Corp Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call, Carey said: “With respect to our F1 TV over the top platform, 2019 will, in many ways, be a true commercial launch of the product. After using 2018 as our beta test, we strengthened the platform and we’ll have a more fulsome marketing launch as we kick off the F1 season next month.”

Describing F1 TV as “a long-term strategic priority”, confirming that Liberty would continue to evolve the platform, enhance the content and build on distribution opportunities in the coming years. “On the distribution front, we most recently signed agreements in the Netherlands and Germany, both markets in which F1 TV is available,” he advised.

Greg Maffei, President, CEO & Director, said that Liberty was “very pleased” with the progress that Formula One had made over the last two years. “We are confident the tremendous potential still exists. We realise the hard work and dedication that Chase and the team have put into building out this organisation to look forward to seeing the payoff soon. We are committed to the F1 business,” he confirmed.

Separately, Carey suggested that F1 was “pretty immune” to the economic issues of Brexit. ”We’ve got some logistical issues that are more sort of if you end up and no deal with Brexit, how do we get in and out of Britain and with various equipment but it’s not a financial issue, it’s more logistics aware contingency planning for things like that. I think we are immune. I guess I’d say the reasons I think being global, was certainly on European base for a global business and we’re unique.”

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