Marko: F1 owners Liberty 'a bit naive'
Sep.1 - Dr Helmut Marko says the top bosses at F1's owner Liberty Media are often "a bit naive".
The Red Bull chief was asked by Der Spiegel to comment on the fact that, after three decades, Formula 1 is scrapping its deal with German free to air broadcaster RTL in favour of a more lucrative Sky pay-TV deal.
Marko admits the ratings will drop.
"That is to be expected temporarily," he said.
"But Sky is supposedly paying four times what RTL was willing to pay. The teams also benefit from that with the distribution from Liberty Media.
"On the other hand, the marketing revenues are not the reason why Red Bull is in Formula 1. For us, it's the global audience interest," added Marko.
"Experience has shown us that the ratings drop drastically in the first phase after such a change."
Marko expects those numbers to build back up again as German fans adjust.
But he said of Liberty: "They are very straightforward, but sometimes also a bit naive. They do not yet understand the whole political process.
"For example, that they bought a company but they're not the sole owner of the house. They have to make compromises because the FIA and the ten teams have a say as well."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Liberty Media and 99% in F1, do not understand that motor racing is a closed party. In fact they do not care about Fans anymore.
So, Young people do not care anymore as well and rather ask for a youtuber instead of an Lewis Hamilton autograph. For „normal“ visitors, it is impossible to meet a driver and Sky sport will kill F1 main stream fans. Just like they did with soccer. 100+ Million for a player. 20+Million yearly salary. Nobody understand and support that anymore.
Just like F1. Why Mercedes do not sign Verstappen or Ricciardo? Bottas is a very nice person, but everybody know, he will never beat Lewis Hamilton. Looks like, we need a new hero (Michael Schumacher is not available anymore) to increase biz revenue in the near future.
Formula boring have not future. Climate change and society change, boring races, standard media questions and driver answers, …….
Yes, some people just think F1 is a business, and that is a serious mistake.
Sky is helping to kill F1 with there biased reporting. If you watch sky sports F1 you would think Hamilton & his racist view is the only driver on the grid. And the likes of Lasenby & co blindly support this All the presenters are paid a shed load of money to be impartial but they can't even do that
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.