Another release from Bernie
here.
Bernie does say this "And anyway, added 80 year old Ecclestone, Murdoch and Slim are not seriously interested, and he said their potential offer would have to be "enormous" to woo CVC."
Which basically puts on the record that, for the right money, he'd sell.
Personally I dislike Murdoch's politics. However, I get from most of the negative posts that the real fear is that F1 will become a PPV only product and that it will be very expensive in Britain 20 pound a month (or is that per race?) I think people have been saying. For reference, I can only get F1 through local cable supplier, there is no free-2-air telecast of it in the Philippines. But, put in perspective, a cable package that included F1 might cost a 5er a month, maybe a bit less.
Also, I believe the Concorde agreement, which, would need all teams to sign on to, requires that F1 is telecast free-2-air where there is a provider willing and capable of doing it.
Lastly, didn't they try and make F1 a PPV thing in the UK a while back? And it was a resounding flop. They dropped that the very next season. Basically, what I'm saying is no matter who buys F1, it's strength is in its numbers, and any owner simply has to keep a free-2-air version going and expanding to keep those numbers.
My guess is Murdoch would have the basic coverage as free and provide a premium coverage at PPV. The premium would probably get practice sessions and some other bits.
