Formula One Television Coverage To Follow The V8 Supercar Path

    Here we go again. Another Formula One season about to commence. Another bunch of challengers hoping to dethrone Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, and the first salvo to once again be fittingly fired at Melbourne's stunning lakeside street circuit, Albert Park.
    Normally at this time of year we like to preview Australia's premier motorsport event. Whether it be speculative statements about possible scenarios, great vantage points where F1 cars flirt in close proximity with the ever present walls, what to do whilst visiting beautiful Melbourne, photographic tips or simply season predictions. This year, it's the TV coverage that has sparked a lot of discussion. 
    In recent years, worldwide TV viewer numbers for F1 have steadily declined. F1 has traditionally attracted the highest viewing numbers worldwide for any sport. It's aired on average every 2 weeks between March and November. Only the summer Olympics and World Cup Soccer attract higher numbers, but those events are only every 4 years. Can the fall in the number of punters tuning in be attributed to F1's migration from free-to-air TV to pay TV?
    Conjecture was rife last year in the UK when it was announced that only pay TV's Sky Sports would be televising all F1 events live in 2014, whilst free-to-air broadcaster BBC would only be showing some events in entirety and the rest via a highlights package. In 2015, Australia is going down a similar path. Opinions were also divided in Australia when it was announced the hugely popular V8 Supercars would be moving over to pay TV and only 6 events broadcast in entirety on free-to-air. Now Australia's F1 coverage is following a similar path to V8 Supercars. Of 2015's 20 F1 events, only 10 are fully broadcast on free-to-air. The other 10 are going to be broadcast via a 1 hour highlights package on Monday evenings. Has this divided Australia's F1 thirsty viewers down the middle? There are those that say the move to pay TV's Foxtel is a good thing. All practise sessions, qualifying and extended race coverage shown on Foxtel coupled with personal viewer preferences is well worth the price. The subscribers will say it's only a case of beer or a couple of packets of ciggies a month. But what about those that cannot sustain the imposition on their wallets? There are those who simply don't have the disposable cash because of family demands, mortgages, car payments, online commitments and the like. What about old age pensioners on a fixed income? They're already fiscally stretched and are quite possibly long time loyal viewers. To lash out on pay TV could be a racing circuit too far for them. Let's see how the viewing figures pan out come season's end.
    See you at Albert Park. Ciao....