Ecclestone Admits Pay TV is a Failure

Formula One ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone admitted on Monday that his plans to push the sport onto worldwide pay-per-view television are currently failing - and he has no idea why.

Ecclestone, who controls the sport's commercial rights, runs the F1 Digital+ channel that broadcasts all the sessions from each Grand Prix weekend with exclusive interviews and analysis.

But Ecclestone says the pay-per-view idea is not working for Formula One or for many other sports around the globe because fans are refusing to cough up for the extra action.

"I still don't understand why people won't pay what has been asked of them," Ecclestone told The Guardian newspaper. "I just cannot understand it. It's not just the UK, it's worldwide.

"It's quite incredible that pay doesn't work. It is a much, much better show, no commercials, no interruption - but even when things aren't on other channels they won't pay.

"I sat down with (Media mogul) Mr (Rupert) Murdoch a few years ago and we thought, the two of us, that all major sports would be on pay per view eventually. It hasn't worked. It baffles me."

Sky Digital bought the rights to show the Formula One Digital+ coverage this season in the United Kingdom and signed former World Champion Damon Hill as an expert panellist. But the subscriptions have been lower than expected.

The concerns that Formula One would move permanently to pay-per-view forced five of the Formula One car manufacturers - DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, Ford, Renault and BMW - to set up the Grand Prix World Championship (GPWC) company.

They are trying to stop the move and to secure a greater slice of Formula One's commercial gain when the current Concorde agreement ends in 2007 - and are still threatening to create a breakaway series by 2008 if they fail.