Grapevine: Digital F1 Not Axed but World Feed Improves

Reports that the Digital F1 coverage will no longer be offered next season may have been somewhat early off the mark, but F1 fans worldwide can nonetheless see this as a good sign for things to come.

The British press reported today that F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has pulled the plug on his highly-acclaimed F1 Digital+ package, which has been offered on pay-per-view TV in various European countries since the late 1990s. However, Ecclestone himself denied the reports.

Further investigations suggest the pay-per-view scheme has been so far cancelled only in the UK, where BSkyB began offering the package in 2002 for £12 per weekend. In contrast, the package is currently still included in Germany, where Premiere World has been offering the service since 1997.

What does seem to be true, though, is that Ecclestone now plans to use his digital facilities to produce the world feed coverage. In recent times, the terrestrial coverage was produced by the hosting country's broadcaster - ITV for the British Grand Prix, RTL for the German, RAI for the Italian, and so forth.

Instead, Ecclestone now plans to produce the world feed in-house, using his digital feed, which would offer a vastly improved free-to-air coverage. At the same time, the digital package - which includes six separate channels, among them a dedicated timing screen - is likely to continue in countries where the package has been sold with reasonable success.

Ecclestone said today a decision on the pay-per-view and the F1 TV coverage will be taken in the next few days.