Yes, you would almost say 'who wants to burn their fingers on that?' after the Viaplay debacle. But the reality is that a bidding war is imminent for the Dutch F1 rights.
For years we had various media outlets such as RTL and then SBS and Ziggo Sport, but we always had Olav Mol. Until the rights were acquired by the Nordic Entertainment Group a few years ago. They wanted to attract Dutch viewers with their streaming platform Viaplay. And what better way to do that than Max Verstappen?
Millions
A logical thought in itself. But yes, paying approximately 30 million per year (allegedly) for something that previously paid 10 million per year. That in itself could have been a reason for reflection. Especially considering that Viaplay would not have the exclusive rights. That remains, in my opinion, the most bizarre factor. Transfer a lot of money to the rights holder… and then watch as the rights holder itself offers a cheaper service to the same customers (F1TV). Which might be even better (opinion, but the undersigned thinks so).
New round, new opportunities
Anyway, that all happened. But a new round is coming, with new opportunities (and pitfalls). There's a lot going on in the background. Such as Apple's alleged interest in acquiring exclusive rights for the entire world with a mega deal. But in the meantime, it seems that bidding for Dutch rights will resume in the coming years. And by some parties closer to home (sort of).
Other parties
Totaltv is close to it and now believes that the interest in this is greater than initially thought. It seemed to be a battle between the smoldering remains of Viaplay (which other investors are now deeply involved in) and the old trusted Ziggo. Butrrrr… RTL Nederland and Eredivisie Media & Marketing are also said to be interested.
Disney
For RTL, the combination of linear TV plus streaming via the Videoland platform would in theory be beneficial. You may not have heard of the other party, but they are behind the TV channel ESPN (in the Netherlands). Connoisseurs know that ESPN is huge in America and operates under the Disney umbrella. This is in fact also the case in the Netherlands: Disney is a major shareholder in Eredivisie Media & Marketing. A party with deep pockets. Despite the fact that Disney has lost billions in value over the past two years and is under fire in America for woke propaganda in children's films. Going broke because of woke is the winged new term. Our own management has now even officially commented on this.
Max is a panacea?
In fact, it is true for all parties in this battle that they seem to see F1 as an opportunity to mitigate some 'challenges'. Ziggo loses thousands of subscribers every month. The vicissitudes of Viaplay are well known. RTL Nederland was recently sold by the RTL Group to DPG (this still needs to be approved). The F1 rights would therefore be a welcome boost for all parties to remain relevant and/or grow. That's for sure.
Where is the revenue model?
However, is it worth the price to be paid? In any case, Talpa doesn't think so. They have previously indicated that they do not foresee a realistic 'recovery model' if the rights are sold again for the expected price.
Despite Viaplay's failure, it is expected that the rights will not be cheaper in this round. In fact, people are now talking about a return of 40 or perhaps 50 million. The 'winner' of the bids could therefore turn out to be the loser in a few years. But yes, you are of course mainly curious about where you can look and for how much money. We will see.
This article Bidding war for Dutch F1 rights is heating up first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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