And it is that the irruption of the Internet in all vital fields, or at least the information that travels through the network of networks, has transformed everything that can be transformed. Banks that close branches by the thousands, the almighty English Court staggers before an Amazon that floods our streets with gray vans, or hundreds of newspapers and magazines that languish with sales figures that make those responsible for it sleepless. That the world is in the middle of a revolution comparable to the invention of the steam engine is undeniable and is already widely seen, but … How is this going to affect Formula 1, but not its sporting appearance, but how we perceive it from home? Cars will end up changing their fuel to a more ecological one, security will increase, the virtual will continue to stride, but few dare to touch the audiovisual business model, in essence because it accounts for around 40% of the category’s income and equipment. The ‘if it works, don’t touch it’ is beginning to be questioned, and there are several reasons to think about it.
In the third decade of the XXI century, everything that does not pass through the network, and more specifically through a telephone, will fall into oblivion. Without going any further, about 80% of those who reach this article will do so through a smartphone – which is worth reading this brick on a 5-inch screen. So with new media you need a new language. A poetry, a novel, a movie or a song basically tells stories, but each of these platforms requires its own language, technical elements and language to reach its audience. The songs require some musicians, the videos of a background, the novels of a series of chapters, and the TV of a set and some presenters, to give several examples. In the same way Twitch, Youtube, Twitter, Tik Tok o streaming video platforms have their technical-semantic rules to satisfy their clientele, and it is something that analog media takes very badly. Very few have understood that a wise opinion column in, for example, El País, is very well printed on paper; read on an iPhone it loses its meaning from line eleven on a device that does not stop vibrating, beeping and displaying alarms, informational balloons and links to other content.
Where does all this take us?
It leads us to the fact that the new generations do not accept what once reigned, and Formula 1 reigned, and continues to reign in a territory that is slowly disappearing: televisions. The audience analysis company Kantar Media divides telemirones into four basic steps: from 18 to 24 blocks, from there up to 44, from 45 to 55, and from 55 onwards. The data they produce is overwhelming, illuminating, and indicates that the oldest segment barely pays attention to digital content while the youngest hardly does analog. In data obtained in July 2021 in the segment of 18 to 25 years, the daily content consumption shoots up to 193 minutes a day, of which more than a third is YouTube.
Even the untouchable and all-powerful football has trouble hooking fans under 25
If you add up the set of audiences of the three large audiovisual groups that populate the Spanish radioelectric space, Atresmedia, Mediaset and RTVE, they do not reach what only the Google video platform adds. When you know the data you realize why the success of guys like El Rubius, The Gregf or Ibai Llanos, among others. The simple conclusion is not “if you want to reach that audience you have to be there”, but “if you want an audience you have to be there”, because linear TV has twenty, maybe twenty-five years left, at most; more or less as long as it takes those who still watch ‘normal’ TV.
In a chat with Víctor Abad recently, a notable YouTuber specialized in Formula 1, and speaking on this subject, he asked “and what do you think will happen to this in the future?” The conclusion was simple:
Sports, which have always been analogical because they come from that era, be it football, basketball, MotoGP, Formula 1, golf, tennis, athletics or anyone for which broadcasting rights are paid today – which are not many more – will have , they will need to open their hand to new forms of transmission. Even the untouchable and all-powerful football has trouble hooking fans under 25 years of age, so the “I’m here and let it come” thing, for “they’re there, get them,” is over. When this broadcasting rights was invented, one of the keys was the exclusivity for the one who pledged the jurors. The one who paid took a unique game, took it from the rest, and with it made their traps, whether they were advertising, image, audience, or whatever. Little by little, whatever sport is going to be left without a significant portion of its audience, the youngest. This is equivalent to death pelá Because the audience that you don’t hook at those ages is very likely to be lost forever.
The cigar makers were clear: “every day that 10,000 young people don’t start smoking, we lose money.” This was one of his karmas and rule number one when planning his marketing strategies. We presented an idea to Victor, “Look, sports, in general, are going to have to open up to be where people are without waiting for them to come. Where are the people now? It is on Twitch, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter … well there must be every sport that thinks about its future, and what is more important, behind the prescribers capable of speaking the language that these people speak. Do not be surprised that an Ibai, or a Rubius, or one of these ends up broadcasting a football match in parallel to the TVs. And we will see under what formula, if paying something, with bitcoins, access fees, permanent advertising on screen or to know ».
David Moreno is our audiovisual Ace and tells you about the news of Formula 1.
The premonition was cheap, because this was exactly what happened ten days later with the Basque streamer and the premiere of Lionel Messi at Paris Saint Germain. The experiment managed by Kosmos, the company of the footballer Gerard Piqué (a lynx in this to see the future) has just opened the door that in the future this exclusivity is diluted to travel to an approach at least mixed with the public of the whole life, and the one that is needed to live and perpetuate the bisnes. What football invents will gradually be applied to everything that generates audiovisual interest, although with nuances. Soccer has leagues, cups, eurochampions, teleuefas, world championships and even European championships in Saudi Arabia that nobody knows very well what they are but they are played and televised … and they are paid generously. In other words: the operators distribute them to them, and each TV station catches chunk … but not F1, there is only one, and the rest of the categories have neither that cache nor that economy, so the business bag that encloses it will make it more hungry for a similar solution. Abad, Calero, David Moreno, Dani Clos, iFons … go warming up that you go out. It’s going to take a while, but stay tuned because this is on its way.
There is more. Formula 1 has something extra, an ace up its sleeve, something that practically all sports lack: the virtual experience. Yes, FIFA 2020 was a sales pitch, but sitting in a simulator, or even a console with a steering wheel and a pedalboard is not the same as fighting with one of those controls full of buttons plugged into a Play by many megas that it has. The eSports associated with piloting and driving open a door that the rest lack.
According to a recent study, much celebrated by the Formula One Group, the increase in very young fans has tripled that of soccer in the last year. Everyone points the finger at video games, and something that football lacks in Netflix (we suspect from the intricate legal jungle of football) his own “Drive to survive the ball.” Friends … war is waged on all fronts, and better if they are digital.
The key to everything: the distribution of money
If you think this is complicated or weird, you need to handle a piece of information. Alphabet, the parent company that Google and YouTube explain to, devour twenty percent (yes, 20%) of ad spend in adland, USA. This includes all television networks, radio, streaming, newspapers, publications, outdoor advertising and everything that hangs on you. In the marketing paradise, the largest commercial market on the planet, the one with the highest per capita consumption in the entire known universe Google-Youtube, the balance of the ecosystem has been loaded in just 15-20 years, and there are those who suspect that in around 2040 it will be half … or more. And this is where guest artists come in.
The success of YouTube is neither more nor less than that of its content, which is not created by YouTube, but by those who upload their videos to the platform, the youtubers. It has been a long time since that zoo short was uploaded for the first time on a timid video website, and today, there are colleagues who have gone to Andorra to hose cutter to Hacienda. They are very owners, but if they decide to come back here, let them do it just to visit because we pay for this among those of us who stay. If you get between thirty and fifty thousand visits a day, you can already consider making a living from this, and if you have half a million subscribers to your channel, the old woman’s account says that you can pocket around ten thousand euros a month.
That plus the bowling that you get; What if a conference here, what if a presentation there, what if a week of vacation in that side and you make me a video. When you give an influencer a hug, it is not just because you like their content, but because they will end up echoing your product on their social networks. In a way you buy from your audience. Well… Well, that is exactly what Formula 1 does: buy an audience. Audience is what televisions sell, that is their final product, and that is why analog will end up embracing, out of vital necessity, the audience leaders of the 21st century. If they earn money they will boost the business, they will become great, they will create content, and they will lead the other hand in hand. This is how it will happen.
Are you going to end up watching Formula 1 on YouTube, Twitch, or Tik Tok? Yes, give them time, they have no other choice.
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The news F1 Chips – Your F1turo, telemirón was originally published in @motorpuntoes by José M. Zapico.