The mooted takeover of the Formula One motor racing series by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation would face opposition from regulators because of the potential for it to restrict competition in the market for the series' television rights, according to a top UK lawyer.
Paul Stone, head of competition and regulation for law firm Charles Russell, said that "News Corporation's involvement in the bid for Formula One could attract scrutiny from the competition regulators". According to TV Sports Markets, Stone added: "Given News Corporation's interest in Sky [the group's European pay-television businesses] News Corporation might be able to influence decisions over which broadcaster is awarded rights to show the races, in order to advantage Sky." There are concerns about the incentive for News Corp to sell the media rights for the series to its own broadcasters, and the potential for it to use its ownership of the rights to leverage its position in negotiations for other television rights.
News Corp has not yet made a bid for Formula One, although it has been reported to have had talks about such a move with some of the competing teams, along with other potential investors including Italian investment fund Exor and Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim. News Corp said last week that although it had formed a partnership with Italian investment fund Exor there could be "no certainty that this will lead to an approach to F1's current owners".
The interest in the series from News Corp and Exor was discussed by four of F1's top teams - Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren - during a meeting in Stuttgart on Saturday. The meeting came as talks loom for a renewal of the current Concorde agreement - the commercial agreement which binds together the teams, Formula One's commercial rights-holders, and the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, motorsport's governing body - which expires at the end of 2012.
Luca di Montezemolo, the president of the Ferrari Formula One team, told CNN that Formula One needed to invest to improve its media coverage and develop the sport in the USA, where the series will host a grand prix in 2012 for the first time since 2007. "We have to invest in the US. We have to improve new technologies in F1 for the people watching the television, for iPad, for the internet. So I think we are in front of a very important moment," he said. For all the latest TV sports rights news visit www.tvsportsmarkets.com/news.
