(Written) Commercialism in Formula 1: Academic Analysis

Live Sport programming has become increasingly reliant on commercial elements to help achieve economic success for the television networks broadcasting live sports, the participants within the sports, as well as the actual sporting organisations themselves. This essay seeks to analyse specific commercial and advertising elements that are present in modern day television broadcasts of live sports, and how these elements often infringe on accepted ideas of taste, morality, ethics, as well as representation of nation and gender.

The television presentation of the sport of Formula 1, which is produced and broadcast on Sky TV channel Sky Sports F1 in the UK, will be used as the main case study for this analysis. This research will provide the context needed to form an argument for how commercial elements can be integrated tastefully without over stepping the boundaries of what is acceptable to viewers (while understanding that certain commercial elements are a necessary component for the genre of live sport to stay economically viable for television networks).

According to research group Statista, in the year 2020 the sport of Formula 1 had a television audience of over 430 million viewers globally. Due to this popularity, television networks all over the world have been willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money to secure the broadcast rights to live sports such as F1. In his book on the rise of commercialism in sport, Trevor Slack explains that “Global media sporting spectacles are created and produced in order to attract television audiences whose capacity to consume is sold to prospective promotional agents” (201). This so called “capacity to consume” means that television networks such as Sky Sports are able to re-coup the money spent on television broadcast rights, by exploiting many commercial elements, one of which is the utilisation of commercial breaks during the coverage of the sport.

Many of the adverts presented to viewers are not dissimilar to the type of adverts you would experience whilst watching any other genre on commercial television in the UK. However, a large percentage of adverts are targeted at fans of the sport (such as adverts for oil companies and car manufactures). These adverts are not inherently any more or less offensive than commercials that are targeted at audiences of other genres, but it is the increasing regularity at which commercial breaks are occurring that is a disturbing trend to fans of the sport.

Formula 1 events take place over the course of a weekend, with Friday consisting of practice, Saturday is for qualifying, with the race itself taking place on Sunday. Sky Sports F1 airs live coverage of all three days across the entirety of the season. Qualifying is arguably the most exciting part of an F1 weekend, it lasts for one hour and is divided into three sections, with a short stoppage occurring between each of these sections. For years, Sky Sports F1 has provided in depth analysis of the action that previously occurred during these short stoppages. However in 2021, they have instead opted to run commercial breaks during these stoppages rather than providing the analysis that viewers have come to expect. The more commercial breaks that occur, the more the overall coverage and presentation of the sport suffer. Fans rely on technical breakdowns and analysis, from the many presenters and experts that are a part of the coverage on television. Commercial breaks in these critical moments leads to a huge loss in quality for the overall broadcast.

This is more of an Americanised approach to sports presentation, for what has traditionally been a European based sport. This is a commonly accepted way of presenting sport to American viewers, who are willing to sit through a large percentage of commercial breaks during their favourite sports such as basketball, baseball, and in particular, American football. But for a UK audience, this has not been common place across the genre of live sport, and is actually one of the biggest hurdles that UK based viewers have when trying to become fans of a sport such as American football. To the majority of UK sports fans commercial breaks within the body of a live sport is often seen as being in bad taste.

The television presentation of a sport is as important, if not more important than the actual “on field” action when it comes to attracting viewers to the sport. The placement of commercial breaks into live coverage goes beyond simply an “annoyance” to viewers, it infringes on what is seen as morally right and wrong. Ultimately it has to be stated that maintaining the integrity of a sport, and preventing viewers from becoming disinterested and disillusioned from the television coverage is more important than any monetary gain that may be made from a poorly positioned commercial break.

The fact that Sky Sports even have the broadcast rights to the sport is a point of contention to many fans, namely due to Sky TV being a paid subscription based service. For the first 60 years of its existence, the sport was broadcast in the UK on free to air television on either the BBC or ITV. This ended in 2012 when Sky Sports successfully secured the rights to broadcast all races live, meaning that for the first time, British viewers had to pay to watch the sport. This has been a similar trend across the live sport genre in the UK, with television coverage of sports such as football, golf and tennis all becoming increasingly broadcast on paid subscription television channels or paid online streaming services.

There are some positive consequences for the television audience when sports are broadcast on paid subscription services. In the case of F1, one positive has been that Sky Sports have created a dedicated television channel that provides twenty-four hour a day programming based around the sport, meaning that fans have never had more F1 related content to consume on television. As a result, viewers have also been able to become much more knowledgeable on the sport due to the in-depth content that has been produced on the technical side of the sport as well as many new spinoff series’ produced looking back at the sport’s history.

This type of in-depth content would never be commissioned by a free to air television station such as the BBC, simply due to the amount of other non F1 related content that they produce. One obvious drawback of this model however is that casual fans may not be willing to pay for something that had previously always been available for free. It also makes it much harder for the sport to attract new fans through television, as people are much less likely to “stumble” across the sport, due to the fact that viewers already have to be willing to pay money to see any live coverage. Highlights of the sport are still shown on free to air television on Channel 4, but this does not replicate the experience of watching the sport live and in full length on free to air TV. The idea of community, shared interest, and inclusivity are principles behind which many sports are built upon, but putting live sports behind paywalls, goes in direct contrast to these moral ideals.

There are many examples of increasing commercial and advertising elements not only during the scheduled commercial breaks in the broadcast, but also during the main presentation of the sport itself. There are a vast number of sponsor names incorporated in the race car liveries, as well as advertising screens and hoardings that are positioned all around the race track. These advertising hoardings and sponsored liveries are positioned front and centre, for the television viewers to see throughout the duration of the broadcast. To understand the significance, and potential issues of taste and morality that arise from having this type of commercialism present in a sport, it is necessary to analyse the specific companies and organisations that are actually being presented to viewers.

Tobacco company sponsorship has been officially banned from F1 for over 15 years, and is not allowed to feature as part of TV broadcasts. In fact, when Sky Sports F1 air footage from old races, they are forced to blur out the names of any tobacco companies that happened to be present many years ago. However, this has not stopped subliminal tobacco sponsorship from remaining as a prominent feature, which is noticeable when viewing the sport on television. The current day Ferrari car livery, incorporates a prominent large sponsorship across the rear of the car, featuring the name of company Mission Winnow. This company is owned by the tobacco manufacturing firm Phillip Morris International, who also happen to own the cigarette brand Marlboro. Up until the tobacco ban in F1, Marlboro had their branding in the same position on the car that the Mission Winnow sponsorship is now located.

In his journal on marketing within F1 on television, Dr Alexander Barker concluded that “The branding is strongly reminiscent of the Marlboro Chevron logo, and the trademark details for Mission Winnow include tobacco products. We argue that Mission Winnow is ‘smokescreen’ marketing, covertly advertising tobacco products, with much in common with Philip Morris’s earlier Marlboro barcode livery” (154). There is a huge ethical concern that this type of advertising is present in the sport on television. Responsibility must be taken from television broadcasters such as Sky Sports F1 to work in conjunction with the sport to ban tobacco advertising entirely. Live sport on television is supposedly meant to be enjoyed by an audience of all age ranges- including children. It is morally questionable that millions of television viewers are still being exposed to this type of advertising despite it being “officially” banned from broadcast television.

There are many other companies that are featured in a less subliminal way, but are as equally debateable in their suitability of being presented on television. The on track advertising hoardings in F1 are similar to those seen in other sports such as football, where they have electronic hoardings positioned around the edge of the pitch which are constantly seen throughout the duration of a match. There are many companies featured in these hoardings in F1, ranging from shipping companies like DHL, to tyre manufactures like Pirelli. These type of companies can be questioned within the realm of concern of commercialism as a whole within live sport on television, but they cannot be particularly questioned from a moral or ethical standpoint, as both companies as closely linked to the principles of the sport (logistics and manufacturing respectfully).

However other companies such as alcohol brand Heineken, and gambling firm 188Bet are also featured in track advertising hoardings, and there are similar concerns along the same lines of the aforementioned tobacco company sponsorship. A study conducted by BMC Public Health states that “There is strong evidence that exposure to advertising or other alcohol audio visual content in the media increases subsequent use in adolescents”(1). The study also states that in relation to F1 on television, “The large amount of alcohol content broadcast during the F1 races are likely to be seen by children due to the time of the broadcasts, and this exposure could lead to subsequent alcohol use” (5). In a similar vein, the presence of gambling firms are increasing across the range of live sports, especially since the rise of online betting in recent years. There are serious concerns over the presence of these type of adverts as related to the issue of gambling addiction.

The presentation on Formula 1 on television is being used as an advertising platform for not only businesses’ and companies, but also for entire nations. For years there has been widespread speculation about the possibility of a new F1 race taking place in Saudi Arabia, and this was confirmed recently with the announcement of a new race to be held in the country starting from this year. Craig Hayden explains that, “Events like the Formula 1 race are opportunities to promote and brand the region” (541). The Saudi Arabian government have invested heavily in recent years to attract massive global sporting events that are broadcast to millions of people on television, with the apparent objective of improving the perception of the nation.

This announcement from F1 has been met with a massive level of backlash from fans due to the human rights issues that exist in the country. From the oppression of females, ethnic minorities, and the LGBT community, as well as concerns around freedom of the press and the use of the death penalty. The association of a nation with an international sporting event that has a history and prestige behind it, has a huge contribution to the viewer perception of the entire nation that is featured. Every broadcaster within all genres of television have a moral obligation to their audience about what content is suitable to air, this should be no different when considering what nations are appropriate to feature on television in a sport such as F1.

Similar to other genres, broadcasters of live sports use forms of storytelling to make interesting narratives that are based around the sporting achievements of the athletes. For example in F1, the drivers are positioned as the main protagonists of the events on television. This is an interesting decision, as there are so many other elements that go into determining the success of these “protagonists”, from engineering, strategy and the budget of the race teams. But even with all of these variable factors, the drivers are positioned front and centre in the television broadcasts. Increasingly, advertisers are associating themselves with drivers, and ultimately using them as commercial tools to strengthen their brand image. Sean Ennis suggests that, “Successful athletes are revered by their fans. By endorsing a brand, they can play a direct role in increasing the awareness levels and ultimately sales” (265). The protagonists of the sport are all male, and the lack of diversity seen in the athletes of the sport is also reflected in the companies that decide to attach themselves to these athletes. The combination of an all-male “cast” along with primarily male dominated advertising makes it challenging to attract female viewers to the television presentation of the sport.

Commercial elements remain a key reason that live sports on television continue to be economically viable to produce and broadcast. However, having analysed a wide range of commercial elements within the TV presentation of Formula 1, it becomes apparent that many of these marketing methods are not suitable within the accepted boundaries of taste, morality and ethics of our modern society. More regulation is needed to ensure that potential advertisers are vetted thoroughly before they are allowed to appear within the presentation of a live sport. TV broadcasters must also question the decisions made by the sport, which are potentially in bad taste, and if necessary not broadcast certain events from countries that have ongoing troubling human rights issues. More work must be done to make live sports on TV more appealing to minority groups and females, this starts with creating opportunities for minorities within the television coverage of live sport, including television presenters, analysts, as well as the sporting stars themselves. This will help to attract more diverse sponsors and advertisers into the sport, and in turn help to broaden the range of people that may watch on television.

Works Cited

Barker, Alexander B., “Alcohol Audio-Visual Content in Formula 1 Television Broadcasting”. BMC Public Health, vol. 18, no. 1, 2018, doi:10.1186/s12889-018-6068-3.

Barker, Alexander B., Magdalena Opazo Breton, et al. ‘Exposure to “Smokescreen” Marketing during the 2018 Formula 1 Championship’. Tobacco Control, vol. 28, no. 2, 2019, doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2019-055025.

Ennis, Sean. ‘Managing the Sports Sponsorship Process’. Sports Marketing: A Global Approach to Theory and Practice, 1st ed, vol. 1, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

Hayden, Craig. “Applied Public Diplomacy: A Marketing Communications Exchange Program in Saudi Arabia.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 53, no. 4, Dec. 2009, doi:10.1177/0002764209347629

Slack, Trevor. The Commercialisation of Sport (Sport in the Global Society). 1st ed., Oxford, Routledge, 2003.

Statista. ‘Formula One (F1) Racing Global TV Audience 2020’. Statista, 19 Mar. 2021, www.statista.com/statistics/480129/cable-or-broadcast-tv-networks-formula-one-f1-racing-watched-within-the-last-12-months-usa/#statisticContainer.