[Mike Harte]

Chilli, it is perverse, isn't it? One would expect that competition would drive down prices, but the reverse seems to now hold true when it comes to sports behind paywalls in the UK.

That very competition between the TV broadcasters is actually driving up the costs of the broadcasting rights, with possibly three or four different broadcasters vying with each other for the plum sports. And very often leaving the very best broadcaster (usually the very best) in their wake because they cannot justify the obscene money (which would be taxpayers' money) that the broadcasters like Sky will pay for sports' rights.

And all that means is that it is the viewer that ends up paying through the nose to follow their passion, whether that be soccer, F1 or boxing and so on. In a perverse way, the viewers are actually partially subsidising the companies so that they can pay huge amounts to buy the rights.

But that may be coming to an end, and that is why I think that Sky have decided to split their sports package into individual segments. Because they are not getting the take up that they were expecting on sports such as F1.

Maybe if they all stopped paying silly money to buy the rights, they could reduce the viewing costs and get back the lost viewers. But I think that the damage has already been done, and in the end it will be all of F1 - FOM, the FIA, the teams and all their staff - that will pay the ultimate price for their greed. The public will only be taken for suckers for a limited time.