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Originally Posted by AFR Mon 8/7/13 P42, Sports Review
Warburton determined to get V8s back up to speed
By John Stensholt
Twilight racing scheduled for prime time television is among widespread changes the new chief executive of the V8 Supercars, James Warburton, has planned for the motor-racing circuit.
The V8s are also set to put further international expansion on the backburner and may further consolidate the number of races in Australia. Warburton is also not ruling out further changes to the racing format and potentially a slight shift away from the sport's traditional winter calendar.
In his first major interview since starting as CEO in June, Warburton tells the Australia Financial Review the V8s are performing well on the track, but concedes he has a lot of work to do in order to turn the business of the sport around, including filling the vacant major sponsor position, negotiating a more lucrative broadcasting deal and signing new deals for its races in Queensland and NSW.
"The thing I've found is that the actual sport is in brilliant shape," Warburton says.
"Where we have to focus is the business itself, which is quite weak. The commercial outcomes...and the focus on the business is something I've found to be lacking."
Warburton, who was sacked as CEO of Network Ten in February, says the V8s need to work more closely with the incumbent broadcaster Seven West Media, with which it signed a two-year earlier this year that delivers it $10 million less cash annually than the previous contract.
"It's certainly disappointing for a sport to go backwards," Warburton says. "We are getting one million viewers across a weekend, so if we can improve our product and grow that number further, think about twilights and grow it into primetime, then we can grown revenue and the value of the rights."
Given his background in television - he also worked for Seven in sales roles for more than a decade before leaving in 2010 - Warburton, who says V8 racing can be quite "malleable" for TV, knows the value of a sport being in primetime, hence the search for a way for the sport to race in the twilight.
"I'm a huge fan of twilight racing. If we can increase the interest in our sport and work with our network partners to bring the events into primetime, it is a really crucial part (of the plan) .
"Everyone tells me night racing isn't economically viable, but that just makes me more determined to find a way. We would be, without doubt, spectacular under lights. i will find a way. It brings other nights of the week into question too - it doesn't have to be weekend racing."
Even more important in the short term is the drive for more revenue. It is understood revenue for the V8s which is majority owned by private equity firm Archer Capital, is likely to be about $180 million this year with profits of at least $20million to $25million.
That compares to profits of $30mllion to $35million when Archer paid $160 million to former owners Sports & Entertainment Ltd in 2011 for a 60 percent stake (team owners and former chairman Tony Cochrane own the remainder). The series also needs a major sponsor worth about $3.5million, after Telstra chose not to extend its contract last year.
Warburton says he intends to find ways to better cross-sell to advertisers, something he has experience from at his days as Seven. "I want to be the business of choice for advertisers. I have spent a lot of my life selling integrated properties.
"When you think about what we have got, we've got 237 hours of TV, we have two million going to tracks and 19 million (in total) watching our TV product, so we have a fantastic integrated property for a client to look at."
He also says the V8s will not pursue further international races beyond the current events in Texas and New Zealand nor expend its calendar, a key strategy of previous management.
"This obsession with 18 or any number of events, we are making a departure from that"
Warburton also says the V8s are close to securing an extension to their contract with the Queensland and NSW governments for five races across those states. It is likely the V8s will receive less money from government to support those races.
He also wants to work more closely with car manufacturers, including long-time partner Ford, which is set to cease manufacturing in Australia.
"We will be creating a manufacturer's forum to deal with them day in and day out to ensure we are working closely with them (in terms of) sales and marketing and engagement with teh fans, to make sure they can't walk away from the sport"
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