Speaking to BBC Sport Online, Ecclestone said that the future of pay-per-view F1 was "up in the air" but denied that he was closing it.
In an interview with The Guardian at the start of November, Ecclestone expressed surprise at the lack of interest in pay-per-view.
He told the paper: "I still don't understand why people won't pay what has been asked of them. It's not just the UK, it's worldwide. It's quite incredible that pay doesn't work. I sat down with [Rupert] Murdoch a few years ago and we thought, the two of us, that all major sports would be on pay-per-view eventually. It just hasn't worked. Baffles me."
Ecclestone told BBC Sport that he is to replace local broadcasters in supplying pictures from the races to all free-to-air television companies in 2003. This should ensure that there is consistency in coverage quality throughout the season, because one director, Eddy Baker, would be in charge of the output.
Until now, the terrestrial feed for each race was controlled by the host broadcaster, often with wildly varying results -- some races would concentrate solely on the race leader while others would focus on a local driver. At the US Grand Prix this year, no local broadcaster could be found to provide coverage and global audiences were allowed access to Ecclestone's digital feed. This proved popular with race fans because they were shown battles for position that were normally missed by the terrestrial feed.
F1 has had a dismal year in 2002, with the overwhelming dominance of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari hitting TV ratings hard. The sport is also going through financial difficulties. At the start of the season, the Prost team went bankrupt, while the Arrows team has attempted to go into administration after missing most of the second half of the season and losing title sponsor Orange.
Last week, Jordan Grand Prix announced that it had lost £16m of sponsorship funds when DHL and Deutsche Post pulled out of being title sponsors.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
