According to The Sun newspaper, all 370 staff at Ecclestone's Formula One Management office in Biggin Hill, Kent have been sent home while managers decide how many will go. The employees, including technicians, cameramen, producers and admin workers, have been warned that 70% could be made redundant.
Ecclestone last month denied he was going to close the operation, saying that the digital feed would be used for terrestrial broadcast. However, according to the newspaper, staff have now been told that plan has foundered.
The digital feed was originally used for pay-per-view races in Germany, France and on Sky Digital in the UK. However, few people were prepared to pay £12 a race weekend to watch what has increasingly become a procession of sponsor names.
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 2002 season, the Prost team went bankrupt, while the Arrows team has been booted out of the 2003 season after missing most of the second half of the last season and losing title sponsor Orange.
Last month, Jordan Grand Prix announced that it had lost £16m of sponsorship funds when DHL and Deutsche Post pulled out of being title sponsors. It has yet to find a replacement.
The sport will also be hard hit by the bringing forward of the ban on tobacco advertising to 2005.
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