Ten's F1 fiasco: all it took was a tweet

OVER the past several days the Ten Network has been at the centre of a social media storm over its F1 broadcasts.

OVER the past several days the Ten Network has been at the centre of a social media storm as thousands of enraged motor sport fans bashed its decision to delay Formula One and take it off the high definition channel, but in the end it came down to one tweet that forced executives to change their minds.

When F1 star Mark Webber finally reacted to the hundreds of Tweets fans had sent him begging for him to do something, Ten was left with little choice but to renege on its ratings grab.

“Come on @tensporttv @onehd I hear out (sic) great Australian motor sport fans are not happy with rescheduling of timings of the GPs. #letsgolive'', Webber said, and within an hour Perth and Adelaide viewers had their live broadcasts reinstated.

Ten had tried to tough out the storm. Newly appointed Ten director of corporate and public communications, Neil Shoebridge, a former reporter, sent out a short justification for the strategy as a commercial move last week noting that “We are, after all, a business!''.

He then made it clear that no further correspondence would be entered into. But fans had other ideas.

There is some irony that Ten, the first Australian network to truly embrace viewer interaction with fan voting on Big Brother a decade ago, should misjudge its viewers so badly.

It is also ironic that it was Webber, the man who almost single handedly help drive Ten's F1 ratings to the point where the Network felt the need to cash in on F1 in a bigger way, who brought the network to its senses.

It was Webber's rise to the top of Formula one, a genuine challenger for the World Championship, that help drive broader audiences to Tens F1 broadcasts.

On the back of his on track success, audiences rose and advertisers joined them.

Such was his pulling power that The Australian Grand Prix in 2009 was chosen as the launch event for Ten's bold but ultimately failed One HD sport strategy.

It has since brought the Grand Prix to viewers live and in HD, as well as broadcasting qualifying.

Moto GP rider Casey Stoner's success was another motivator for the strategy, compelling Ten to grab the broadcast rights off Fox Sports.

Ten was likely to cop another round of abuse this weekend when it was going to apply the same delayed SD broadcast strategy to the Moto GP race.

The backflip, predicted by The Australian on Monday, also shows the increasing power social media has over network programming decisions.

With the emergence of IPTV and dozens of legal and illegal ways for consumers to source their TV content, this will not be the last clash between sports fans and a network keen to boost its bottom line.

And there remains the curious decision to give Perth and Adelaide viewers races on One in HD while east coast audiences will still be subject to lower quality SD broadcasts on Ten.

But the next time Ten wants to tangle with its motor sport audience, perhaps they should ask Mark Webber first.