Murdoch takeover of Formula One in doubt by Thomas Rooney

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The last few weeks have seen a large amount of speculation that Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch was about to launch a takeover of Formula One but last week Bernie Ecclestone has poured cold water on the claims.

Whilst there has been a widespread belief that Murdoch was in the early stages of talks to form a consortium to take control of the Formula One motor racing Ecclestone has rated the chances of this happening as "close to zero".

Those who watch f1 should be able to tell you that Formula One motor racing is owned by private equity firm CVC with Ecclestone acting as manager.

Ecclestone has suggested that the possible takeover is largely a figment of the imagination of the media and has been promoted by advisors who will be interested in the fees generated by holding outline discussions.

News Corporation, owned by Murdoch, has been known to have held preliminary discussions with Ferrari and also with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who has interests in Formula One.

One huge obstacle that a Murdoch takeover would face would be the pressure to keep Formula One racing on free-to-air television.

Murdoch has build his extremely successful satellite television companies on the back of pay-per-view sport but the Formula One teams and sponsors would be very much against this happening to their sport. The inevitable fall in the number of viewers would have a huge negative impact on the value of involvement for many parties currently investing in Formula One.

It remains to be seen whether the Murdoch bid progresses or whether Ecclestone is once again proved right. Certainly there are many within the sport who feel that the motivation will be there for Murdoch to press ahead but there will be many strongly opposed to any such deal.

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