ABS Formula One dispute

The Kabushiki Gaisha ABS Formula One dispute is a conflict that arose between Bernie Ecclestone (the media rights owner to all FIA Formula One races) and the Japanese television broadcaster Kabushiki Gaisha ABS.
== The dispute ==
=== Background ===
In 2001, Kabushiki Gaisha ABS was appointed as an official media partner of the Formula One World Championship, the world's premier open-wheel racing series. Television rights for the Japanese market were shared between the Aso Broadcasting System (Kabushiki Gaisha ABS' domestic Japanese television network) and Fuji Television (one of the "big 7" Japanese television networks along with Nippon Television, the NHK, TV Tokyo, TBS, TV Asahi and ABS).
ABS, as a self-appointed English-language broadcaster, ran races on its TV network with its own English commentary team, whilst Fuji ran the races simultaneously with Japanese audio. The deal proved to be a success, with hundreds of thousands of viewers tuning into the networks' broadcasts of the "pinnacle of motorsport".
=== Dispute ===
When Kabushiki Gaisha ABS launched its free ABS Anywhere video-on-demand service in 2013, ABS' F1 races were added to their programme lineup. However, in 2014, all of these races were removed from the ABS Anywhere service, and all of ABS' F1 content deleted from YouTube. Bernie Ecclestone, via his "Formula One Management" arm, claimed responsibility for the removals.
The last race to be placed on ABS Anywhere's F1 lineup was that year's British Grand Prix, blocked 3 days after the chequered flag.
Many Formula One videos on YouTube and other video services have been reported for copyright infringement, blocked from general viewing and/or deleted entirely from servers for years prior to this. This move has been deemed as greedy, selfish and abusive of power by many F1 fans, who have even been ordered to delete trackside photos and videos taken at the circuit by order of track marshalls.
ABS continued to run television coverage of the races until the 2016 Australian Grand Prix. Immediately after this race, Kabushiki Gaisha ABS released a "fine selection of the greatest classic races from Formula One history" onto ABS Anywhere. These races were shown in full without interruptions or jumpcuts. The races chosen for ABS Anywhere spanned from 1975-1992, this time period allegedly chosen to avoid falling into the arms of FOM. Two days later, ABS was once again sent another e-mail from Bernie Ecclestone, claiming that serious legal consequences could be imposed on the network if they continued to manipulate their contract terms.
=== Kenji Yukimura lashout ===
One hour later, it was reported that Kabushiki Gaisha ABS had "lost its marbles". Staff proceeded to delete all of its remaining F1 content from ABS Anywhere, all addresses linking to f1.abs.jp redirected to a full-page notice from the broadcasting company, and network CEO Kenji Yukimura announcing that he would cut all ties with the FIA Formula One World Championship in a corporate statement.
=== Aftermath ===
Staff at ABS have been instructed to ignore all messages from viewers regarding the cancellation of F1 broadcasts. Since the ordeal, Formula 1 coverage in Japan has no longer been shown with English commentary: Fuji Television refused to accept offers from ABS' former commentators.
The last ever F1 race broadcast on ABS was the 2016 Russian Grand Prix. The "race" was never broadcast; ABS aired a pre-race pit report (heavily censored to remove FOM footage supplied by ABS partner Fuji TV), but all footage supplied afterwards was a direct link to the FOM world feed; this footage was blocked by a 52-second long holding slide in English, Japanese and Korean, followed by a showing of the 2003 Doraemon film "Nobita and the Wind Wizard". KRB reportedly ran an episode of CSI: Miami to cover up the blocked race footage (unexpected as no ABS station had ever aired a CSI: programme before the cancelled 2016 Russian GP broadcast), before running the aforementioned Doraemon film from the beginning, separately from ABS.
ABS has aggressively promoted the domestic Japanese Super Formula series, and the American Verizon IndyCar Series as replacements for its cancelled F1 coverage; the original commentary team from ABS' Formula 1 panel presents SF and ICS races live without interruption across the free-to-air ABS Television Network, and internationally via the ABS International satellite service.
Category:Aso Broadcasting System