F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone stated last month he is “not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is,” according to Ian Parkes of TIMES OF MALTA. But at Formula One Management’s Knightsbridge offices "there is a team of eight people fully committed to raising F1’s profile via social media." At a recent end-of-season media briefing, the 84-year-old said, “I was surprised at the number of people that use our app. Seems it’s quite successful." FOM Digital Media Manager Marissa Pace "provided Ecclestone with a helping hand to explain the company’s current output and future vision." Pace: “We are rebuilding Formula1.com and from Singapore onwards you may have noticed we have taken a more active role in social media. With Twitter, our impressions were over 80 million from Singapore until the end of the season.” Contrast that, though, with 160 million for Mercedes for the same period "and you can appreciate F1 is still playing catch-up." As far as Ecclestone is concerned, TV "will remain one of F1’s bread-and-butter revenue streams until he can work out a ploy on how to make money from social media." Asked how Ecclestone could "rake in the cash" from social media in the future, Pace added, “Mr. Ecclestone asks me that all the time, and eventually we will" (TIMES OF MALTA, 12/17).
ISL RATINGS: The PTI reported the Indian Super League’s football semifinal between Chennaiyin FC and Kerala Blasters FC "recorded the highest number of online video views (1.1 million) ever witnessed in India for any single sport game." It "has recorded over 16 million online video views through the course of the tournament." Additionally, "the official ISL online channel has registered 28.7 million visits" (PTI, 12/17).
