do broadcasters care about their audiences?

Let's face it; most mass media is aimed at the lowest common denominator - money. In other words broadcasters focus on what costs least, pays most and/or gets the biggest audience. Sports events want TV coverage so they can get big audiences; if it brings in high-paying sponsors - even better. If they can extract money from their audiences - even better still.
So, today, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that Formula 1 motor racing has gone where the money is. The BBC is short of money and is cutting back on things wherever they can. Today that includes F1 as they have said they are only going to broadcast half of the races and show highlights of the rest; Sky Sports are going to show everything. And what has been the mass reaction from sports fans? Negative - and overwhelmingly so. Why? Because the sport is accessible to everyone if it's free-to-air as it has been so far - whether on ITV or BBC. And because a lot of sports fans either can't afford to pay the high prices demanded by Sky, or because they regard Sky as the Evil Empire - not surprising if you look at the bad press their majority shareholder, News International (aka the Murdochs), has been getting. Sky is the lowest of the low when it comes to quality - and the highest of the high when it comes to subscription prices.

The way out of this mess? Get the sponsors and the teams and the stars to fund the free-to-air broadcasts. Remove the possibility of exclusive broadcasts by TV channels that are not free-to-air. If Sky complain, tell them to go back to the US or Australia..or....