3. Sponsor conflicts and the UCI
3. Sponsor conflicts and the UCI
Existing team sponsorship clearly present a significant obstacle to a peloton-wide deal covering all teams.
Both Garmin and Shimano have their own cameras and the likelihood of any of their sponsored teams being part of a GoPro deal is extremely remote as they look to protect sponsor exclusivity in these categories and leverage these deals to promote their own camera products.
As for the UCI… Aside from the potential commercial conflict arising from the UCI piloting their own on-bike camera footage with Shimano, the governing body holds several trump cards in the future of on-bike footage.
A key question for teams is whether the camera forms part of the UCI minimum weight of the bike or not. In general, the minimum weight of the bike is normally considered without any additions such as camera or tracking device, so the camera and mount are extra weight which teams and riders can at times be resistant towards.
The logical solution here, especially give how easy it is for modern race bikes to be significantly under minimum weight, is to include the camera in the overall bike weight, just as is the case with a power meter.
In the same vein, in order to broadcast live on-bike camera footage, the UCI would need to relax their restriction on any form of communication device (mobile phone or similar) being present on the bike or rider. The bottom line is that the UCI are a critical party to making this a long term success, adding yet another commercially motivated party to an already complex model.
Alex Palmer is a sports industry consultant and former head of Canyon UK and marketing director of Slipstream Sports. Follow Alex on Twitter – @ajmpalmer