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.

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 "I am not amused; stop doing that, or you will receive a drive-through penalty".

Kenji Yukimura lashout
One hour later, it was reported that Kabushiki Gaisha ABS had "lost its marbles". Staff proceeded to delete all of its 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 announced that he would cut all ties with the FIA Formula One World Championship in the following statement regarding FOM's atrocities against ABS;

"I am speaking to you today to announce that this stupid bunch of imbeciles calling themselves 'Formula One Management' have officially sapped away the last remaining reserves of my sanity. I have HAD ENOUGH of this. I was trying to do a public service to people by placing past and present F1 races for people to watch on-demand.A PUBLIC SERVICE! But what do these guys do? They send us blackmail, they block our F1 videos on YouTube, they even sent one of our pit road reporters to the hospital! We have had enough of this, and as such, we are going to terminate all upcoming F1 broadcasts on ABS, and we shall all act like we never even showed F1 in the first place. Screw Bernie Ecclestone, screw Formula 1, screw all the teams that race in this disaster of a racing series, and most importantly, for all people linked to the sport watching this statement: SCREW YOU."

He immediately smashed news microphones against the wall behind him and walked away, screaming and yelling profanities at staff who tried to comfort him after the speech.

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.

ABS has aggressively promoted the domestic Japanese Super Formula series as a replacement for ABS' cancelled F1 coverage; the original commentary team from ABS' Formula 1 panel presents SF races live without interruption across the free-to-air ABS Television Network, and internationally via the ABS International satellite service.