Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 3rd June, 2012)

From BARB:

1 – 86k – The F1 Show (Friday, 20:00)
2 – 23k – Fast Track (Wednesday, 19:00)
3 – 13k – Monaco Grand Prix: GP2 Sprint Race Replay (Tuesday, 24:00)
4 – 13k – Fast Track (Friday, 19:30)
5 – 12k – Legends (Saturday, 18:02)
6 – 11k – The F1 Show (Friday, 22:30)
7 – 11k – 2007 Season Review: Part 3 (Sunday, 21:04)
8 – 11k – The F1 Show (Sunday, 22:22)
9 – 11k – Monaco Grand Prix Highlights (Monday, 16:30)
10 – 8k – Legends (Saturday, 18:32)

The above programmes are in random order you could say, with only the two ‘original’ programmes The F1 Show and Fast Track getting over twenty thousand viewers. The F1 Show fared well, with its highest number for a studio based programme since the debut F1 Show programme on March 9th.

For the week, the channel reached its lowest audience yet however, reaching 560 thousand people. It’s worth noting that only two programmes from Sunday make the top 10. Nothing from Sunday daytime made the top 10, in stark contrast with two weeks ago when they screened Classic F1 races to double the audience.

Canadian Grand Prix ratings hit six year low

The Canadian Grand Prix disappointed with it’s live viewership yesterday, overnight ratings show, with figures hitting a six year low. The race average on Sky Sports F1 was 1.63 million, with a peak of 1.77 million. One thing I have noticed a lot with the race average versus peak is that the gap between the two is small. Unlike with BBC, where the audience can increase a lot throughout due to casuals joining in the middle of a exciting race, that appears to be not happening on Sky Sports F1. Despite an exciting race yesterday, the peak is only 140 thousand above the race average.

With regards, to the peak, there is an argument that it did okay given the Euro 2012 opposition. I’m not sure I agree. Even with the Euro 2012 opposition, in my opinion the peak should have been at least above 2 million. In comparison, the Bahrain Grand Prix had a peak of 1.6 million in daytime, so Canada only bettered that by 170 thousand. I would have thought the primetime slot, plus the BBC highlights being in a late-night timeslot would have helped the Sky Sports F1 figures more. Unlike Qualifying, the race had a free run for the first 45 minutes in the ‘gap’ between the two games, so I would have thought it may have caught a few floating viewers between the games.

The BBC F1 highlights programme peaked with 3.1 million according to James Allen, resulting in a combined peak of 4.87 million.

The averages don’t make for a pretty picture. The BBC programme had a 2.39 million average (21.2% share), and when factoring in Sky, that will be an average of 3.39 million, which will be the lowest average since 2006, which had an average of 2.72 million. The 2006 race was up against the conclusion of England vs Ecuador.

Canadian Grand Prix – UK TV Ratings
2005 – 4.97 million
2006 – 2.72 million
2007 – 4.58 million
2008 – 3.99 million
2009 – no race
2010 – 5.20 million
2011 – 6.12 million
2012 – ~3.39 million

As for Qualifying, the BBC One highlights show fared solidly with 2.05 million, albeit with only a 13.9% viewing share. Once factoring in Sky Sports F1, the number will be significantly down on the 3.69 million that watched Qualifying in 2011, but in-line with the 2010 average of 2.40 million. I would have expected a significant drop this year, even if Qualifying was on BBC One live, as it would have faced very tough opposition in Euro 2012. The Netherlands versus Denmark match, which went against the live showing of Qualifying had a mammoth 7.59 million peak figure, which I think shows that had F1 been live on BBC this weekend, then Qualifying would not have fared at all well.

Note: The ratings information comes from Sky Media Updates, Digital Spy and Attentional.

Tom Clarkson doing Lee McKenzie’s job this weekend

As noted by Ben Constanduros on Twitter, Tom Clarkson is in Lee McKenzie’s role of interviewing the drivers for BBC F1 this weekend. Clarkson has been part of the BBC team in some capacity before, he worked as co-commentator alongside David Croft for BBC Radio 5 Live at Korea 2010, commentating on the first practice session.

This is not Clarkson’s first Formula 1 broadcasting role this year. As Australian readers may know, he was part of the TEN Sport line-up for the Australian Grand Prix back in March. Looking at some other sites on the internet, it appears Clarkson was part of the TEN Sport line-up last year, although I’m not sure what exactly.

Aside from his roles in broadcasting, he is also one of the editors for F1 Racing magazine, so chances are if you have bought that particular publication in the past, you have read one of his articles.

Constanduros has not stated on Twitter if Clarkson is covering Europe, Germany and Hungary as well while the roles are adjusted slightly in the BBC F1 team.

Update on 14th June: Clarkson is indeed covering Europe, Germany and Hungary as noted here by McKenzie.

Scheduling: The 24 Hours of Le Mans

Next weekend, it is the third triple crown event of the year, alongside the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500, as the 24 Hours of Le Mans takes place in southern France at the Circuit de la Sarthe. The festivities, though, run all week culminating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, live on Eurosport and Eurosport 2. Unfortunately there are multiple channel switches in the 24 hour period, but nevertheless, the full 24 hours are live on either channel.

As noted on his Twitter, Martin Haven is not part of Eurosport’s line up this year, as for the first time he is working with the Audi team. So good luck to Haven with that. Instead, according to Ben Constanduros, we get Carlton Kirby.

Monday 11th June
21:30 to 22:00 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

Tuesday 12th June
21:15 to 21:45 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

Wednesday 13th June
16:30 to 17:00 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
17:00 to 19:00 – Live Practice (Eurosport)
21:00 to 23:00 – Live Qualifying (Eurosport 2)
21:40 to 22:05 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

Thursday 14th June
19:30 to 20:00 – Live Qualifying (Eurosport)
20:30 to 21:00 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
21:00 to 23:00 – Live Qualifying (Eurosport)

Friday 15th June
18:30 to 19:00 – 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

Saturday 16th June
07:00 to 07:30 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport 2)
08:00 to 09:00 – Live Warm Up (Eurosport)
09:00 to 10:00 – Live Legends Race (Eurosport)
13:15 to 13:45 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
21:30 to 22:00 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
– for details of the race itself, see below

Sunday 17th June
08:30 to 09:00 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)
14:15 to 14:30 – Live 24 Minutes (Eurosport)

The race itself beginning on the Saturday…
13:45 to 19:00 – Eurosport
19:00 to 19:30 – Eurosport 2
19:30 to 21:30 – Eurosport
21:30 to 22:00 – Eurosport 2
22:00 to 00:00 – Eurosport
00:00 to 08:30 – Eurosport
08:30 to 09:00 – Eurosport 2
09:00 to 14:15 – Eurosport

I would be lying if I said that I watched the entire 24 Hours, but I do watch the majority of the first few hours until the early evening along with the last six or so hours of action. The Qualifying sessions are also worth a watch as well. Hopefully the last few hours are as exciting as last year!

A look back at ITV’s first live Formula 1 broadcast in 1997 – the VT count

While my main post on Tuesday looked back at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying broadcast on ITV, this post will simply note the lengths of VT’s and the time that they were actually live for. Basically, the length of everything.

01: Intro
– 00:00 to 00:35 (35 seconds)

02: VT
– 00:35 to 02:35 (2 minutes)
– Jim introduces programme from the lakeside
– a look at the Melbourne scenary
– an introduction to the ITV F1 team

03: VT
– 02:35 to 02:42 (7 seconds)
– Jim linking from previous piece to the next piece
– not live as it probably took him more than three minutes to get to the studio

04: VT
– 02:42 to 05:23 (2 minutes, 41 seconds)
– driver line-up

05: Live
– 05:23 to 07:07 (2 minutes, 44 seconds)
– in studio with Jim, Tony and Simon outlining key discussion points

06: VT
– 07:07 to 07:51 (44 seconds)
– Martin and Murray do a discussion piece to camera

07: Live
– 07:51 to 08:16 (25 seconds)
– in studio with Jim linking to an Inside F1 piece

08: VT
– 08:16 to 09:17 (1 minute, 1 second)
– David Coulthard explains all the buttons on the steering wheel

09: Live
– 09:17 to 09:50 (33 seconds)
– in studio with Jim linking to a piece about anti-F1 in Melbourne

10: VT
– 09:50 to 11:06 (1 minute, 16 seconds)
– News (focus on anti-F1, tyre war, Coulthard, Peter Phillips, tram strike)

11: Live
– 11:06 to 11:38 (32 seconds)
– in studio with Jim linking to a live Damon Hill interview

12: Live
– 11:38 to 12:52 (1 minute, 14 seconds)
– James Allen interviewing Damon Hill in pit-lane

13: Live
– 12:52 to 13:39 (47 seconds)
– discussion about Damon Hill’s weekend so far and expectations

Commercial Break.

14: Live
– 00:00 to 01:00 (1 minute)
– discussion about title championship predictions

15: Live
– 01:00 to 02:35 (1 minute, 35 seconds)
– Louise Goodman interviewing Jacques Villeneuve in pit-lane

16: Live
– 02:35 to 02:51 (16 seconds)
– in studio with Jim linking to track guide

17: VT
– 02:51 to 04:46 (1 minute, 55 seconds)
– Martin Brundle track guide using the F1 1997 video game

18: Live
– 04:46 to 05:47 (59 seconds)
– discussion about Schumacher’s track complaints
– Jim hands over to Murray and Martin

Totals
VT – 10 minutes, 19 seconds (50.6%)
Live – 10 minutes, 05 seconds (49.4%)

VT includes the opening titles.