Sky Sports F1 showing extended interview with Jenson Button this week

A new show has popped up on the EPG listings for this week, that being an extended interview with Jenson Button. I assume the interview is an extended cut of that he did with Natalie Pinkham prior to the British Grand Prix weekend. Another option is that it could be his Legends interview with Steve Rider, assuming Rider has interviewed Button yet. In any case, Sky Sports F1 have managed to extend it out to a 30-minute slot, with it being shown at the following times:

– Monday 16th July, 19:00
– Tuesday 17th July, 19:00
– Wednesday 18th July, 20:30
– Thursday 19th July, 19:45
– Friday 20th July, 07:30
– Friday 20th July, 12:30
– Saturday 21st July, 11:15
– Saturday 21st July, 23:35
– Sunday 22nd July, 11:00
– Sunday 22nd July, 20:30

So with a total of ten screenings in total, you have very little excuse to miss this!

News Articles – British Grand Prix

A summary of all the opinion and blog pieces from BBC and Sky over the past few days since the British Grand Prix.

BBC
– Andrew Benson‘s Post-Race blog
– Gary Anderson‘s Technical Review
– Jaime Alguersuari‘s weekly blog
– Mark Webber blogs about his British Grand Prix victory and his new contract

Sky
– Ted Kravitz‘s Notebook
– Pete Gill‘s Conclusions
– Mike Wise‘s Diary
– Martin Brundle looks at the lessons from Silverstone
– Analysis of how Mark Webber’s contract decision affects the remainder of the pitlane
– Mark Hughes on McLaren’s current form
– Pete Gill and Mike Wise look at what went wrong at Silverstone off the track

The Twitter outlook

It was a second win of the season for Mark Webber as he overtook Fernando Alonso in the closing stages to win the British Grand Prix. Did that result in a larger than usual Twitter gain for the Australian? Let’s find out:

Drivers – The Top 10
01 – 1,022,952 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
02 – 898,598 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
03 – 823,685 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
04 – 446,540 – Bruno Senna (Williams)
05 – 381,592 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
06 – 228,955 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
07 – 227,102 – Pastor Maldonaldo (Williams)
08 – 176,974 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
09 – 160,182 – Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
10 – 153,441 – Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)

Drivers – Biggest Increases
01 – 49,376 – Fernando Alonso
02 – 16,001 – Jenson Button
02 – 14,569 – Lewis Hamilton
04 – 11,587 – Mark Webber
05 – 6,826 – Sergio Perez

Drivers – Smallest Increases
01 – 837 – Jean-Eric Vergne
02 – 941 – Charles Pic
03 – 1,337 – Nico Hulkenberg
04 – 1,428 – Vitaly Petrov
05 – 1,479 – Timo Glock

It was the highest average gain since the Spanish Grand Prix for the entire field this week, with everyone gaining an average of 6,800 followers, which shows the popularity of the British Grand Prix. Mark Webber’s win moved him into the biggest increases table, with his 11,587 follower increase the biggest yet since I started tracking this in April. Whilst it was also Jenson Button’s highest gain yet, it was not Lewis Hamilton’s biggest gain, on two occasions he has gained more than 14,000 followers, during the Spanish and Canadian Grand Prix weeks.

At the other end of the table, hold the papers, Charles Pic is not last! For the first time since I started the tracking, Pic recorded a bigger gain than another driver, in this case Jean-Eric Vergne.

Teams – The Top 10
01 – 301,373 – Ferrari
02 – 208,176 – McLaren
03 – 136,382 – Mercedes
04 – 131,259 – Red Bull
05 – 117,759 – Lotus
06 – 79,544 – Caterham
07 – 72,267 – Marussia
09 – 69,265 – Force India
08 – 68,744 – Williams
10 – 62,975 – Sauber

Teams – Biggest Increases
01 – 5,242 – Ferrari
02 – 4,178 – Red Bull
03 – 3,897 – McLaren

Teams – Smallest Increases
01 – 920 – Toro Rosso
02 – 1,121 – Williams
03 – 1,306 – HRT

Thanks to their pitiful gains in the past few weeks, Force India have jumped back in front of Williams. Ferrari jumped over the 300,000 follower barrier, while Red Bull and McLaren also recorded solid gains. I should note that behind them, Marussia recorded their highest gain yet, with an increase of 3,606 followers, compared to an average increase of just 691 followers per week for all the weeks preceding that. I can only put that down to the accident of Maria de Villota last Tuesday with people wanting to get the latest up-to-date news.

Driver and Team statistics as of Monday 9th July 2012.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 1st July, 2012)

From BARB:

1 – 33k – The F1 Show (Friday, 20:00)
2 – 25k – Canadian Grand Prix Highlights (Monday, 16:30)
3 – 20k – 2009 British Grand Prix (Sunday, 17:00)
4 – 15k – Fast Track (Wednesday, 19:00)
5 – 15k – 2008 British Grand Prix (Saturday, 21:40)
6 – 10k – 2007 British Grand Prix (Saturday, 18:01)
7 – 10k – Fast Track (Tuesday, 19:30)
8 – 10k – GP Classics: 11th GP D’Europe (Friday, 19:40)
9 – 10k – 2011 British Grand Prix (Sunday, 21:30)
10 – 8k – The F1 Show (Sunday, 15:00)

Not a great set of figures there. The Classic races did not do as well as in Monaco, although the scheduling left a lot to be desired. I would be more likely to watch them on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when nothing is on compared to a Saturday night when there is programming to watch on. Hopefully they revert to the Monaco scheduling, and maybe actually put some Classic races on. 2007 definitely is not a classic by any stretch of the imagination.

The thing is that they need to promote it more, I think some people have the assumption that outside of The F1 Show, they screen absolutely nothing outside of race weekends, which is actually quite true when you think about it. They need to make more of an effort, as I have said numerous times on this blog.

The F1 Show also slumped to its lowest figure yet. Not quite sure why, but for whatever reason, it did. Over on Sky Sports 3, the Live Goodwood Festival of Speed did very well, with 67,000 viewers watching on Sunday afternoon. A further 30,000 watched the repeat later in the evening on Sky Sports 4. Both of those figures dwarf the set of Sky Sports F1 figures above. Last year, live coverage of the festival had 60,000 viewers, while in 2010 it had 89,000 viewers.

British Grand Prix holds up well against Murray onslaught

So a few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on here regarding the scheduling of yesterday’s British Grand Prix. As I noted in that particular piece:

“One has to wonder if the conclusion of the British Grand Prix is less important than the first few sets of the Wimbledon Men’s Singles final, and also whether the Qualifying session is less important than the Women’s Singles final.”

I have to admit, at that time, I thought no, thinking to myself that it will be an all foreign final and Andy Murray will once again get knocked out in the Quarter or Semi Final. Of course, I was left eating humble pie….

He didn’t win, though. He did however, draw an absolutely mammoth peak of 16.9 million viewers to BBC One yesterday at 18:00 and an 11.45 million viewership average throughout. In comparison, the highest Formula 1 race on record, the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, had 8.8 million. So, in reality, the BBC made completely the right decision, as I admitted on Friday on Twitter!

With the mammoth peak, it is no surprise that the F1 was dented, and although the British Grand Prix had its worst viewing figures since 2007, the figures were not bad at all considering the opposition. The weighted programme average was 3.09 million (20.9%) from 12:05 to 15:30. The percentage share, for anyone wondering, is a lot lower than usual due to there being a lot more people watching TV than usual, again due to the Wimbledon final.

I do not have the exact Sky Sports F1 figures, but again you are looking at around about 0.4 million to 0.5 million, which means a combined average of about 3.5 million. Which is actually very respectable when you consider the viewing figures for BBC One. It is not far away from the Monaco Grand Prix figure either. If anything, the Grand Prix did a lot better than I was anticipating. James Allen has helpfully tweeted a peak of 4.2 million for BBC Two, so factoring in Sky Sports F1 will take you to a peak in the 5 million region. I am not sure a ratio is relevant really considering the mammoth opposition, but you are looking at 84% to 16%, approximately give-or-take depending on the exact peak figures.

The delayed Qualifying figure did not do well, a peak of 2.3 million (22.7%) at 13:15 on BBC Two, with an average of 1.9 million viewers. Add an extra 0.2 million or 0.3 million for Sky, which gives you about 2.2 million viewers. Not a very good figure, and the worst for the British Grand Prix Qualifying since 2008. If anything, the rain delay hindered things rather than helped things, as all the casual viewers would have flocked to BBC One when the rain delay started as the Women’s Wimbledon final was getting underway.

One thing that the ratings show is that the scheduling all around has been awful this year from the FIA. The Canadian Grand Prix went against Euro 2012 directly. The British Grand Prix went against the Wimbledon final, and the Hungarian Grand Prix is going to go against the London 2012 Olympics. Who planned this exactly? The schedule should have gone something like this:

– 27th May: Monaco
– 10th June: Europe (Valencia)
– 24th June: Germany
– 1st July: Britain
– 15th July: Canada
– 19th August: Hungary
– 2nd September: Belgium

That just about directly avoids the major sporting events, with nothing directly clashing. I can only assume that there are logistical issues that prevents an event the week before Valencia or a week after in terms of transportation. There would still be a five week break halfway through the season, just slightly different with Hungary after the break rather than before it.

As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome.