Scheduling: The 2015 Chinese Grand Prix

It is a mammoth weekend of motor racing next weekend. Alongside the third round of the Formula One season from China, there is also MotoGP action from Texas, IndyCar action from Louisiana and the first round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season from Silverstone. It is definitely one of the busiest weekends that I can remember in a long time. The victim, from a UK scheduling perspective is the IndyCar Series, which finds itself consigned to BT’s Red Button as a result.

The main broadcasting news is that Jennie Gow will be returning to the 5 Live team, as she never travelled to either of the first two races due to scheduling clashes, in the case of the Australian Grand Prix, it clashed with Formula E, which Gow presents for ITV. Elsewhere, there is not much to report, although it appears that Anna Woolhouse will be back presenting the Midweek Report.

Sky’s offering outside of the race weekend continues to remain distinctly thin, with very few new Classic F1 races appearing in the schedule, whilst there is no sign of F1 Legends returning yet, either (although why they can’t do a similar series with the journeymen of the sport, I don’t know). Tales from the Vault should be back soon, as episodes are being taped this month.

Below are all the scheduling details, for what will hopefully be Hamilton vs Vettel – Round 2…

BBC F1
BBC One
11/04 – 13:00 to 14:15 – Qualifying Highlights
12/04 – 14:00 to 15:55 – Race Highlights

BBC News Channel
11/04 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1
12/04 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1

BBC Radio
09/04 – 21:30 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
10/04 – 02:55 to 04:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
10/04 – 06:55 to 08:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
11/04 – 04:55 to 06:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
11/04 – 07:55 to 09:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
12/04 – 06:30 to 09:00 – Race

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
10/04 – 02:45 to 04:50 – Practice 1
10/04 – 06:45 to 09:00 – Practice 2
11/04 – 04:45 to 06:15 – Practice 3
11/04 – 07:00 to 09:45 – Qualifying
12/04 – 05:30 to 10:15 – Race
=> 05:30 – Track Parade
=> 06:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 06:30 – Race
=> 09:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
09/04 – 08:00 to 08:30 – Driver Press Conference
09/04 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Malaysia
10/04 – 09:00 to 09:45 – Team Press Conference
10/04 – 11:00 to 12:00 – The F1 Show
15/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

NEW Classic Races
12/04 – 18:15 to 19:00 – 1990 French Grand Prix Highlights

MotoGP – Texas (BT Sport 2)
10/04 – 15:00 to 22:00
=> 15:00 – Practice 1
=> 17:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 19:00 – Practice 2
11/04 – 15:00 to 22:15
=> 15:00 – Practice 3
=> 18:00 – Qualifying
12/04 – 16:30 to 21:00 – Races
12/04 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Texas (BT Sport Xtra)
12/04 – 14:50 to 16:30 – Warm Up

MotoGP – Texas (ITV4)
13/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

IndyCar Series – Louisiana (BT Sport Xtra)
12/04 – 20:00 to 23:00 – Race

World Endurance Championship – Silverstone (Motors TV)
12/04 – 11:30 to 18:30 – Race

As always, I’ll update the schedule if anything changes.

Scheduling: The 2015 Long Beach ePrix

After a three week gap, Formula E is back for round six of the inaugural 2014-15 season. Round six takes place at a familiar location for motor sport fans as the paddock heads west to California for the Long Beach ePrix! It is a star-studded back-to-back, with the Monte Carlo ePrix following in five weeks time. There are three practice sessions for Long Beach, looking at the live streaming page, it appears all three sessions will be streamed live, but I’ll update the schedule below if that is not the case.

Formula E is not the only motor racing series on offer during the Easter weekend, as BTCC makes its 2015 debut live from Brands Hatch. It really is a big weekend for ITV4, with BTCC offering eight hours of action alongside Formula E’s action on Saturday night. The ITV line-up for both series are the same as usual, Jennie Gow will be presenting the Formula E race, with Steve Rider and Louise Goodman presenting the BTCC coverage. David Addison remains lead commentator for the BTCC races, Tim Harvey is alongside Addison in the commentary box. Elsewhere, British Superbikes begins with round one at Donington Park on Bank Holiday Monday.

Formula E – Long Beach (online via FIAFormulaE.com)
04/04 – 16:05 to 16:45 – Practice 1
04/04 – 17:15 to 17:55 – Practice 2
04/04 – 18:25 to 19:05 – Practice 3
04/04 – 19:45 to 21:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Long Beach (ITV4)
04/04 – 23:00 to 01:30 – Race
05/04 – 09:25 to 10:30 – Highlights

British Touring Car Championship – Brands Hatch (ITV4)
05/04 – 10:30 to 18:30 – Races

British Superbikes – Donington Park (British Eurosport 2)
05/04 – 15:30 to 18:00 – Qualifying
06/04 – 12:30 to 18:00 – Races

As always, the schedule will be updated if anything changes.

Formula 1 soars to 18 year overnight race high in USA

I knew the numbers over in the USA for the Malaysian Grand Prix were excellent when I posted them on Twitter last night, but I didn’t realise just how good they were.

Today, NBC Sports have issued a press release stating that the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix recorded the highest rating for an overnight race in the USA on cable in nearly 18 years! I find that frankly astonishing considering the trend for Formula 1 in general appears to be heading downwards across the world. From the press release:

Malaysian Grand Prix in the USA
2013 – 121k
2014 – 248k
2015 – 384k

Where the growth stops, I don’t know, but F1 is definitely tapping into a new market in America, which can only be a positive for the sport.

ITV’s MotoGP highlights stumble as BT increases

Highlights of the first MotoGP race of 2015 stumbled off the starting blocks last night as BT Sport recorded a record high for its MotoGP coverage, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.

Last year, BT Sport’s coverage from Qatar averaged 126k (0.8%) from 15:00 to 20:30. The MotoGP portion averaged 187k (0.8%), peaking with 230k (1.1%). The programme length this year was slightly shorter due to rugby coverage preceding it, with new programme The Chequered Flag following at 20:00. Yesterday, from 16:00 to 20:00, BT Sport 2 averaged 172k (1.1%), which is up on the equivalent number of 142k (0.8%) from twelve months ago. For the MotoGP race, from 18:30 to 20:00, the channel averaged 212k (1.1%), peaking with 263k (1.4%). By all three measures, BT Sport was up year-on-year, by around 15 percent. BT’s numbers are actually a record high for them.

Those of you that follow my F1 posts know that, even if the pay TV broadcaster does increase its numbers, it is rendered redundant if the free-to-air broadcast struggles. And that is the case with ITV4. ITV4’s Qatar highlights programme last year from 20:00 to 21:00 averaged 492k (2.2%), peaking with 603k (2.6%). This year, the programme averaged 372k (1.6%), peaking with 455k (1.9%). So whilst BT gained, ITV4 lost a quarter of its audience. The end result is that, combined, coverage averaged 584k versus 679k last year, a drop of 14 percent. Again, I would remind readers that in 2013, BBC Two’s live coverage averaged 1.67m (6.9%), peaking with 2.12m (8.4%).

It’s probably worth noting that, over the course of last year, ITV’s higlights dropped off towards an average of 300k. The first 2015 rating is slightly above that. Whether 2014’s first programme was an anomaly for ITV because it was the start of the new deal, remains to be seen.

Vettel’s win draws 4.16 million to Malaysian GP

An average audience of 4.16 million watched Sebastian Vettel win the Malaysian Grand Prix, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.

Race
As with Australia two weeks ago, the change in start time compared with 2014 means that it is difficult to make too many direct comparisons year-on-year. Nevertheless, live coverage on BBC One from 07:00 to 10:30 averaged 2.03m (33.6%), peaking with 3.23m. In comparison, last year the race averaged 2.45m (32.7%) an hour later, from 08:00 to 11:15, peaking with 3.26m. There is a big difference in the average, which I would put down to more viewers flicking on the TV as the race progressed due to the earlier start time than last year.

Sky Sports F1 added 473k (7.7%) from 07:00 to 10:30, peaking with 720k, compared with an average of 574k (7.7%) and a peak of 826k from last year. I don’t think you can read too much into the respective numbers, both BBC’s and Sky’s live showings were down around 17 percent year-on-year. That’s no shock, the race started earlier, meaning that less people were around. Sky’s peak did suffer as well mind, whereas BBC’s peak numbers are almost identical. Any loss in live numbers was made up by BBC in their re-run programme, which averaged 1.66m (14.7%), significantly higher than last year’s 1.07m (12.5%).

What the numbers mean is that 2015’s combined average of 4.16m is up on 2014’s 4.09m, but down on 2013’s “multi 21” controversy. The combined peak of 5.77m is not too far away from 2013’s peak of 6.01m. Overall, the pattern remains the same as Australia: slight, but optimistic gains year-on-year, which should be taken as a positive.

Qualifying
The Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying session delivered exceptional numbers for both BBC and Sky, with increases across the board. A few disclaimers, as this was a very unusual situation – qualifying began at 09:00 UK time, whereas the race began at 08:00 UK time, although due to the clocks going forward, it really felt like 07:00, which is why the live figures look a lot closer between qualifying and the race. Also, the qualifying numbers include the rain delays of varying proportions.

Live coverage of qualifying averaged 1.83m (24.6%), peaking with 2.30m, up on 2014’s 1.41m (24.0%). Sky Sports F1 averaged 395k (5.1%) from 08:00 to 11:00, peaking with 639k. 2014’s live action on Sky averaged around 300k. BBC’s highlights programme averaged a further 1.27m (13.3%). The combined audience is a very impressive 3.49m, which is good, yet bewildering at the same time. I’m not entirely sure why qualifying did as well as it did, Saturday’s session is one of the most watched qualifying sessions in recent history. The combined peak was a whopping 4.38m.

Sebastian Vettel’s emergence for Ferrari on Sunday will only be good news for viewing figures. Yes, a British driver doing well is good for viewing figures, but a good champion needs an equally good challenger. A Vettel versus Hamilton battle this season is good news for the whole of Formula 1. It will be interesting to see how the viewing figures, both here and in Germany, fare going forward.

If you’re looking for MotoGP viewing figures, they will be posted mid-week.

The 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.