The opening round of the British Touring Car Championship performed solidly on Sunday afternoon (April 2nd), overnight viewing figures show.
Mixed year-on-year picture for touring cars
Live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship from Brands Hatch averaged 189k (2.2%) from 10:15 to 18:15 on ITV4, an increase on 2016’s average audience of 169k (1.6%). It should be noted that the opening round in 2016 clashed with the Bahrain Grand Prix, as well as MotoGP action from Argentina.
As a result, whilst the average audience is higher than 2016, the peak audience is down slightly. Last year’s programme peaked with 360k (3.8%), compared with 349k (5.4%) from this past Sunday. The audience shares have increased across the board, with the total television audience declining year-on-year.
The second race of the season peaked with 301k (4.0%) at 14:25, whilst the third and final race of the day peaked with 260k (1.9%) at 17:35. The programme outperformed ITV4’s slot average in all demographics which shows that, despite diminishing returns year-on-year, the British Touring Car Championship is still a worthwhile commodity for ITV4. Their coverage across the day will have reached near to, or in excess of, one million viewers.
Formula E heads to Mexico
The 2016-17 Formula E championship headed to Mexico City for round four of its season. Live coverage of the race, broadcast on Channel 5 from 22:30 to 00:20 on Saturday evening, averaged 238k (2.2%), significantly below Channel 5’s slot average. The average audience for the past three races has settled around the 2.2 percent market share, despite the individual races airing in a variety of timeslots.
There are no valid year-on-year comparisons for this race, as the ePrix aired live on BT Sport Europe last year, with highlights following later on ITV4. Formula E haemorrhaged the lead in from Football on 5, with the first five-minute period from 22:30 averaging just 97k (0.6%). Nevertheless, the audience quickly built up to over 200k during the build-up.
At the start of the race, an audience of 323k (2.5%) was watching, briefly rising to 335k (2.8%) at 23:05. Audiences dipped towards the middle of the race, hitting a low of 258k (2.5%) at 23:25 but spiked briefly to 296k (3.3%) at 23:35. As with rounds two and three in Marrakech and Buenos Aires, no highlights of the race were aired on Spike TV.
With a third of the Formula E season now gone, an average audience of 288k (2.5%) have tuned into the first four races on Channel 5. The average is a significant increase on the equivalent ITV4 numbers from both seasons one and two of 197k (2.8%) and 87k (1.0%) respectively.
Motorsport Broadcasting 