It has been a record-breaking year for The F1 Broadcasting Blog, with motor racing fans flocking to this site for all the latest media stories. But just where have the visitors come from this year, and why?
Inevitably the focus is on the United Kingdom, this year more than most with question marks surrounding the UK F1 television rights picture. The proportion of people visiting from the UK increased significantly compared with 2017 as a result. Australia and Netherlands dipped for the second year in succession, but Germany bucked the trend, moving ahead of the Netherlands.
The same ten countries occupy the top 10. Portugal, Finland, and Belgium sit just outside the top 10, but some way behind Italy.
Top 10 Countries – Percentage of all hits
01 – 76.4 percent (2017: 72.2) – United Kingdom
02 – 6.0 percent (2017: 6.4) – United States
03 – 2.1 percent (2017: 2.4) – Ireland
04 – 2.0 percent (2017: 2.2) – Australia
05 – 1.5 percent (2017: 1.3) – Canada
06 – 1.3 percent (2017: 1.1) – Germany
07 – 1.1 percent (2017: 1.6) – Netherlands
08 – 0.9 percent (2017: 0.9) – France
09 – 0.8 percent (2016: 1.3) – Spain
10 – 0.7 percent (2016: 1.1) – Italy
Social media is increasingly irrelevant. Well, not quite. Nevertheless, despite breaking several stories throughout the year, Google was comfortably king, with many people reaching the site because of its high placing on the search engine where major stories were concerned.
Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook all lost percentage points compared with 2017, although the increase in total hits year-on-year may mean that the volume has not dropped as much as the percentage suggests. RaceFans enters the top five at the expense of Autosport Forum, which drops to seventh behind Crash.net.
Top 5 Referring Websites
01 – 77.9 percent (2017: 73.8) – Search engines
02 – 15.3 percent (2017: 18.6) – Twitter
03 – 2.1 percent (2017: 3.4) – Reddit
04 – 1.5 percent (2017: 2.7) – Facebook
05 – 0.9 percent (2017: n/a) – RaceFans
The whereabouts of Sky Sports F1 analyst Martin Brundle drove a lot of traffic to the site in 2018, and is a little bit of clue as to what the most read article on the site was this year! Brundle’s absence from three races resulted in spikes at various points this season, showing how much F1 fans appreciate his presence throughout each race weekend.
Beyond the top two, there is a mixture of MotoGP and Channel 4 F1 queries, as fans wondered what the future would hold for the free-to-air broadcaster.
Top 10 Search Queries
01 – martin brundle
02 – where is martin brundle
03 – f1 broadcasting
04 – formula 1 f1 broadcasting blog
05 – motogp highlights 2018
06 – channel 4 f1 2019
07 – motogp on tv 2018
08 – julian ryder
09 – f1 broadcasting blog
10 – motogp tv coverage 2018
Assuming Brundle is absent from three races again in 2019, there is a very good chance that we could see a similar looking table next year. Lower championships fail to break into the top 10, showing what generates the majority of traffic throughout the year.
Statistics compiled and correct as of December 19th, 2018.
Motorsport Broadcasting 