Author: David Nelson

News round-up: Verstappen shines on Pauw, 3D graphics from FOM make appearance

Alongside the pieces I posted a few weeks ago, there are a fair few smaller things that I want to mention, which I will do over the course of the next two round-up’s. First up, analysis looking at Sky’s “35 million” digital reach and ESPN’s movement in the Formula 1 online world.

Verstappen continues to shine in his homeland
The rise of Max Verstappen continued in the Netherlands following his win at the Spanish Grand Prix. Verstappen appeared on late-night chat show Pauw on Friday night on NPO1. To put the appearance into context for UK readers, it is the equivalent to Lewis Hamilton appearing on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One.

Verstappen’s appearance on Pauw averaged a strong 1.18m (27.1%) from 23:02 to 23:57 according to ratings bureau Kijkonderzoek. Pauw has typically averaged around 750,000 viewers over the past few weeks, so Verstappen’s appearance boosted numbers by over 50 percent. I’m surprised no one has started a rumour about the Dutch Grand Prix yet…

ESPN increases Formula 1 coverage
One website that has increased its Formula 1 presence this year is ESPN. The website now features video round-ups fronted by Jennie Gow and Maurice Hamilton alongside written content from a variety of writers. Given that ESPN have no Formula 1 rights, it is a strong website and worth a visit if you have not done so already.

On the subject of website reporting, the BBC F1 website has adapted. Despite not being able to publish content with Formula One Management (FOM) video material, the team has still uploaded content featuring Jack Nicholls, Allan McNish and Tom Clarkson. Eagle eyed viewers will have noticed that the recent videos from Russia and Spain were filmed with the relevant back drops in sight, but outside of the FOM perimeter zone. The BBC cannot film inside a circuit during a Formula 1 race weekend, but there is nothing stopping them from filming 50 meters outside of the circuit, as they are doing so at the moment.

Producing a good supplementary magazine show
Now that we are five races into the 2016 Formula One season, it is a good chance to talk about Sky’s revamped programming line-up. Axed is the studio editions of The F1 Show, with all other episodes reduced to 30 minutes in length. As a result, the F1 Report airs every week instead of bi-weekly. The changes to The F1 Show during race weekends have been a welcome change, making it easier to catch up on practice coverage with a shorter, snappier show.

The F1 Report has not changed from a content perspective meaning that the viewer is short-changed year-on-year. The show is clearly produced on a shoe-string budget and that is one of the issues I have with the show. It is odd that Sky have for years produced brilliant supplementary shows to their football coverage such as Sunday Supplement and Goals on Sunday yet have failed to produce one good, stable supplementary magazine show for their Formula 1 coverage that hasn’t required multiple changes. We’re in season five and the supplementary magazine show is now in iteration three or four.

Yes, their football coverage covers multiple layers across multiple leagues on a much larger scale than F1. But F1 has: on and off track across multiple series (GP2 and GP3) which Sky should be driving people towards. The opinions and voices on The F1 Report so far in 2016 have not been strong enough to persuade me to watch every week. Besides, if I want to get general opinions, I can read AUTOSPORT or Motorsport.com. You do get the occasional good guests who are worth listening to, such as Will Buxton, but these are far and few between. Sky’s failure though came far, far earlier in the chain by repeatedly failing to exploit the studio episodes of The F1 Show.

FOM share 3D graphics with Sky
Viewers who watched the horrifying accident between Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutierrez at the Australian Grand Prix via any of Sky’s outlets would have probably also watched 3D graphics of the incident. The footage, provided by FOM and based on GPS data, was used by Sky in Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom to analyse the accident. The traces showed that Gutierrez crucially braked earlier than Alonso, contributing to the accident. Channel 4 did not air the 3D footage during their highlights show, either because of time constraints or because they did not have access to the footage.

To date, I believe this is the first and last time we have seen 3D footage from FOM based on GPS. I was expecting FOM to produce something in Spain as a result of the Mercedes crash on lap one, but alas, nothing was aired. With or without 3D footage, it should be noted that the Sky Pad analysis we saw from Anthony Davidson was fantastic on both occasions. Davidson is comfortably one of Sky F1’s best assets, and is someone who Sky should try to keep for as long as possible going forward.

Counting viewers and readers
Every time I see a statistic, my first thought is to wonder how it is calculated, especially when it comes to audience figures. Sky Sports recently celebrated their 25th anniversary and mentioned this statistic: “35 million+ unique users of SkySports.com and Sky Sports apps.” How accurate is that figure?  Being a data junkie, a few questions come to mind.

Is that a worldwide figure or UK only figure? If it is the former, then the UK figure will be lower by a fair amount. Although the statement says ‘unique’, is that strictly true in that one person may use Sky Sports services in various different ways (iPad, Android, desktop, laptop, work phone to name just a few). So can a figure across multiple devices truly be classified as unique? Just because 20 million people use iPad and 15 million use Android, that does not mean 35 million people use iPad or Android, as there will be overlap in people who use iPad and Android.

I’m intrigued to know what unique means in this instance, I suspect the reality is that there is a significant amount of double counting involved to arrive at that figure. Beware if you see that figure used in public in future to defend the Sky UK’s exclusive Formula 1 deal from 2019…

No further discussion about Sky’s 2019 deal
Surprisingly since the announcement about the aforementioned deal, we have had little comment from those in the business (I exclude journalists here). No one, to my knowledge, has publicly commented on it from the teams’ perspective. We have had a brief comment from FIA president Jean Todt who, speaking at a presser during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend said that he is “not happy that F1 is disappearing from free-to-air TV in key markets.” Apart from that, no public comment.

On the back drop of Sky’s 2019 deal, but not linked, the digital team at Sky pulled an article offline about the GPDA statement concerning the governance of Formula 1. I requested comment from Sky, unfortunately an official line from them was not forthcoming, despite the best efforts of this writer to press on the issue.

Scheduling: The 2016 Berlin ePrix / Italian MotoGP

The penultimate stop on the 2015-16 Formula E calendar takes the championship to Berlin this weekend. It marks round eight of ten before the season concludes with a double header in London in early July.

On the Formula E broadcasting side, Allan McNish is co-commentator alongside Jack Nicholls due to Dario Franchitti’s Indianapolis 500 commitments. It is a replica of BBC’s 5 Live team with Jennie Gow presenting for ITV, the only difference is that Tom Clarkson has yet to get involved with Formula E! Due to Peston on Sunday, Formula E’s highlights programme on ITV airs slightly later than usual on Sunday morning at 11:00.

Speaking of the famous American oval race, BT Sport//ESPN will be covering both Indy 500 qualifying days live for the first time ever. The move is an attempt by the channel to boost their IndyCar coverage in response to feedback from fans. Elsewhere on free-to-air television, British Superbikes is airing live on Quest TV due to coverage of the French Open Tennis and the Giro d’Italia cycling tour on Eurosport.

On two wheels, Suzi Perry will not be presenting BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage due to illness. Below are all the scheduling details you need…

MotoGP – Italy (BT Sport 2)
20/05 – 08:00 to 15:00
=> 08:00 – Practice 1
=> 10:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 12:00 – Practice 2
21/05 – 08:00 to 15:15
=> 08:00 – Practice 3
=> 11:00 – Qualifying
22/05 – 07:30 to 09:15 – Warm Up
22/05 – 09:30 to 15:00
=> 09:30 – Moto3 race
=> 11:15 – Moto2 race
=> 12:45 – MotoGP race
=> 14:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Italy (ITV4)
23/05 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Highlights

Formula E – Berlin (online via YouTube)
21/05 – 07:10 to 08:10 – Practice 1
21/05 – 09:25 to 10:10 – Practice 2
21/05 – 10:45 to 12:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Berlin
21/05 – 14:00 to 16:30 – Race (ITV4)
22/05 – 11:00 to 12:00 – Highlights (ITV)

British Superbikes – Brands Hatch Indy
21/05 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Qualifying (British Eurosport 2 and Quest TV)
22/05 – 12:30 to 18:00 – Races (Quest TV)
25/05 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

DTM – Austria
21/05 – 16:30 to 17:45 – Race 1 (BT Sport//ESPN)

Euroformula – Belgium
21/05 – Race 1
=> 13:25 to 14:20 (Motors TV)
=> 13:30 to 14:30 (BT Sport//ESPN)
22/05 – Race 2
=> 12:15 to 13:10 (Motors TV)
=> 12:15 to 13:15 (BT Sport//ESPN)

Formula 3 Europe – Austria
21/05 – Race 1
=> 09:30 to 10:30 (BT Sport 1)
=> 09:35 to 10:40 (Motors TV)
22/05 – 10:10 to 11:15 – Race 2 (Motors TV)

Formula V8 3.5 – Belgium (BT Sport//ESPN)
21/05 – 12:00 to 13:30 – Race 1
22/05 – 14:45 to 16:00 – Race 2

IndyCar Series – Indianapolis 500 Qualifying (BT Sport//ESPN)
21/05 – 21:00 to 23:00 – Day 1
22/05 – 21:00 to 23:00 – Day 2

International GT Open – Belgium
21/05 – 14:30 to 16:00 – Race 1
=> 14:20 to 16:00 (Motors TV)
=> 14:30 to 16:00 (BT Sport//ESPN)
22/05 – 13:15 to 14:45 – Race 2
=> 13:10 to 14:45 (Motors TV)
=> 13:15 to 14:45 (BT Sport//ESPN)

Virgin Australia Supercars – Winton Supersprint (BT Sport 1)
21/05 – 06:30 to 08:15 – Race 10
22/05 – 04:15 to 06:30 – Race 11

World Rally Championship – Portugal
20/05 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Stage 2 (BT Sport 2)
22/05 – 09:00 to 10:00 – Stage 3 (BT Sport 1)

Last updated on May 19th at 18:00 to reflect Suzi Perry’s illness.

Update on May 21st at 15:15 – Allan McNish commentated on Formula E practice and qualifying but had to pull out of the race commentary itself at the last minute, according to lead commentator Jack Nicholls.

Over one million viewers watch Verstappen’s debut win in the Netherlands

An audience of over one million viewers in the Netherlands watched their countryman Max Verstappen claim his first Formula 1 win, viewing figures show.

According to the ratings bureau Kijkonderzoek the Spanish Grand Prix, which aired live on Ziggo Sport, averaged a massive 1.01m (35.5%) from 13:55 to 15:48 local time. The post-race section rated even higher than the race itself as word of mouth spread, averaging 1.13m (34.3%) from 15:48 to 16:37. The race and post race segments were the 6th and 9th most watched programmes of the day respectively and comfortably Ziggo Sport’s most watched programmes as well.

It is worth noting that Ziggo Sport is a pay-TV station, which makes the figures even more impressive. Given that the Netherlands has historically not been a big market, I have not kept tabs on their figures throughout the years, but have found something worth mentioning. The 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix averaged 674k (15.1%) on RTL7 whilst the Canadian Grand Prix in the same year averaged 537k (7.7%), albeit against football opposition. And both of those were on free-to-air television!

I’ll try and track the Netherlands figures in more depth as the year progresses. If the signs are anything to go by, the viewing figures are only going to increase if Verstappen continues his rise in Formula 1…

3.6 million watch Mercedes self-destruct

A shocking Spanish Grand Prix, which saw both Mercedes collide into one another and Max Verstappen win his first race, peaked with 3.6 million, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Live coverage of the race, broadcast on Channel 4 from 12:00 to 15:30, averaged 1.93m (22.6%), peaking with 2.70m (28.8%) at 13:05. Sky Sports F1’s coverage, across the same time slot, averaged 559k (6.4%), peaking with 883k (9.4%) also as the race started. Year-on-year comparisons for Sky are difficult as the channel aired the race exclusively live last season.

The combined audience of 2.49 million follows the pattern we have seen so far in 2016: smashing Channel 4’s own slot averages but down compared with 2015. The drop of 30.2 percent is what we have come accustomed to in recent races. It is the lowest audience for the Spanish Grand Prix since 2006. As referenced earlier, Sky’s and Channel 4’s peak audience happened at the same time, hence the combined peak of 3.58m (38.3%) occurred too at 13:05.

The viewing figures as the race progressed followed the exact same trajectory as Bahrain, but on a much more significant scale. At 13:05, 3.6 million were watching. This dropped to 3.4 million at 13:20, 3.2 million at 13:30, 3.0 million at 13:40, hitting a low of 2.86m (32.5%) at 14:10. Audiences picked up slightly in the last five laps, with Verstappen’s victory being watched by 3.37m (35.0%) at 14:40. I think it should be pointed out that whilst the raw figures may look low, the shares are excellent and comparable to some BBC live races from last season.

The drop throughout the mid-phase of the race might surprise readers given the lack of competition. The first point I would make is that some viewers who were watching live would have simply moved on (or out) as Lewis Hamilton retired. Unfortunately, as good as yesterday’s race was, some viewers would not have been interested in the four-way battle at the front. Secondly, if you’re not watching live, having the Mercedes drivers’ crash at turn four would have meant chase playing through the remainder of the Grand Prix to catch some of the other exciting moments instead of perhaps sticking more rigorously to it.

Qualifying
Live coverage of Channel 4’s qualifying programme, which aired from 12:00 to 14:30, averaged 1.01m (15.2%). Their programme peaked with 1.67m (22.6%) at 13:55 as Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position. Sky Sports F1’s programme averaged a further 302k (4.6%) from 12:00 to 14:30, peaking with 520k (7.2%) at 13:35 at the end of Q2.

The combined average of 1.31 million viewers is the lowest for the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying session since 2006. It is the lowest number for a qualifying session so far this season, and the lowest since the 2008 European Grand Prix. The previous lowest number this season was Russia, which averaged 1.44 million viewers. Year-on-year, the audience was down 49.4 percent.

I think the combined peak tells a different story. The combined peak of 2.16m (29.1%) came at 13:55. As with the race, the numbers are low but the shares are very good, showing that the total TV audience was poor on Saturday due to the nice weather that the UK is currently having. It does, however, also show that no one chose to time shift the qualifying session otherwise the peak would have been higher.

The peak is the lowest for Spain since 2009, but actually higher than China earlier this season. What we’re seeing here is that the numbers are down across the board, but are being dragged down further by fewer people choosing to watch both Channel 4’s and Sky Sports’ build-up programming in comparison to previous years.

Between 2011 and 2015, there was a gap of around 25 percent between average and peak (2.5m vs 3.2m for example), showing that a proportionally high number liked watching the supplementary material. This past weekend for qualifying, that number was 65 percent (1.31m vs 2.16m). Inevitably programme lengths play an effect, but the difference is far, far greater than historically, a sign of the weather playing its parts as viewers choose to watch the main action as opposed to watching that and the supplementary material around it.

The 2015 Spanish Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

overnights.tv-bannersF1

Formula E learns how to go viral with #LeapOfFaith

There were two major social media highlights of the past few months for me, one of which showed how to go viral, whilst the other really showed the personality of two popular drivers away from the racing circuit.

#LeapOfFaith takes off…
To reach a new, diverse audience, you have to take creative risks. You have to be prepared to try out new things. If the audience is not receptive to said ‘new things’, you simply move in a different direction and add it to your ‘lessons learnt’ list. It gives you an idea of what works and what doesn’t. Formula E’s latest stunt was designed to go viral, and it did exactly that.

The stunt, filmed around the time of the Mexican ePrix in early March, saw Damien Walters backflip over a Formula E car travelling at speed. As of writing, the main video on Formula E’s YouTube channel has had over 5 million hits. When you combine that with Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, the combined reach of the video will be in excess of 10 million hits, an excellent achievement for Formula E’s digital media team. It shows that thinking outside of the box does work, and can bring attention to their channels, which I feel is a lesson that all in the world of motor sport can learn, including Formula 1.

However, here is the crux for why I don’t think you will see F1’s digital media team do videos like that, and it is not because they are not creative or anything of that sort. How many people will have watched the #LeapOfFaith and thought “I must check out some of Formula E’s other videos” or “I might watch Formula E next weekend”? I’d hazard a guess and say that it was less than 1 percent. Instead, for the vast majority of those that stumbled across the video, they probably thought it was “cool” and moved on.

I’m not trying to undermine the idea behind the video by saying that, because I thought it was awesome, but I do not see it significantly affecting Formula E’s growth. Mind you, every little helps and every opportunity to grab a new viewer is a good opportunity and I applaud Formula E for producing #LeapOfFath.

…Formula 1 drivers show off personality with fun and Q&A sessions…
There have been a few examples recently where personality has been on show in the world of Formula 1. Aside from Fernando Alonso’s live on-screen jibe at Johnny Herbert during Sky Sports F1’s Bahrain Grand Prix practice coverage, the Chinese Grand Prix saw a heated back and forth debate between Sebastian Vettel and Daniil Kvyat over the driving standard of the latter at the start of the race. The debates have been intertwined with fun and Q&A sessions along the way.

Probably the best show of personality this season away from the race track comes from Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo. Back at Massa’s home in Monte Carlo, his son and Ricciardo engaged in a go-karting race. In what was a close run contest from start to finish, with plenty of nail-biting moments, it was the youngster who won by the smallest of margins. The fun and games between Massa and Ricciardo was live streamed on Facebook. Like #LeapOfFaith above, this too went viral amassing nearly 5 million views. Of course, one was designed to go viral whereas the other was some fun between two mates. But we need videos like that, they are memorable and for good reason too.

 

On the more scripted side, Sky Sports F1 have been engaging in some fan question and answer sessions, so far with Lewis Hamilton and Rio Haryanto (the former also doing a Twitter Q&A in recent weeks). Including all play backs, these two have had 270,000 and 60,000 views respectively. This is a wider Sky Sports strategy to conduct question and answer sessions on social media as opposed, which is how these two have come about. You only need to look at the swathe of videos that Sky Sports upload to Facebook to realise that. I would be surprised if Formula One Management (FOM) have got involved in either of these Q&A sessions. Scripted or not, from a fan perspective, it has been great to see personalities on-show so far during 2016, something I hope continues throughout the year.

…but what hasn’t gone viral?
There have been many fantastic and dramatic moments so far in the 2016 Formula One season. Alongside the aforementioned Vettel vs Kvyat squabble in China, we had Fernando Alonso’s horrifying crash in Australia and the major turn one accident in Russia. There’s been a lot of pin-points so far this year that could have gone ‘viral’. You can produce the greatest videos in the world, but there is no substitute for current action as that inevitably drives traffic. Formula 1 has probably lost out in excess of 15 to 20 million views across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube so far in 2016, I daresay more than that.

Take a look at MotoGP’s social media video portfolio on Facebook and YouTube. We’re talking short-form bite-size content: around 20 seconds long on Facebook and one to two minutes on YouTube. The reason for the lack of 2016 Formula 1 video content on FOM’s social media channels is the current television broadcasting contracts as we all know, but it just illustrates the potential reach that Formula 1 is losing hand over fist on a now bi-weekly basis.

Elsewhere, the lack of an on-screen hashtag still confuses and bemuses me, both in equal measure. I’m surprised Formula E still hasn’t successfully embedded it into their graphics set. So simple, but proving to be a challenge at the same time. Formula E have also launched a new website, which is designed for best use on phone or tablet device. It feels slim line, and is extremely different to say the Formula 1 and MotoGP websites. As a desktop user, I personally prefer the F1 and MotoGP sites, both of which look more professional than the Formula E site. Round the edges, the Formula E website does not look as smooth either, but this should improve over time as bugs are ironed out.