Another ratings related holding post as there are no Sky Sports F1 ratings on BARB.
Hopefully we should get the full set of ratings in BARB’s six week cycle. This comment from last week’s ratings post may hold some credibility: “Sky have been misrepresenting the length of some of their programmes to artificially bump up the averages, BARB have not fallen for it, hence the delay.”
Viewers watching BBC this weekend will notice that, as part of their Summer Red Button offering that the Formula 1 pit lane stream will be in high definition for the British Grand Prix.
As noted in the BBC live text commentary today: “And don’t forget all the lovely extra camera streams available online during qualifying and the race, including the pit lane feed (also available on the Red Button), driver tracker, on-board, timing screens and alternative commentary.”
The BBC’s post earlier this month noted how the British Grand Prix would be one event via the Red Button available in HD, and now we know what stream that is. The HD pit lane stream will be available to Freeview and YouView customers (channel 303), Sky customers (channel 977), Virgin Media customers via channel 994 and Freesat via channel 980.
I know that sometimes I do sound like I am banging a brick wall, this past week it feels like Sky’s promotion department has gone to sleep.
Classic F1 has not had much promotion since Sky began showing it. That had been improving. For whatever reason, it appears this has been a case of ‘two steps forward, three steps back’. Absolutely zero promotion for their Nigel Mansell Classic races last weekend and unfortunately the same goes for their GP Uncovered programmes. The only place where you could get the full details is this blog.
Sky’s own scheduling article omits several classic races (the only ‘Classic F1’ block is actually in the wrong place), Steve Rider’s look at how the British Grand Prix gives you Home Advantage and ignores the feeder series races that will be airing live on Sunday morning.
Apparently @SkyF1Insider gives you ‘the inside scoop on all things Sky F1‘. How many tweets have promoted their supplementary programming? None.
Why show things that you’re not going to bother to promote? No, I don’t know the answer to that either.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans recorded its highest rating in five years this past weekend, overnight viewing figures across Europe and in the United Kingdom show.
British Eurosport, which broadcast the entire race live, averaged 77,000 viewers (1.0 percent) from 13:45 on Saturday to 14:15 on Sunday. The race peaked with 248,000 viewers on Sunday afternoon as the race came to a conclusion.
24 Hours of Le Mans – 2011 vs 2012 vs 2013
13:45 to 19:30 – 46,000 vs 77,000 vs 103,000
19:30 to 02:00 – 45,000 vs 39,000 vs 65,000
02:00 to 09:00 – 16,000 vs 16,000 vs 26,000
09:00 to 14:15 – 97,000 vs 76,000 vs 130,000
The good ratings pattern was repeated across Europe, with the Eurosport Twitter account tweeting the following earlier today: “Eurosport has just had its best average LM24 audience for 5 years! 18 million different European viewers watched the coverage in total, up 12% on 2012”
For those wondering, I suspect 18 million is a reach figure, which would be the amount of people that watched at least three minutes of their coverage across Europe.
Sky Sports F1’s magazine show, The F1 Show will air in front of a studio audience for the first time ever next month, it has been confirmed.
The show will be filmed on Thursday 18th July, although at the moment it is unknown if it will air live. Fans who want to be part of the studio audience can e-mail f1@skysports.com.
Update on July 11th – It appears that the show next Thursday will not be airing live, instead a 90 minute version will air the following day at 20:00 according to DigiGuide (although it is still oddly marked as ‘live’).
Motorsport Broadcasting 