F1 slumps to lowest UK audience of modern era

After a promising start to the 2018 season, Formula 1’s UK audience figures crashed through the floor during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Live coverage of the race aired across Sky’s dedicated F1 channel, and their Main Event channel. Main Event were meant to join Sky F1 at 17:30, however this was pushed back to 19:05 as England’s cricket ODI with Scotland overran.

Sky Sports F1’s broadcast from 18:00 to 21:30 averaged 704k (4.2%), an identical figure to 2017, and an increase on 2016’s figure of 620k (2.9%).

What hurts Sky is that their Main Event simulcast performed poorly. An audience of 120k (0.7%) watched the simulcast, compared with 234k (1.1%) in 2016 and 259k (1.4%).

The combined average audience for the live broadcast was 787k (4.7%), down 18.3 percent on 2017’s average of 962k (5.2%), and a slightly smaller drop compared with 2016’s figure of 853k (4.0%).

It is likely that ITV’s Soccer Aid took away some of the floating casual audience that would have tuned into Sky’s F1 broadcast. The charity match averaged 3.86m (21.2%) across a three and three-quarter hour slot for the free-to-air broadcaster.

The race broadcast on Sky peaked with 1.30m (6.8%) at 20:40 as Sebastian Vettel won the Grand Prix, a dip compared to their 2016 and 2017 peaks of 1.41m (6.3%) and 1.47m (7.0%) respectively.

It should be noted that the total television audience dropped compared with previous years, but I would have expected Formula 1 to hold up better and to increase its share in this situation, as live sport tends to do.

Channel 4’s highlights programme struggled, averaging just 856k (12.2%) from 22:40 to 00:40, a decrease on both 2016 and 2017’s average audiences of 1.30m (15.3%) and 970k (11.6%) respectively.

The time slot for all three years was broadly the same, so the scale of the drop is somewhat shocking. Channel 4’s show peaked with 1.26m (14.7%) at 23:10 as the highlights edit started.

The combined average audience of 1.64 million viewers is the lowest average audience in the modern era for a Formula 1 race in the UK dating back to at least 2005.

Realistically, you probably need to go back to the days when the BBC did not air some races live in the mid-1990s, which makes Canada’s number a near 25 year low for the sport in the UK.

Compared with 2017, the combined average audience is down 15.0 percent (1.93m), and down 23.7 percent on 2016 (2.15m).

To show the scale of the problem for Canada, the combined peak audience of 2.56 million viewers is 300,000 viewers lower than the average audience from the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Qualifying and Analysis
Live coverage of qualifying aired on Sky Sports F1 from 18:00 to 20:35, averaging 345k (2.7%), a slight bump on last year’s figure of 342k (2.2%).

Channel 4’s highlights suffered in a late-night time slot, averaging 614k (7.9%) from 22:55 to 00:25. Sky’s live coverage peaked with 684k (4.8%), compared with Channel 4’s peak audience later in the evening of 780k (9.5%).

The combined average audience of 960,000 viewers is the lowest for a Saturday qualifying session since the late 2000’s, and the lowest for Canada since 2006.

The above set of numbers do not include Sky Go, Now TV or All 4, which will increase total volumes slightly. However, even including them is not changing the fact that all the numbers are frankly abysmal and a new low for the sport in this country, an especially poor number coming off what has been a positive start to 2018 for Formula 1.

Canada has had a few problems, the main one being that the free-to-air highlights have aired in a graveyard time slot when not aired live since 2012. The problem was exacerbated this past weekend, with Channel 4 prioritising live rugby coverage over highlights of F1 weekend.

However, the fact also that Sky’s television audience is not improving with 2019 fast approaching should be a clear message to Liberty Media that viewers are unwilling to tune into Sky’s pay-TV broadcasts of Formula 1 in large volumes.

It is a problem that needs to be addressed and tackled, one way or the other. Time is ticking…

The 2017 Canadian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

Scheduling: The 2018 Canadian Grand Prix / Zurich E-Prix

Formula 1 heads across the ocean to North America for its annual June trip: the Canadian Grand Prix!

The race airs exclusively live on Sky Sports, with late night highlights the order of the day for Channel 4.

Lee McKenzie continues to wind down her Formula 1 commitments and focus on other sports, this time presenting rugby for Channel 4. McKenzie is missing several races this Summer with Wimbledon also on the agenda.

Elsewhere, Formula E heads to Switzerland for the very first time, as racing returns to the country for the first time since 1954. Note that the race takes place on Sunday evening, clashing with the first part of Sky’s build-up for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The BBC is airing a documentary looking at the electric series on its news channel on Friday evening called Driving Change. Part of a wider strand of programming from Radio 1’s Newsbeat team, the documentary looks at how Formula E is helping people make the shift to electric cars.

With Jack Nicholls on Formula E duty, Alex Jacques steps back into Nicholls’ shoes as BBC’s 5 Live F1 lead commentator.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
09/06 – 22:55 to 00:25 – Qualifying Highlights
10/06 – 22:40 to 00:40 – Race Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
08/06 – 14:30 to 16:50 – Practice 1 (also Sky Sports Main Event)
08/06 – 18:45 to 20:50 – Practice 2
09/06 – 15:45 to 17:15 – Practice 3
09/06 – 18:00 to 20:35 – Qualifying
=> 18:00 – Pre-Show
=> 18:55 – Qualifying
10/06 – 17:30 to 22:10 – Race
=> 17:30 – Pit Lane Live (also Sky Sports Main Event)
=> 18:30 – On the Grid (also Sky Sports Main Event)
=> 19:05 – Race (also Sky Sports Main Event)
=> 21:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
06/06 – 20:30 to 21:00 – The F1 Report: Preview
07/06 – 16:00 to 16:30 – Driver Press Conference
07/06 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
09/06 – 20:35 to 21:10 – The F1 Show
13/05 – 20:30 to 21:00 – The F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
08/06 – 14:55 to 16:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
09/06 – 18:55 to 20:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
10/06 – 18:30 to 21:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Formula E – Zurich (online via YouTube)
10/06 – 07:55 to 08:55 – Practice 1
10/06 – 10:25 to 11:10 – Practice 2

Formula E – Zurich
08/06 – 21:30 to 22:00 – Driving Change (BBC News)
10/06 – 12:45 to 14:10 – Qualifying (5Spike)
10/06 – 16:30 to 18:15 – Race (Channel 5)
10/06 – 16:45 to 18:15 – Race (Eurosport 2)

British Touring Car Championship – Oulton Park (ITV4)
10/06 – 11:15 to 18:00 – Races

Euroformula – Spa
09/06 – 13:00 to 14:00 – Race 1 (BT Sport 2)
10/06 – 12:15 to 13:15 – Race 2 (BT Sport 3)

IndyCar Series – Texas 600 (BT Sport/ESPN)
10/06 (Sunday morning) – 01:00 to 04:00 – Race

International GT Open – Spa
09/06 – 14:00 to 15:45 – Race 1 (BT Sport 2)
10/06 – 13:15 to 14:45 – Race 2 (BT Sport 3)

World Rally Championship – Italy
Every stage live via WRCPlus.com
07/06 – 18:00 to 19:00 – Live: Stage 1 [Ittiri Arena Show] (BT Sport 1)
08/06 – Day 1 Highlights
=> 22:30 to 23:00 (Motorsport.tv)
=> 23:30 to 00:00 (BT Sport 2)
09/06 – 07:30 to 08:30 – Live: Stage (BT Sport 1)
09/06 – 15:00 to 16:00 – Live: Stage (BT Sport 1)
09/06 – Day 2 Highlights
=> 21:30 to 22:00 (BT Sport 3)
=> 22:30 to 23:00 (Motorsport.tv)
10/06 – 08:30 to 09:30 – Live: Stage (BT Sport 1)
10/06 – 11:00 to 12:30 – Live: Stage 19 [Power Stage] (BT Sport 1)
10/06 – Day 3 Highlights
=> 21:30 to 22:00 (BT Sport 1)
=> 22:30 to 23:00 (Motorsport.tv)
12/06 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Highlights (Channel 5)

World Superbikes – Brno
08/06 – 08:40 onwards (Eurosport 2)
=> 08:40 to 09:30 – SBK: Practice 1
=> 11:25 to 12:15 – SBK: Practice 2
09/06 – 09:00 to 14:00 – Qualifying and Race 1 (Eurosport 2)
10/06 – 10:00 to 14:00 – Support and Race 2 (Eurosport 2)
13/06 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

The schedule above will be updated if anything changes.

Season high audience for Sky as F1 continues UK ratings resurgence

Daniel Ricciardo’s victory in the Monaco Grand Prix peaked with just over four million viewers, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Live coverage of the race aired across four different channels on Sunday afternoon: Channel 4, and three of Sky’s channels.

Channel 4’s live programme, encompassing the build-up and the race itself from 13:00 to 16:30, averaged 2.15m (24.9%). The audience increased by 188,000 viewers compared with 2017’s average audience of 1.96m (23.8%) across a slightly shorter time slot. All of Channel 4’s race day broadcasts so far this year have recorded year-on-year increases.

Combined, Sky’s coverage averaged 721,000 viewers across Sky Sports F1, Sky One and Sky Sports Main Event. Last year’s programme aired across the F1 channel and Sky Sports Mix to an audience of 591k (7.2%), so yesterday’s audience increased year-on-year by 130,000 viewers.

Breaking Sky’s audience down, the F1 channel averaged 477k (5.6%) from 13:00 to 16:30 compared with 425k (5.2%) last year. Sky One averaged 167k (1.9%) across the same time slot, whilst 111k (1.2%) watched Main Event from 14:05 to 16:30, a shorter time slot than the other two Sky channels.

Sky’s average of 721,000 is their highest of the season so far, showing that simulcasting does make a difference to their total audience. Spain was an exclusive race for Sky last time out, which aired only on the F1 channel, whilst Monaco, simulcast across two different Sky channels, also aired on Channel 4.

The race started with 3.55m (41.0%) at 14:10, compared with 3.09m (37.0%) at 13:00 last year, so already at race start an extra half a million viewers were watching. The gap year-on-year remained around half a million viewers throughout, the trend relatively static.

A peak audience of 4.06m (42.5%) watched Ricciardo win the race at 15:50, a strong increase compared to last year’s peak audience of 3.53m (40.2%). At the time of the peak, 3.04m (31.8%) were watching Channel 4’s broadcast, with 1.02m (10.7%) watching across Sky’s three channels. The split was 75:25, compared with 76:24 at the time of the peak last year, suggesting that Sky One had little to no bearing on Channel 4’s audience, for the race at least.

The combined average audience of 2.87 million viewers is the highest average audience for Monaco since 2015, an increase of 12.5 percent on last year’s average of 2.55 million viewers. The race in 2016, which Channel 4 aired in highlights form, averaged 2.78 million viewers.

The combined peak audience of 4.06 million viewers is also the highest for Monaco since 2015, an increase of 14.9 percent on last year’s figure of 3.53 million viewers, and up 7.7 percent on 2016.

Qualifying and Analysis
Channel 4’s audience was equal compared with last year’s qualifying session. Live coverage from 12:55 to 15:45 averaged 1.14m (16.7%), compared with 1.14m (15.5%) across a shorter time slot last year. Their programme peaked with 1.73m (23.1%) as Ricciardo claimed pole, compared with 1.75m (21.7%) last year.

The additional viewers year-on-year came through Sky One’s simulcast. Live coverage on Sky Sports F1 averaged 267k (3.8%), versus 277k (3.8%) last year, whilst Sky One’s simulcast averaged 75k (1.1%). The combined Sky peak of 610k (8.5%) at 14:35 across two channels compares with 491k (5.9%) for just the F1 channel last year.

The combined average audience of 1.48 million viewers is a marginal increase on last year’s figure of 1.42 million viewers, with the combined peak audience of 2.33 million viewers an increase of 104,000 viewers year-on-year.

However, whilst the Monaco Grand Prix continues Formula 1’s excellent period from a viewing figures perspective, with no signs of slowing down, the Grand Prix was not the most watched sporting event over the weekend.

The big news story is that the UEFA Champions League final on Saturday evening between Liverpool and Real Madrid peaked with a massive 4.71m (25.8%) on BT Sport 2 alone, believed to be the biggest ever audience for a sporting event in the UK on pay television. The audience does not include the 1.8 million viewers that watched via BT’s digital platforms or YouTube, or the millions further that watched in pubs.

The 4.7 million viewers include those that watched the match for free on Virgin Media channel 100 and may take up a fair proportion of that figure. I mention the figure because it shows the lengths that BT went to, to ensure that the match reached the widest possible audience. The alternative would have been a ‘token gesture’, but BT again for the Champions League final went the distance to stream the final on YouTube.

Reality is that, events such as the Champions League are very rare: a match such as Saturday’s would have peaked with close to 15 million viewers on BBC or ITV. Divide that by three and you get to BT’s figure from Saturday. Divide the highest F1 peak from the BBC days by three, and you see why Sky struggles to break the two million peak mark for F1 (they have never done so).

Although Sky’s season high audience is a very good number for them, it is still relatively small money in the grand scheme of things, and they have failed to erode the current Channel 4 free-to-air audience for Formula 1.

Indianapolis 500 drops, but still respectable
The 2018 Indianapolis 500 peaked with 91,000 viewers on BT Sport 1 yesterday evening. Live coverage from 15:30 to 21:00 averaged 32k (0.26%). From 16:30 to 21:00, last year’s equivalent slot, the race averaged 38k (0.30%), unsurprisingly a substantial drop on last year’s audience of 129k (0.91%) when there was major attention on Fernando Alonso.

Of more interest is that this year’s audience tripled compared to 2016’s average of 12k (0.09%). The peak audience of 91k (0.64%) came at 19:05, also a major increase on the 2016 peak figure of 31k (0.16%). If anything, it shows that some of last year’s audience did return for this year’s race, even if it never hit the heights that it did last year.

The 2017 Monaco Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

Scheduling: The 2018 Monaco Grand Prix / Indianapolis 500

One of the biggest motor racing weekends of the year is here: it is time for the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500!

The Monaco round of the Formula 1 season airs live across Sky and Channel 4; however, this weekend Sky’s coverage is airing on four different channels. As usual, the action is airing on their dedicated F1 channel. Sky are simulcasting some on-track sessions across Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix, which is not unusual.

The major departure for Sky is that both the qualifying and race are airing live on their main entertainment channel, Sky One, which is a fascinating move ahead of 2019. It is the first session to air live on Sky One since the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying session in 2015, and the first time a Formula 1 race has aired on the channel.

Whether Sky One fulfils F1’s criteria of ‘free to air’ is unclear (given that the channel is not on Freeview, I suspect not), but this is one to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

Over on 5 Live, the radio broadcaster is airing the Chequered Flag podcast on their main station Sunday evening, from 18:00. It is the earliest they have aired the podcast, I imagine this will air on a small tape-delay following the race. Channel 4 meanwhile has highlights of the Historic Monaco Grand Prix weekend airing across the weekend.

BT Sport plays host to the 102nd Indianapolis 500. Although the scheduling is identical to last year, there is no studio coverage, reverting to the set-up from 2016. Last year featured significantly more interest because of Fernando Alonso’s participation in the race.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
24/05 – 09:55 to 11:45 – Practice 1
24/05 – 13:55 to 16:00 – Practice 2
26/05 – 10:55 to 12:25 – Practice 3
26/05 – 12:55 to 15:45 – Qualifying
27/05 – 13:00 to 17:30 – Race
=> 13:00 – Build-Up
=> 13:45 – Race
=> 16:30 – Reaction

Supplementary Programming
26/05 – 09:55 to 10:55 – Historic Grand Prix of Monaco (part 1)
27/05 – 08:00 to 08:55 – Historic Grand Prix of Monaco (part 2)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
24/05 – 09:45 to 11:55 – Practice 1
24/05 – 13:45 to 15:50 – Practice 2
26/05 – 10:45 to 12:15 – Practice 3 (also Sky One)
26/05 – 13:00 to 15:40 – Qualifying (also Sky One and Sky Sports Mix)
=> 13:00 – Pre-Show
=> 13:55 – Qualifying
27/05 – 12:30 to 17:30 – Race (also Sky One)
=> 12:30 – Pit Lane Live
=> 13:30 – On the Grid
=> 14:05 – Race (also Sky Sports Main Event)
=> 16:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
23/05 – 14:00 to 14:30 – Driver Press Conference
23/05 – 20:30 to 21:00 – The F1 Report: Preview (also Sky Sports Mix)
23/05 – 21:00 to 21:15 – Paddock Uncut
26/05 – 15:40 to 16:15 – The F1 Show (also Sky One and Sky Sports Mix)
30/05 – 20:30 to 21:00 – The F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio 5 Live
24/05 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview
26/05 – 14:00 to 15:00 – Qualifying
27/05 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Race
27/05 – 18:00 to 18:30 – Chequered Flag

Formula Renault Eurocup – Monaco
26/05 – 08:45 to 09:45 – Race 1 (BT Sport 1)
27/05 – 10:15 to 11:15 – Race 2 (BT Sport 2)

Formula Two – Monaco (Sky Sports F1)
24/05 – 08:10 to 09:05 – Practice
24/05 – 12:15 to 13:05 – Qualifying
25/05 – 10:25 to 11:55 – Race 1
26/05 – 16:15 to 17:25 – Race 2 (also Sky Sports Mix)

IndyCar Series – Indianapolis 500 (BT Sport 1)
27/05 – 15:30 to 21:00 – Race

Porsche Supercup – Monaco (Sky Sports F1)
27/05 – 09:25 to 10:10 – Race

Speedway Grand Prix – Prague (BT Sport 3)
26/05 – 17:45 to 21:15 – Races

World Superbikes – Donington Park
25/05 – 09:40 onwards (Eurosport 2)
=> 09:40 to 10:30 – SBK: Practice 1
=> 16:45 to 19:00 – SBK and SSP: Practice
26/05 – 10:15 to 15:15 – Qualifying and Race 1 (Eurosport 2)
27/05 – 11:00 to 14:00 – Support and Race 2 (Eurosport 2)
29/05 – 22:00 to 23:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

As always, this post will be updated if the schedule changes.

Updated on May 24th to reflect slight changes for Sky’s simulcasts.

Channel 4’s F1 highlights coverage draws record audience

Formula 1 continued its ratings resurgence in the UK during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
As with last year’s coverage, live action aired on Sky Sports F1, with Channel 4 airing highlights later in the evening.

Channel 4’s highlights programme aired from 18:00 to 20:00 to an excellent average audience of 2.33m (15.6%). Astonishingly, it is the highest audience for an F1 highlights programme on free-to-air television since the BBC’s coverage of the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix, which averaged 2.77m (16.5%) across a shorter 90-minute time slot.

A peak audience of 3.00m (18.0%) watched the highlights show, comfortably the most watched commercial channel in the time slot, only behind BBC One. Again, this is the highest for an F1 highlights programme since Singapore 2015.

Earlier in the day, Sky’s race broadcast, which aired from 13:00 to 16:30, averaged 653k (8.4%), their highest average for Spain since 2015. It is Sky Sports F1’s highest average audience since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Grand Prix peaked with 1.01m (13.8%) at 14:25, the first five-minute segment following the opening Safety Car period, Sky’s highest for Spain again since 2015. Had the race been more exciting, there is a good chance that the peak might have been around 1.2 million viewers.

As it turned out, the audience settled just under one million viewers for most of the race, which is a solid number considering that the Premier League final day fixtures kicked off half way through the race.

The combined average audience of 2.99 million viewers is the highest average audience of 2018 so far, and an increase of 12.6 percent year-on-year. It is the highest average since last year’s US Grand Prix, and the highest for a free-to-air highlights race since the 2016 German Grand Prix.

The peak audience of 4.01 million viewers is an increase of 6.1 percent on last year’s peak audience of 3.78 million viewers, although not quite the highest of 2018, that honour remains with Azerbaijan.

Qualifying and Analysis
Live coverage of qualifying on Sky Sports F1 from 13:00 to 15:35 averaged 322k (4.6%). Channel 4’s highlights programming averaged 1.33m (10.9%) from 17:00 to 18:30, both figures comfortably up year-on-year.

The combined average for qualifying of 1.65 million viewers is the highest for Spain since 2015, with the combined peak audience of 2.46 million viewers following in the same footsteps.

It has been many, many years since Formula 1 recorded consistent year-on-year increases over a sustained period. For the first time, in possibly five or six years, F1 has momentum, and viewers are starting to view the sport, as opposed to deserting it. Whether these are genuine new viewers, or lapsed viewers from yesteryear, we do not know apart from looking at anecdotal evidence.

The concern for Liberty Media however is that it was Channel 4 that saw a record audience on Sunday, and not Sky. Channel 4’s contract concludes at the end of this season, with Formula 1 moving exclusively to Sky, although the free-to-air element of Sky’s contract, and where that will turn up is unclear.

Why the sustained increase? We have been lucky so far in 2018 in that three of the five races have been excellent. Australia did not quite deliver, and nor did Spain, but not everything can be a thriller.

In the last two or three years, we have had great battles, but momentum disappeared in the intervening races. Three great races on the run may have resulting in Spain’s numbers bouncing higher than expected. There is also the increased promotion from Liberty Media across a variety of platforms: are their efforts reaping the rewards?

Next up is the Monaco Grand Prix, which begins a critical phase of the F1 season as the sport begins to battle with the football World Cup and other events for column inches. If Ferrari and Red Bull turn up in Monaco and Canada, the momentum should continue through the early Summer, even if it is at a reduced rate of knots.

The 2017 Spanish Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.