Scheduling: The 2016 Austrian Grand Prix

The 2016 Formula One season continues as the championship heads firmly to the European heartland for the Austrian Grand Prix.

It is the third year back on the calendar for the Red Bull Ring, all three years have been broadcast exclusively live on Sky Sports. Martin Brundle and Anthony Davidson are back with Sky this weekend after their 24 Hours of Le Mans absence. Over on Channel 4, Lee McKenzie is not with the team due to her BBC commitments with Wimbledon, however she will be appearing as a guest on Sunday Brunch at 09:30 on Sunday morning. Holly Samos, who is a name former listeners to BBC’s 5 Live F1 coverage may recognise, will be covering for McKenzie this weekend.

Things look a bit different for BBC’s radio team as well. With the Austrian Grand Prix clashing with the Formula E season finale, neither Jack Nicholls or Jennie Gow will be part of BBC’s team. Tom Clarkson, Allan McNish and 5 Live sports reporter Claire Cottingham will be covering duties. All the schedule details as usual are listed below and, for the London ePrix schedule, head over here…

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
02/07 – 17:30 to 19:00 – Qualifying Highlights
03/07 – 18:00 to 20:00 – Race Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
01/07 – 08:45 to 11:00 – Practice 1
01/07 – 12:45 to 14:55 – Practice 2
02/07 – 09:45 to 11:15 – Practice 3
02/07 – 12:00 to 14:35 – Qualifying (also Sky Sports 1)
03/07 – 11:30 to 16:15 – Race (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 12:30 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
29/06 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
30/06 – 14:00 to 14:30 – Driver Press Conference
30/06 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
01/07 – 15:30 to 16:00 – Team Press Conference
01/07 – 16:00 to 16:30 – The F1 Show

BBC Radio F1
01/07 – 08:55 to 10:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
01/07 – 12:55 to 14:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
03/07 – 13:00 to 15:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Blancpain Sprint Series – Nurburgring (BT Sport 2)
03/07 – 13:00 to 15:00 – Race

FIM CEV Repsol – Albacete (BT Sport Europe)
03/07 – 09:45 to 14:00 – Races

GP2 Series – Austria (Sky Sports F1)
01/07 – 11:00 to 11:50 – Practice
01/07 – 14:55 to 15:30 – Qualifying
02/07 – 14:35 to 16:05 – Race 1 (also Sky Sports 1)
03/07 – 09:25 to 10:40 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Austria (Sky Sports F1)
02/07 – 08:45 to 09:20 – Qualifying
02/07 – 16:10 to 17:10 – Race 1
03/07 – 08:15 to 09:15 – Race 2

Porsche Supercup – Austria (Eurosport)
03/07 – 10:30 to 11:20 – Race

TCR International Series – Russia (Motors TV)
03/07 – 10:25 to 11:45 – Race

World Rally Championship – Poland
30/06 – 18:00 to 19:00 – Stage 1 Live (BT Sport Europe)
01/07 – Day 1 Highlights
=> 22:00 to 22:30 (BT Sport 1)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motors TV)
02/07 – Day 2 Highlights
=> 22:00 to 22:30 (BT Sport 1)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motors TV)
03/07 – 08:00 to 09:00 – Stage 2 Live (BT Sport 1)
03/07 – 11:00 to 12:00 – Stage 3 Live (BT Sport 2)
03/07 – Day 3 Highlights
=> 22:00 to 22:30 (BT Sport 1)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motors TV)
04/07 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Highlights (Channel 5)

As always, if anything changes, I will update the schedule.

Last updated on June 30th, to add information about Claire Cottingham and Holly Samos.

Inaugural F1 race in Baku peaks with 3.8 million

The inaugural European Grand Prix from Baku peaked with 3.8 million viewers yesterday, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Channel 4’s live coverage of the race, broadcast from 13:00 to 16:25, averaged 2.03m (19.3%), peaking with 2.91m (24.4%) at 15:25. The programme won its three and a half hour slot, also comfortably beating its own slot average. Live coverage over on Sky Sports F1 averaged 465k (4.4%) from 13:00 to 16:30, with Sky Sports 1 adding 167k (1.6%) over a slightly shorter slot from 13:00 to 16:05. Sky’s combined peak came at 14:20, when 997k (9.3%) were watching the race with them.

The overall combined average of 2.64 million is the lowest for the European Grand Prix since 2006. It is, however, the third highest audience of the season only behind Bahrain and Monaco. The combined peak audience of 3.85m (32.2%) was recorded at 15:25 as Nico Rosberg won the first ever race at Baku. At the time of the peak, the audience was split 75%, 19% and 6% across the three channels that were covering the race.

Qualifying
Live coverage of the qualifying session, broadcast on Channel 4 from 13:00 to 15:20, averaged 1.08m (11.5%), peaking with 1.55m (14.6%) at 14:55. Channel 4’s programme lost out to ITV’s Euro 2016 coverage of Belgium vs Republic of Ireland, which averaged 2.31m (24.6%) whilst the F1 was on-air.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Channel 4’s F1 coverage also lost out marginally to BBC One’s coverage of Tennis from Queen’s, that programme averaged 1.11m (11.8%) across the same slot as the F1. As usual, the F1 smashed Channel 4’s own slot average. It was also ahead of the Royal Ascot coverage which followed on the main channel from 15:20 to 18:00. The horse racing coverage averaged 674k (6.2%).

Sky Sports F1’s live coverage of qualifying from 13:00 to 15:45 averaged 306k (3.2%), peaking with 613k (5.8%) at 14:50. The combined audience of 1.39 million viewers is the lowest for the European Grand Prix since 2008, with the combined peak of 2.15 million viewers following the same trend.

Record low audience watch Hamilton win in Canada

A peak audience of just over three million viewers watched Lewis Hamilton win the Canadian Grand Prix as the start of Euro 2016 kicked all competition into touch over the weekend, unofficial UK overnight viewing figures show

Race
Live coverage of the race, broadcast live on Sky Sports 1 and F1 from 18:00 to 21:3o, averaged 853k (4.0%). The split across Sky’s channels was 620k (2.9%) on F1 compared with 234k (1.1%) on Sky Sports 1, 73:27 in the dedicated channel’s favour. The peak audience of 1.41m (6.3%) came at 20:30 as Hamilton claimed victory. It was a similar ratio at the time of peak, albeit skewed slightly towards the casual channel: 68:34 but still in Sky Sports F1’s favour. At the same time over on BBC One, an average audience of 6.31m (29.0%) watched Germany beat Ukraine from 19:35.

In isolation, I think Sky’s figures are pretty good. In 2012, the last time Sky showed Canada exclusively live, the average audience was 945k (4.3%), peaking with 1.77m. That is a drop of between 10 and 20 percent, but when you consider the trend towards other methods of viewing and the comparatively long time period (four years), I don’t think that the figures for Sky are bad. It is not great to lose viewers, but the figures are not shocking. As always, a reminder that viewing figures exclude Sky Go, Now TV and All4.

Highlights of the Montreal round, broadcast on Channel 4 from 22:40 to 00:40, averaged just 1.30m (15.3%), peaking with 1.72m. Both numbers are comfortably the channel’s lowest of the season so far. I appreciate that audiences are lower late at evening, but I was not expecting a drop of that magnitude for the late night highlights programmes. It is extremely rare to see the terrestrial TV and pay TV numbers so close, but yesterday the ratio between Channel 4 and Sky was 60:40 (average) and 55:45 (peak).

The combined audience of 2.15 million viewers is the second lowest of the season so far. The audience that watched yesterday’s race was the lowest as far as records go back for a North American round. Make no mistake about it: yes, the trip to Canada is to serve fans in Canada, but it is also a shop window in European primetime for Formula 1 regardless of whether there is a football competition or not. Miss out on that shop window, and you miss out on a raft of new viewers.

Qualifying
Live coverage of Wales vs Slovakia on BBC One heavily dented Sky Sports F1’s broadcast of qualifying, overnight viewing figures show. Whilst a peak audience of 8.00m (46.1%) were watching BBC One at 18:50, 370k (2.1%) were watching Sky Sports F1. As soon as the Wales game finished, the audience jumped from 370k at 18:50 to 602k (3.5%) at 19:00, peaking with 639k (3.7%) at 19:05 as Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position.

The average audience for Sky’s F1 broadcast from 17:00 to 19:45 averaged a low 285k (1.8%), suffering as a result of the tough competition. Channel 4’s highlights programme at 22:00 averaged 1.22m (8.0%). I’m pleasantly surprised by this number, I was expecting it to be the opposite side of one million. It may well have benefited from channel hoppers following the conclusion of the England game.

The combined audience of 1.51 million viewers is the lowest for Montreal since 2006. Every year from 2008 to 2015 averaged over two million viewers. Year-on-year, the audience has halved, with 3.06 million watching last year.

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

Scheduling: The 2016 European Grand Prix

After a quick dash over to North America, Formula 1 heads back over to the East for the first ever race in Azerbaijan! Badged as the European Grand Prix, the race takes place on a street circuit in Baku.

The sporting opposition this weekend consists of four events: the Royal Ascot, Tennis from Queen’s, Euro 2016 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (schedule here). The qualifying session clashes with Belgium vs Republic of Ireland; however, Sunday thankfully has no football clash. Of course, as widely publicised, the qualifying session will also clash with the first hour of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The race itself will clash with the chequered flag of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is the first time Le Mans has clashed with the F1 since 2011, which is a nonsense scenario that hopefully will not be repeated in the foreseeable future. Elsewhere, Channel 4’s coverage of practice two moves to More4 due to coverage of the Royal Ascot.

On the personnel front, the big news is that Martin Brundle will not be present again with Sky’s Formula 1 team in Baku due to his participation in the famous endurance race. Originally, Brundle was only set to miss Baku, but this was extended to cover Canada as a result of a “medical procedure” that Brundle had following the Monaco Grand Prix. Paul di Resta is again alongside David Croft in the commentary box in Baku.

Over on Channel 4, Eddie Jordan returns to F1 broadcasting, his first live appearance with the channel since they took over from BBC at the end of 2015.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
17/06 – 09:55 to 11:35 – Practice 1 (Channel 4)
17/06 – 13:55 to 15:35 – Practice 2 (More4)
18/06 – 10:55 to 12:05 – Practice 3 (Channel 4)
18/06 – 13:00 to 15:20 – Qualifying (Channel 4)
19/06– 13:00 to 16:30 – Race (Channel 4)
19/06 – 23:25 to 00:30 – Highlights (Channel 4)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
17/06 – 09:45 to 11:50 – Practice 1
17/06 – 13:45 to 16:00 – Practice 2
18/06 – 10:45 to 12:15 – Practice 3
18/06 – 13:00 to 15:45 – Qualifying
19/06 – 12:30 to 17:15 – Race
=> 12:30 – Track Parade (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 13:00 – Pit Lane Live (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 13:30 – Race (also Sky Sports 1 – until 16:00 only)
=> 16:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
16/06 – 12:00 to 12:30 – Driver Press Conference
16/06 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
17/06 – 16:00 to 16:30 – Team Press Conference
17/06 – 16:30 to 17:00 – The F1 Show
22/06 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
17/06 – 09:55 to 11:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
18/06 – 10:55 to 12:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
18/06 – 13:55 to 15:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
19/06 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

British Touring Car Championship – Croft (ITV4)
19/06 – 11:00 to 18:15 – Races

GP2 Series – Europe (Sky Sports F1)
17/06 – 08:00 to 08:50 – Practice
17/06 – 11:50 to 12:30 – Qualifying
18/06 – 09:00 to 10:30 – Race 1
19/06 – 10:55 to 12:10 – Race 2

Virgin Australia Supercars – Darwin Triple Crown (BT Sport 1)
18/06 – 07:15 to 09:00 – Race 12
19/06 – 04:30 to 06:45 – Race 13

World Superbikes –Misano
18/06 – 09:15 to 13:15 – Qualifying and Race 1 (Eurosport)
19/06 – 10:00 to 13:15 – Race 2 (Eurosport 2)

Last updated on June 18th, to reflect Sky Sports 1 also covering the Track Parade and Pit Lane Live.

Scheduling: The 2016 Canadian Grand Prix

Next weekend sees Formula 1’s annual June stateside trip to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix! Unfortunately for Formula 1, next weekend also marks the beginning of Euro 2016, heralding a summer of sport that also includes Wimbledon and the Olympic Games from Rio.

Sky Sports F1’s live coverage from Montreal sees the qualifying programme clash with Wales vs Slovakia and the build-up to England vs Russia, whilst the race itself on the Sunday clashes with the first half of Germany vs Ukraine. To be honest, from FOM’s point of view, you could not really schedule either qualifying or the race any differently: move qualifying to 18:30 UK time and you run into more of the England build-up, move the race to 18:30 UK time and you get into a clash with Poland vs Northern Ireland. Alternatively, what is worse: a double header from Monaco to Canada or a double header from Canada to Baku. I’ll let you decide…

Due to the aforementioned Euro 2016, BBC’s radio coverage is on the light side, with only updates from qualifying and the race itself covered on either 5 Live or their sister station. As if ratings have not dropped significantly already this season, I am expecting the percentage drops to be severe for Canada, also partially due to the fact that Channel 4’s coverage is highlights only whereas the BBC aired Canada live from 2013 to 2015. I fear for Channel 4’s numbers over the weekend, I really do. Like last year, Sky are simulcasting the race on Sky Sports 1.

Staying with Channel 4, their coverage of the World Endurance Championship begins on Saturday 11th June, with highlights of the first round from Silverstone at 06:35. Below are all the details you need.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
11/06 – 22:00 to 23:35 – Qualifying Highlights
12/06 – 22:40 to 00:45 – Race Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
10/06 – 14:45 to 16:50 – Practice 1
10/06 – 18:45 to 21:00 – Practice 2
11/06 – 14:45 to 16:15 – Practice 3
11/06 – 17:00 to 19:45 – Qualifying
12/06 – 17:30 to 22:15 – Race
=> 17:30 – Track Parade (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 18:00 – Pit Lane Live (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 18:30 – Race (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 21:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
08/06– 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
09/06 – 16:00 to 16:30 – Driver Press Conference
09/06 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
10/06 – 21:00 to 21:30 – Team Press Conference
10/06 – 21:30 to 22:00 – The F1 Show
15/06 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
11/06 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Qualifying Updates (BBC Radio 5 Live)
12/06 – 18:45 to 21:30 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)

British GT – Silverstone (Motors TV)
12/06 – 12:30 to 16:00 – Race

FIM CEV Repsol – Catalunya (BT Sport//ESPN)
12/06 – 09:45 to 15:00 – Races

FIM World Endurance Championship – 12 Hours of Portimao (Eurosport 2)
11/06 – 09:15 to 12:00 – Part 1
11/06 – 19:00 to 21:45 – Part 2

IndyCar Series – Firestone 600
~~11/06 (Saturday night) – 01:30 to 04:00 – Race (BT Sport//ESPN)~~
12/06 – 19:00 to 21:30 – Race (BT Sport 2)

Speedway Grand Prix – Denmark (BT Sport 1)
11/06 – 17:45 to 21:15 – Races

World Rally Championship – Italy
10/06 – Day 1 Highlights
=> 22:30 to 23:00 (BT Sport 1)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motors TV)
11/06 – Day 2 Highlights
=> 21:15 to 21:45 (BT Sport 1)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motors TV)
12/06 – 08:00 to 09:00 – Stage 1 Live (BT Sport 1)
12/06 – 11:00 to 12:00 – Power Stage Live (BT Sport 1)
12/06 – Day 3 Highlights
=> 21:30 to 22:00 (BT Sport 1)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motors TV)
14/06 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Highlights (Channel 5)

World Touring Car Championship – Moscow
11/06 – 12:00 to 13:30 – Qualifying (Eurosport 2)
12/06 – 10:00 to 12:00 – Races (Eurosport 1)
=> 10:00 – Race 1
=> 11:00 – Race 2

As always, if anything changes, I will update the schedule.

Last updated on June 7th to reflect Channel 4’s race highlights being pushed back ten minutes. Updated as well on June 12th to reflect the rain-delayed IndyCar race being rescheduled.