Sky Sports F1 to remain on air over the Winter

Sky Sports F1 will remain on air over the Winter period, I can today confirm. The schedule for Christmas Day includes Britain’s Next F1 Star, and is as follows:

Sky Sports F1 – Christmas Day
11:00 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (1/6)
11:30 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (2/6)
12:00 – TBC (likely 2012 review)
14:00 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (3/6)
14:30 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (4/6)
15:00 – TBC (likely 2012 review)
17:00 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (5/6)
17:30 – Britain’s Next F1 Star (6/6)

It has always been that Sky Sports F1 will go off-air on Friday 30th November that was the most likely option, on the basis of the information released in the now familiar Sky Media document before the start of the season. So the above information, which I believe is the confirmed schedule, contradicts that.

Now, if Sky Sports F1 is remaining on-air over the Winter then well, Sky, you know what the F1 fans out there including myself want… substitute August for December and you get my drift.

Update at 17:45 – Okay, the above has been rewritten heavily. The schedules for the first week in December have been released, and there are shows on Sky Sports F1. What I should note that it is the usual repeats, so Legends, Fast Track, Weekend in Stills and Weekend in Words and the such like up until Friday 7th December at least. So whilst it is surprising to see this (given the Sky Media document), the schedule content is unsurprising in terms of repeats.

Virgin Media launch Anywhere service; Sky Sports F1 included

Virgin Media have today launched their ‘Virgin TV Anywhere’ service, which will allow their customers to watch live television on the move wherever they are. Similar to Sky Go, customers will either be able to watch television live online or via their app, which is available via the App Store if you have iPad, iPod or iPhone.

Alongside watching live television on the move, the Anywhere service features TV on Demand, including Sky Sports. I don’t know whether there are any Sky Sports F1 shows currently available via Anywhere’s TV on Demand section, but thought it was worth noting anyway.

What this means is that if you subscribe to Virgin Media and their Sports package, you can now watch Sky Sports F1 on the move. From a Formula 1 fan perspective, the timing is good, with the US Grand Prix in primetime, it means those with Virgin Media and the Sports package can now watch the race live online if others are watching TV. I should note though that currently, Sky Sports F1 is not available via the ‘Virgin TV Anywhere’ App due to rights restrictions, the same restriction also applying to the other Sky channels. But nevertheless, it is good news for Virgin Media customers who don’t always get to watch Sky Sports F1 via the television.

Virgin Media customers can access ‘Virgin TV Anywhere’ by clicking here.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 28th October, 2012)

From BARB:

1 – 604k – Live Indian Grand Prix (Sunday, 08:00)
2 – 321k – Live Indian Grand Prix: Qualifying (Saturday, 08:30)
3 – 66k – Britain’s Next F1 Star (Sunday, 12:47)
4 – 55k – Porsche Supercup: Belgium (Saturday, 11:15)
5 – 54k – Live Indian Grand Prix: Practice 2 (Friday, 09:15)
6 – 46k – Live Indian Grand Prix: Practice 3 (Saturday, 06:15)
7 – 40k – Indian Grand Prix: Qualifying Replay (Saturday, 12:45)
8 – 34k – Indian Grand Prix Replay (Sunday, 13:17)
9 – 31k – Live Indian Grand Prix: Practice 3 (Thursday, 29:15)
10 – 31k – Porsche Supercup: Italy (Saturday, 11:30)

Update on March 4th – Data now inserted.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix peaks with nearly six million viewers

Yesterday’s live coverage for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix peaked with nearly six million viewers across BBC One and Sky Sports F1, overnight figures show. According to James Allen, BBC One’s coverage peaked with 4.8 million, with Sky Sports F1’s coverage expected to add a further 0.8 million to 1.0 million to that figure, bringing the figure to near 6 million. When you put that into context with the remainder of this season against sporting competition at times, that is a very solid figure in my opinion.

The peak figure is up on last year’s 5.52 million five-minute peak figure recorded at 13:35, whilst it is in-line with a fifteen-minute peak of 5.9 million in 2009. It is, however, down on the mammoth peak of 7.35 million viewers from 2010, although that was thanks to the 2010 race being a title decider involving four different drivers.

On BBC One, ITV Media reports that the BBC coverage averaged 3.895 million viewers, with a 29 percent share from 12:10 to 15:30. Sky Sports F1’s coverage averaged under 574,000 viewers from 11:30 to 16:15, meaning a combined average around the 4.4 million mark, which would be the lowest average yet. If you were to compare like to like though, taking the Sky Sports F1 average from 12:10 to 15:30, you would probably find that rise slightly, albeit marginally below the 4.56 million from 2011 and below 4.8 million (2009) and 5.78 million (2010).

Admittedly there is not a plethora of information above, so I note that Sascha Mohr, who runs a German media blog posted the German ratings from yesterday over on his Twitter feed. In Germany, 7.18 million viewers watched on RTL, 430k on Sky Deutschland and 780k on ORF. Compared to the 85% to 15% or 80% to 20% we see here for BBC versus Sky, in Germany it is a similar split it seems between RTL and Sky/ORF if not slightly higher. The figures are very good for Germany, as this historical comparison shows figures over there peaked with 10.4 million viewers average in 2001 during Michael Schumacher’s third title defence.

Figures were always above 8 million during his title reigns with Ferrari, although as the graph shows they were not as high during his first two title reigns at Benetton. In any case, it appears that Sebastian Vettel is definitely popular in Germany, whether he is as popular as Schumacher was at his peak remains to be seen though. Nevertheless, I thought it would be good to include German figures seeing as I spotted though as we rarely get those figures.

The F1 Show Season Review to air on Friday 30th November

The final edition of The F1 Show in 2012 will air on Friday 30th November, I can confirm. The show, presented by Georgie Thompson and Ted Kravitz will air live for the last time this year on that date at 20:00. Unlike the Season Preview, all the way back on Friday 9th March which aired for two hours, the Season Review will only air for one hour. Following on from extended hours through the first three quarters of November, the trend is continued in the final week of November:

Tuesday 27th November
12:00 to 19:30 – F1 Highlights (Australia, Malaysia, China, Bahrain and Spain)
19:30 – F1 Fast Track (Brazil)
20:00 to 23:00 – F1 Fast Track (Australia, Malaysia, China, Bahrain, Spain and Monaco)

Wednesday 28th November
12:00 to 19:30 – F1 Highlights (Monaco, Canada, Europe, Britain and Germany)
19:30 – Weekend in Stills (Brazil)
20:00 to 23:00 – F1 Fast Track (Canada, Europe, Britain, Germany, Hungary and Belgian)

Thursday 29th November
12:00 to 19:30 – F1 Highlights (Hungary, Belgian, Italy, Singapore, Japan)
19:30 to 22:30 – F1 Fast Track (Italy, Singapore, Japan, Korea, India, Abu Dhabi)

Friday 30th November
11:30 to 19:00 – F1 Highlights (Korea, India, Abu Dhabi, USA, Brazil)
19:00 to 20:00 – F1 Fast Track (USA and Brazil)
20:00 to 21:00 – The F1 Show Season Review
21:00 to 22:00 – F1 Fast Track (USA and Brazil)
22:00 to 23:00 – The F1 Show Season Review

With all programming bookended in before the beginning of December, it now looks increasingly likely that the Sky Sports F1 channel will indeed close for the Winter on Friday 30th November, as has been noted by myself in the past few weeks, and as was noted on the advertising document published by Sky Media before the start of the season (archived here by F1Fanatic.co.uk). As of posting, I have yet to have that 100 percent confirmed. And as always, I will update this post if there are any changes.

Update on November 8th – The above paragraph is now redundant, please see this post.