Young guns spark up social media

The youngest line-up on the grid in 2015 of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz not only made an impact on the track, but they also made an impact off it as Toro Rosso jumped up the social media standings. Analysis from The F1 Broadcasting Blog shows that, across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the team is close to overtaking Sauber whilst recording higher increases than the likes of Williams and Lotus since July. That was not the only social media story in the latter half of 2015.

Overall, the 2015 Formula One season was disastrous for McLaren, with an unreliable Honda engine down on power affecting their performance throughout the season. Their social media highlight was generated by the average fan from off the street. #PlacesAlonsoWouldRatherBe quickly became a trend following the Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying session and was a moment of light relief during what was a sombre weekend due to events outside of the paddock. McLaren’s performance on the track hurt their social media following off the circuit. McLaren started the Summer with 4.37 million accounts following them across the three main social media platforms, climbing to 4.71 million accounts as the season came to a close, an increase of 7.6 percent. Only Mercedes, Manor and Lotus recorded a lower percentage increase during the second half of 2015, showing that McLaren’s poor on track performance had a negative impact when it came to a social media meaning that they were unable to further exploit the McLaren brand name.

The Formula 1 social media statistics, covering Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as of December 2015.

Mercedes’ percentage increase of 6.0 percent is the lowest of any team in the field, but when you’re coming from a high user base in the first place, a lower percentage increase than the midfield teams should be expected. An increase from 11.90 million to 12.61 million accounts following their activities is still a sizeable increase for the Brixworth based team. McLaren’s poor performance not only affected the brand following, but also adversely affected Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button’s following. Button’s following increased 9.9 percent compared with the Summer, however Alonso’s percentage increased only 3.9 percent, from a combined audience of 4.00 million to 4.16 million. Those are not good numbers for what is supposed to be one of Formula 1’s biggest drivers, and is further proof of why Formula 1 needs a successful McLaren as soon as feasibly possible.

Is Max Verstappen the future?
Alonso’s raw increase of 156,000 from July to December was the eighth highest in the field, again across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Up front you had Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, the latter recording an increase of a whopping 1.21 million followers largely due to a huge uplift in Instagram numbers. Hamilton’s numbers will only surge further as he tries to break America. Behind the Mercedes drivers you had Button, Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa. No major surprises there, Ricciardo continung to get a boost from his fantastic 2014 season. In sixth position, and ahead of Alonso, enter Verstappen. At the half-way stage of the 2015 season, a combined audience of 247,000 were following Verstappen’s activities. That number climbed to 479,000, a whopping increase of 94.1 percent! Facebook led the way from a percentage perspective for Verstappen, increasing from 57,000 to 118,000. Of course, these numbers are miniscle in comparison to Lewis Hamilton, whose increase of 1.21 million since the Summer dwarfed the majority of the field. But a year or two from now? If Verstappen continues to perform on the circuit, then who knows. Based on the latter half of this season, I would expect Verstappen’s combined audience to quickly surpass one million in early-2016.

We should not forget Carlos Sainz, Jnr and the Toro Rosso team as a whole in the Verstappen puzzle. In the second half of 2015, Sainz’s following has increased 44.6 percent from 273,000 to 395,000. The reason Sainz has fallen behind Verstappen is because the Dutchman has surged ahead on Facebook, whereas Sainz’s increase since the Summer has been relatively slow in comparison. Toro Rosso is the only big surprise from a team perspective, jumping by 282,000 followers from July to December, an increase of 44.8 percent. I suspect as soon as either Verstappen or Sainz switch teams then Toro Rosso’s following will stagnate again. Either way, they have made enough of an impression to climb over the back of Sauber’s gearbox and has, for the moment, given them an identity.

All social media outlets have grown in size and stature versus July, but it was Instagram who jumped the biggest, with their Formula 1 reach growing from a cumulative total of 5.34 million to 8.57 million, an increase of over three million accounts. As a result, Instagram’s Formula 1 market share on social media increased from 9.0 percent to 12.8 percent at the expense of both Facebook and Twitter. Bear in mind that all numbers presented in this piece are a combined count, there is no way to work out distinct people across different social media sites. What we do know is that 2.29 million people follow Lewis Hamilton on Instagram, so the distinct count of accounts that follow F1 related accounts on Instagram is probably around the ~5 million range.

We come to the end of another season though where I place the URL https://www.facebook.com/F1 in the middle of a post and I get the result “Page not found.” To see that heading into 2016 is immensely disappointing and frustrating. Why there is such a barrier towards creating exciting, innovative and groudbreaking content for Facebook users, I do not know. We knew Facebook would come later than Twitter and Instagram in terms of content, Marissa Pace, part of the Formula One Digital Media team told us that this time last year. And at a time when Formula 1’s viewing figures are dropping as the population exploits new and emerging technologies, having a presence on Facebook is more critical in my opinion than ever before. The now infamous #SepangClash between Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez during this year’s MotoGP championship was viewed 15 million times on Facebook. You cannot buy numbers like that, and you cannot let opportunities like that slip through your figures. The longer Formula One Management waits to exploit Facebook, the harder their task becomes, it is as simple as that. #SepangClash was also a fantastic example of on the spot thinking from Dorna’s social media team, instantly creating that hashtag to drive conversation across every platform: TV and online. It was successful, and it kept MotoGP in the spotlight between Sepang and Valencia. Something for F1 to learn should a big on-track clash occur in 2016.

Whilst Facebook is yet to come, the team at FODM have done some fantastic work creating content for both Twitter and Instagram. Really, this season has been what you should expect from those platforms, with discussion based talking points, fan voting and video content being posted, the video content in conjunction with SnappyTV. Understandably, there has not been video content posted ‘live’ yet given the agreements FOM have with broadcasters’. Over on YouTube, archive footage is the clear winner, something that is became more apparent as the season progressed. This reminds me of when BBC returned to Formula 1 in 2009. Fans made it clear to the BBC that they wanted archive footage, and the same message is being put to FOM now.

Most watched videos on Formula 1’s official YouTube channel
1. 639,000 – The Fastest Lap in F1 History: Montoya at Monza (uploaded 3 months ago)
2. 582,000 – Top 5 Overtakes Of The Last 5 Years (uploaded 4 months ago)
3. 428,000 – F1’s Greatest Lap? Ayrton Senna at Donington 1993 (uploaded 8 months ago)
4. 324,000 – Your Favourite Belgian Grand Prix – 1998 Chaos & Carnage in Spa (uploaded 3 months ago)
5. 299,000 – Your Favourite Monaco Grand Prix – 1992 Senna v Mansell (uploaded 6 months ago)

The question for FOM going into 2016 has to be, how do they exploit their archive without treading on broadcasters’ toes? Of course, FOM own any footage filmed inside a race track, but putting extensive archive highlights online may rub broadcasters’ up the wrong way. I do think there is middle ground though, and certainly one that should be investigated. I think there is a market for creating 20 minute highlight packages of past classic races for the YouTube market. All of FOM’s videos so far have been ‘bite size’, clocking in at under five minutes. The benefit of creating longer highlights packages now of archive races will help them later, if they were to go down the ‘F1 Network‘ route sometime. Again, with viewing figures from the traditional viewing methods dropping, the potential for an over the top network has to be considered within the next few years.

In terms of their social media following, Formula One Management’s two accounts on Instagram and Twitter respectively have increased from a combined audience of 1.71 million in July to 2.36 million, an increase of 37.7 percent. In comparison to the teams (see the first figure in this post), that is a huge increase and shows how important it is for FOM to have a profile on social media. Instagram is the main factor in the increase, jumping 395,000 followers despite a much lower base than Twitter. The good news is that Formula 1 teams, drivers and media are exploiting Instagram more than previously, and that is replicated in the numbers. Whilst Formula One Management smashed into social media in March, at the same time the team also relaunched the official Formula 1 website. The relaunch seems to have been successful, the old version of the website let us not forget was horrendously behind the times from what you would expect out of a modern-day site.

The biggest part of the website relaunch was F1 Access. The main difficulty in the early days was that the website version of F1 Access failed to link to the app version of F1 Access. To be honest, I have not purchased F1 Access. I know it is only £2.29 a month, but as of writing I haven’t heard anyone shout from the rooftops about it. Is there anything in F1 Access that, as a fan, I desperately need to get my hands on? I suspect not, and until there is a compelling reason for me to subscribe to F1 Access, I can’t see myself subscribing anytime soon. Looking ahead to 2016, I think FOM to some degree can continue to do what they are currently doing on Twitter and Instagram. Some exploration needed in relation to YouTube, and a kick-start needed on Facebook sooner rather than later.

UK F1 TV viewing figures drop to eight year low

Normally British success in sport leads to an increase in television audiences for that particular event. In Formula 1, over the past eighteen months, the opposite appears to have occurred. Based on unofficial overnight viewing figures, the 2015 Formula One season recorded the lowest average audience since the 2007 season. Lewis Hamilton’s and Mercedes’s dominance has not had the intended effect.

> BBC records lowest average in modern times
> Sky average drops back to 2013 level
> Only two out of last eight races increased year-on-year

As I have done in previous years, it is worth re-iterating what exactly the numbers represent for those of you that are new to the blog. For Sky Sports F1, all viewing figures are for the three and a half hour race day slot. This covers the ‘Pit Lane Live’ and ‘Race’ segments in the EPG, the reason for this is to allow a fair comparison year-on-year. As thus, the equivalent slots are used for 2012, 2013 and 2014 to present a transparent picture and so the viewing figures presented are not misleading. Numbers also include any Sky simulcasts on Sky Sports 1, where applicable. For the BBC, the figures are all programme averages, irrespective of whether the programme was live or in highlights form, and irrespective of channel. Repeats are accounted for where Asian-based races were covered by the BBC live. As always, viewing figures do not include over the top methods of viewing such as BBC iPlayer and Sky Go.

The 2015 story
The trajectory that the 2015 season took is largely similar to that from two years ago. In my Summer post, I stated that 2015 was up on 2012 and 2014, but down on 2013. In 2013, the dominance of Sebastian Vettel sent audiences tumbling. In 2015, it is the dominance of Mercedes that appears to have a profound effect on viewing figures.

Sky Sports F1’s race day programme has averaged 638k from 12:00 to 15:30, or equivalent this season. That number is down 19.3 percent on 2014’s figure and down 0.4 percent on 2013’s figure of 640k. 2015’s average is also down 10.3 percent on 2012’s average of 711k. By a margin of around two thousand viewers, Sky’s average Formula 1 viewing figures are at their lowest level since they joined the sport in 2012. Given that the gap between 2013 and 2015 is only two thousand viewers, I’m reluctant to read too much into it as two thousand viewers is within the margin of error.

So what has happened here? In essence, any gain that Sky made last season has disappeared. A near 20 percent drop in viewers is bad, whichever way you look at it. There is perhaps some knowledge to be gained in stating that Sky’s numbers are back at 2013 levels when you consider both season’s followed similar patterns on the track. Whilst Sky was no doubt hampered by some races starting earlier, it is a fact that only four races increased year-on-year: Spain (+5.0%), Austria (+4.4%), Britain (+27.3%) and Italy (+7.5%). Twelve races recorded double digit drops compared with 2014, including the US Grand Prix which dropped 15.3 percent. That is not good and is a stark contrast to this time last year. The comparisons include the relevant Sky Sports 1 simulcasts for this year. I think Sky’s drop is a combination of the on-tract action being resolved early this year and also viewer apathy towards the product that Sky Sports have been putting out this year.

The BBC’s figures have dropped year-on-year by 3.6 percent, recording an average of 3.11m. It is their lowest average under this current deal, and therefore their lowest since the BBC returned to the sport in 2009. 2014 averaged 3.22m, whilst 2013 averaged 3.42m. At a time when the BBC’s current coverage is under threat, any drop does not make for good reading. However, eleven races actually increased their average audience compared with 2014. The biggest gainers were Bahrain (+60.9% – BBC showed highlights in 2014), Britain (+28.6%) and Austria (+27.0%). The reason that BBC’s average number is down is because of Mexico, a low-rating highlights race, plus the fact that three races lost over a quarter of their audience year-on-year (Singapore, Japan and Abu Dhabi). Undoubtedly, BBC’s biggest problem, and one of the major flaws in this current contract was that Lewis Hamilton’s championship victory was not screened live on free-to-air television.

An eight year low in the TV same day world
The combined average of 3.74m is down 6.7 percent on 2014’s 4.01m, down 7.3 percent on 2013’s 4.06m and down 4.5 percent on 2012’s 3.92m. For the first time since the current rights agreement between BBC and Sky started, both channels dropped year-on-year based on overnight viewing figures. Last year I commented on the closeness of the figures from 2012 to 2014. 2015 has dipped below that line as it were, meaning this season sits between 2007 and 2008 in the popularity stakes. Considering Formula 1 has a British world champion, the idea that viewing figures have dropped to an eight year low in the UK may be considered alarming to those within the sport.

The most watched race in 2015 was the Canadian Grand Prix which averaged 5.35m, whilst the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix falls at the opposite end of the spectrum with 2.61m. As I noted earlier, all the numbers exclude online viewing, including iPlayer, Sky Go and Now TV. Including those methods of viewing would send 2015 above 2008’s average of 3.94m, but I would be surprised if it made much of a difference year-on-year, unless there has been drastic changes of viewing habits to more online methods from Grand Prix fans. If people are changing their viewing habits in relation to Formula 1, the question is why. There is always a reason if habits have changed, a live viewer does not become an on-demand viewer for an event which should be viewed live without a good reason.

It would be amiss I feel to write off 2015 as saying “well, online would increase numbers”. To do so would ignore the bigger picture. Formula 1 has well documented issues on and off the track at the moment concerning the spectacle the sport is presenting. One team dominating is historically a turn off for the casual viewer. Ferrari’s dominance in the mid 2000s led to a worldwide switch off (Germany and Italy aside). If the dominance of Mercedes is leading to the same pattern, then you have to be concerned. The casual viewer does not want to watch one team dominating. You can’t punish dominance, of course you can’t. But it does not help when that same team appears to be anti-racing, repeatedly. That is a switch off. Maybe you could blame Lewis Hamilton himself as the reason for the decline, in that he is in BBC’s and Sky’s coverage too much, and there is an argument that features with him as the main attraction do not move television ratings at the moment.

Heading into 2016
A dominant Mercedes or not, Formula 1 needs three things in 2016 if viewing figures are to move in a positive direction. A resurgent McLaren. Formula 1 cannot have two world champions at the back of the field. Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button should be near the front, competing for points and podiums, week in, week out. Secondly, Ferrari to challenge Mercedes. We did see flashes of it at the start of this season, but nothing ever materialised, aside from Singapore.

From a media perspective, Lewis Hamilton versus Sebastian Vettel writes itself. We never quite got it when Vettel was at Red Bull, plus other drivers were involved in the championship battle too. Hamilton versus Vettel, Mercedes vs Ferrari. It is something the casual audience would watch and become invested in. One of the reasons why 2011 was the most watched season in the modern era was not only because of Vettel, but because of Hamilton’s on-track duels with Felipe Massa. We need to see Hamilton versus Vettel, and I hope we see that in 2016. It would draw audiences, not only in the UK but in Germany too. In my opinion, Hamilton vs Nico Rosberg is not something the general public are interested in and the viewing figures reflect that.

Lastly, Formula 1 needs the BBC. Formula 1 needs the BBC more than the BBC needs Formula 1. The BBC could replace Formula 1 with repeats on a Sunday afternoon and claim one million viewers, whereas Formula 1 would need to find a new home on ITV or Channel 4, to a significantly reduced audience, more so on the latter. I’ll finish this piece with a quote from David Coulthard: “My personal view is that if F1 allows itself to lose free-to-air television coverage in the UK, it will not only affect the popularity of the sport, and by extension the teams’ ability to raise money to compete, but it will also reduce its exposure to the next generations of engineers and mechanics. F1 has inspired people to enter a workforce that numbers tens of thousands of people – the drivers are just the lucky ones at the end of the rainbow.”

UK F1 TV viewing figures rise, but Sky hit the skids

It has been a promising start to the 2015 Formula One season in the UK, with TV viewing figures recording an increase of eight percent compared with the first half of 2014, unofficial overnight viewing figures show. The figures have been boosted by better scheduling decisions, along with closer racing heading into the Summer break.

> BBC viewing figures increase 12 percent
> Sky slides to record low
> Combined numbers up on 2012 and 2014, but down on 2013

For newer readers to the blog, it is worth mentioning what the figures cover. All the figures in this post are BARB overnight viewing figures. BBC’s viewing figures are for their entire programme, irrespective of whether it ran 160 minutes or 190 minutes. Sky’s viewing figures are for the three and a half hour slot from 12:00 to 15:30, or equivalent. The pay-TV broadcaster opted to split their race day programming into four blocks, the numbers for Sky Sports that I report on this site covers the Pit Lane Live and Race Show segments and are all weighted averages. Sky’s figures also include any simulcasts that have occurred. For the avoidance of doubt, the last four races have been simulcast on Sky Sports 1: Canada, Austria, Britain and Hungary.

To the contrary, online viewing is not included. Only Sky will know how many people are watching Formula 1 via Sky Go, similarly the same can be said for BBC iPlayer, although some figures are released into the public domain for the latter, which I’ve summarised below. All comparisons are for the first half of each season. 2015’s half way figure includes Hungary, as it was round 10 of 19. 2014’s half way analysis did not include Hungary, as it was round 11 of 19.

The 2015 story
Beginning with Sky Sports F1, their race day programming from 12:00 to 15:30 has averaged 657k. As mentioned, that number includes Sky Sports 1 simulcasts. It is the lowest number since the channel has launched. The previous lowest was for the first half of the 2013 season, which averaged 724k. The 2015 number is down 15.3 percent on the first half of 2012, down 9.3 percent on 2013, and down 11.9 percent on 2014. You don’t need to know a lot about viewing figures to realise that the numbers are grim for Sky. Only three races have increased year-on-year for the broadcaster – Spain (up 5.0 percent due to exclusivity), Austria (up 4.3 percent) and Britain (up 27.0 percent due to no Wimbledon clash). All the other races have dropped, in some cases by fairly sizeable proportions.

The substantial drop for Sky is surprising given that at the end of 2014, I was reporting the highest figures since channel launch for the broadcaster. Quoting from that post, I said: “It will be intriguing to see if Sky can continue the upwards swing heading into 2015, or whether BBC can claw back a few viewers off Sky that they have lost during 2014.” It is difficult to say exactly why the audiences have dropped, although I think the negative publicity that Formula 1 faced at the beginning of 2015 could be attributed to it. Sky’s numbers are also affected by the earlier start times for Australia, Malaysia and China, all three of which dropped year-on-year, although you would expect same day timeshift to make up the drop in figures.

Where Sky have dropped, BBC have gained. Their average audience has increased by 12 percent, up from 3.12m to 3.51m. 2015’s number is down though on 2013’s first half average number of 3.81m, which was influenced by the “multi 21” controversy, alongside the German Grand Prix highlights show directly following the final of Wimbledon. BBC’s figures so far this season are good. Luck has come their way compared with previous years: the removal of the German Grand Prix meant that BBC have three live races in a row, whilst the crew have also covered both of the surprise Ferrari victories live this season.

Only one race has recorded a lower audience on the BBC compared with last year, that being the Spanish Grand Prix which the broadcaster screened as a highlights programme versus live in 2014. Every other race has increased, which shows that, even in Sky’s fourth season, free-to-air is still king. Sky should be attempting to make in-roads into BBC’s audiences, but that is not happening, meaning that they are in turn failing to entice new people on-board.

Online and other viewing
As I have said before, tracking online viewing is incredibly difficult due to the nature of the beast. However, that is set to change soon. It was announced by BARB last month that they would be releasing the TV Player Report from September in beta. The report will provide “official figures on the level of viewing to on-demand and live-streamed content through online TV Player apps.” The report should give us a better indication of the broader picture regarding online viewing. I would expect some mentions of sporting events, depending on the size and shape of the weekly reports.

In terms of Sky Go, Sky say that it is now available in six million households.As I alluded to earlier, that figure means nothing without further detail. Just because it is available in six million households, it doesn’t mean that those six million households are using it regularly, let alone watching sports content. Over on the BBC TV, the Malaysian Grand Prix attracted 553k requests, Bahrain had 466k requests. As the BBC files show, the numbers include those that watched the live streams as well as On Demand afterwards. The highest number of requests that an F1 show has ever received on BBC iPlayer is 662k for the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix (although that is down to the circumstances involved). Aside from that, F1 has settled into the half a million requests region for iPlayer requests. If F1 is getting around that number on iPlayer, it is fair to assume that Sky Go’s numbers for Formula 1 struggle to hit 100k.

Combined audience and final thoughts
The combined TV average at the halfway stage of 2015 is 4.16m, an increase of 12 percent on 2014’s halfway figure of 3.87m. The viewing figures so far for 2015 are also up on 2012, but are down on 2013’s halfway average audience of 4.53m. Overall, the viewing figures so far have been really good, although admittedly as I have mentioned above, the BBC gets the majority of the credit for the increase. The TV viewing figures will be slightly below those recorded from between 2009 and 2011 when BBC covered the coverage exclusively, but when you include the online audience on BBC iPlayer, 2015 will not be that far behind 2011’s numbers. Working out the exact amount is impossible for a variety of reasons, but F1 2015 stands up well in comparison.

It is a very significant turnaround compared to this time last year, when I was reporting the lowest viewing figures for TV since 2008. The climb can be attributed to better scheduling, a lack of opposition this Summer, as well as a British driver being on top. However, the figures may be a surprise considering all but the last two races before the Summer break were mediocre in nature. Either way, anyone hoping that Formula 1’s viewing figures were going to drop will probably be left disappointed by the latest set of numbers. The only viewing figures that are dropping are Sky’s, a fact that they will be looking to turn around significantly in the latter half of 2015.

With reference to the 15 minute reach figures, a BBC spokesperson said “We’re delighted that our Formula 1 TV coverage continues to go from strength to strength with 1m more people watching our coverage compared to at this stage in 2014. It’s been a fantastic season so far and we look forward to bringing audiences the thrilling action of F1 for the remainder of 2015.” Sky did not respond within the timeframe to a request for comment concerning the viewing figures. If Sky do comment on the figures in the forthcoming days, I will amend this article.

F1 moves along on new media, but more work is needed

Five months ago, Formula One Management (FOM) launched official F1 accounts on both YouTube and Instagram. It was a long time in the making, and both were much needed in order to drive younger fans towards the sport, letting them engage with the content produced. How successful has it been so far?

Whilst Formula 1 has a lot of problems on and off the circuit at the moment, social media is one area where the team are starting to get things right. Their Instagram feed launched on March 14th and has since amassed 254,000 followers, which is very impressive in the time period. The majority of Formula 1’s images on Instagram get in the region of 14,000 likes, which helps boost their profile further on the image sharing website. Instagram is owned by Facebook, so some of the traffic could be coming from there. However, Formula 1 does not have an official profile on Facebook, meaning that they are missing out on a whole new audience potentially. For example, MotoGP has 752,000 subscribers on YouTube, but 8.9 million likes on Facebook. When analysing Formula 1 teams and drivers, Facebook has a bigger reach than Twitter and Instagram thanks to Facebook’s significantly bigger user base. The good news for FOM is that their own social media numbers should increase exponentially through the year as more people become aware of the content.

The thing that does surprise me is the lack of integration on the official F1 website with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. A typical article does not have options to share the content on social media websites. Compare that to the Sky Sports or BBC websites where there are various ways to share the content. If anything, FOM should be proactive towards social media services, and treat it as two-way traffic. A user posts a link to Facebook which can then drive other users towards the website, at the moment, FOM are missing out on that aspect.

In comparison to the above numbers, Formula 1’s YouTube channel has 67,000 subscribers. It is significantly lower than Instagram. I attribute that to the instant aspect of Instagram versus YouTube. With Instagram, liking pictures is instant, you are unlikely to ‘like’ a picture that is six months old. But on YouTube, you are just as likely to watch a video that was posted six months ago compared to one that was posted yesterday. Examining what videos are popular on Formula 1’s channel makes for interesting reading:

Most watched videos on Formula 1’s official YouTube channel
1. 224,000 – F1’s Greatest Lap? Ayrton Senna at Donington 1993 (uploaded 3 months ago)
2. 145,000 – Your Favourite Monaco Grand Prix – 1992 Senna v Mansell (uploaded 2 months ago)
3. 110,000 – Raikkonen Wins At Suzuka From 17th On The Grid | Japanese Grand Prix 2005 (uploaded 3 months ago)
4. 106,000 – Your Favourite Chinese Grand Prix – 2006 Schumacher’s Last Win (uploaded 3 months ago)
5. 95,000 – Michael Schumacher Weathers Stormy Sepang | 2001 Malaysian Grand Prix (uploaded 4 months ago)

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the most-watched videos on their YouTube channel contains archive video as the main draw. Sky’s viewing figures may not show that, but casual fans are clearly interested in archive footage of a bite-sized nature. The amount of archive content has increased on their YouTube channel recently, but they are not uploading much content outside of that during race weekends, with other footage instead being kept solely on the official website. On the whole area of video though, Formula One Management need to be keeping an eye on World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) recent figures for their over-the-top Network.

After a slow start last year, WWE’s new model is proving more popular, and profitable, than their old pay-per-view model for their monthly extravaganzas. With over 1.2 million subscribers for the WWE Network, other companies need to be looking to see if that model is worth investing in. And that includes FOM, as I’ve spoken about before. Wall Street certainly liked WWE’s news. Unfortunately FOM tend to be behind the bend rather than ahead of the bend. One day I hope it does happen. But their journey is only just beginning, whereas WWE began their Network journey years ago.

Personalities fill FOM’s Facebook void
As mentioned above, FOM (or Formula One Digital Media – whichever you prefer) do not currently have any presence on Facebook. The exact reason for the lack of a Facebook page is unclear, although Marissa Pace did state in interviews late last year that the plan was to launch YouTube first, then Facebook later. Whilst it is great that FOM have a strategy, it could be argued that Facebook can be exploited a lot more than YouTube, so should have been targeted first.

On Facebook, Mercedes have a combined audience of 12.26 million accounts, with a reach of around 10 million accounts. Compare that to Twitter. Mercedes there have a combined audience of 4.37 million accounts, reaching around 3 million accounts (the reach is lower than the combined audience as one account can follow many pages). Overall, Facebook from a Formula 1 fan perspective is nearly twice as popular as Twitter. Facebook is worth ten times more than Twitter, which for FOM means that they are losing a huge cut of a potential audience.

How Formula 1's and MotoGP's stars compare on social media, as of July 2015. — How Formula 1’s and MotoGP’s stars compare on social media, as of July 2015.

Trying to analyse social media demographics is incredibly difficult, but the consensus tends to be that Facebook has a broader reach, Instagram a younger reach, with Twitter potentially more dedicated in what accounts may tweet about. Looking at Formula 1 on Facebook, as alluded to above, the official Mercedes AMG Petronas account has a huge 10 million likes. It is not quite the biggest motor sport page on Facebook: Valentino Rossi has 10.77 million likes. Obviously, 10 million is a relatively small number when you compare it to football clubs, for example, Chelsea FC have 44 million likes, but it isn’t a number that should be underestimated. When including Twitter and Instagram, almost two-thirds of Mercedes followers come from Facebook. Lewis Hamilton is twice as popular as Fernando Alonso on Facebook – with 3.2 million likes compared with 1.7 million likes for the Spaniard.

Hamilton is by far Formula 1’s most popular driver across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which is partly why Mercedes’ combined audience is so much higher across these outlets. As good as Hamilton’s numbers are, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Rossi dwarfs Hamilton’s figures, although Hamilton’s combined audience across the three main social media platforms is higher than Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo. Marquez and Lorenzo though have a bigger reach than the remainder of the Formula 1 field. It doesn’t help that two of Formula 1’s biggest stars have no social media presence. Okay, I can understand why Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen stay off social media, but you can also understand why Bernie Ecclestone makes comments like he does surrounding Hamilton and his marketability.

The Formula 1 social media statistics, as of July 2015.

Ferrari has the highest skew towards Facebook, with 75 percent of their combined followers originating from there. In comparison, only 36 percent of Toro Rosso’s fans come from Facebook, although that number could drastically change if Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz continue to make an impression in the latter half of 2015. Of course, FOM have zero percent. It’s difficult to say exactly how many likes they would have on Facebook, but you have to be looking at nearly ten million likes, if not higher. The raw numbers in the two figures above really show much much you need a presence on Facebook, as I outlined earlier in this piece. Force India and Lotus have the biggest relative impact on Twitter, the latter shouldn’t be too surprising when you consider the content that they upload to the site in order to be distinctive. Only 23 percent of Mercedes’ following originates from Twitter, but this is down to the huge Facebook number rather than a low Twitter base.

Formula 1 teams, drivers and media are only just beginning to exploit Instagram, and that is clear in the figures. Only Mercedes break the one million mark. Hamilton and Felipe Massa are the only two drivers to really grab hold of the image sharing site. Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, who are big on Facebook and Twitter, currently have a very small presence (follower wise) on Instagram.

I think Formula 1 needs to exploit Facebook much more than what it currently is. That will only happen when FOM lead the way by joining the website and share content. I wonder if they are looking to be a part of Facebook’s video monetisation scheme? A lot of work has happened in the past half a year, and it will be interesting to track the numbers further as Formula 1 continues to exploit the various platforms.

Formula E: Your 2014-15 Verdict Revealed

The 2014-15 Formula E season concluded at the end of June in London, with a peak audience of nearly 1.2 million viewers watching Nelson Piquet Jr win the championship live on ITV in the UK. Since then, readers have been making their voices heard on the blog.

I posted my thoughts on Formula E’s first season a few weeks ago. Normally when I ask for people’s opinions, the responses are varied. This isn’t the case here. It is clear from the responses that the first season of Formula E was a success.

I absolutely loved the first season of the Formula E. It breathes fresh way to the sport and enhances where motor sport needs to go. Like Formula 1. – Mikey

Really enjoyed it. Surprisingly great and close racing. – Liam

Not everyone was happy about Formula E, though. Vadim was unhappy that the final round of the season was held in a park, thus closing it for the weekend:

This was a procession. Battersea Park completely wrong venue. No room to overtake and it’s trashed the park in the process. There is no way there were 30,000 people there. If there were 5,000 I’d be surprised.

There were several points made about ITV’s coverage, the first about the length of the pre-show:

I felt there was too much race “build up”, with no development and little in the way of news to report (a few driver changes), they could have cut this down. Similarly the guests in the studio were of little importance. Just some on track grid walks would suffice. – Ross

ITV did a decent job. Too much waffling on overall. There was no need for such large build ups for each race. – thomasjpitts

f1picko disagrees, feeling that ITV should do more with their Formula E coverage:

ITV need to do more with their coverage. At least present the first race, last race and all European races from the track. Show more covergae on ITV, so like, Practise live on ITV.com, Qualifying on ITV4, and then the race on ITV, with highlights on ITV4/ITV at least for all euro races and the first one.

By far the most important point for me surrounded the future of Formula E on ITV. No details for season two have yet to be announced, and as Buzzboy highlights, it is vital that Formula E does not head to pay-TV:

As an avid follower of F1 which following SKY and the BBC sell out deal as someone rightly put we are left with half a book and my interest has waned….so Formula E don’t sell out to Sky develop this sport on every level and it will grow.

The views surrounding the commentary were surprisingly split, with both positive and negative comments:

Loved the entire season and the TREMENDOUS commentary by Dario and Jack. So much fun to listen to. – not Jp

The commentary has been awful from Jack Nicholls as he gets to excited easily, he’s trying to mimic Murray Walker and it doesn’t work. – caine2013

Jennie Gow developed through the year and was decent. Great, enthusiastic commentators helped too. – thomasjpitts

There were a lot more views on the original post, but the above is just a snapshot of what blog readers are talking about.