Motor sport ratings (week ending 1st September, 2013)

Another seven days has passed which means it is times for the weekly BARB update, with MotoGP and IndyCar being the main highlights.

Live coverage of the MotoGP race from Silverstone officially averaged under 1.00 million viewers on BBC Two. This is not as surprising as it first seems given that it was longer than your typical MotoGP broadcast, with BBC live on air from 12:00 to 14:30 compared to usually 12:30 to 14:00. The overnight average from 12:00 to 14:30 was 856,000 viewers, with a 15-minute peak of 1.26 million at 13:30. The 12:30 to 14:00 overnight average was 1.04 million viewers, which is really not higher than your typical MotoGP race. As always, BARB have not reported ratings for Eurosport which is why I am unable to report their official ratings on here.

There was a motor sport double for ITV4 this week, with the Ulster Grand Prix highlights on Tuesday (27th August) averaging 250,000 viewers, whilst the Classic TT a day later averaged 243,000 viewers, both comfortably inside its top ten. On Sky Sports F1, there was a very unusual occurrence as The F1 Show was not the highest rated show of the week. That honour went to a repeat of the Midweek Report which averaged 28,000 viewers on Saturday evening (although I’m not entirely why). The F1 Show itself had 25,000 viewers, with the first airing of the Midweek Report recording 25,000 viewers. I think this is a combination of The F1 Show doing poorly by its standards this season, and the Midweek Report doing very well – which is an interesting anecdote considering the latter is filmed against a green screen and a shoe string budget.

Over on ESPN, live coverage of the IndyCar Series from Baltimore brought 12,000 viewers to the channel.

Presteigne Charter win BBC F1 outside broadcast contract

Presteigne Charter have won the outside broadcast contract for BBC’s Formula One coverage, commencing from next season. The company will take over from SIS Live, which had provided the outside broadcasts since 2009 for Formula 1.

Barbara Slater, Director of BBC Sport, said: “We were hugely impressed by the calibre of the bids we received. The mix of suppliers we now have ensures best value for money for licence fee payers and will bring more innovation to the BBC’s coverage of sporting events. We are extremely grateful for the role played by SIS Live and its staff in covering sports events over many years. We are very disappointed that an agreement could not be reached and it goes without saying that we wish them all the best in their future endeavours.”

Italian Grand Prix hits six year ratings low

The Italian Grand Prix hit a six year ratings low yesterday, overnight ratings figure suggest. Whilst Sky Sports F1 figures are unavailable, the BBC’s figures give a clear indication of the overall figures. Live coverage on BBC One, from 12:10 to 15:15 averaged 2.85 million viewers, a 26 percent share according to ITV Media. The figure is nearly identical to their Belgian Grand Prix viewership figure. The BBC’s race programme recorded a 15-minute peak figure of 3.90 million viewers at 14:00.

Despite BBC’s figures being identical to Belgium, Sky Sports F1’s figures increased by 36 percent. Whilst the channel averaged 336,000 for their Belgium programme, their Italian programme from 11:30 to 16:15 averaged 457,400 viewers. The lack of rise makes me wonder if Sky F1 was dented significantly more for BBC during the Belgian race day when the race went against two big Premier League games. After all, it is unusual to see Sky increase, but BBC stable. This is how things turn out…

Italian Grand Prix – Official Ratings
2002 – 2.85 million
2003 – 2.96 million
2004 – 2.63 million
2005 – 2.21 million
2006 – 1.89 million
2007 – 2.61 million
2008 – 3.55 million
2009 – 3.69 million
2010 – 3.51 million
2011 – 4.23 million
2012 – 4.39 million / 4.64 million (using ‘35 percent theory‘)
– overnight figures were 4.22 million / 4.46 million
2013 – 3.31 million / 3.47 million (overnight rating)

The official figures may push 2013’s rating above 2010, but it will be very tight. Apart from 2011 and 2012, it has to be said that the Italian race has historically rated low, the shorter race duration does not play in its favour. To quote something someone said last year, I have to say that yesterday’s race was probably one that was also “made for highlights“. Nevertheless, I do think yesterday’s figure is quite disappointing, there was no Premier League football on Sky to dent the F1, so I would have hoped for it to have been considerably above the Belgian figures from two weeks ago.

From here we move to Singapore, which has traditionally done very well, last year’s low was still 700,000 above yesterday’s rating. The fly-aways can vary, and this year it will depend too on which way the championship swings as to whether more lows are recorded, or whether Formula 1 does bounce back as the season marches towards the finale.

The 2012 Italian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

Update on September 13th – Broadcast magazine have reported the Italian Grand Prix ratings for Sky Sports F1, as thus I have amended the report above.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 25th August, 2013)

Again a late ratings piece because there really is not a lot of ratings up on BARB. At first I did not see much point in publishing this post, but thought I should for completeness purposes.

Starting with ESPN, live coverage of the IndyCar Series from Sonoma averaged 8,000 viewers. Other than that, the only thing worth noting is highlights of the Silverstone Classic which brought 26,000 viewers to ITV4 +1.

Motors TV’s highest rated was 27,000 viewers for Hotrax Motorsport. Whatever that might be.

BBC dump next weekend’s MotoGP to Red Button

The BBC are to screen MotoGP next weekend behind the Red Button, schedules reveal. I will be honest and say that I’m incredibly unimpressed with this one, especially in their last season of coverage before handing to BT Sport next season. They normally move the Assen race around a bit, but that in my view is fair game as that does clash with Wimbledon and tends to clash with Qualifying for the British Grand Prix in Formula 1. The Saturday schedules are as follows:

Saturday 14th September 2013
BBC One
13:00 – Live Athletics: Great City Games
14:30 to 16:30 – Triathlon: World Championship Series

BBC Two
12:45 – Caribbean Food Made Easy (R)
13:15 – University Challenge (R)
13:45 to 15:40 – EastEnders Omnibus (R)

On BBC Two, repeats take priority over MotoGP. Whether this is a case of they don’t want sport on two BBC channels at the same time, I don’t know. The Sunday schedule is as follows:

Sunday 15th September 2013
BBC One
09:30 – Live Athletics: Great North Run
13:30 – Sunday Politics
14:45 – Bargain Hunt (R)
15:30 to 16:15 – Flog It! (R)

BBC Two
12:15 – Sailing: America’s Cup Highlights
13:00 – Live Triathlon: World Series Final
15:45 – EastEnders Omnibus (R)
16:45 – Athletics: Great North Run Highlights
17:30 to 18:30 – Rugby League: Super League Play Offs

If you drawn a list of sporting priorities at the BBC, you can see from the above where MotoGP falls. Now, of course, they may have took the MotoGP decision based on the fact that they are not screening it live next year. Of course, they did bid for MotoGP next year, but BT Sport out bid them considerably. But it is a thoroughly disappointing decision, especially considering the level of coverage from Silverstone. It is difficult to see what else they could have done, unfortunately something had to give. Sunday Politics I believe has to be on BBC One because of the regional opt-outs which cannot be served on BBC Two.

Furthermore, looking at the schedules, I cannot see any repeat airing for the MotoGP on BBC One or BBC Two, or BBC Three for that matter later on Sunday or Monday. As with Qatar earlier this year, don’t expect British Eurosport to screen it live, either.

Update on September 12th – It turns out that BBC are repeating it on on BBC Two, in the early hours of Monday morning at 00:15 (England/NI), 00:30 (Wales) and 00:45 (Scotland). Thanks to @scott_gamer for the tip.