Sky confirm races to remain advert-free in 2013

Sky have confirmed that all races next year on their Sky Sports F1 channel will remain advert-free. This post on their Help Forum by a Sky employee notes that “as per this season the actual races will be advert free”.

So it appears that things will remain the same with regards Sky’s advert policy concerning Formula 1. The saying ‘plans are always subject to change’ come into mind, especially considering it is a forum post, but given that it is from a Sky employee, you can take the post as somewhat official. In any case, it seems that Sky are planning to continue with the no advert approach during the races in 2013, which is a sensible move in my opinion.

Interestingly, though, one question raised by the original user, that being whether Sky Sports F1 will be part of the HD subscription for 2013, was not answered. No answer would suggest to me that the HD part is ‘under review’. In 2012, the channel was available for those with either the Sports package or the HD package, time will tell whether it will instead be exclusively for the Sports package from 2013.

How the title decider fared around Europe

Whilst the Brazilian Grand Prix decider fared better than expected in the United Kingdom, the title decider also delivered large ratings around Europe.

Starting in Sebastian Vettel’s and Fernando Alonso’s home countries, in Germany, the race aired on RTL and Sky Deutschland. RTL recorded a race average of 10.62 million viewers (40.9% share), whilst a further 610,000 viewers watched on Sky Deutschland. Interestingly, this is a split of 95% vs 5% for Sky, which is a larger gap than in the UK where it tends to be about 82% vs 18%. It may be that the title decider brought more casual viewers to RTL, meaning that the split was larger than usual. Over in Spain, the race on Antenna 3 averaged 7.15 million viewers, with a very similar share to that in Germany – a 41.7% share. Year-on-year, the increase is massive, the race last year having averaged 2.76 million viewers which shows how much it means to broadcasters for a title to be decided at the final race and in primetime.

Outside of the those two countries, the race also performed admirably in Italy. The F1 was comfortably the winner of the day there, the race peaking with 9.65 million viewers, a 45% share. In contrasting style, Netherlands’ viewership was 674,000 viewers on RTL7, a 15.1% share, although one has to take into account the lack of Formula 1 presence with no drivers or race held in Netherlands. So, from those four countries, and the UK, you are looking at a combined viewership already of 34 million viewers. I don’t know how that compares with last year or historically, but it shows how many viewers Formula 1 reaches from a small set of countries.

Across Europe, however, a few new deals come into effect from next year. In Italy, Sky Italia will screen eleven races exclusively live next season while in Netherlands the majority of races will be aired on pay-TV station Sport1. Whilst it will have a detrimental effect for some races, the nature of the deals means that the last race of the season will always be on terrestrial television meaning that the potential for big ratings is still there. Obviously, though, there is not always the guarantee that the title decider will go on to the final round…

Brazilian Grand Prix peaks with over 7 million viewers

The concluding race of the 2012 Formula One season peaked with over 7 million viewers yesterday, overnight viewing figures show. The Brazilian Grand Prix, which saw Sebastian Vettel crowned triple world champion averaged 5.17 million viewers, a 28.3% share of the audience, from 15:00 to 18:15 on BBC One. The race peak came at 17:45 as 6.64 million viewers, a 30% share, saw Jenson Button win the race following Paul di Resta’s crash. The 15-minute breakdown for BBC One went as follows:

– 15:00 – 2.49m (18.0%)
– 15:15 – 3.11m (21.8%)
– 15:30 – 3.69m (24.9%)
– 15:45 – 4.24m (26.8%)
– 16:00 – 5.51m (31.9%)
– 16:15 – 5.74m (32.3%)
– 16:30 – 5.81m (31.6%)
– 16:45 – 6.08m (31.9%)
– 17:00 – 6.10m (30.4%)
– 17:15 – 6.44m (30.5%)
– 17:30 – 6.57m (30.6%)
– 17:45 – 6.21m (28.5%)
– 18:00 – 5.26m (23.9%)

Looking at the more detailed five-minute breakdown, the race started with 5.39 million viewers (31.6% share) at 16:00, growing to 5.87 million viewers by 16:30. Ratings dipped slightly then to 5.70 million at 16:40 before climbing back to 6.19 million ten minutes later – partly thanks to the football going to half time, that dropped from 1.94 million to 1.25 million viewers. Figures largely stayed stable around 6.1 million before climbing to 6.5 million at 17:20, remaining at that level before the 6.64 million peak at 17:45.

When combined with Sky Sports F1, who’s figures and peak I have not seen yet, the peak will rise above 7 million viewers – it is a fair assumption to say Sky Sports F1 had a peak of more than 360,000 viewers. The peak will be down on 2008 and 2009, but in line with the conclusion of the 2010 season which had 7.2 million viewers at its peak for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It is above the average prediction from readers’ of 6.3 million viewers, however.

The F1 yesterday was probably dented by the football, shaving a potential 500,000 viewers from the audience, although I note that the denting was the other way around as well. The Chelsea vs Manchester City ‘Ford Super Sunday’ match averaged 1.30 million viewers, a 6.5% share, from 15:30 to 18:30 which is down on the comparative audience for Liverpool vs Manchester City last year and also was marginally lower than Swansea vs Liverpool just before it as well. The football peaked with 2.23 million at 17:45.

My own opinion is that the figures are good when you also consider that there were no British drivers fighting for the title, and above what I was anticipating. If Sky Sports F1 does add another 1 million to the peak, then the figures will definitely be worth smiling about for both broadcasters’. Overall though, across the season, and I hope to confirm this in the ‘2012 End of Season Verdict’ pieces in December, the ratings have been at their lowest since 2008, something that should not be overlooked.

I shall update this blog if I find the Sky figures – the ‘over 7 million’ peak may be revised to ‘just under 8 million’ if necessary.

Source: Attentional, ITV Media

BBC F1 versus Sky Sports F1: Your Verdict

The Brazilian Grand Prix is over and the 2012 Formula One World Champion has been crowned. The BBC F1 Forum and Sky Sports F1 race day programmes have gone off air for the final time this season.

I’ve illustrated many times on this blog the positives and negatives of both BBC and Sky in the past seven months on this blog. But now, I want your opinion.

The comments section is open for everyone to comment, so get your BBC and Sky thoughts in below this post. Where do you think BBC’s and Sky’s weaknesses are? What would you change for 2013? Where do you think either broadcaster excels? What would you add to the coverage? The best thoughts will be put into a new blog post in a few weeks time.

The Twitter outlook

After a fantastic return to America, this weekend it is Brazil for the final round of the 2012 season. Did America boost Twitter’s standings larger than normal? Let’s find out…

Drivers – The Top 10
01 – 1,278,415 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
02 – 1,245,533 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
03 – 1,224,844 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
04 – 521,308 – Bruno Senna (Williams)
05 – 491,540 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
06 – 343,673 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
07 – 301,045 – Pastor Maldonaldo (Williams)
08 – 219,425 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
09 – 213,621 – Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
10 – 200,594 – Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)

Drivers – Biggest Increases
01 – 33,244 – Fernando Alonso
02 – 19,348 – Lewis Hamilton
03 – 11,804 – Jenson Button
04 – 10,067 – Mark Webber
05 – 7,906 – Felipe Massa

Drivers – Smallest Increases
01 – 559 – Charles Pic
02 – 756 – Jean-Eric Vergne
03 – 889 – Timo Glock
04 – 1,073 – Vitaly Petrov
05 – 1,094 – Daniel Ricciardo

Some very large rises this week compared to normal in the charts, specifically Pedro de la Rosa jumped over 7,000 followers to break into the 200,000 follower club! By far his largest rise, so congratulations to him.

With Brazil being his home race, expect Felipe Massa to be in front of Nico Rosberg when next week comes around.

Teams – The Top 10
01 – 376,418 – Ferrari
02 – 262,153 – McLaren
03 – 191,543 – Red Bull
04 – 164,664 – Mercedes
05 – 158,005 – Lotus
06 – 92,668 – Caterham
07 – 90,995 – Marussia
08 – 90,595 – Sauber
09 – 90,471 – Force India
10 – 80,439 – Williams

Teams – Biggest Increases
01 – 6,084 – Red Bull
02 – 5,334 – Ferrari
03 – 4,652 – McLaren

Teams – Smallest Increases
01 – 811 – Caterham
02 – 843 – Toro Rosso
03 – 962 – Williams

A lot of milestones broken here. Marussia, Sauber and Force India break the 90,000 follower barrier with Sauber overtaking Force India too. And having won the Constructors’ Championship, I guess it is only fair that Red Bull record the biggest increase in the teams table.

Driver and Team statistics as of Tuesday 20th November 2012.