Speed TV lose Formula 1 rights in America

Speed TV have today confirmed that they have lost the rights to screen Formula 1 in America, ending a 17 year association between them and Formula One Management.

In a statement to the Association Press, a Fox Sports Media Group spokesman (who own Speed TV), said “It’s disappointing to learn that F1 has elected to move forward with a different media partner. Speed has been the U.S. voice of F1 since the mid ’90s, and it is a passion for many people at the network. Fox Sports Media Group made what we believed to be a fiscally responsible bid based on the sport’s current viewership levels, but F1 has elected to go in another direction. We wish them well.”

The news comes at an unsurprising time, and supports earlier reports that Speed were set to drop their entire Formula 1 team for 2013, something noted by Will Buxton, who said on Twitter that he had no contract with anyone in place for 2013. Now, it turns out that Speed have gone the full stretch and dropped Formula 1 altogether. One has to question now, whether the Speed channel will even exist in 2013…

A new rights holder for 2013 and beyond will be announced in due course, although if the Association Press are to be believed, then the NBC Sports Group are a contender.

Update at 19:03 UK time – Peter Windsor on Twitter is saying that NBC Sports have won the rights. Will Buxton has also posted “Just read the news via twitter. Can’t help but feel a pit on my stomach had to learn this way. But that’s life. Onwards my friends. Love you all. I want to say that the last 3 years with Bob, Steve and David have been the most enjoyable of my career. More than colleagues. Friends.” I do hope Buxton stays in the Formula 1 paddock in some capacity. Having listened to his GP2 and GP3 commentary via Sky Sports F1, it would be a shame to lose his contributions.

The Twitter outlook

F1 in Korea is in full swing, whilst over here on the blog, it is time for the weekly Twitter blog:

Drivers – The Top 10
01 – 1,175,238 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
02 – 1,143,694 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
03 – 1,123,886 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
04 – 502,197 – Bruno Senna (Williams)
05 – 448,151 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
06 – 310,004 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
07 – 275,903 – Pastor Maldonaldo (Williams)
08 – 205,445 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
09 – 182,720 – Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)
10 – 182,036 – Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)

Drivers – Biggest Increases
01 – 23,397 – Lewis Hamilton
02 – 20,590 – Fernando Alonso
03 – 19,448 – Jenson Button
04 – 9,589 – Sergio Perez
05 – 7,476 – Felipe Massa

Drivers – Smallest Increases
01 – 448 – Charles Pic
02 – 732 – Jean-Eric Vergne
03 – 939 – Daniel Ricciardo
04 – 1,469 – Nico Hulkenberg
05 – 1,895 – Heikki Kovalainen

For the first time ever in this series, Lewis Hamilton records the largest gain over the past week. It is not his biggest gain, that came a few weeks ago, but the reason he has moved into first above is because Fernando Alonso’s gains in the past month have slowed somewhat from 40k per race week to 20k per race week. I posted a month ago about their respective gains, but since then his gains have slowed.

Another interesting point is that Sergio Perez’s nine thousand gain is not his second highest as he recorded a higher increase during the Italian Grand Prix week thanks to his second place. So his McLaren move, although it put him top last week, may not result in an instant long term effect. Further down, Bruno Senna became the fourth current Formula 1 driver to break the 500,000 mark, so congratulations to him.

Teams – The Top 10
01 – 348,103 – Ferrari
02 – 244,125 – McLaren
03 – 164,992 – Red Bull
04 – 155,773 – Mercedes
05 – 141,615 – Lotus
06 – 88,329 – Caterham
07 – 83,910 – Marussia
08 – 82,115 – Force India
09 – 80,927 – Sauber
10 – 76,951 – Williams

Teams – Biggest Increases
01 – 4,769 – Ferrari
02 – 3,103 – Red Bull
03 – 3,053 – McLaren

Teams – Smallest Increases
01 – 496 – Williams
02 – 620 – Toro Rosso
03 – 790 – Caterham

An interesting few weeks for Sauber have brought them above the 80,000 follower barrier.

Driver and Team statistics as of Monday 8th October 2012.

A series suggestion for Sky Sports F1

Over the weekend, with Formula 1 being in Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix, I was thinking about classic Formula 1 race weekends where the entire weekend has told a story, whether it is about a driver, a team or a championship rivalry.

Which led me onto a series idea for Sky Sports F1 that I have. The idea is derived from the concept of the Senna film which was in the form of a documentary, except instead of covering a driver, it would cover a race weekend, from a documentary stand-point. The only problem here would be gathering up all the footage from a weekend from Formula One Management in Biggin Hill, watching it all, finding the best camera angles and editing it into a one-hour show which tells a story would be time consuming to say the least (although I would totally envy the person up for the task!).

I do think, as a concept though, it would be a brilliant, although potentially unrealistic, idea. As an hour programme (or 45 minutes without adverts), it could be edited down into:

0 minutes to 5 minutes – introduction
5 minutes to 10 minutes – Friday
10 minutes to 20 minutes – Saturday
20 minutes to 35 minutes – Sunday
35 minutes to 40 minutes – aftermath

By no means would it be a fast paced show, it would not be. The purpose would be to take you right into the heart of a race weekend, to put you into the shoes of X or Y driver. As an idea, I love it. In reality? The time consumed to look through the masses of footage for an hour programme deems this idea highly unlikely, especially considering their unwillingness to screen Classic F1 races.

In any case, we will roll with it. Pretending it was a six part series, I would use the following races in Formula 1 history to use:

1994 Australian Grand Prix
The first of two championship battles between Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill in what had been a mentally draining season on all concerned after the death of Ayrton Senna. The programme would look at Schumacher’s and Hill’s mindset going into the race weekend, and the possible influence of Nigel Mansell in deciding the destiny of the championship. From there, the swings and roundabouts of Friday’s and Saturday’s Qualifying sessions from Schumacher’s and Hill’s perspectives would be looked at in detail. And then, the race itself. Lap 36 of that race is one etched in Formula 1 history as Schumacher and Hill collided, handing Schumacher the championship. The immediate second by second aftermath would be analysed as Hill’s championship dreams were crushed and Schumacher’s were turning into a reality.

1997 European Grand Prix
Schumacher vs Villeneuve. Like 1994, this was another title battle involving Schumacher with a controversial ending. Before that, the programme would look at the respective Friday and Saturday performances from Schumacher and Villeneuve, and the dramatic Saturday Qualifying events that seen them both (along with Heinz-Harald Frentzen) record identical times. The race itself would keep track of Schumacher’s and Villeneuve’s progress and those outside of Ferrari and Williams who attempted to influence the outcome of the championship, namely Sauber and their driver Norberto Fontana. We would then get to the moment. The collision. This time, the Williams, however, did not retire. Villeneuve continued, and Schumacher was beached. From that, minute by minute we see Schumacher’s lonely walk back to the pit-lane as Villeneuve on track slowed, handing the lead to Mika Hakkinen.

2000 Japanese Grand Prix
The championship decider which left Michael Schumacher with his first championship since 1995 and Ferrari with their first in 21 years. But it was not all about Schumacher. Qualifying and the Race saw him in a titanic battle with Mika Hakkinen. There was no overtaking, but there did not need to be. The story here is “what you can do, I can do better”. And Schumacher did exactly that. The programme would look at the above and jump into the Ferrari celebrations after the race and the McLaren heartbreak. A tale, of two halves.

2002 Austrian Grand Prix
The pass. You can’t call it an overtake. It wasn’t. The programme would start exactly twelve months earlier, when the same happened as Rubens Barrichello let through Michael Schumacher for second on the final straight. It would then go onto Barrichello’s incredibly foreshadowing during interviews on Thursday before going through Qualifying and then a processional race, albeit with a horrifying crash from Takuma Sato. Afterwards, the aftermath would be felt up and down in the paddock, and later in front of the courts.

2005 United States Grand Prix
Possibly one of the more controversial Grand Prix’s in Formula 1 history. It would not be a lot about the racing, but the programme would dive into the uncomfortable setting that surrounded the Grand Prix, featuring comments as the events unfolded in a documentary style format from Friday through to the aftermath on Sunday evening as Formula 1 attempted to recover from the PR disaster.

2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
The greatest championship decider that I will probably live to ever see. Lewis Hamilton versus Felipe Massa. The dramatic build-up and their previous clashes would be outlined as well as Hamilton’s Qualifying problems. The race would be seen from unique, never before seen camera angles as Hamilton and Massa battled the elements. Massa was comfortably winning, and Hamilton was sixth. With one lap remaining, that was… and then in turned on it’s head. Hamilton passed Timo Glock on the final bend, winning the title. As in 2000, one side was celebrating, and the other was heartbroken. Except this time, it was role reversals.

As well as the above, you would get ‘as live’ quotes from the personalities involved, unique camera angles that captures the imagination and did not make it to TV as well as never before released footage from the FOM archive. Regarding the choices, you could have a lot more, but I wanted to stick to six recent ones that all Formula 1 fans, irrespective of age would remember instantly, everyone knows the races behind the moments. The documentaries, however, would dive deeper into the race weekend looking at unreleased footage to give the viewer an all rounded version of the weekend from a never before seen perspective.

Would you like to see a documentary series like this in the future if it was feasible enough?

Japanese Grand Prix draws poor viewership numbers

The Japanese Grand Prix brought poor viewership numbers this past Sunday to BBC One, with the combined average expected to be the lowest since 2008, or potentially as far back as 2004.

BBC One’s re-run airing of the race from 14:05 to 16:05 had an average of 2.36 million viewers, a 20.9% share, peaking with 2.79 million viewers at 15:30. Without even considering the positive effect that the BBC and Sky deal should have on the BBC One highlights shows for Asian races, the fact that it is only slightly up on last year’s 2.3 million viewers, and 600k up on the 1.8 million viewers for 2010 can only be described as poor. Going further back, the 2008 daytime re-run on ITV1 had 2.36 million viewers, identical to this past Sunday, whilst the 2009 highlights show brought 2.25 million viewers on BBC One.

So yesterday’s highlights show did not fair significantly better than in previous years despite a lot less people no doubt watching the live airing. Last year’s live broadcast airing from 06:00 had 2.1 million viewers, and Sky Sports F1 had less than a quarter of that. Here is a breakdown on previous years for the Japanese Grand Prix:

2004 – 2.86 million (1.32 million + 1.54 million)
2005 – 3.32 million (1.32 million + 2.00 million)
2006 – 3.49 million (1.19 million + 2.30 million)
2007 – 3.04 million (729k + 2.31 million)*
2008 – 3.14 million (785k + 2.36 million)*
2009 – 3.61 million (1.36 million + 2.24 million)
2010 – 3.70 million (1.90 million + 1.80 million)
2011 – 4.40 million (2.10 million + 2.13 million)

* note – the drop for 2007 and 2008 can be attributed to the change of track from Suzuka to Fuji meaning that the race started 90 minutes earlier in the UK

The reason why the live airings have skyrocketed in the last two years is because of more people recording the live airing and watching it later in the day, anyone that watches a programme before 02:00 will be counted in that days overnights, so do not assume that 500,000 more people got up early in 2010 compared with 2009, it just means that more people watched the “live” airing of the Japanese Grand Prix (a little bit more on the data that I use here).

In any case, the 2.36 million for BBC for this past Sunday is not a “out of the ordinary” number. Yes it is joint top alongside 2008, but arguably it should be higher when you consider that Sky Sports F1 will have lower numbers. None of Sky Sports F1’s race airings made ITV Media’s top 10, meaning each individual airing had under 559,000 viewers.

I don’t like to include Sky’s first repeat number, in Sunday’s case the 11:30 because given the money people have forked out to pay for the channel I would like to think that they would make the effort to watch it live! In any case, even if the live airing (+ re-run airing if you wish to) had 670,000 viewers, it would be the lowest figure since 2004. Which would be quite frankly a horrific statistic. If I do see any Sky Sports F1 numbers, I shall add them, but expect “low” rather than “high”.

Onto Qualifying, the BBC highlights show had 1.64 million viewers, down on the 1.97 million viewers for last year’s re-run. So not pretty figures all around, really.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 30th September, 2012)

From BARB, thankfully there is no data delay this week so it is straight onto the top 10:

1 – 80k – The F1 Show (Friday, 20:00)
2 – 17k – Singapore Grand Prix Highlights (Monday, 16:30)
3 – 13k – The F1 Show (Sunday, 20:00)
4 – 11k – Fast Track (Tuesday, 23:00)
5 – 11k – Fast Track (Thursday, 18:30)
6 – 10k – The F1 Show (Friday, 23:20)
7 – 8k – Fast Track (Saturday, 12:00)
8 – 8k – 2002 Season Review: Part 2 (Friday, 22:10)
9 – 7k – Fast Track (Saturday, 11:00)
10 – 6k – Fast Track (Thursday, 20:30)

Welp. The F1 Show has its highest rating for a studio show since Friday 1st June, when the first showing had 86,000 viewers, but even so I was expecting over 100,000 viewers considering it was a massive news day by Formula 1 standards on that day, with Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes and Sergio Perez to McLaren. You can’t really get much bigger than that, yet it is under 100,000. Disappointing.

The rest of the line-up is what happens when the line-up is filled with repeats and programmes not aimed at the dedicated section of Formula 1 fans. The current slate of programming, “Weekend in Stills” and “Weekend in Words” are very rarely in the top 10’s.