Motor sport ratings (week ending 7th July, 2013)

As I noted in the overnight ratings report for the German Grand Prix, the Wimbledon final had a significant effect on the ratings for the race. The highlights programme on BBC One averaged a huge 5.26 million viewers in the official BARB ratings thanks to the tennis lead-in. Sky Sports F1’s race programme averaged 743,000 viewers, bringing the average to 6.00 million viewers. It will be a tough ask for that to be beaten late in the season, you would probably be asking for the title race to go down to the wire, and I don’t think that is looking likely at the moment.

Elsewhere on Sky Sports F1:

– 437,000 – Live Qualifying (Saturday, 12:00)
– 101,000 – Live Practice 3 (Saturday, 09:45)
– 80,000 – Live Practice 1 (Friday, 08:45)
– 72,000 – Live GP3 Race 2 (Sunday, 08:20)
– 68,000 – Live GP2 Race 2 (Sunday, 09:30)
– 60,000 – Live Practice 2 (Friday, 12:45)

All of the live Formula 1 ratings on Sky Sports F1 were down year-on-year. However, last year’s race weekend was free to Sky and Virgin Media customers. Maybe Sky should do the same tactic for next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix?

In the feeder series’, some impressive ratings comparatively speaking for GP2 and GP3, GP3’s Race 2 figure was higher than any figure recorded for the series during 2012, so very good stuff there. GP3 peaked with 92,000 viewers, again one of the higher peaks I’ve seen. It all comes down to promotion for the feeder series, but that appears to be improving slightly, GP2’s Jon Lancaster was seen doing a live interview with Sky Sports News last week following his German Grand Prix victory.

Motors TV struggled this week, with no ratings above 7,000 viewers, whilst over on ITV4, the Tour de France continued with highlights bringing in between 371,000 and 612,000 viewers.

Scheduling: The 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix

The first of two Summer breaks is over for the majority of the Formula 1 drivers as the field head to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix. This year’s calendar is a bit odd in that there is a three week gap between Germany and Hungary, then a four week gap between Hungary and Belgian, this mainly down to the fact that round 20 failed to materialise. Hopefully next year’s calendar is better planned instead of being a stop/start mess…

Onto the schedule itself, and it is a BBC highlights weekend, so highlights are at the beginning of primetime for both Qualifying and the Race. Sky’s schedule is as expected, with the usual GP2 and GP3 action alongside the Formula 1. The Classic F1 races this week are 1986, 1993, 1997, 2003 and 2011. ~~On BBC Radio, Practice 3 will be online only due to athletics from London and Lyon.~~ Allan McNish will not be with the team this weekend, but will be back for his final two races in Belgian and Italy.

Saturday 20th July
20:00 to 20:45 – F1: 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and James Hunt
– repeated on Friday 26th July at 18:00

Sunday 21st July
20:00 to 20:50 – F1: 1993 Hungarian Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Jonathan Palmer
– repeated on Friday 26th July at 18:45

Monday 22nd July
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 28th July at 16:45

Tuesday 23rd July
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 28th July at 06:05

Wednesday 24th July
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 2011 Hungarian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Martin Brundle and David Coulthard
– repeated on Saturday 27th July at 17:05

Thursday 25th July
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
21:00 to 22:00 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
22:30 to 22:45 – F1: Gear Up for Hungary (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 26th July
08:45 to 11:00 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
11:00 to 11:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
12:55 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
14:50 to 15:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:00 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 27th July
08:45 to 09:30 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
10:15 to 11:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:55 to 14:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
14:35 to 16:00 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:05 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
17:15 to 18:40 – F1: Qualifying Highlights (BBC One)

Sunday 28th July
08:20 to 09:10 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:35 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
13:00 to 14:30 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
16:15 to 16:45 – GP Uncovered: Tribute to Fangio (Sky Sports F1)
17:05 to 18:35 – F1: Race Highlights (BBC One)

As always, the timings are subject to slight alterations, so I shall update this blog if and when that happens.

The contractual battle

The news today that the BBC have won the rights to screen The FA Cup from the 2014-15 football season alongside BT Sport means that it is another contract battle that has been resolved. It is very good news for both, but from differing perspectives.

For BBC, it means that they have secured a contract which lasts a significant duration. The contract signed between them and The FA will last until the end of the 2017-18 season. It is the latest in a long line of contracts which is now secure for the next three years or more on the BBC:

– Premier League – expires 2016 (source)
– The Open Golf – expires 2016 (source)
– Wimbledon – expires 2017 (source)
– Six Nations Rugby – expires 2017 (source)
– The FA Cup – expires 2018 (source)
– Formula 1 – expires 2018 (source)
– Olympic Games – expires 2020 (source)

For BT Sport it means that they retain the cup having inherited ESPN UK’s contract for this upcoming season. For the moment on the contractual front, there is a breather before the next round of negotiations start concerning the first few of those contracts – rumours are already beginning concerning the Open Golf and Wimbledon, for example. I don’t expect any of the contracts, including Formula 1, to be broken half way through. I’d be incredibly surprised if that happened.

As for what happens with those contracts, attention now turns to the launch of BT Sport. It is not necessarily the first few weeks what are vital, but the first six months – from August to Christmas. Yes, the first few weeks are important, but it is not all of a sudden game over if the viewing figures and reaction are not what they hoped for. BT in their channel analysis won’t be looking at just one rating or just one figure, but they will be analysing trends over the upcoming months.

If things do not go to plan, then unfortunately for them, Sky Sports will have the cards to potentially deliver a knock out blow later in the game and BT Sport will have to go back to the drawing board. If that does happen, BT Sport could end up the next ITV Digital or Setanta Sports. At this stage, it is impossible to say what will happen, but like I say above, we will be in a much clearer position come Christmas. On the other hand, if things do go to plan, and the uptake for the channel is better then expected, then in their words this could well be a ‘game changer’. Better than expected results mean that they can put more money in and also try and push the boundaries in what they can offer.

And that’s where the above contracts come in. BT will be in a position to say “we can bring audiences to the channel” which will lead to potentially many battles between them, Sky, BBC and ITV. With some spare funds, ITV a few years down the line could bid for any of them, although it has been noted previously that ITV overbid for The FA Cup (as did Setanta) so they may very well be glad to see the back of that deal. I know that some will probably disagree with me here, but it was in a way lucky that the BBC and Sky Formula 1 rights deal happened when it did. Had BBC seen out its contract (which originally would have expired at the end of 2013), right now in a parallel world, we could be seeing both BT and Sky both fighting for the Formula 1 contract from 2014 with BBC left out in the cold with highlights! Yes, two years ago no one, including myself, wanted to see Formula 1 on Sky. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and in hindsight things could have ended up a lot worse than what they did. As for the next round of rights, if BT Sport is still running, it could be all for play for. And that’s not just for F1. That’s for any of those contracts.

Is that good for the consumer, you may ask? I don’t know. With the amount of money broadcasters are paying for lucrative contracts, it means that inevitably price hikes happen every so often. Whether BT Sport will continue to offer BT Sport free to all people with BT Broadband for example this time next year remains to be seen. From the outside, it will be fascinating to see what happens with BT Sport and whether they can walk the walk as well as talk the talk…

Motor sport ratings (week ending 30th June, 2013)

Another week with no Sky Sports F1 ratings on BARB, however, good news is that there are Sky F1 ratings on there for week ending July 7th, so some good news at last on that front! I’ll update the site with those numbers later in the week.

Live coverage of the British Grand Prix from 12:10 to 15:30 on BBC One officially averaged 3.80 million viewers, which placed it only 23rd on the channel’s top 30 chart for the week. The highlight over on ITV4 was the beginning of the Tour de France. Highlights of the first two days averaged 422,000 and 521,000 viewers respectively, with live coverage of the Sunday averaging 282,000 viewers.

Outside of that, it was a quiet week, Motors TV’s highest rating was Tractor Pulling on 26th June which averaged 11,000 viewers, whilst NASCAR highlights had 8,000 viewers on ESPN UK.

BBC receive complaints about German Grand Prix Qualifying spoiler

The BBC have received complaints about the German Grand Prix qualifying result being revealed during their Wimbledon broadcast. The qualifying programme was broadcast from 17:55 to 19:10, but the result was revealed by Sue Barker at about 17:25 during the preceding Wimbledon programme.

The statement read: “We received complaints from viewers who were unhappy that the result of the Formula One German Grand Prix Qualifying was revealed. The reference to Lewis Hamilton having secured pole position in the Formula One German Grand Prix Qualifying earlier that day was an unfortunate error made by the Wimbledon production team. The intention was to promote BBC One’s coverage of the German Grand Prix Final the following day, but in doing so the team failed to realise that at that point BBC One’s highlights of the Qualifying had yet to be broadcast. We apologise for this error and that it affected some viewers’ enjoyment of our Qualifying highlights programme. BBC Sport have reminded their teams of the importance of checking transmission schedules before such promotions.”

At that point in the broadcast, you would not have expected the result to have been revealed on air, so you can see why complaints were made. Normally, with Match of the Day for example, results are revealed with a disclaimer on the BBC News beforehand, but this was during a prior sporting programme where no disclaimer was given on air.