Australian Grand Prix ratings increase, but Sky’s decrease

The Australian Grand Prix viewing figures increased on 2012, overnight figures show. However, the increase was due to BBC’s viewing figures, was offset somewhat by Sky’s viewing figures as their ratings decreased versus 2012.

Last year, BBC One’s highlights show averaged 2.73m (22.9%), compared with 3.05m (21.9%) for yesterday’s highlights show. In comparison, Sky Sports F1’s live show from 04:30 to 09:00 averaged 526,000 viewers (16.7%) last year, whereas yesterday it had 431,000 viewers (13.5%). If we are to take Sky’s average from 05:00 to 08:00 – which is comparable with previous BBC years – the Sky average is 571,000 viewers (23.8%) versus 617,000 viewers last year. The combined average is therefore 3.62 million which, although up on last year’s 3.35 million, is still down on all the figures from 2008 onwards.

Away from the averages, the combined peak was also up – 4.58 million viewers yesterday compared with 4.30 million. Again, the BBC One peak was up versus last year (3.69 million vs 3.28 million), whilst Sky’s peak was down versus last year (893,000 versus 1.02 million).

Qualifying 1 coverage on BBC rated superbly – averaging 2.71 million (24.6%), peaking with 3.08 million (27.5%). Qualifying 2 and 3 rated similarly well at 05:15, winning the slot and averaging 576,000 viewers (41.0%), beating Sky Sports F1. Qualifying 1 coverage live on Sky averaged 211,000 viewers (9.6%), peaking with 387,000 (18.1%) at 06:35. Qualifying 2 and 3 on the channel peaked with 309,000 viewers (4.1%).

Overall, BBC will be very pleased to see their figures healthy, but Sky may be a bit concerned to see their figures down year-on-year.

Scheduling: The 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

Round 1 in Australia may have finished, but the Formula 1 season quickly heads to Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian Grand Prix, held at the Sepang International Circuit. As with last weekend, the action is live on Sky Sports F1 and BBC Radio 5 Live. BBC television will again be providing afternoon highlights.

Malaysia also marks the beginning of the 2013 GP2 season, the championship will again be live on Sky Sports F1, starting with their practice session in the early hours of Friday morning. Commentary, as in 2012, will be from Will Buxton. Unfortunately, I can’t spot any daytime repeats at the moment in the Sky schedules for GP2, the first repeat at a sensible time is on Tuesday 26th March at 20:00.

Tuesday 19th March
19:30 to 21:45 – F1: 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 22nd March at 11:00
21:45 to 00:00 – F1: 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 22nd March at 17:45

Wednesday 20th March
19:30 to 21:45 – F1: 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 23rd March at 09:45
21:45 to 00:00 – F1: 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 23rd March at 16:45

Thursday 21st March
07:00 to 07:40 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
18:00 to 18:15 – F1: Gear Up for Malaysia (Sky Sports F1)
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 24th March at 22:30
20:30 to 21:30 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Friday 22nd March
01:45 to 03:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
03:55 to 04:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
05:45 to 07:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
05:55 to 07:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
07:50 to 08:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:00 to 09:40 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
10:00 to 11:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 23rd March
03:10 to 04:35 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
– repeated on Saturday 23rd March at 22:45
04:45 to 06:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
05:00 to 06:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
07:00 to 09:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
07:55 to 09:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
13:00 to 14:15 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 24th March
04:10 to 05:10 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
– repeated on Sunday 24th March at 17:30
06:30 to 11:00 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
11:00 to 11:30 – GP Uncovered (Sky Sports F1)
07:45 to 09:45 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
14:30 to 16:30 – F1: Race (BBC One)

As always, if anything changes I shall update this blog if necessary.

Update on March 21st – A few minor adjustments to the schedule, with two GP2 repeats being added in.

Updated Schedule: The 2013 Australian Grand Prix

With the changes to the BBC and Sky schedules thanks to today’s Qualifying postponement, I have ditched the original post. For the remainder of the weekend, refer to the amended times below:

Saturday 16th March
13:00 to 13:55 – F1: Qualifying 1 (BBC One)
17:45 to 18:00 – Ted’s Qualifying Notebook (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
23:45 to 01:30 – F1: Qualifying 2 and 3 (Sky Sports F1)
00:00 to 01:00 – F1: Qualifying 2 and 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Sunday 17th March
04:30 to 09:30 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
05:15 to 06:00 – F1: Qualifying 2 and 3 (BBC One)
05:30 to 08:00 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
12:30 to 12:45 – Ted’s Race Notebook (Sky Sports F1)
14:20 to 16:20 – F1: Race (BBC One)
– note: For Scotland viewers, the race is on BBC Two

As you can see, BBC’s Qualifying 2 and 3 coverage directly clashes with Sky’s build-up. I don’t know if that is deliberate on their behalf, or just a case of not room for maneuver regarding their main highlights show in the afternoon.

The new face of Formula 1

From Rider to Rosenthal, back to Rider and onto Humphrey to front Formula 1 on terrestrial television. In came Lazenby for Sky. And now from Humphrey to Perry. In comes Suzi Perry, the new face of Formula 1. Perry will, on Saturday, become the new face of BBC’s Formula 1 programming. But will she be as successful as those before her?

Steve Rider fronted Formula 1 for both BBC and ITV. Rider was the host of BBC’s coverage from the early 1980s to 1996. Back then, there was no laborious travelling around the world to present the sport as the majority of Rider’s presenting was part of BBC’s Grandstand strand, coming from their London studio at Television Centre. Staying in the UK was part of the reason why Rider held the role for so long. Towards the end of BBC’s contract, the team did travel to European races more, Rider still hosting alongside Tony Jardine in the pit-lane and on the grid.

When ITV picked up the rights to Formula 1, the production rights went out to tender. Chrysalis initially had Steve Rider as part of their bid to produce ITV’s coverage, but in the late stages, the two went in different directions. After considering Philip Schofield and John Leslie for the presenter’s role, Rider suggested to Jim Rosenthal that he should put himself forward to present. Chrysalis won the bid, and produced Formula 1 for ITV from 1997 to 2008, later becoming North One Television. Rosenthal held the presenting role from 1997 to 2005 before stepping aside at the end of that season. His tenure at ITV F1 began with him, Jardine and Simon Taylor presenting the show from an on-site studio, before moving into the paddock at the start of the 2004 season in an effort to bring viewers closer to the action. Rosenthal for ITV was a safe pair of hands, and was the right choice for them as he steered them through difficult years whilst Michael Schumacher dominated proceedings.

Rosenthal was succeeded by a familiar face though as Rider returned to the fray for three seasons. Unlike his first stint, Rider presented the action alongside Mark Blundell from the pit-lane. Whilst Rider was, again, a safe pair of hands, the pairing of him and Blundell was not the most riveting pair ever and soon the build-up discussion between the two became a bit ‘dull’. That would be no fault of Rider’s, but probably of the production team who did not seem to push the boundaries at this point, with Rider and Blundell seemingly situated in the same place in pit-lane for the entire pre race build-up.

Rider’s second spell ended in 2008 as BBC won the rights back from ITV. Instead of going with experience like ITV, BBC went for youth in 2009 as they made Jake Humphrey their new face of Formula 1. On the face of it, it was a potentially risky move going for youth instead of a veteran who held years of experience. But you can also see the logic in it, a younger presenter can help bring a new generation of viewers with him, in turn increasing viewing figures. The product, partly thanks to Humphrey’s presenting style, was a hit with viewers with the BBC programme well received. Humphrey was also helped by two fantastic pundits in David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan. Had you replaced Humphrey in Steve Rider, the results may have been similar in nature, although having a new, fresh look helped them.

Thanks to the broadcasting changes in 2011, Simon Lazenby was next to join the vast array of Formula 1 presenting talent for Sky last year. This year, he is joined by Suzi Perry, as the two will be presenting Formula 1 for Sky and BBC respectively. To her advantage, Perry has a significant amount of motor sport presenting experience having presented MotoGP for BBC for over ten years. Personally, I think Perry will do well as BBC presenter. It helps for her as well that the first two races are not live so that she can gel with the remainder of the team. At the end of the 2012, there was a question of whether the BBC team would be weaker without Humphrey. If anything, with the introductions of Perry and Tom Clarkson, their television production should be stronger than ever before.

Life behind the camera

In front of the camera, life as a Formula 1 presenter or pundit may be glamorous being on location from many different places around the world. During a race weekend, the presenter and pundits would run through the respective shows’ with the editors and discuss the running order. From then, the show goes to air, with both BBC and Sky presenting their output live from a buzzing pit lane as the intensity increases closer to the race. Behind the camera though, things are not as glamorous. “Well firstly I get to spend very little time in the paddock as I am usually sat in a technical room, OB Unit or cabin within in the Broadcast Compound!” Laughter as it may sound, those are the words of one member of the BBC F1 team.

Carl Dolan is a small, but essential member of the BBC F1 production, working as part of the SIS Live Outside Broadcast team. Dolan’s role as Sound Supervisor involves him mixing the presentation output throughout the live BBC programmes. “When a large sporting outside broadcast happens, there are often two production areas or galleries operating at the same time. One gallery covers the actual event for example a football match, often called the host coverage, and the other covers the presentation. The presentation gallery runs the programme titles on and uses the presenters to introduce and close the event,” Dolan notes.

Like many people within the BBC F1 team, Dolan’s career in the industry has spanned decades. Starting out at Television Centre with the BBC in the 1980’s, Dolan moved onto their Music department, becoming a radio producer with the corporation. Moving into the 1990’s, Dolan recalls: “Motorsport has always been my first love, although I am actually more into rallying than racing. I drove in the Mintex National Rally Series in the 90’s, and I was involved in the British Rally Championship coverage on Top Gear Motorsport, working on the Rally GB and previously the Lombard RAC Rally coverage back in the day with Tony Mason.”

More recently, Dolan has been a part of the ITV4 team producing the British Touring Car Championship programme, before becoming a part of the BBC F1 team in 2012. The ITV programme presents its own challenges, as the team are on air for seven hours during a race day. Despite this, from a production perspective, the advantage for ITV over BBC is that any issues can be fixed during commercial breaks.

“They both present their own challenges,” Dolan says. “ITV is broken into segments of race coverage and obviously commercial breaks, and these can be very useful whether it might be to solve a technical problem or take a comfort break! The live BBC One coverage is a marathon session of concentration – I have to totally focus at all times. During the race, Ben Edwards throws to Gary Anderson regularly often without warning, so I have to make sure that I am listening and don’t miss fading Gary’s microphone up. When the programme is over, we have 1 minute before the forum starts on the Red Button so it’s quite a quick changeover. The highlights show is equally demanding as although we may not be live in the UK, Ben and David’s commentary is still going out live in other territories.”

Dolan’s first race was the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. Dolan shadowed the previous Sound Supervisor before taking over fully a few races later. Because of this, it was one of Dolan’s only opportunities at witnessing Formula 1 live. “As I was shadowing the previous Sound Supervisor, I managed to nip out to watch and hear the start of the race. Alonso overtook the two Red Bull’s and Hamilton to lead going into the first corner and the Spanish crowd went mad – it was an amazing experience. I knew that I would never get the chance again to witness it as I would be mixing sound levels in front of a monitor in the compound.”

Although Dolan is a part of the BBC team for every Formula 1 race, he does continue his British Touring Car Championship duties – following the Malaysian Grand Prix, Dolan will be going straight to Brands Hatch for round one of their season. Alongside this, Dolan also works on programmes such as The One Show, Top Gear, Film 2013 and ESPN’s coverage of The FA Cup. In his interview with me, Dolan discussed the effect that the Sky Sports F1 team had on his output and said what the future held for himself: “It has been great and never viewed on the ground as a competition. We know many of the technical staff from various broadcasters not just Sky – some of them worked on the BBC coverage and as I say many other international broadcasters. So there is a feeling of camaraderie and team work throughout the broadcast compound. The industry moves very quickly as we saw in 2011 when the deal was announced that BBC was to share rights with Sky, so who knows what the future holds for me personally.”

Follow Carl Dolan on Twitter: @CarlJDolan
Follow SIS Live on Twitter: @SIS Live