BTCC is best of the rest on Sunday

Away from the Formula 1 last Sunday, which peaked with 5.55m (46.3%), there was a lot of motor sport action on Sunday, albeit most of it occurred in the early hours. Nevertheless, as expected, the figures are once again a reminder that, in the UK at least, the F1 stands head and shoulders above anything else. And sadly, where BTCC and MotoGP are concerned, viewers appear to be tuning out…

The factors associated with both though are different. The British Touring Car Championship finale aired on ITV4 across a whopping eight hours, from 10:15 to 18:30. The entire programme averaged 186k (1.6%) according to overnight viewing figures, peaking with 360k (3.6%) at 15:00 at the conclusion of race two. The first of three races peaked with 99k (1.1%) at 11:40, whilst the final race peaked with 357k (2.0%) at 17:45, the huge difference in number can be put down to the fact that race one clashed with the build-up and early laps of the Russian Grand Prix, clearly taking a bite out of the audience.

I haven’t looked at all the numbers in detail, but there does appear to have been a fairly big fall in comparison to 2012 and 2013. Last year’s season finale averaged 328k (2.6%), peaking with 697k (3.8%) for the final race of the day, although that was with no F1 clash. Even so, that doesn’t account for the peak figure, outside of the F1 timeslot, dropping by almost half. I’m not sure why the figures have dropped year-on-year, but something has changed to make people turn off.

Meanwhile, over in Motegi, BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage peaked with 108k (10.1%) at 06:05. Their live programme from 02:45 to 07:15 averaged 42k (3.8%), with the MotoGP portion from 05:30 averaging 74k (6.4%). As always at this point, it is worth me pointing out that the figures include anyone who timeshifted that programme before 02:00 on Monday morning, it does not mean that 108k were up watching MotoGP at 06:05 in the morning, it just means that an average of 108k watched that five-minute ‘segment’ before 02:00 on Monday, which is the cut off for overnight ratings. BT’s repeat averaged 34k (0.3%) from 12:00 to 13:30, peaking with 79k (0.7%). ITV4’s highlights programme on Monday evening brought 283k (1.3%), which I believe is their lowest MotoGP rating of the year so far.

What that means is that the MotoGP year-on-year comparisons with the BBC are worse than usual. 204k (18.4%) watched BBC Two’s live airing last year, with 900k (8.1%) catching the repeat. A combined audience of 1.10m last year compares with about 391k for this year, which is a 64 percent drop. BBC’s peak was 1.33m, with 281k (24.1%) for the live airing and 1.05m (9.2%) for the re-run. The ITV4 rating surprises me the most, given that Motegi was the title winning race for Marc Marquez, I would have expected that to pick up one or two casual viewers, but clearly that wasn’t the case.

The weekend also seen both the Bathurst 1000 and the latest round of the World Touring Car Championship take place, again in the early morning. The latter peaked with 29k (0.4%), whilst the Bathurst 1000 peaked with under 20,000 viewers.

Scheduling: The 2014 Russian Grand Prix

The next round of the Formula One season is just a few days away, however there is a lot of other motor sport action next weekend. For those wishing to jump to the schedule, click the links below.

– Thursday 9th October
– Friday 10th October
– Saturday 11th October
– Sunday 12th October
– Wednesday 15th October
– Classic F1

Beginning with the F1, and Jack Nicholls and Bruno Senna are in for BBC Radio and Sky Sports respectively. The race will be the last for Nicholls this season, whilst Senna will also be with Sky for USA and Brazil. On the schedule front, it is a weird one with timings on Friday two hours earlier, and an hour earlier than a typical European race during the latter end of the weekend. Due to a clash with the Daily Politics, practice two on BBC Two is on a tape delay, however it will air live behind the Red Button. Another oddity concerns GP3, for some reason, the organisers have stuck GP3’s first race of the weekend in between F1’s final practice session and qualifying. What that means is that Sky’s qualifying programme is split into two.

Aside from the F1, there are a plethora of other events throughout the weekend: the BTCC season finale, Bathurst 1000, the 6 Hours of Fuji and MotoGP! The WEC will be tape-delayed on Motors TV and screened live only from Eurosport’s bonus online channel. Considering how other events try and avoid the F1, I’m unsure how we’ve ended up with several top flight series on the same weekend as the F1. In any case, the schedule as always can be found below…

Thursday 9th October
12:00 to 12:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
23:15 to 23:30 – Gear Up for Russia (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 10th October
06:45 to 09:00 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
06:55 to 08:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
09:00 to 09:50 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
10:45 to 12:55 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
10:55 to 12:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Red Button)
12:55 to 13:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
13:20 to 15:00 – F1: Practice 2 Repeat (BBC Two)
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
15:00 to 16:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 11th October
06:30 to 07:05 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
08:45 to 10:15 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:15 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
10:15 to 10:35 – F1: Qualifying Build-Up (Sky Sports F1)
10:35 to 11:20 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
11:15 to 13:30 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
11:20 to 13:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
13:35 to 15:05 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
23:30 to 07:30 – V8S: Bathurst 1000 (Motors TV)
00:30 to 07:30 – V8S: Bathurst 1000 (BT Sport 1)

Sunday 12th October
02:45 to 07:15 – MotoGP: Motegi (BT Sport 2)
07:30 to 13:40 – WEC: Fuji (Motors TV)
– tape delay
07:55 to 08:55 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:00 to 10:15 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
10:15 to 18:30 – BTCC: Brands Hatch (ITV4)
10:30 to 15:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
=> 10:30 – Track Parade
=> 11:00 – Race
=> 14:30 – Paddock Live
11:00 to 14:15 – F1: Race (BBC One)
14:15 to 15:15 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
15:15 to 16:15 – GP Heroes: Mario Andretti (Sky Sports F1)

Wednesday 15th October
20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

Classic F1 on Sky Sports F1
06/10 – 21:15 to 22:30 – 1993 German Grand Prix Highlights
07/10 – 21:00 to 00:00 – 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix
08/10 – 21:00 to 23:45 – 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
09/10 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 2000 Belgian Grand Prix
10/10 – 16:00 to 16:45 – 1994 Australian Grand Prix Highlights
11/10 – 15:05 to 17:35 – 2008 British Grand Prix
11/10 – 20:20 to 21:20 – 1976 Season Review
12/10 – 19:45 to 20:45 – 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix Highlights
13/10 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 2012 European Grand Prix (Sky commentary)
14/10 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1982 Monaco Grand Prix Highlights
15/10 – 21:00 to 22:00 – 1985 Australian Grand Prix Highlights
16/10 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2012 British Grand Prix (Sky commentary)
17/10 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 2010 Belgian Grand Prix
18/10 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1991 Spanish Grand Prix Highlights
19/10 – 21:00 to 21:30 – 1987 Australian Grand Prix Highlights
20/10 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix
21/10 – 21:00 to 23:00 – TBA
22/10 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2005 Belgian Grand Prix
23/10 – 21:00 to 22:45 – 2003 British Grand Prix
24/10 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 2010 German Grand Prix

If anything changes, I will update the schedule.

Scheduling: The 2014 Singapore Grand Prix

Formula 1 heads into the dark for its second night race of the year with the Singapore Grand Prix. The race will continue the duel between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as the championship heads into the final third. Sky Sports F1 will be screening this race exclusively live, with highlights on the edge of primetime on BBC One. With the race normally lasting near to two hours though, it means that it will be another ‘chopped up’ package, there will be about an hour to 70 minutes of action.

On the line-up side of things, Bruno Senna is back with Sky for his third appearance of the year. Someone who won’t be there is Natalie Pinkham, it was noted on The F1 Show that she cannot fly long distances, which presumably rules her out of the latter stages of the year, Russia and Abu Dhabi aside.

A surprising and somewhat disappointing omission from proceedings is the GP2 Series, the series presumably having chosen Russia over Singapore. I enjoyed seeing GP2 as the night drew in at Singapore, and it does mean that the Sky schedule is a bit sparse over the race weekend. One piece of new content worth mentioning is a new edition of F1 Legends with Niki Lauda as guest, that should be worth a watch following the race on Sunday. The race has an extra 15 minutes of air-time on Sky Sports F1 to accommodate for the longer length.

Thursday 18th September
11:00 to 11:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
20:45 to 21:00 – Gear Up for Italy (Sky Sports F1)
21:00 to 22:00 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Friday 19th September
10:45 to 12:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
10:55 to 12:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
14:15 to 16:15 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
14:25 to 16:05 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16:15 to 17:00 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
18:30 to 19:30 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 20th September
10:45 to 12:15 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
10:55 to 12:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
13:00 to 15:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
13:55 to 15:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
17:10 to 18:20 – F1: Qualifying Highlights (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
22:30 to 05:35 – WEC: Austin (Motors TV)
23:00 to 05:00 – WEC: Austin (Eurosport)

Sunday 21st September
11:30 to 16:30 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Race
=> 15:45 – Paddock Live
12:55 to 15:00 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
16:30 to 17:30 – Legends: Niki Lauda (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:30 – F1: Race Highlights (BBC One)

Wednesday 24th September
20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

Classic F1 on Sky Sports F1
13/09 – 21:45 to 00:00 – 2007 Canadian Grand Prix
14/09 – 21:00 to 21:40 – 1982 Austrian Grand Prix Highlights
15/09 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix
16/09 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 2011 Canadian Grand Prix
17/09 – 21:00 to 22:00 – 1991 British Grand Prix Highlights
18/09 – 21:00 to 23:45 – 2008 Singapore Grand Prix
20/09 – 00:40 to 03:40 – 2011 Singapore Grand Prix
20/09 – 15:45 to 18:45 – 2012 Singapore Grand Prix
21/09 – 17:30 to 18:30 – 1974 Season Review
22/09 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
23/09 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1981 British Grand Prix Highlights
24/09 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 2007 Chinese Grand Prix
25/09 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 1989 San Marino Grand Prix
26/09 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1988 British Grand Prix Highlights

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

Update on September 18th – Two very slight BBC schedule changes, due to the Scotland independence referendum, both of the highlights shows have had five minutes shaved off the end.

Italian Grand Prix peaks with 5.3 million

Lewis Hamilton’s victory at the Italian Grand Prix peaked strongly across BBC One and Sky Sports F1 yesterday, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
The race, broadcast live on both BBC and Sky, peaked with 5.29m (47.1%) at 14:20. The share it should be noted is particularly strong, showing that the total available TV audience was slightly lower than usual for this race; in 2011 the race peaked with a much stronger 5.78m but only peaked with a 43.9% share of the audience. It is definitely one of the better figures this year for a European race, although it is difficult to tell whether this was a result of what happened in Spa, or simply a result of their being no Premier League football. At the time of the peak, 4.39m were watching BBC One, with a further 903k on Sky, an 83:17 split, or to put it another way, for every one viewer that Sky had, BBC had nearly five times more. The peak, is higher than 2008, 2009 and 2010, only down on the aforementioned 2011 and 2012, which was a highlights race.

BBC One’s coverage from 12:10 to 15:30 averaged 2.99m (30.1%). Sky Sports F1, from 12:00 to 15:30 averaged 611k (6.2%). Unusually, both channels were up year-on-year which is nice to see. As thus, the combined average of 3.60m is up year-on-year. It is significantly down on 2011 and 2012, but up on 2010’s figure of 3.47m (33.7%). Elsewhere on Sky Sports F1, the Track Parade segment averaged 136k (1.8%) and Paddock Live’s billed slot of 15:30 to 16:15 averaged 160k (1.7%).

Qualifying, BTCC and BSB
Live coverage of qualifying on BBC One averaged 1.95m (23.4%) from 12:10 to 14:30. Sky Sports F1’s coverage from 12:00 to 14:35 averaged 370k (4.5%), bringing the combined figure to 2.32m. I think that figure is marginally down year-on-year, but it is by no means a disaster. Following the qualifying session, GP2 on Sky averaged 72k (0.9%).

Unsurprisingly, when Formula 1 is on, any other motor sport scheduled opposite it is harmed in the process. Both the British Touring Car Championship and British Superbikes were the affected parties yesterday. From 10:45 to 17:45, the BTCC averaged 95k (1.0%) on ITV4, which is much lower than their usual average of above 200k. The peak figure of 229k (2.0%) at 17:05 is significantly below what you would normally expect as a result. Live Superbikes Sunday from 09:15 to 18:00 on British Eurosport 2 averaged 69k (0.8%), peaking with 145k (1.4%) at 16:30.

The 2013 Italian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

MotoGP and Le Mans close in UK ratings battle

Live coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on British Eurosport drew similar numbers to that who watched BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage, unofficial overnight UK viewing figures show.

24 Hours of Le Mans
The famous endurance race was screened live across British Eurosport and its sister channel British Eurosport 2 from 13:45 on Saturday to 14:15 on Sunday, the numbers below take into account the various channel switches. The race, in the UK, averaged 56k (0.7%), down on the 70k (1.0%) for last year’s race. The 5-minute peak of 148k (2.0%) recorded at 14:00 on Saturday is down on last year’s peak of 248k, which occurred at the end of the race. The average number is up on 2011 and 2012, however.

The numbers are as you would expect for an endurance race. Hovering around 100k for the first few hours, figures spiked at 15:50 with 141k (1.7%) as heavy rain hit the Circuit de la Sarthe. Numbers stayed around 70k to 90k into the evening, before dropping into the early hours – at some points recording a figure of ‘zero’ (which in ratings terms means less than 5k!). Numbers picked back up on Sunday morning, 75k (1.1%) were watching at 09:25, hitting 100k (1.4%) just over an hour later, climbing to 140k (1.9%) at 12:05 as Porsche’s charge came to a halt. Figures dipped to under 100k, re-peaking with 119k (1.4%) at the end of the race.

Considering the World Cup competition, the figures are perfectly fine, although as always I would have liked to see figures a bit higher. The same analysis applies here as it does for the IndyCar Series, if none of the mainstream media are going to cover it, then ratings will remain relatively low. Personally, I’d love to see a bit of coverage on ITV4 again to get endurance racing back on the agenda, time will tell. One series that was getting attention, but decided to reject live free-to-air coverage was MotoGP. And depending on which time frame you choose to use from Sunday, you’ll get interesting results.

MotoGP
BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage on Sunday from 09:30 to 14:15 averaged 95k (1.2%). The Moto3 race peaked with 79k (1.1%) at 10:00, whilst the Moto2 race peaked with 78k (1.1%) at 11:25. The brilliant MotoGP race, won by Marc Marquez, peaked with 196k (2.4%) at 13:35. It goes without saying that the BT Sport 2 figures pale into comparison to what BBC Two averaged last year. BBC Two’s programme last year, from 12:30 to 14:05 averaged 914k (10.1%). BT Sport 2, for the same timeslot yesterday averaged 142k (1.8%). The Barcelona race last year peaked with 1.22m (13.3%), meaning that BBC Two, on average and peak was six times higher than BT Sport’s figures.

From race to race the ratio fluctuates from between four and nine times higher for BT Sport compared with BBC in 2013, but the difference is still alarming. I haven’t mentioned British Eurosport where MotoGP is concerned as their figures are not readily available, however it would result in approximately an extra 100k being added to 2013’s figures, making the ratio wider. I still maintain that Dorna’s choice to have ITV4 on-board was an eleventh hour deal, after all, why would BT Sport and MotoGP have the word ‘exclusive’ in a press release just a few weeks earlier? In my view, the ITV deal was the saving grace, something that the masses would still be able to access, and are doing with up to half a million viewers watching the Monday night highlight shows. It doesn’t fully bridge the gap left by BBC’s absence, but it closes the gap.

Comparison
It is worth noting that all the numbers exclude those who watched via BT Sport’s and Eurosport’s respective apps and, for the 2013 MotoGP comparison above, exclude those who watched on BBC iPlayer. There are several comparisons that can be made, for complete clarity, all the potential comparisons are below so blog readers can make up their own minds.

From 09:30 to 14:15, the 24 Hours of Le Mans averaged higher than BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage. In that time period, 93k (1.2%) were watching British Eurosport and 89k (1.2%) were watching BT Sport 2. Of course, that figure includes Moto2 and Moto3. If you take the MotoGP portion, as defined by BT from 12:45 to 14:15, then the averages for Eurosport and BT are 95k (1.2%) and 143k (1.8%) respectively. The peak figures, as noted above, for Le Mans was 148k (2.0%) and 196k (2.4%) for the MotoGP on BT.

Either way, the gap between the two races was close, perhaps closer than what BT Sport would have liked.