Buemi’s Formula E title victory peaks with 600k

A peak audience of 600k watched Sebastien Buemi win the 2015-16 Formula E championship on Sunday afternoon, overnight viewing figures show.

Saturday
Unlike last season, ITV did not broadcast qualifying live on either Saturday or Sunday, meaning that we only have data for the race programme itself.

The first London ePrix race of the weekend was watched by an average audience of 296k (2.9%) on ITV from 15:00 to 17:30. The show started off with 277k (3.2%) at 15:00. Worryingly, the audience dropped through the build-up, hitting a low of 157k (1.7%) at 15:25. Audiences picked back up, with 356k (3.6%) watching at 16:05. The audience peaked with 469k (4.1%) at 16:55 as Nico Prost claimed victory.

Last year, race one was broadcast on ITV4 to an audience of 274k (3.7%), peaking with 460k (5.7%). So, audiences are up very slightly year-on-year, but the raw shares are down. And that is on a higher profile channel as well. To compound this, Formula E’s audience on ITV on Saturday afternoon was significantly below their slot average. ITV’s Formula E coverage was last of the five terrestrial stations and was level with several multichannel stations, including Sky Sports 2 (cricket) and ITV3 (a Midsomer Murders repeat).

Highlights of the race on Sunday morning from 11:00 averaged 176k (2.6%), in-line with the rest of the ITV highlight shows this season.

Sunday
Numbers picked up on Sunday, but not sufficiently enough to challenge last year’s audience.

Live coverage of the second race on ITV’s main channel averaged 411k (3.8%) from 15:00 to 17:45, peaking with 600k (5.6%) at 16:45. The programme began with 206k (2.2%) at 15:00, rising to 483k (4.8%) at 16:00 for the start of the race. Numbers briefly surged to 571k (5.6%) as title rivals Buemi and Lucas di Grassi collided, before settling around 520k. The race peaked at its conclusion as Nico Prost again was victorious.

Unfortunately for Formula E, the key performance indicators year-on-year are bleak. The average audience for the season finale was down a whopping 41 percent on last year’s audience of 700k (6.8%). The peak audience halved compared with last year’s peak of 1.18m (10.7%). Yes, there was a clash with Wimbledon, but overall it is clear that season two of Formula E has failed to connect.

Again, Formula E managed to haemorrhage all of its lead-in. In this instance, that was Love Your Garden (admittedly the two audiences are not compatible but the point remains).

Analysis
If someone was writing a book called “The rise and fall of Formula E”, purely from a UK broadcasting perspective, I fear that we are already in the fall phase. Alarmist? Maybe. For whatever reason, the viewing public has not taken to Formula E in the way either they, or ITV, expected. The above numbers are proof of that pudding.

I’ll summarise the issues briefly as advertising (ITV’s was shocking, enough said whilst FE’s social media and online effort has deteriorated), scheduling (far too sporadic for a casual fan to become invested) and press interest (if the dedicated press is not making much effort, why should ITV).

If Formula E heads to pay-TV for the 2016/17 season for season three, game over for the electric series in the UK. Simple as that, and no amount of online streaming would save it. Formula E should have a plan with ITV, as they should with every broadcaster as to how their air-time and advertising efforts are maximised to the best possible way. I do not think you’ll get any UK broadcaster paying big money (if any, in the case of ITV) for Formula E.

In the space of two years, Formula E to television executives might have gone from “new series with potential to reach a new audience” to “schedule filler”. Let’s hope there are some out there who still think Formula E can turn things around and reach a bigger audience. Sadly, I think that ship is about to sail…

The 2015 London ePrix ratings report can be found here.

Formula E: Your 2015-16 Verdict

The second season of the electric Formula E championship has come to end with Sebastien Buemi crowned champion! The championship ended in, perhaps, slightly strange circumstances with Buemi winning the title after claiming fastest lap during the season ending London ePrix. Like last season, ITV were on-site for the race from Battersea Park, and again like last year, we do not know if ITV will continue to cover the series.

The F1 Broadcasting Blog is interested to know your opinion on the series. What did you think? Has Formula E’s coverage improved compared to their inaugural season, or has the championship suffered second season syndrome? Has ITV’s own additional studio content been good, or do changes need to be made there? What do readers think about the World Feed commentary, has the tandem of Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti been on-form?

As always, your thoughts are welcome, with the best opinions forming part of a new blog post in around a month from now.

Scheduling: The 2016 London ePrix

After what feels like an eternity, the second season of the electric Formula E championship comes to a conclusion with the London ePrix! Unless something changes in the next few weeks, the race weekend in London is set to be the last at Battersea Park, with the round either disappearing off the calendar or moving elsewhere in the city. Time will tell.

There are some schedule changes for ITV compared with last year’s double-header. Firstly, as has been the case all season, qualifying will not be aired on either of ITV’s channels. The reason for this I imagine is purely ratings driven, in that it was not performing well enough at the back-end of season one to justify showing qualifying more in season more. On the brighter side, both races will be aired live on ITV’s main channel instead of just the season finale as was the case last year.

In terms of competition, Formula E is a week later this year, meaning it avoids competition from the Goodwood Festival of Speed. There is tougher competition though from the Austrian Grand Prix, but the good news on that front is that both Formula E races start later than the Formula 1, so there is no direct overlap (the F1 race finishes at 14:30 UK time, whereas Formula E starts at 16:00 UK time).

ITV are expected to be trackside for the season finale with Jennie Gow presenting alongside Andy Jaye. Marc Priestley and Jaime Alguersuari will be providing the analysis, with Formula E’s usual World Feed team of Nicki Shields, Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti overseeing the action.

Formula E – London – Races 1 and 2 (online via YouTube)
02/07 and 03/07 – 08:10 to 09:10 – Practice 1
02/07 and 03/07 – 10:25 to 11:10 – Practice 2
02/07 and 03/07 – 11:45 to 13:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – London – Race 1 (ITV)
02/07 – 15:00 to 17:30 – Race
03/07 – 11:00 to 12:00 – Highlights

Formula E – London – Race 2 (ITV)
03/07 – 15:00 to 17:45 – Race

Last updated on June 25th.

Update on July 2nd at 14:30 – Jennie Gow is not presenting today’s coverage, Jaye will step up in her place. Alex Brundle is also doing some punditry this weekend for ITV.

News round-up: BT continue IndyCar experiments; Perry confirms commitments for rest of ’16

In the last round-up covering the smaller pieces of news from the past few months, BT Sport is the main player experimenting with their portfolio as we head into the Summer.

BT Sport take IndyCar commentary in-house
I have watched a fair bit of IndyCar this season thanks to its exciting, close racing. Whilst the racing has been good the ABC commentary, led by Allen Bestwick, Eddie Cheever and Scott Goodyear, has not. Watching the Duel in Detroit last weekend, at times the trio ‘zapped’ the excitement out of races, almost as if they were dialling in from elsewhere. The broadcasting rights in America are shared between ABC and NBC and, because of the agreement in place, the remainder of the season is covered by NBC.

NBC’s commentary is superior to ABC’s offering, primarily thanks to Leigh Diffey commentary. Over in the UK, BT Sport take the American commentary feed, that is… until now. For IndyCar’s return to Road America on June 26th, commentary will be provided in-house by BT Sport, with Keith Collantine and Ben Evans leading the way. At the moment, this is just for Road America as a trial run, with the potential for the idea to turn full-time. I can see the logic behind it. At times the US commentary feels like an ‘info commercial’ in and out of the advert breaks, whereas the UK commentary will be without any interruptions.

To the outside world, the tweaks BT are making to their IndyCar coverage are very small but go a long, long way to the dedicated viewer, although the direction has been haphazard with yo-yoing in the past few years. Viewing figures for the Indianapolis 500 were slightly lower than previous years with an average of 12k (0.09%) from 15:30 to 21:00, peaking with 31k (0.16%) on BT Sport 1.

On the subject of BT Sport, for those wondering, Suzi Perry confirmed her exact commitments for the remainder of this season on her Instagram page. Perry said that she will (or has already) work on seven MotoGP races, two speedway events and Rally GB. Perry’s original commitment for the Indianapolis 500 fell through after a change of direction.

Sky’s F1 partnership with Brunswick Films continues
Sky Sports are continuing their partnership with Brunswick Films with a series of four films airing during the race day programming focussing on James Hunt. The first piece aired during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend. The remaining pieces will air during the Silverstone, Monza and Texas weekends. Rohan Tully, Brunswick Films director, said “They used to film anti-clockwise moving slowly around the track so they would get every corner. They would also have to walk with the cameras most of the time because some of the tracks didn’t even have running tracks around back in the day. So to get the footage at the time, comprehensively, was a struggle in itself.”

It is brilliant to see footage like this. However, as is always the case, it would have been good to have this as well in a standalone programme. The amount of new documentary programming that has aired on Sky Sports F1 this year stands at zero, which is incredibly disappointing for a network that will be broadcasting Formula 1 into the next decade. It would be good to have some new programming turn up, but I do not see it happening.

Is Formula E endangered in the UK?
The absence of a London ePrix in the provisional Formula E calendar for the 2016-17 season will have raised alarm bells about the future of the series in the United Kingdom. With viewing figures dropping compared to the inaugural season, the question is whether ITV will renew for season three. The incentive of screening season three decreases if London remains absent. The highest peak audience for a live race in season two remains Buenos Aires, which peaked with 248k (1.2%) back in January.

In their current state, the numbers are simply not good enough for either ITV(1) or ITV4, whichever slot you place Formula E in, the programme loses viewers hand over fist compared to the slot average. Failure to find a free-to-air home means that Formula E is essentially dead in the UK. I’m certain BT Sport or Eurosport will pick it up, but any potential for growth will have evaporated. Their best hope for keeping ITV will be letting them have it for free.

Scheduling: The 2016 European Grand Prix

After a quick dash over to North America, Formula 1 heads back over to the East for the first ever race in Azerbaijan! Badged as the European Grand Prix, the race takes place on a street circuit in Baku.

The sporting opposition this weekend consists of four events: the Royal Ascot, Tennis from Queen’s, Euro 2016 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (schedule here). The qualifying session clashes with Belgium vs Republic of Ireland; however, Sunday thankfully has no football clash. Of course, as widely publicised, the qualifying session will also clash with the first hour of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The race itself will clash with the chequered flag of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is the first time Le Mans has clashed with the F1 since 2011, which is a nonsense scenario that hopefully will not be repeated in the foreseeable future. Elsewhere, Channel 4’s coverage of practice two moves to More4 due to coverage of the Royal Ascot.

On the personnel front, the big news is that Martin Brundle will not be present again with Sky’s Formula 1 team in Baku due to his participation in the famous endurance race. Originally, Brundle was only set to miss Baku, but this was extended to cover Canada as a result of a “medical procedure” that Brundle had following the Monaco Grand Prix. Paul di Resta is again alongside David Croft in the commentary box in Baku.

Over on Channel 4, Eddie Jordan returns to F1 broadcasting, his first live appearance with the channel since they took over from BBC at the end of 2015.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
17/06 – 09:55 to 11:35 – Practice 1 (Channel 4)
17/06 – 13:55 to 15:35 – Practice 2 (More4)
18/06 – 10:55 to 12:05 – Practice 3 (Channel 4)
18/06 – 13:00 to 15:20 – Qualifying (Channel 4)
19/06– 13:00 to 16:30 – Race (Channel 4)
19/06 – 23:25 to 00:30 – Highlights (Channel 4)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
17/06 – 09:45 to 11:50 – Practice 1
17/06 – 13:45 to 16:00 – Practice 2
18/06 – 10:45 to 12:15 – Practice 3
18/06 – 13:00 to 15:45 – Qualifying
19/06 – 12:30 to 17:15 – Race
=> 12:30 – Track Parade (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 13:00 – Pit Lane Live (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 13:30 – Race (also Sky Sports 1 – until 16:00 only)
=> 16:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
16/06 – 12:00 to 12:30 – Driver Press Conference
16/06 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
17/06 – 16:00 to 16:30 – Team Press Conference
17/06 – 16:30 to 17:00 – The F1 Show
22/06 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
17/06 – 09:55 to 11:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
18/06 – 10:55 to 12:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
18/06 – 13:55 to 15:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
19/06 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

British Touring Car Championship – Croft (ITV4)
19/06 – 11:00 to 18:15 – Races

GP2 Series – Europe (Sky Sports F1)
17/06 – 08:00 to 08:50 – Practice
17/06 – 11:50 to 12:30 – Qualifying
18/06 – 09:00 to 10:30 – Race 1
19/06 – 10:55 to 12:10 – Race 2

Virgin Australia Supercars – Darwin Triple Crown (BT Sport 1)
18/06 – 07:15 to 09:00 – Race 12
19/06 – 04:30 to 06:45 – Race 13

World Superbikes –Misano
18/06 – 09:15 to 13:15 – Qualifying and Race 1 (Eurosport)
19/06 – 10:00 to 13:15 – Race 2 (Eurosport 2)

Last updated on June 18th, to reflect Sky Sports 1 also covering the Track Parade and Pit Lane Live.