Scheduling: The 2015 London ePrix

It has been eight months since the Beijing ePrix. Now, only a few days remain until the final leg of the inaugural Formula E season! The final weekend is actually a double header, comprising of rounds ten and eleven of the championship from Battersea Park in London. For the first time, ITV will be on location on both Saturday and Sunday, with Jennie Gow presenting from trackside alongside Marc Priestley, Alex Brundle and Jolyon Palmer.

Round ten of the championship takes place on the Saturday, with qualifying and the race being broadcast live on ITV4. Highlights will air late at night on ITV. The following day, in a Formula E first, round eleven will air exclusively live on ITV’s main channel, with four and a half hours of coverage. It is the first time since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix that motor sport has aired live on ITV(1).

The schedule that ITV are putting out that weekend is somewhat reminiscent of their Formula 1 coverage. ITV will go on air half an hour before the qualifying session, with 15 minutes of reaction and analysis, following the same structure that ITV F1’s qualifying shows had for many years in the early 2000s. The race itself has an hour build-up, again like ITV F1 with analysis following the show. When asked by this blog, ITV did not state whether Sunday’s race would feature commercials, noting that “commercial airtime will be taken in accordance with OFCOM regulations.” Given that Formula E races last around 45 minutes, I hope the Sunday race on ITV(1) does run commercial free, but time will tell.

What we also don’t know is whether the ITV network will broadcast season two of Formula E. ITV simply stated that “cannot yet comment on plans,” which suggests that discussions are ongoing, or that an announcement is currently under embargo. If they are screening season two, I’d expect an announcement by the end of the London ePrix weekend to capitalise on publicity. Unfortunately, viewing figures have not been great so far, in my opinion.

Aside from Formula E, there is the British Touring Car Championship on ITV4 along with the Goodwood Festival of Speed, airing live on Motors TV and Sky Sports. The IndyCar action is live on ESPN, whilst MotoGP is in Assen meaning that as usual the races are held on the Saturday.

Formula E – London – Races 1 and 2 (online via FIAFormulaE.com)
27/06 and 28/06 – 08:10 to 09:10 – Practice 1
27/06 and 28/06 – 10:25 to 11:10 – Practice 2

Formula E – London – Race 1
27/06 – 11:30 to 13:15 – Qualifying (ITV4)
27/06 – 15:00 to 17:30 – Race (ITV4)
27/06 – 22:55 to 23:55 – Highlights (ITV)

Formula E – London – Race 2 (ITV)
28/06 – 11:30 to 13:15 – Qualifying
28/06 – 15:00 to 17:45 – Race
28/06 – 22:15 to 23:15 – Highlights

British Touring Car Championship – Croft (ITV4)
28/06 – 11:00 to 18:15 – Races

Goodwood Festival of Speed (Motors TV)
27/06 – 13:00 to 19:00 – Day 1
28/06 – 09:00 to 15:00 – Day 2

Goodwood Festival of Speed (Sky Sports)
28/06 – 15:00 to 17:00 – Live (1 and F1)

IndyCar Series – Fontana (ESPN)
27/06 – 21:00 to 01:00 – Live

MotoGP – Assen (BT Sport 2)
25/06 – 08:00 to 15:00
=> 08:00 – Practice 1
=> 10:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 12:00 – Practice 2
26/06 – 08:00 to 15:15
=> 08:00 – Practice 3
=> 11:00 – Qualifying
27/06 – 07:30 to 09:15 – Warm Up
27/06 – 09:30 to 21:00
=> 09:30 – Races
=> 14:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Assen (ITV4)
29/06 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

Lewis Hamilton on The Graham Norton Show (BBC One)
26/06 – 22:35 to 23:20

As always, if anything changes I will update the schedule.

Update on June 27th – For reasons unknown, Jolyon Palmer doesn’t appear to be with ITV’s Formula E team this weekend, instead of it Kyle Wilson-Clarke as the fourth man with them.

Update on June 28th – Turns out it was Wilson-Clarke on Saturday with Palmer today. Also, I didn’t note above that Andy Jaye is in pit lane for ITV.

Hamilton’s Canadian win peaks with 6.4 million

Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Canadian Grand Prix peaked with 6.4 million viewers in the UK, according to overnight viewing figures.

Race
The race, broadcast live on BBC One from 18:25 to 21:00, averaged 4.62m (25.0%). The number is near identical to the past two years. 2013’s race averaged 4.61m (23.6%) from 18:15 to 21:10, whilst coverage in 2014 averaged 4.59m (23.3%) from 18:20 to 21:00. To have three different years separated by just 30k shows how consistent the numbers have been for BBC’s coverage in Canada. BBC’s peak audience of 5.48m (26.0%) came as Lewis Hamilton crossed the line, marginally down on 2013’s peak of 5.55m. In the grand scheme of things, the numbers are good, perhaps they would have liked it to be slightly higher but it’s not a disappointing result by any stretch of the imagination.

Over on Sky Sports F1, their coverage averaged 619k (3.4%) from 18:00 to 21:30. Last year’s coverage across the equivalent slot averaged 818k (4.2%), which is a fairly hefty drop of 24 percent year-on-year. However, including the Sky Sports 1 simulcast, which averaged around 117k (0.6%), brings the percentage drop down to 10 percent. Which is still bad, but not as bad, although I question whether you should bundle Sky Sports 1 and F1 together and then make a comparison with the Sky Sports F1 only figure from last year. Either way, it is again not a pretty picture for Sky. Why have Sky’s ratings dropped compared to 2014, and more interestingly, will the trend continue? It was a similar story for Sky’s peaks: 1.13m last year compared with 952k this year (including Sky Sports 1), a 16 percent drop.

The combined audience of 5.35m is down on both 2013 and 2014 marginally. 2014 averaged 5.40m, whilst 2013 averaged 5.36m. It is the third race in a row which has seen viewership drop year-on-year. The Austrian Grand Prix is guaranteed to reverse that trend, with highlights being screened on BBC One this year as opposed to BBC Two last year.

Formula E drops further
The inaugural Formula E season continued to stumble towards the finishing line, hitting a near low for the Moscow ePrix. Live coverage of the race, airing on ITV4 from 13:00 to 15:30 on Saturday, averaged just 77k (1.0%). If it wasn’t for the Putrajaya ePrix, which averaged 66k (5.1%) in the early hours of the morning last November, that number would have been a series low.

The race, won by Nelson Piquet Jr, peaked with 128k (1.7%), compared with 137k (7.2%) for Putrajaya, so from a peak perspective, Moscow was a series low. The series low’s should stop now, with the London ePrix up next, but it is impossible to tell how much the numbers will increase with the series being on home turf.

The 2014 Canadian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

London ePrix to be shown live on ITV’s main channel

The season-ending London ePrix from Battersea Park will be broadcast on ITV’s main channel in the United Kingdom, it has been confirmed.

The news was made official by ITV’s Formula E presenter Jennie Gow. Writing on her blog, Gow said: “We will bring you all the action LIVE on ITV4 on Saturday 27th June with qualifying from 11.30am and then the season will draw to a close in spectacular style as we bring you the title decider LIVE on ITV’s main channel. We’ll be in Battersea Park for the weekend so it will be great to meet as many of you as possible!”

Reading Gow’s post, it looks like the Saturday action will air on ITV4, with Sunday’s action airing on ITV(1). The reason for the move is because the British Touring Car Championship will be occupying ITV4 on Sunday 28th June with action from Croft, meaning that something had to move to either ITV or ITV.com, as I noted a few weeks back. I’m glad that ITV chose to move Formula E to their main channel, furthermore, it will be the first time since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix that a single-seater event has aired live on the channel.

Gow’s post also confirms that the ITV team will be on-location during the weekend, and that qualifying will have a 30-minute build-up, similar to ITV’s F1 coverage from 1997 to 2008. The move will help Formula E reach a bigger, and hopefully wider audience. There is no major sporting opposition during that weekend, as Wimbledon is starting later this year.

It is too early to read anything conclusive into this regarding any coverage plans for season two. Whether ITV will continue to broadcast Formula E for the 2015-16 season remains to be seen.

Scheduling: The 2015 Canadian Grand Prix / Moscow ePrix

Formula 1 heads to North America for its annual June stop in Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix! Both BBC and Sky Sports will be covering the action live over the weekend.

Elsewhere, on ITV, it is a congested line-up with the UEFA Champions League Final (for the last time live on ITV before it heads to BT Sport), England vs Ireland in a football friendly and the French Open Finals. What that means is that the BTCC action on ITV4 on Sunday 7th June is split into two shows, with the French Open airing on ITV4 whilst ITV covers the friendly. I assume BTCC will be on ITV.com from 13:30 to 15:15 on the Sunday, but I haven’t seen that confirmed.

Formula E is also racing next weekend from Moscow, however qualifying will not be broadcast on ITV4 as was the case for Monaco and Berlin. It will be interesting to see if it returns for London’s races. Below are all the scheduling details you need…

BBC F1
BBC TV – Sessions
05/06 – 14:45 to 16:45 – Practice 1 (BBC Two)
05/06 – 19:00 to 20:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Three)
06/06 – 14:55 to 16:00 – Practice 3 (BBC Two)
06/06 – 17:00 to 19:15 – Qualifying (BBC One)
07/06 – 18:25 to 21:00 – Race (BBC One)
07/06 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Forum (BBC Red Button)

BBC Radio – Sessions
05/06 – 14:55 to 16:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
06/06 – 14:55 to 16:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
06/06 – 17:55 to 19:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live)
07/06 – 18:30 to 21:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Supplementary Programming
05/06 – 21:30 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
06/06 – 16:00 to 17:00 – F1 Rewind (BBC Two)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
05/06 – 14:45 to 16:50 – Practice 1
05/06 – 18:45 to 21:00 – Practice 2
06/06 – 14:45 to 16:15 – Practice 3
06/06 – 17:00 to 19:45 – Qualifying
07/06 – 17:30 to 22:15 – Race
=> 17:30 – Track Parade
=> 18:00 – Pit Lane Live (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 18:30 – Race (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 21:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
04/06 – 16:00 to 16:30 – Driver Press Conference
04/06 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Canada
05/06 – 21:00 to 21:45 – Team Press Conference
05/06 – 23:00 to 00:00 – The F1 Show
10/06 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

Formula E – Moscow (online via FIAFormulaE.com)
06/06 – 06:10 to 07:10 – Practice 1
06/06 – 08:25 to 09:10 – Practice 2
06/06 – 09:45 to 11:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Moscow (ITV4)
06/06 – 13:00 to 15:30 – Race
07/06 – 10:10 to 11:15 – Highlights

BTCC – Oulton Park (ITV4)
07/06 – 11:15 to 13:30 – Part 1
07/06 – 15:15 to 18:30 – Part 2

IndyCar Series – Texas (BT Sport 2)
07/06 – 01:00 to 04:00 – Race

As always, if anything changes, I’ll update the schedule.

Monaco Grand Prix remains above 4 million

The Monaco Grand Prix performed solidly during the Bank Holiday weekend, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.

Race
With warm weather damaging ratings across the board on Saturday and Sunday, Formula 1 escaped relatively unscathed thanks to a good figure for BBC’s highlights show, although Sky Sports F1’s live coverage was hit badly. Live coverage of the race on Sky Sports F1 averaged 797k (8.5%) from 12:00 to 15:30, which compares with 1.10m (12.1%) for the equivalent slot last year. That’s a drop of around 30 percent across both viewer and share measures. The total TV audience for the slot was marginally up yesterday for the slot, so for whatever reason, the race just didn’t perform well, unsurprisingly perhaps given that very little happened in the first 60 laps. There’s a pattern emerging that Sky’s coverage is struggling ratings wise year-on-year, which needs to be tracked as the season progresses.

BBC’s highlights programme was up year-on-year. The show averaged 3.44m (23.3%) from 17:05 to 18:05, up on last year’s highlights number of 3.33m (23.3%). That’s a good number, when you consider that last year’s highlights programme was boosted by Nico Rosberg’s qualifying incident. Overall, the combined audience of 4.23m is down 4.7 percent on last year’s audience of 4.44m. It is, however, up on 2013’s number of 4.00m. Overall, it is a good number, although I suspect one side will be a lot more pleased than the other.

Formula E and Indianapolis 500
Over the weekend, viewers failed to turn up for ITV4’s Formula E coverage from Berlin, which dropped to its lowest number since the Putrajaya ePrix last November. Live coverage on ITV4 from 14:00 to 16:30 averaged 112k (1.6%), peaking with 154k (2.2%) at 15:05. What’s unusual here is that the pre-race portion was above 100k for the majority, which is unusual, except that the programme failed to gain viewers after 15:00, and remained stagnant around 140k. It’s not a good number, being on the same weekend as the Monaco Grand Prix won’t help matters. Hopefully under the “lessons learnt” category for season one, the organisers add “don’t clash with F1.” As a general rule of thumb, having a race at the end of May won’t help anyone as all the attention from motor sport media is elsewhere.

Speaking of elsewhere, the Indianapolis 500 averaged 19k (0.1%) from 16:00 to 21:00 on ESPN. The race itself, from around 17:30 to 20:50 averaged 22k (0.1%), peaking with 46k (0.3%) at 18:15. One point I’d like to add, especially in the case of the 500, is that the numbers don’t include online viewing. Anyone (including myself) who watched via the BT Sport app will not be included in the above number, and the same applies for anyone who watched via any other sources.

The 2014 Monaco Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.