Motor sport ratings (week ending 28th July, 2013)

Formula 1’s first Summer break came to a conclusion with the Hungarian Grand Prix, and in the official BARB ratings, both BBC and Sky recorded improvements versus 2012. BBC One’s highlights programme averaged 3.78 million viewers, an increase of 140,000 viewers against the overnight ratings, which is quite frankly tuppence by today’s standards where primetime programmes can timeshift near to a million viewers. Like I said, it is marginally up on 2012, 80,000 viewers up to be exact. Sky Sports F1’s race programme averaged 812,000 viewers, an increase of 70,000 viewers from the overnight ratings, although this is as a result of the ad-breaks being stripped out of the official ratings. The programme average was up 94,000 on 2012.

Elsewhere on Sky Sports F1:

– 432,000 – Live Qualifying (Saturday, 12:00)
– 94,000 – Live Practice 3 (Saturday, 09:45)
– 59,000 – GP Uncovered (Sunday, 16:30)
– 54,000 – Live GP2 Race 1 (Saturday, 14:35)
– 47,000 – The F1 Show (Friday, 17:00)
– 42,000 – Live Practice 2 (Friday, 12:45)

Overall, the practice ratings are up year-on-year although practice one was for some reason outside of the top ten. Nevertheless, very pleasing to see GP Uncovered in the top ten as it is not often that it makes the top ten. Solid rating for the first GP2 race, I do hope it continues to improve ratings wise, Sky need to maximise the fact that GP2 and GP3 after F1 Qualifying as much as possible.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed was ITV4’s main highlight, with ‘The First 20 Years’ bringing 350,000 viewers to the channel on Wednesday (24th July) at 21:00. 390,000 viewers watched the 2013 action a day later. Motors TV is the only other worthy mention this week, the Blancpain Endurance Series topping its chart with 19,000 viewers.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 21st July, 2013)

The second and final week of the first Formula 1 mid-season break meant that MotoGP shined again on BBC Two. This time, the series was in primetime on BBC Two, airing from 22:00 to 23:00 live on Laguna Seca. The programme averaged 1.30 million viewers, which is a 28 percent increase from the Sachensring rating on July 14th. Although up on 2012, it is down on 2009 and 2011.

MotoGP – Laguna Seca ratings
2009 – 1.53 million
2010 – 1.45 million or below
2011 – 1.49 million
2012 – 1.13 million
2013 – 1.30 million

Over on ITV4, the Tour de France came to a conclusion in primetime also on the Sunday. The final stage recorded an average of 1.17 million viewers and peaked with over 2 million viewers as Chris Froome won the tour. The peak was higher than the MotoGP peak. Highlights through the week averaged between 561,000 and 751,000 viewers. The F1 Show Special on Sky Sports F1 failed to bring in any extra viewers than usual with an average of 74,000 viewers. As always, promotion is the issue here – it was never destined to do better than usual because the promotion was level outside of the ‘Sky F1 Twitter bubble’. Nevertheless, 63 percent of those polled on this blog want to see it again, although there are several comments which are definitely worth food for thought should this be done again.

Several repeats of the Goodwood Festival of Speed also made Sky Sports 4 and F1’s top ten ranging from 12,000 to 27,000 viewers. Across four airings, the total was 81,000 viewers. Lastly for the channel, the 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix highlights made the top ten with 12,000 viewers on Saturday evening. ESPN’s motor sport contribution to this post comes via Indy Lights highlights which averaged 17,000 viewers on Wednesday 17th July at 21:45. DTM, in the preceding hour, brought 13,000 viewers to the channel.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 14th July, 2013)

With Formula 1 going on its first of two Summer breaks, it meant it was time to shine for some other forms of motor sport, specifically two wheels. Live coverage of MotoGP from the Sachensring in Germany brought an average of 1.01 million viewers to BBC Two from 12:30 to 14:00 according to BARB. This is slightly down on its usual numbers, but not too surprising given the unusually warm British Summer weather as of late. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I dread to think what numbers MotoGP will deliver on BT Sport next year. In my opinion, they are not going to look pretty. Without going into a full blown debate in this post, numbers will more than likely end up below 500,000 viewers with MotoGP being pushed out of the public spotlight. Eurosport’s numbers are unavailable, as are the numbers for BBC’s Red Button service.

Also of interest to motor sport fans on BBC Two was the fantastic Hunt vs Lauda documentary, which acted as a ‘preview’ of Rush, out in cinemas in September. The documentary averaged 2.23 million viewers, slightly above the slot average and benefiting from a Top Gear lead-in of nearly 5 million viewers. Because of that documentary, a repeat airing of Grand Prix: The Killer Years fared brilliantly on BBC Four, averaging 799,000 viewers, making it the most watched programme on the station for the week.

Over on ITV4, the Tour de France again dominated the top ten, with the highlights shows averaging between 463,000 and 698,000 viewers. Live coverage at the weekend averaged 320,000 and 477,000 viewers respectively. Numbers are down on last year, presumably due to no Bradley Wiggins involvement, with highlights shows last year bringing between 650,000 and 850,000 viewers. Sky Sports F1’s highest rated show unsurprisingly was The F1 Show, which averaged 60,000 viewers. All other ratings were under 18,000 viewers as is typical during a non race week. It will be interesting to see if The F1 Show Special did any better than the usual editions. Due to the lack of promotion, I suspect not.

Highlights of the first IndyCar race from Toronto on ESPN averaged 18,000 viewers in the early hours of Sunday morning, whilst live DTM coverage later on at 12:15 brought 15,000 viewers both safely in ESPN’s top ten. I would be surprised if IndyCar’s move to BT Sport 2 for the next race in Mid Ohio changes its fortunes significantly, I imagine you’re looking at similar ratings to now, barring a miracle.

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.

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…