Motor sport ratings (week ending 1st September, 2013)

Another seven days has passed which means it is times for the weekly BARB update, with MotoGP and IndyCar being the main highlights.

Live coverage of the MotoGP race from Silverstone officially averaged under 1.00 million viewers on BBC Two. This is not as surprising as it first seems given that it was longer than your typical MotoGP broadcast, with BBC live on air from 12:00 to 14:30 compared to usually 12:30 to 14:00. The overnight average from 12:00 to 14:30 was 856,000 viewers, with a 15-minute peak of 1.26 million at 13:30. The 12:30 to 14:00 overnight average was 1.04 million viewers, which is really not higher than your typical MotoGP race. As always, BARB have not reported ratings for Eurosport which is why I am unable to report their official ratings on here.

There was a motor sport double for ITV4 this week, with the Ulster Grand Prix highlights on Tuesday (27th August) averaging 250,000 viewers, whilst the Classic TT a day later averaged 243,000 viewers, both comfortably inside its top ten. On Sky Sports F1, there was a very unusual occurrence as The F1 Show was not the highest rated show of the week. That honour went to a repeat of the Midweek Report which averaged 28,000 viewers on Saturday evening (although I’m not entirely why). The F1 Show itself had 25,000 viewers, with the first airing of the Midweek Report recording 25,000 viewers. I think this is a combination of The F1 Show doing poorly by its standards this season, and the Midweek Report doing very well – which is an interesting anecdote considering the latter is filmed against a green screen and a shoe string budget.

Over on ESPN, live coverage of the IndyCar Series from Baltimore brought 12,000 viewers to the channel.

BBC dump next weekend’s MotoGP to Red Button

The BBC are to screen MotoGP next weekend behind the Red Button, schedules reveal. I will be honest and say that I’m incredibly unimpressed with this one, especially in their last season of coverage before handing to BT Sport next season. They normally move the Assen race around a bit, but that in my view is fair game as that does clash with Wimbledon and tends to clash with Qualifying for the British Grand Prix in Formula 1. The Saturday schedules are as follows:

Saturday 14th September 2013
BBC One
13:00 – Live Athletics: Great City Games
14:30 to 16:30 – Triathlon: World Championship Series

BBC Two
12:45 – Caribbean Food Made Easy (R)
13:15 – University Challenge (R)
13:45 to 15:40 – EastEnders Omnibus (R)

On BBC Two, repeats take priority over MotoGP. Whether this is a case of they don’t want sport on two BBC channels at the same time, I don’t know. The Sunday schedule is as follows:

Sunday 15th September 2013
BBC One
09:30 – Live Athletics: Great North Run
13:30 – Sunday Politics
14:45 – Bargain Hunt (R)
15:30 to 16:15 – Flog It! (R)

BBC Two
12:15 – Sailing: America’s Cup Highlights
13:00 – Live Triathlon: World Series Final
15:45 – EastEnders Omnibus (R)
16:45 – Athletics: Great North Run Highlights
17:30 to 18:30 – Rugby League: Super League Play Offs

If you drawn a list of sporting priorities at the BBC, you can see from the above where MotoGP falls. Now, of course, they may have took the MotoGP decision based on the fact that they are not screening it live next year. Of course, they did bid for MotoGP next year, but BT Sport out bid them considerably. But it is a thoroughly disappointing decision, especially considering the level of coverage from Silverstone. It is difficult to see what else they could have done, unfortunately something had to give. Sunday Politics I believe has to be on BBC One because of the regional opt-outs which cannot be served on BBC Two.

Furthermore, looking at the schedules, I cannot see any repeat airing for the MotoGP on BBC One or BBC Two, or BBC Three for that matter later on Sunday or Monday. As with Qatar earlier this year, don’t expect British Eurosport to screen it live, either.

Update on September 12th – It turns out that BBC are repeating it on on BBC Two, in the early hours of Monday morning at 00:15 (England/NI), 00:30 (Wales) and 00:45 (Scotland). Thanks to @scott_gamer for the tip.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 18th August, 2013)

The Summer break may have continued for Formula 1, but MotoGP was back in action and is therefore the pick in this week’s BARB weekly official ratings.

The championship remained in America, heading to the Indianapolis circuit. An average of 1.26 million viewers watched the coverage on BBC Two from 18:30 to 20:00 on Sunday (18th August). It is the first time the race has made BBC Two’s top thirty in the past five years, so a positive sign there. Over on ITV4, highlights of the Silverstone Classic were shown on Thursday (15th August), with an audience of 264,000 viewers tuning in.

Sky Sports F1 was in ‘Summer shut down’ mode with the channel’s main offering being The F1 Show’s Season so Far programme, in which 33,000 viewers watched. Unsurprisingly it was one of the lower rated of the season, but that should not be seen as particularly season. What is disappointing is that highlights of the 1985 Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday (17th August) only averaged 6,000 viewers. Thankfully, the 1998 Grand Prix averaged 19,000 viewers a day later. Bear in mind that all the figures account for any one who watched within seven days. It seems that the classic races either do not appeal to many people, or many people just are not watching their recording within that time period.

Finishing off with Motors TV, six programmes averaged over 10,000 viewers. Bike World 2013 on Thursday was their highlight, bringing 22,000 viewers to the channel.

BT Sport to broadcast classic MotoGP races this week

In a positive sign of things to come for 2014, BT Sport are to broadcast five classic MotoGP races this week, it has been confirmed.

The BT Sport website will be uploading the 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997 and 2000 MotoGP races, with the first two already online, and free to view for anyone to watch. The 1992 and 1994 races will also be shown on BT Sport 2, 1992 on Monday at 21:30 and 1994 on Tuesday at 21:30.

Considering their rights don’t kick in until 2014, I’m pleasantly surprised to see these turn up this week, although I imagine the broadcasting rights are not as ‘tight’ as Formula One Management’s control over what current or future rights holders can or cannot do.

Monday 26th August
21:30 to 22:30 – 1992 British MotoGP (BT Sport 2)
– repeated on Tuesday 27th August at 09:00
22:30 to 23:30 – 1993 British MotoGP (BT Sport 2)
– repeated on Tuesday 27th August at 10:00

Tuesday 27th August
21:30 to 22:30 – 1994 British MotoGP (BT Sport 2)
– repeated on Wednesday 28th August at 10:00

Wednesday 29th August
21:30 to 22:30 – 1997 British MotoGP (BT Sport 2)
– repeated on Thursday 29th August at 10:00

Thursday 30th August
22:00 to 23:00 – 2000 British MotoGP (BT Sport 2)
– repeated on Friday 30th August at 10:00

Radio 5 Live unveils British MotoGP schedule

BBC Radio 5 Live have announced their scheduling plans for the British round of the MotoGP World Championship. The station, which normally does not cover the championship, will be covering the weekend’s events.

As revealed in May, Jennie Gow will be presenting the coverage alongside Tommy Hill, whilst Harry Stafford will be alongside Gow on the Friday. On the TV side of things, there will be an extra half an hour of build-up and an extra half an hour of reaction on race day. Disappointingly though, only qualifying will be live on BBC One (as it has been for the majority of the year), the race coverage is still on BBC Two. It would have been nice to have given it the BBC One Sunday slot, in my view.

Here are their coverage plans:

Thursday 29th August
20:30 to 21:30 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Friday 30th August
09:00 to 12:15 – Practice (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)

Sunday 1st September
13:00 to 14:00 – MotoGP Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

I don’t know if BBC Radio covering it is a precursor to potentially covering the series next year when TV coverage moves to BT Sport next year, but time will tell.