Motors TV joins Freeview via connected TV

From Thursday 27th February, Motors TV will be available to those with a Freeview HD or HD+ box, with an active internet connection only, it was confirmed today.

Arqiva’s Director of Hybrid TV, Digital Platforms Russ Armstrong said that “Motors TV is a brand that understands their audience and the various nuances between devices and platforms their audience engage on. Providing their content on the Freeview platform allows new viewers to discover their channel. Great content is as popular as ever and through Connect TV we’re working with broadcasters to ensure a seamless delivery of their channels.”

Frederic Viger, Head of Programming and Acquisitions at Motors TV, added “We’re delighted to be joining the Freeview family through Arqiva’s Connect TV. Scores of motor sport fans will now have access to the widest and most diverse range of live, delayed and highlights programming that features both international and domestic championships. It was something that prospective viewers had been calling for and I’d like to think that we’ve responded to their wishes. The proliferation of internet-connected television made this a very attractive platform.”

An interesting take on things from Motors TV, although I find it ironic that it is only available to those with a HD box, despite Motors TV being anything but high definition. Still, it is good to see Motors TV heading to Freeview, albeit for those who only have the box connected to the internet.

BT Sport, Motors TV join ITV4 as WRC rights holders

BT Sport have joined ITV4 as rights holders for the World Rally Championship, AUTOSPORT are confirming this evening, whilst it also appears Motors TV are joining the fray. BT Sport, according to the website, are screening exclusive live coverage of the series.

The website notes that the deal will be officially confirmed tomorrow at the AUTOSPORT Show, and says that BT Sport will “begin its WRC coverage with a mid-week season preview next week before nightly coverage of the Monte Carlo Rally and then live coverage of both runs over the Sospel-Breil sur Roya stage next Saturday afternoon and evening.”. What the article does not make clear is whether ITV4 are staying on as rights holders. A look at the ITV4 schedule however still shows WRC in the schedule for Tuesday 21st January at 20:00 with highlights of the Monte Carlo rally, supporting information supplied to this blog last month.

The Motors TV schedule shows half an hour of highlights for each day of action. BT Sport will have live coverage at various points on each day, with highlights too. As the BT Sport live coverage is in addition to the ITV4 highlights, then this is brilliant news for all fans of rallying.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 25th August, 2013)

Again a late ratings piece because there really is not a lot of ratings up on BARB. At first I did not see much point in publishing this post, but thought I should for completeness purposes.

Starting with ESPN, live coverage of the IndyCar Series from Sonoma averaged 8,000 viewers. Other than that, the only thing worth noting is highlights of the Silverstone Classic which brought 26,000 viewers to ITV4 +1.

Motors TV’s highest rated was 27,000 viewers for Hotrax Motorsport. Whatever that might be.

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.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 11th August, 2013)

The reason this piece is up later than usual is because, there are not many motor sport ratings on BARB to actually report. Sky Sports F1’s top ten is a delayed, so unfortunately there is no rating to report for the fantastic Journalists special of The F1 Show.

An impressive rating that has been reported however are highlights of the World Rally Championship (WRC) round from Finland. Although the ITV4 airing did not make the top ten on Wednesday (9th August) at 20:00, the timeshifted airing made ITV4 +1’s top ten at 21:00, averaging 37,000 viewers. I suspect the ITV4 airing averaged over 100,000 viewers, which obviously would be the highest WRC has been in several years, thanks to ITV4 reaching many more people than ESPN previously did. I haven’t seen any detailed WRC figures, but if I do, I will post them.

I revealed back in March that the rights are for this season only. I really, really hope that ITV4 continue screening it in 2014, it would be disastrous if the series was thrown back into the abyss where viewing figures are concerned. Thankfully, if the figures above suggest, the World Rally Championship is again showing signs of life in the UK after a torrid few years.

Elsewhere, the viewing figures for Motors TV’s top ten ranged from 4,000 to 13,000 viewers, NASCAR and V8 Supercars their highlights.