MotoGP viewership drops without FTA live coverage

A new era in the broadcasting scene began for MotoGP this past weekend on BT Sport and ITV4, with diminishing returns, as the sport found itself being watched by less people than the previous BBC and Eurosport deal, unofficial overnight viewing figures show. In 2013, the race was screened exclusively live on BBC Two from 19:30 to 21:00, the race starting an hour later in 2013 compared with this season. The programme averaged 1.67m (6.9%), peaking with 2.12m (8.4%) at 20:40.

Compare that to last weekend. BT Sport’s programme, from 15:00 to 20:30, averaged 126k (0.8%). When comparing with the equivalent BBC slot for the MotoGP race last year, from 18:30 to 20:00, that averaged 187k (0.8%), peaking with 230k (1.1%) at 19:05. ITV4’s hour long highlights show last night average 492k (2.2%), peaking with 603k (2.6%) according to unofficial overnight viewing figures, including +1. This brings us to a combined average of 679k, and a combined peak of 833k. For both years, viewing excludes anyone who viewed via the internet, so all viewing via the BT Sport app or their website is excluded, whilst the same also applies for anyone who viewed MotoGP in 2013 through BBC iPlayer. I would hazard a bet that the latter figures would be higher than the former, meaning that the overall effect is negligible.

So, are the figures any good? I said previously that if BT’s average, for the MotoGP part, was around 200k to 250k, then that would be acceptable (250k being their rumoured expectation), with ITV4’s highlights adding a further 400k. That would bring a combined figure in the 600k region, with a peak realistically near to 1 million. I’d say the figures are positive, but also a tale of two halves. Given the amount of promotion that they have done, BT’s figures are lower than I expected. On the other hand, ITV’s highlights deal came with little fan-fare and no promotion in comparison to BT. Yet, despite being on 24 hours after the original race, it brought nearly half a million viewers. BT Sport will claim to increase the sports popularity, except the viewing figures show completely the opposite. In many ways, the ITV4 viewership number has ‘saved face’. It is one of ITV4’s highest ratings of the year, only behind football and numerous repeats of Storage Wars.

I think you could run around this subject a lot, but the fact is that, thanks to Dorna taking the money and not the viewers, the viewership has halved. Julian Ryder said on Twitter last month that without BT Sport’s money, some teams would not have been on the MotoGP grid this year. I have no reason not to believe Ryder, and trust what he is saying. But instead of going to pay TV, surely MotoGP should have had a look at itself and say how do we make ourselves marketable to the wider public in the UK? If it wasn’t for the ITV4 deal (which Dorna themselves did not promote on the MotoGP website, with a press release, like they did twice for BT Sport), then MotoGP would have been turned into a niche sport.

So, will the declines continue? I think they will, be not to the extent we seen in Qatar. If ITV4’s highlights stays around half a million viewers, with BT Sport adding say 150k for the European races, then it won’t be a million miles away from BBC’s ratings. I think Dorna would have perhaps been hoping for a higher BT figure and a lower ITV4 figure. The gap, and how the viewing changes over the season will definitely be one to watch. If I’m a betting man, I’d say MotoGP will lose viewers this year, but thanks to the ITV4 deal, this has definitely been a better deal for Dorna than many people may have expected…

Sky’s fortunes increase as BBC’s Australian Grand Prix ratings drop

The Australian Grand Prix weekend saw a change in fortunes for both BBC and Sky Sports. In a stark contrast to last year’s viewing figures, Sky Sports F1 recorded an increase for both Qualifying and the Race, but BBC dropped year-on-year.

Race
A quick note to start with. I’ll be using the Sky ‘race show’ slot to compare with previous years for the entire season, but will use the exact timeslot in the previous years data to do comparisons. Do not expect me to compare a full programme average (in 2012 or 2013) with a ‘race show’ average for 2014, because such a comparison would be invalid.

BBC’s highlights programme on BBC One on Sunday afternoon averaged 2.88m (25.4%), unofficial overnight viewing figures show. This figure is up on 2012 which averaged 2.73m, however, is down on the 3.05m that the programme averaged last season. Its not a major drop, but a drop nonetheless. I think the F1 has been lost in the shuffle this weekend on the BBC, due to the Six Nations taking up the majority of BBC One on Saturday. It meant that less people watched Qualifying with the broadcaster than normal, thus potentially affecting Sunday’s rating too.

Interestingly, and the first time I have said this in a long time, Sky’s coverage was up year-on-year. From 05:00 to 08:30, Sky Sports F1 averaged 594k (21.1%), peaking with 945k (21.5%) at 07:35. This compares with 517k (20.9%) in 2013 and 621k (26.8%) in 2012. The ‘split show’ appears to have worked if the intention was to bring in more viewers, although I think it will only have a bigger influence for the early morning rounds, where more people are bound to record the action.

This brings us to a combined average of 3.47m, down on 3.57m. The issue here is that, yes, a Sky gain of 73k is great for them, but if BBC loses nearly 200k, it eradicates whatever gain Sky is made. Due to the audience levels, if BBC lose or gain, it will flip flop massively either way, which is unlikely to happen with Sky. An issue with the BBC overnight ratings for the past few years is that the Scottish Cup final has meant that the F1 has been displaced to BBC Two. The BBC One overnights in this piece include Scotland viewers, so if the Scottish Cup final was lower profile than last year, that may have had an affect too. Also, whilst a combined average of 3.47m is ‘okay’ versus 2012 (which averaged 3.35m), it is a far cry from the BBC exclusive figures from 2009 to 2011, which I feel is important to remember.

Qualifying
Note that there are no comparisons with last year, given that the session was red flagged on the Saturday, which depleted the averages all around. As for 2014, Sky Sports F1’s coverage of Qualifying performed well in the early hours of Saturday night. The live programme, from 05:00 to 07:45 averaged 307k (15.5%), peaking with 549k towards the end of the session. The average looks healthy because it is, in fact higher than their 2012 viewing figure which was below 300k. So, they have good reason to be happy with that.

On the flip side, Sky1’s simulcast added only 32k (1.6%) during the timeslot, which shows how poorly the simulcast was promoted. It begs the question of what the purpose of the simulcast is if no promotion is going to be given. Had there have been ample promotion for the Sky1 simulcast, I’d bet that 32k being at least three or four times higher.

Later on, BBC F1’s highlights coverage on BBC Two from 14:55 to 16:25 averaged 1.35m (12.1%), peaking with 1.62m (14.1%). The combined average is therefore marginally down on 2012, but also the lowest since 2007. Whilst very disappointing, the reasoning for that in my opinion is due to mitigating circumstances, specifically the Six Nations which took a big slice out of the Formula 1 audience.

The 2013 Australian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

Testing ratings for final test level year-on-year

Ratings for the final pre-season test from the Bahrain International Circuit were level year-on-year with Sky Sports F1’s live coverage from last year, unofficial overnight viewing figures show. If you are to do a best like-for-like comparison, live airings of testing versus the first round-up/Notebook airings from this week then it is a dead heat. The repeats I don’t think would make much difference, although if you were to do a peak figure comparison, then there would be a significant difference, as the live testing coverage from last year was longer than this year’s round-ups.

Coverage began on Thursday with 44k (0.2%) watching Sky’s coverage, this dipping to 29k (0.1%) for Friday’s round-up, both ratings up on live testing in 2013. 40k (0.2%) tuned in on Saturday, whilst 30k (0.1%) watched on Sunday, figures for the weekend down in both raw numbers and share on 2013. I really do think Sky should have made every effort possible to screen testing live on Saturday and Sunday. I would have agreed with ditching Thursday and Friday’s live coverage given that they are weekdays, but I personally would not have been opposed to something like this for the weekend:

12:00 – Live Testing
15:00 – Testing round-up/Notebook repeats
18:00 – Testing (repeat of earlier)
21:00 – Ted’s Notebook

I wouldn’t be surprised if the location played a hand in the decision to not pursue testing live. Of course, we mustn’t forget that, according to Sky Sports F1’s channel scheduler, “live testing is pointless”. One thing I want to mention, I have seen some people saying that allegedly ‘nobody cares’ about testing, yet the testing figures (as I have said before) beat the GP2 and GP3 figures from previous years and multiple episodes of The F1 Show. Using the same logic, the aforementioned items are pointless, too.

– 27/02 – 44k (0.2%), peak: 50k (0.2%) – 21:00 to 21:45
– 28/02 – 29k (0.1%), peak: 36k (0.2%) – 21:00 to 21:45
– 01/03 – 40k (0.2%), peak: 73k (0.4%) – 21:00 to 21:45
– 02/03 – 30k (0.1%), peak: 41k (0.2%) – 21:00 to 21:45

Note that I believe that Ted’s Notebook overran on the Saturday and Sunday, however I do not know the exact times that it finished so, for the purposes of this blog post I have kept the original timings.

Sky’s Jerez testing coverage increases year-on-year

Sky Sports’ coverage of the first winter test of the 2014 Formula One season from Jerez performed better than last year, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.

The four days, excluding any repeats, averaged 29k, which compares with 19k for the coverage last year. All four days were covered through a fifteen minute round-up and Ted Kravitz’s testing Notebook which followed it. The numbers below the full duration of that period, which varied between 40 and 50 minutes on each day. Interest was clearly higher than last year from the get-go, an average of 43k (0.2%) watched coverage of the first day, peaking with 51k (0.2%). Day 2 was similarly high, averaging 38k (0.2%) from 21:00 to 21:50.

Days 3 and 4 did drop back down to 2013 levels though. Day three averaged 15k (0.1%), with day four averaging 18k (0.1%). Below is a summary of the ratings:

– 28/01 – 43k (0.2%), peak: 51k (0.2%) – 21:00 to 21:40
– 29/01 – 38k (0.2%), peak: 50k (0.2%) – 21:00 to 21:50
– 30/01 – 15k (0.1%), peak: 23k (0.1%) – 21:00 to 21:50
– 31/01 – 18k (0.1%), peak: 32k (0.1%) – 21:00 to 21:45

To put the day 1 and 2 numbers into context, it is about equivalent to a GP2 race in 2013, and would have beaten the majority of GP3 and IndyCar races. That last line might sadden a few readers, but that does appear to be the case.

World Rally Championship hits a high note on ITV4

Highlights of the first round of the 2014 World Rally Championship on ITV4 performed better than any of its coverage from 2013, unofficial overnight viewing figures show. With that, the rating would also be the highest for a rally since at least 2010, given the low key seasons that followed broadcasting wise.

The programme, broadcast on Tuesday 21st January at 20:00 and focussing on the Monte Carlo rally, averaged 278k (1.8%), peaking with 358k (1.5%) as Sébastien Ogier secured his victory. The rating is impressive for the coverage, when you consider that the majority of the overnight ratings in 2013 were between 100k and 200k. The weekend marked an adjustment in the broadcasting rights here in the UK, with BT Sport coming on board, broadcasting the series exclusively live.

BT Sport’s live coverage started solidly, if unspectacular. The highest number was for live coverage on BT Sport 2 on Saturday (18th January) afternoon. The one hour programme from 14:30 averaged 41k (0.4%), peaking with 65k (0.6%). Sadly the evening coverage on BT Sport 1 did not average as much, only bringing 22k (0.1%). I do think that it is a good starting block for BT, it was never going to storm out of the blocks. With an influx of motor sport subscribers (including myself) to the channel for the MotoGP coverage, there is room for improvement.

The numbers emphasise for me why it was important for ITV4 to retain its highlights coverage, which has happened. The two now compliment each other nicely, and hopefully the numbers for the highlights continue to remain high as the season progresses.