Korean Grand Prix records lowest rating of the year

The Korean Grand Prix hit a 2013 low this past Sunday, overnight ratings reveal. This is itself is no surprise, considering the championship is nearly over, but also noting how the Japanese Grand Prix in the equivalent slot last year (also Sky exclusive) had an near identical viewership.

BBC One’s re-run coverage from 14:00 to 16:00 averaged 2.44 million viewers, peaking with 2.86 million viewers at 15:30. Sky Sports F1’s coverage from 05:30 to 17:15 brought an average of 405,000 viewers to the channel. The race itself began with 614,000 viewers at 07:00, but never once hit 800,000 viewers – or a million viewers. It peaked with 785,000 viewers twice at 08:15 and 08:40.

Like I said above, when you consider how badly the Japanese Grand Prix did last year, this should be considered no surprise to any one. It is, however, a poor number by Korean standards, although it is a relatively ‘young’ race to make a lot of comparison.

Korean Grand Prix – Official Ratings
2010 – 4.11 million
2011 – 4.16 million
2012 – 3.18 million / 3.25 million
– overnight figures were ~3.10 million / 3.18 million
2013 – 2.84 million / 2.98 million

2013 may budge close to 2012, it should officially consolidate to over 3 million viewers. I’d probably bet a lot of money that the Japanese Grand Prix will do significantly better than last year because it is live on BBC One. But we shall see.

The 2012 Korean Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 22nd September, 2013)

The Singapore Grand Prix weekend is the focus this week as Sky Sports F1’s extended race coverage from 11:30 to 16:50 averaged 619,000 viewers excluding adverts as always. What this means is that the overnight rating of 630,000 viewers reported here is indeed for the original 11:30 to 16:15 slot. I believe those numbers are the lowest yet for a Sky exclusive race in the European time zone.

Elsewhere on Sky Sports F1:

– 406,000 – Live Qualifying (Saturday, 13:00)
– 122,000 – Live Practice 3 (Saturday, 10:45)
– 65,000 – Live Practice 2 (Friday, 14:15)
– 51,000 – Live GP2 Race 2 (Saturday, 09:05)
– 47,000 – Live Practice 1 (Friday, 10:45)

The F1 Show again fails to make the top ten for a race weekend based edition whilst, sadly, the F1 Legends edition with Eddie Irvine also did not enter. I do think scheduling is an issue here. By 16:45 on Sunday you would have what, maybe 50,000 viewers still watching the post-race? That is not a large base, and you would be better off putting the Legends show in between GP2 and the F1 instead of what feels like filler. I don’t think the GP2 sprint race has ever gone beyond 10:30 on a Sunday morning, so there would be enough time to put the Legends programme on.

BBC One’s highlights show failed to make BARB’s top 30, and therefore was under 3.61 million viewers unsurprisingly. Over on ITV4, cycling’s Tour of Britain dominated proceedings, taking seven of the top ten slots, with a high of 413,000 viewers on Wednesday evening.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 15th September, 2013)

The BTCC was the main motor sport highlight in this week’s BARB round-up. The championship, coming from Rockingham, averaged 301,000 viewers across seven and a half hours on ITV4.

Over on Sky Sports F1, the first live airing of The F1 Show averaged 82,000 viewers, across four airings this increases slightly to 116,000 viewers. The live figure is the highest for the show since multi-21 in March which averaged 110,000 viewers, which is unsurprising considering Kimi Raikkonen’s move to Ferrari was announced two days earlier. In terms of highest rated editions, this is the top five for the studio shows:

1) ~200k (March 9th, 2012 – channel launch)
2) 110k (March 28th, 2013 – multi-21)
3) 86k (June 1st, 2012 – post-Monaco)
4) 83k (May 4th, 2012 – Mugello test)
5) 82k (September 13th, 2013 – Raikkonen to Ferrari)
6) 80k (September 28th, 2012 – Hamilton to Mercedes)

Interestingly, the multi-21 edition is also the only studio based edition to air on a Thursday, which should probably tell Sky something, although it has not been acted upon yet. Elsewhere on the channel, the Midweek Report averaged 17,000 viewers, as did the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Vettel keeps 4 million hooked on Singapore

Sebastian Vettel’s win in yesterday’s Singapore Grand Prix kept viewing figures roughly in line with 2012, viewing figures show. BBC One’s highlights programme averaged 3.14 million viewers, a 19 percent share from 17:00 to 18:30. Sky Sports F1’s live coverage averaged 630,000 viewers, a 6.5 percent share. What is unclear is what the average covers. If it is the original 11:30 to 16:15 slot, then I have to say that is a particularly disappointing rating considering they had exclusive coverage. We will have to wait and see.

Singapore Grand Prix – Official Ratings
2008 – 3.95 million
2009 – 4.42 million
2010 – 4.49 million
2011 – 4.46 million
2012 – 3.93 million / 4.09 million (using ‘35 percent theory‘)
– overnight figures were 3.81 million / 3.97 million
2013 – 3.77 million / 3.99 million (overnight rating)

The official ratings will budge 2013 level with 2012, I imagine the highlights show was dented by the Manchester Derby, so that may timeshift more than usual. Coincidentally, that match averaged 1.91 million viewers, peaking with nearly 3 million viewers, a fairly colossal number by Sky’s standards.

The 2012 Singapore Grand Prix ratings report can be found here. Ratings data for 2013 is from ITV Media.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 8th September, 2013)

It is another week in the world of BARB, and after a brief hiatus in Belgium, we have Sky Sports F1 ratings! Phew. The Italian Grand Prix race programme officially averaged 476,000 viewers, up 19,000 viewers from the overnight rating. Comparisons with 2012 where this is concerned are largely invalid because of course Sky screened the race exclusively live last year. BBC’s airing of the race fell outside of the top 30.

Elsewhere on Sky Sports F1:

– 369,000 – Live Qualifying (Saturday, 12:00)
– 96,000 – Live Practice 3 (Saturday, 09:45)
– 67,000 – Live GP2 Race 1 (Saturday, 14:35)
– 53,000 – 1995 Italian Grand Prix Highlights (Saturday, 11:15)
—> see below for why the above is not entirely accurate…
– 51,000 – Live Practice 1 (Friday, 08:45)
– 46,000 – Live GP3 Race 2 (Saturday, 16:15)
– 41,000 – Live Practice 2 (Friday, 12:45)

A mixed bag of ratings above. The support races did well, in fact GP3 recorded a record high when comparing with Saturday races only which is fantastic to see! It was the second highest ever Saturday rating for GP2, only beaten by the German Grand Prix free weekend last year. The reason I call this a mixed bag though is because the F1 Legends edition featuring Alain Prost was absent.

Probably one of the most high profile people you will have on there and it fails to muster even 41,000 viewers which is disappointing. I don’t know why Sky via @SkyF1Insider promote an interview being aired tomorrow featuring Prost, but fail to promote an entire programme featuring Prost. That, I’m afraid is Sky logic for you. I know which one is more important for Sky to promote and it is definitely not the piece which will only make up a small portion of a long show…

Finally concerning Sky, the 53,000 viewers for the 1995 Italian Grand Prix highlights is not entirely accurate. Sky during those 45 minutes had major transmission problems, with TX seemingly flicking from the 1995 highlights to various other programming: Gear Up for Italy I think was one and Herbert’s Lemon was the other. It was all a bit of a mess, in all honesty!

Motors TV’s highest rating of 14,000 was for the Irish National Rally Championship, but other than the Formula 1, it was a quiet week in the land of motor sport and UK TV ratings.