BBC live coverage helps Japan increase year-on-year

The Japanese Grand Prix increased year-on-year, overnight ratings show, but when comparing the Japanese and Korean Grand Prix ratings from 2012 and 2013, an interesting pattern emerges.

Live coverage of the race on BBC One, from 06:00 to 09:15 averaged 1.30 million viewers, recording a 15-minute peak of 1.96 million at 08:15. The re-run at 14:00 averaged 1.92 million viewers. I have not seen Sky Sports F1’s viewing figures, but if last year’s Korean Grand Prix is to go by, then the race programme averaged around about 210,000 viewers.

Japanese Grand Prix – Official Ratings
2004 – 2.86 million
2005 – 3.32 million
2006 – 2.87 million
2007 – 3.17 million
2008 – 3.14 million
2009 – 3.63 million
2010 – 3.70 million
2011 – 4.38 million
2012 – 2.76 million / 2.88 million (using ‘35 percent theory‘)
– overnight figures were ~2.70 million / 2.80 million
2013 – 3.42 million / 3.50 million (overnight rating)

Japan has always been one of the lowest rated races on the calendar, as seen above only one race in the past ten years has averaged over 4 million viewers. When you consider that the title race is almost over, I’d say yesterday did respectably. Not great, but not appalling either. An interesting comparison, and why I have called the title what I have, is comparing BBC non-live for Japan 2012 and Korea 2013 with BBC live for Korea 2012 and Japan 2013:

– BBC live: 3.18 million / 3.42 million (JPN 2012 / KOR 2013)
– BBC non-live: 2.76 million / 2.84 million (KOR 2012 / JPN 2013)

Does this mean a good half a million people for the Asian races just read the result and not bother to tune in if BBC are not showing it live? I don’t know, but thought it was an interesting little tidbit worth bringing up. It may well be viewers hanging over who usually watch BBC Breakfast, but who knows.

Over on ITV, ‘Senna‘ averaged 1.09 million viewers at 22:20 for its première airing. The timeslot restricted its numbers badly with it going on beyond midnight. Promotion from ITV was appalling too, I didn’t see any adverts for the film, sadly. My initial thought that the slot was good turned out to be wrong, and it seems like it could have got double or triple the audience in a 21:00 slot on BBC Two. Expect it to be repeated frequently on ITV4, and film repeats on ITV4 tend to do well. ITV have the exclusive terrestrial rights to Universal films, so don’t expect it to turn up on other terrestrial channels.

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

Motor sport ratings (week ending 29th September, 2013)

MotoGP may have been the main motor sport event during the last weekend of September, but the coverage on BBC Two failed to make BARB‘s Top 30, official viewing figures show (or in MotoGP’s case, don’t). The race programme, from Aragón, averaged less than 1.09 million viewers on BBC Two.

Also failing to make the charts was coverage of the British Touring Car Championship, which averaged less than 218,000 viewers. The Goodwood Revival 2013 fared better on Thursday evening, also on ITV4, with 254,000 viewers or 283,000 viewers if you wish to include the +1 equivalent. Staying with the classic theme, and two archive programmes made BBC Four’s top ten. Grand Prix: The Killer Years averaged 535,000 viewers, whilst a repeat of Hunt vs Lauda: F1’s Greatest Racing Rivals averaged 409,000 viewers.

Over on Sky Sports F1, The F1 Show averaged 37,000 viewers or 74,000 viewers across three airings. Pretty disappointing, as it was one of their better efforts this year with Nigel Roebuck in the studio. For anyone wondering where the Korean Grand Prix ratings report is, as of writing no ratings have been reported. I am hopeful, that Broadcast’s top 100 in their magazine this week will include the relevant ratings, so hopefully a report is coming later in the week.

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.

Scheduling: The 2013 Japanese Grand Prix

Technically and mathematically the championship race is still on, but the law of diminishing returns means that Sebastian Vettel is likely to win the Drivers’ Championship next weekend or in India. The season heads to Suzuka, a circuit full of Formula 1 history and clashes every direction you look. Sky’s F1 team really could have picked any Japanese race and it would be served as a classic, they chose 1989, 1994, 1998, 2000 and 2007 which was held in Fuji. All worth watching, and as always the schedule times are below. If that was not enough, ITV are screening ‘Senna’ on the Sunday evening at 22:20.

BBC are live this weekend, as they are indeed for India as well, so a good dosage of live action coming up for the BBC F1 team, which is always good to see. Rather oddly though, and very frustrating, whoever did the pick order decided it would be fabulous idea to have live F1 and live MotoGP on the BBC clashing! Why not pick Korea live and have MotoGP whip up a bigger audience on the Sunday? The mind boggles. The two don’t actually clash in terms of race duration (F1 should finish at 08:30, MotoGP beginning at 09:00), but the programmes do and I feel it is a bit of a cock up. At least the schedulers get to breathe easy next year, I suppose…

Tuesday 8th October
20:00 to 21:30 – F1: 1989 Japanese Grand Prix Extended Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and James Hunt
– repeated on Friday 11th October at 18:30

Wednesday 9th October
20:00 to 21:00 – F1: 1994 Japanese Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Jonathan Palmer
– repeated on Saturday 12th October at 08:00
21:00 to 23:30 – F1: 1998 Japanese Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 12th October at 14:00

Thursday 10th October
07:00 to 07:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 17:15 – Gear Up for Japan (Sky Sports F1)
20:00 to 22:30 – F1: 2000 Japanese Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 12th October at 19:30
21:00 to 21:30 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
22:30 to 01:15 – F1: 2007 Japanese Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 13th October at 19:15

Friday 11th October
01:45 to 03:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
01:50 to 03:40 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
05:45 to 08:00 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
05:55 to 07:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Two)
08:00 to 08:45 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
10:00 to 11:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 12th October
02:45 to 04:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
02:55 to 04:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
05:00 to 07:30 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
05:00 to 07:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
13:20 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
14:35 to 15:35 – MotoGP: Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 13th October
05:30 to 10:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
06:00 to 09:15 – F1: Race (BBC One)
09:15 to 10:15 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
08:30 to 10:00 – MotoGP: Sepang (BBC Two)
10:15 to 10:55 – GP Uncovered: 1962 Season (Sky Sports F1)
12:30 to 14:00 – MotoGP: Race Replay (BBC Two)
14:00 to 16:00 – F1: Race Replay (BBC One)
22:20 to 00:20 – FILM: Senna (ITV)

Wednesday 16th October
19:00 to 19:30 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

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.