It is the final race of the European season, which means a trip to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix! And, both BBC and Sky are live. Whilst it is indeed the end of the European season, there are of course two more races that are held in the daytime for European viewers, that being Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
The only notable mention this week is that I believe this is Allan McNish’s last race of the season with the Radio 5 Live team. It was noted back in March that McNish would only be with the team for six races with Italy being his last. Whether he will be back in the paddock with them for 2014 remains to be seen. After the race concludes, it is the fourth edition of F1 Legends this year, this time featuring Alain Prost as Steve Rider’s guest.
Saturday 31st August
20:00 to 20:40 – F1: 1988 Italian Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and James Hunt
– repeated on Friday 23rd August at 18:00
Sunday 1st September
20:00 to 20:45 – F1: 1995 Italian Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Jonathan Palmer
– repeated on Sunday 25th August at 11:15
Monday 2nd September
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2001 Italian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 23rd August at 17:15
Tuesday 3rd September
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2008 Italian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 24th August at 22:05
Wednesday 4th September
19:00 to 20:00 – Lotus: Chapman’s Winning Formula (Sky Sports F1)
– more details can be found here
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2010 Italian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
Thursday 5th September
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
21:30 to 21:45 – Gear Up for Italy (Sky Sports F1)
Friday 6th September
08:45 to 11:00 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
11:00 to 11:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
13:00 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Two)
14:50 to 15:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:00 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
Saturday 7th September
08:45 to 09:20 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
09:55 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 14:30 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
14:35 to 16:00 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:05 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
Sunday 8th September
08:20 to 09:05 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:35 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 15:15 – F1: Race (BBC One)
15:15 to 16:15 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
16:15 to 17:15 – F1 Legends: Alain Prost (Sky Sports F1)
Wednesday 11th September
19:00 to 19:30 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)
As always, if anything changes I shall update this blog if necessary.
“Lotus: Chapman’s Winning Formula” is a 1 x 60 minute documentary that will first air on the channel on Wednesday 4th September at 19:00. The description is as follows: “To mark the 50th anniversary of Lotus’ first Formula 1 triumph, Steve Rider examines the legacy of founder Colin Chapman. Drivers, staff and family share their thoughts.” The full list of air times during the weekend are as follows:
There’s several more slots after the weekend, but those are the first bunch of air times. I’ll publish the full Italian Grand Prix weekend schedule in a few days.
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.
The Belgian Grand Prix increased slightly in the ratings versus 2012, overnight viewing figures show. However, as has been the pattern since the start of the year, only BBC seen an increase year-on-year, with Sky Sports F1’s ratings again dropping. The BBC’s coverage, from 12:10 to 15:15 averaged 2.89 million viewers, a 28.5 percent share, up 120,000 viewers against last year’s overnight figure. Sky Sports F1 averaged 336,000 viewers, a 3.4 percent share from 11:30 to 16:15. The channel from 12:10 to 15:15 averaged 453,000 viewers, exactly in line with the 35 percent increase which is typically seen between the two measures. Year-on-year, Sky is down about 30,000 viewers, and the 336,000 viewership average is their lowest so far this year.
It goes without saying that the Belgian Grand Prix is always one of the lowest rated races of the season due to its position in the calendar. The August Bank Holiday is the last Summer get away of the year which depletes ratings across the board, including the F1. In ratings term, the Belgian round is a ‘write off’ and it is difficult to do a lot of analysis or read too many conclusions into it. Of course, another reason for the low ratings is the other sporting competition (albeit, not an excuse) and the fact that Spa is normally over within 90 minutes.
Belgian Grand Prix – Official Ratings
2002 – 2.39 million
2003 – no race
2004 – 2.90 million
2005 – 2.10 million
2006 – no race
2007 – 2.67 million
2008 – 3.87 million
2009 – 3.47 million
2010 – 4.18 million
2011 – 3.90 million
2012 – 3.17 million / 3.29 million (using ‘35 percent theory‘)
– overnight figures were 3.10 million / 3.26 million
2013 – 3.23 million / 3.35 million (overnight rating)
By any measure, it is not a great rating, but not a particularly surprising one either. The combined peak, which I’ll get into first was at 13:45, with 4.49 million viewers (41.6 percent share) tuning in, which I believe is the lowest since 2009 for Belgian. You know the race is not great when the viewership is flat across the 90 minutes. 4.39 million viewers were watching at the start, 4.46 million viewers were watching at the end. On another day, it would have been a great race to watch and it would have increased substantially throughout broadcast. Alas, it was not to be.
At the time of the combined peak, BBC One held 3.88 million viewers, whilst the other 618,500 viewers were watching Sky. BBC One was up 190,000 viewers, Sky was down 270,500 viewers, meaning that the ratio between the two channels at the time of the peak was 86.4 percent versus 13.6 percent. It appears that there are a proportion of viewers who, over the past few months for whatever reason are gravitating back to the BBC’s programming. One question that could be asked, and therefore is probably worth briefly discussing here: “Would Sky ever consider getting rid of the F1 channel and putting content onto the main Sky Sports channels?” The answer to that question I think is no. Six Sky Sports channels looks more attractive to Sky than five, it is a simple as that. And, at a time when they are trying to fight off BT Sport, it would not make any logistical sense for them to do that.
Qualifying averaged 2.32 million viewers across both channels, with a peak of 3.04 million at 14:00. BBC’s coverage averaged 2.00 million viewers, with Sky adding 319,000 viewers. Both channels were up year-on-year, but it was the lowest rated Qualifying session of the year. Next up is Italy, which is also a traditionally low rated race, although 2012 did buck that trend, so it will be interesting to see what happens this year.
The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.
Having looked at both the BBC and Sky Sports F1 teams along with their respective programming, part five of ‘The Verdict so far’ series brings us to the UK television ratings. Which is, quite simply, a measure of Formula 1’s popularity. Have Formula 1’s ratings dropped further since 2012, or have they rebounded? In this blog post, we shall find out the answer.
Before I start though, again it is worth reiterating figures I use. All of the figures in the blog are programme averages, unless stated otherwise. This is because these are the figures most readily available, and I do not have industry access to the viewing figures. Therefore, I am relying purely on the figures I already have and those that are reported in the public domain. I also have the Formula 1 viewing figures going back to the early 1990’s, those can be sourced from Broadcast magazine. All figures in this particular piece are official consolidated ratings from BARB, which include recordings within seven days.
For those of you that haven’t followed my ratings, we have seen since 2000 three ‘phases’. Phase 1, from 2000 to 2006 saw ratings drop from 4 million viewers to under 3 million viewers thanks to the lack of British interest and Michael Schumacher’s dominance. With Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button on the horizon, and Formula 1 returning to BBC, meant that phase 2 from 2007 to 2011 saw ratings rise, from just over 3 million viewers to 4.6 million viewers. Phase 3 is simply 2012. Ratings dropped half a million between 2011 and 2012. Whilst the change of broadcasting rights was definitely one reason, as I outlined in my 2012 piece at the end of last year, the ‘Summer of sport’ in this country was another factor which has to be accounted for.
Official ratings from BARB show that, as it stands, 2012 was a blip. So far, Formula 1 is rating in between 2010 and 2011’s mid-season average and is back to the viewing figure levels pre-2012. As always, the figures comprise of:
– Sky live and BBC highlights
– Sky live, BBC live and BBC re-run (Asian based races)
– Sky and BBC live (non-Asian based races)
However, it is not all rosy. Further analysis shows that, versus the same races last season, BBC’s Formula 1 ratings have increased 21 percent, whilst Sky Sports F1’s ratings have dropped 9 percent.
– BBC F1 (3.18 million vs 3.83 million)
– Sky Sports F1 (699,000 vs 638,000)
The Sky drop is further reflected in their channel reach, which has dropped half a million during live race weeks this year:
Sky Sports F1′ s weekly viewership reach at the half way point of the 2013 season. Source: BARB.
As the graph shows, only two races for them this season have increased in terms of reach, Monaco, one of their exclusive races, and Hungary due to no Olympics clash. Regarding programme averages for them, only Britain, Monaco and Hungary have increased. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find many positives for Sky as the picture is mainly decreases. Overall, the 2013 season is currently averaging 4.47 million viewers, or 4.70 million viewers when taking into account Sky’s long programming length.
– 2009 – 4.38 million
– 2010 – 4.41 million
– 2011 – 4.62 million
– 2012 – 3.89 million / 4.10 million
– 2013 – 4.47 million / 4.70 million
Typically, viewing figures drop in the second half of the season due to the run of Asian based races, whilst Belgian and Italy tend to be low too. Nevertheless, the headline figures are very, very positive. If you were to look at the first ten races of previous seasons, then you get:
Averages (Aus, Mal, Chn, Bah, Spa, Mon, Can, GB, Ger, Hun)
– 2009 – 4.30 million
– 2010 – 4.63 million
– 2011 – 4.86 million
– 2012 – 3.82 million / 4.06 million
– 2013 – 4.47 million / 4.70 million
Which places 2013 between 2010 and 2011 as I noted earlier. I expect 2013 to drop like 2010 and 2011 did, to end up with a season average of around 4.20 million / 4.50 million. The only reason 2009 increased towards the end of the year was because of Jenson Button, whilst the first half of 2012 was hurt by other sporting events as I’ve said multiple times. However, if Lewis Hamilton does put up a title fight, the figures of the season so far could be maintained.
Now, some people will rightfully say “yeah, but Germany was inflated by Wimbledon, so in reality 2013 is not up versus 2012”. Removing Germany takes the average down to 4.30 million / 4.53 million viewers. So at this stage it makes some difference, but come the end of the season, it will mean an increase of about 0.1 million to the total average, which is not a significant amount in the grand scheme of things.
If we are to compare further back, using data from 2000 onwards for Australia, Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary, we see the following:
Averages for the above five races
– 2000 – 4.29 million
– 2001 – 3.83 million
– 2002 – 3.49 million
– 2003 – 3.37 million
– 2004 – 2.99 million
– 2005 – 3.09 million
– 2006 – 2.58 million
– 2007 – 3.52 million
– 2008 – 4.12 million
– 2009 – 4.31 million
– 2010 – 4.54 million
– 2011 – 4.74 million
– 2012 – 3.79 million / 3.98 million
– 2013 – 3.95 million / 4.16 million
Interestingly, while that does show an increase, the increase is not as severe as the main headline figure. I think, in every season, some Formula 1 ratings have good luck and bad luck attached to them, and at the end of the year, it balances it all out. By the above measure, ratings are up versus 2012, but not as much as I said above.
A similar method would be to look at the first ten races only of the season:
Averages for the first ten races
– 2006 – 2.85 million
– 2007 – 3.66 million
– 2008 – 3.74 million
– 2009 – 4.36 million
– 2010 – 4.45 million
– 2011 – 4.66 million
– 2012 – 3.88 million / 4.12 million
– 2013 – 4.47 million / 4.70 million
At this point, no matter how many averages you take, the overriding point is that viewing figures are up versus last year. Are they near to 2011? It appears so, but the full picture will emerge as the season progresses, and more importantly if a title fight emerges. I’m pleased to see ratings increase, it is never a good sight to see ratings drop, so I’m happy to see a turn in the right direction. What is interesting is that all of the increase is due to the BBC. The move to sacrifice screening Monaco live has paid off dividends, it meant that they could pick Canada as a live race and being in primetime meant higher viewing figures for the latter.
Another brilliant move of their behalf was choosing Germany as a highlights race. It meant a combined average of 6 million viewers, which is unheard of for Formula 1 today. It is with BBC where the viewers lie, and clearly there is a section of the audience who have decided not to view Sky live this season and instead settle with the highlights. Cost? Who knows. I suspect it is one of the reasons. If everyone with the HD Pack and no Sports Pack has a nasty surprise in the off-season, then Sky’s figures could drop further. Unfortunately that is what the viewing figures show. I may be called “anti-Sky” for saying that about Sky’s figures, but the figures do not lie.
Although there is still half of the season ahead, and viewing figures could drop substantially, I think the recovery proves that the Olympics was a major factor in Formula 1’s ratings dropping. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – even if every Formula 1 race last year was live on BBC I think ratings would have dropped. Without stating the obvious, 2012 was a big, big year for the UK and Formula 1 just was not a part of that, nothing was going to change that fact. The only surprise for me was the severity of the drop. But, it is good to see ratings back up. How much are they up, we will know the answer at the end of the season.
Qualifying also recovered from 2012, and surprisingly an average of 2.88 million so far means that it is the most watched Qualifying ‘season’ so far since records began. That surprises me a lot. Aside from Britain, which averaged 2.36 million viewers on BBC and Sky, every Qualifying programme has recorded an average above 2.6 million viewers, which is a fantastic achievement when you consider only five years ago the average was less than 2 million. Of course, it goes without saying that some race weekends had Qualifying on the fringes of primetime, but that should not take away from the above.
Outside of the main sessions, practice remained level with last year, whilst The F1 Show increased slightly, but the averages remain below 100,000 viewers. GP2 has increased from 34,000 to 38,000 for its feature and sprint races, GP3 has remained at 21,000 viewers for its average. Unfortunately, the signs of life that the support races have shown are few and far in between. That is it for the mid-Summer verdict on the blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the pieces, and as always comments are welcome.
Note: All the figures quoted here are the averages for the whole race programme, not the race average as these figures are unavailable. Figures are official figures from BARB and Broadcast magazine. While I have made comparisons and analysis of figures, I should note that I do not have every single ratings figure. The figures for that races that I am missing are:
1992 – Australia, San Marino, France, Portugal, Japan (live and both for AUS, JPN)
1993 – France (live), Japan (highlights)
1994 – Pacific (highlights), San Marino, France, Hungary, Japan (live)
1995 – Australia, Argentina, San Marino, Spain, Japan (all live)
1996 – Canada, Japan (all live)
1997 – Japan (live)
1998 – Australia,France, Japan (all live)
2000 – Malaysia (live and re-run), Japan (live)
2001 – Japan (live)
2003 – Malaysia; Japan (both live)
2004 – China (live)
If anyone is reading and has any of them ratings, leave a comment.
Motorsport Broadcasting 