Episode of Sporting Chapters to air on Sky F1

An episode of Sporting Chapters featuring Martin Brundle will air on Sky Sports F1 on Saturday 3rd August at 15:00. It is part of a wider series that has been ongoing for a while across the Sky channels looking at sporting stars.

And no, don’t ask me about the scheduling. I’ve just described it on the Twitter as “throwing a dart at the board and see where it would land”. Scheduling does not get much worse than that. Unpromoted during the Hungarian weekend, too. Yes, it is great to see new programming on the schedule, but when the scheduling is beyond stupid, why bother?

Update at 16:55 – I don’t have access to the EPG this week but it turns out the first airing is in fact tomorrow (2nd August) at 19:15…

Motor sport ratings (week ending 21st July, 2013)

The second and final week of the first Formula 1 mid-season break meant that MotoGP shined again on BBC Two. This time, the series was in primetime on BBC Two, airing from 22:00 to 23:00 live on Laguna Seca. The programme averaged 1.30 million viewers, which is a 28 percent increase from the Sachensring rating on July 14th. Although up on 2012, it is down on 2009 and 2011.

MotoGP – Laguna Seca ratings
2009 – 1.53 million
2010 – 1.45 million or below
2011 – 1.49 million
2012 – 1.13 million
2013 – 1.30 million

Over on ITV4, the Tour de France came to a conclusion in primetime also on the Sunday. The final stage recorded an average of 1.17 million viewers and peaked with over 2 million viewers as Chris Froome won the tour. The peak was higher than the MotoGP peak. Highlights through the week averaged between 561,000 and 751,000 viewers. The F1 Show Special on Sky Sports F1 failed to bring in any extra viewers than usual with an average of 74,000 viewers. As always, promotion is the issue here – it was never destined to do better than usual because the promotion was level outside of the ‘Sky F1 Twitter bubble’. Nevertheless, 63 percent of those polled on this blog want to see it again, although there are several comments which are definitely worth food for thought should this be done again.

Several repeats of the Goodwood Festival of Speed also made Sky Sports 4 and F1’s top ten ranging from 12,000 to 27,000 viewers. Across four airings, the total was 81,000 viewers. Lastly for the channel, the 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix highlights made the top ten with 12,000 viewers on Saturday evening. ESPN’s motor sport contribution to this post comes via Indy Lights highlights which averaged 17,000 viewers on Wednesday 17th July at 21:45. DTM, in the preceding hour, brought 13,000 viewers to the channel.

Hungarian Grand Prix increases year-on-year

Coverage of yesterday’s Hungarian Grand Prix increased marginally year-on-year, overnight ratings show. It is one of the few races recently where the ratings have remained in line with 2012 with the last three races seeing significant jumps.

Highlights of the race, screened on BBC One at 17:05 averaged 3.64 million viewers (24% share). There is nothing unusual about the number, except that it is identical to 2012’s highlights rating in the overnights! The share is different though, the 2012 showing averaging 20.3% throughout the broadcast. Sky Sports F1’s live coverage from 11:30 to 16:30 brought an average of 741,000 viewers (8.% share), which is up on the 658,000 viewers (5% share) in 2012. As I said last week, traditionally the Hungarian round performs above expectations due to the British good fortune at the race:

Hungarian Grand Prix – Official Ratings
2002 – 2.77 million
2003 – 2.73 million
2004 – 2.11 million
2005 – 2.79 million
2006 – 2.57 million
2007 – 3.37 million
2008 – 3.88 million
2009 – 4.83 million
2010 – 4.55 million
2011 – 4.76 million
2012 – 4.42 million / 4.67 million (using ‘35 percent theory‘)
– overnight figures were 4.30 million / 4.55 million
2013 – 4.38 million / 4.64 million (overnight rating)

For ease of confusion, some of you may be saying “the above shows 2012 above 2013, yet you’ve just said otherwise!”. When the 2013 official ratings come in, 2013 will end up marginally above 2012, as it is in the overnight ratings. A graphical version of the official ratings above can be found here in a post I wrote in June 2012 looking at the lowest Formula 1 ratings in the UK from the mid 2000’s. Qualifying had a combined BBC and Sky audience of 2.81 million viewers, making it comfortably the most watched Hungarian Qualifying session since records began (which means from 1996 onwards as that is when Qualifying for Hungary was consistently live). It also continues a trend where Qualifying is consistently bringing in between 2.6 million and 3.0 million viewers.

In a few weeks, I will be doing my mid-season ratings summary. Overall, ratings are up versus 2012. And, more impressively, they are up significantly more than you may think…

The 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here. Ratings are sourced from ITV Media.

Motor sport ratings (week ending 14th July, 2013)

With Formula 1 going on its first of two Summer breaks, it meant it was time to shine for some other forms of motor sport, specifically two wheels. Live coverage of MotoGP from the Sachensring in Germany brought an average of 1.01 million viewers to BBC Two from 12:30 to 14:00 according to BARB. This is slightly down on its usual numbers, but not too surprising given the unusually warm British Summer weather as of late. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I dread to think what numbers MotoGP will deliver on BT Sport next year. In my opinion, they are not going to look pretty. Without going into a full blown debate in this post, numbers will more than likely end up below 500,000 viewers with MotoGP being pushed out of the public spotlight. Eurosport’s numbers are unavailable, as are the numbers for BBC’s Red Button service.

Also of interest to motor sport fans on BBC Two was the fantastic Hunt vs Lauda documentary, which acted as a ‘preview’ of Rush, out in cinemas in September. The documentary averaged 2.23 million viewers, slightly above the slot average and benefiting from a Top Gear lead-in of nearly 5 million viewers. Because of that documentary, a repeat airing of Grand Prix: The Killer Years fared brilliantly on BBC Four, averaging 799,000 viewers, making it the most watched programme on the station for the week.

Over on ITV4, the Tour de France again dominated the top ten, with the highlights shows averaging between 463,000 and 698,000 viewers. Live coverage at the weekend averaged 320,000 and 477,000 viewers respectively. Numbers are down on last year, presumably due to no Bradley Wiggins involvement, with highlights shows last year bringing between 650,000 and 850,000 viewers. Sky Sports F1’s highest rated show unsurprisingly was The F1 Show, which averaged 60,000 viewers. All other ratings were under 18,000 viewers as is typical during a non race week. It will be interesting to see if The F1 Show Special did any better than the usual editions. Due to the lack of promotion, I suspect not.

Highlights of the first IndyCar race from Toronto on ESPN averaged 18,000 viewers in the early hours of Sunday morning, whilst live DTM coverage later on at 12:15 brought 15,000 viewers both safely in ESPN’s top ten. I would be surprised if IndyCar’s move to BT Sport 2 for the next race in Mid Ohio changes its fortunes significantly, I imagine you’re looking at similar ratings to now, barring a miracle.

The F1 Show having an audience: Yes or No?

This past Thursday, for the first time ever, Sky Sports F1 recorded a special audience edition of The F1 Show. Those of you who watched it on Friday will know exactly what I mean when it was their version of Top Gear. It basically was “Sky F1 does Top Gear” in all but name.

So, how did it go, and would I like to see it again? If this was a pilot for something in the future, then I would be commissioning a full series. Personally, I thought it went well, and better than I expected. The audience I felt added to the show. Sometimes the weekly studio shows do feel a bit run of the mill (it isn’t the most vibrant studio, either) and paint by lines, so having the audience present did make for a nice change, with them asking the questions. Arguably, shows like that are exactly what Sky should be doing on the channel.

I wouldn’t be keen to see it every week, but once every month or two would do nicely for me. I did chuckle to myself when some were making out how Formula 1 and audience interaction has never been done before. Did they not watch the BBC’s British Grand Prix forum shows in 2010 and 2011 where Jake Humphrey would throw the microphone to the crowd inside The Paddock Club for people to ask questions to Murray Walker and other guests? Okay, it wasn’t during a weekday show, but the way it was done was similar.

There were some weaknesses though, as it did feel a little bit too much ‘us, us, us’ at times. Interviewing people before and after the show just smacked of patting themselves on the back for no particular reason. The same has to be said for the band playing The Chain and Simon Lazenby basically dismissing it for another song. Did no one tell him which channel made Just Drive famous? I suspect not. Their jab at The Chain was plain unnecessary.

I’ve put a poll above, but more so in particular here I’d be interested in your comments as well as the vote.