Lewis Hamilton’s victory in a dramatic Bahrain Grand Prix peaked with 3.8 million viewers across Sky’s and Channel 4’s television platforms, overnight audience figures show.

Race
As in Australia two weeks ago, live coverage of the race aired across Sky Sports F1 and Sky’s general entertainment outlet Sky One. Viewing figures exclude those who watched via on demand platforms, such as Sky Go, Now TV and All 4.

> Ratings: an explainer

Sky’s offering from 15:00 to 18:30 averaged 1.00m (9.2%), their highest ever audience for Bahrain.

An audience of 607k (3.6%) watched via the F1 channel, with a further 397k (3.6%) watching on Sky One, whereas the F1 channel only last year averaged 524k (3.7%) when live coverage also aired on Channel 4.

What is fascinating is the trajectory of the two channels during the race, as the race faced fierce opposition from Liverpool versus Tottenham, also on Sky.

The F1 channel peaked with 1.04m (10.7%) as the race started, but dropped below one million viewers from 16:30 onwards when the football match started. In contrast, Sky One’s simulcast, which may have attracted a different type of viewer, rose significantly throughout the race, peaking with a strong 755k (5.9%) as the race concluded.

All of this leads to a combined peak audience of 1.71m (13.9%) for Sky’s programme at 17:30. At the time of the peak, 994k (8.1%) were watching via Sky F1, with 715k (5.8%) watching via Sky One.

Channel 4’s highlights programme struggled against BBC One juggernaut Line of Duty, averaging 1.39m (8.2%) from 21:00 to 23:00.

However, Channel 4’s audience jumped by half a million viewers as the BBC One programme finished, peaking with 2.05m (13.4%) as the race edit finished. Channel 4’s audiences dropped by over 40 percent from last year, when they covered the Bahrain race live.

The lack of live free-to-air presence, amongst other factors, meant that the combined audience of 2.39 million viewers is down by 504,000 viewers on twelve months ago. The combined peak audience of 3.75 million viewers is down by 698,000 viewers, both down by around 16 percent year-on-year.

The Bahrain average is the lowest on record for the Sakhir circuit, whilst the peak figure is the lowest since 2007.

Qualifying
Live coverage of qualifying also aired across both Sky’s F1 channel and Sky One, with an audience of 340k (5.1%) watching from 14:00 to 16:30. 228k (3.4%) watched via the F1 channel, with 111k (1.7%) watching on Sky One.

Sky’s average is up on their 2018 combined audience of 273k (2.5%) when Channel 4 covered the action live. However, their average audience is down on their qualifying numbers from 2012 to 2017 for Bahrain.

Qualifying unusually recorded a five-minute peak figure at 15:05, with 568k (8.7%) watching half way through Q1. The individual Sky Sports F1 and Sky One peaks came at different times: Sky F1 with 431k (6.6%) at 15:15 and Sky One with 176k (2.4%) at 15:50.

The peak audience is up on last year’s Sky figure of 497k (3.9%), but again down on the 2012 to 2017 figures.

Channel 4’s highlights programme averaged 1.13m (7.2%) from 19:00 to 20:30, peaking with 1.52m (9.7%) as their qualifying edit ended.

The combined average audience of 1.47 million viewers is up by 114,000 viewers on last year’s figure, but the peak metric of 2.09 million viewers is down by over 200,000 viewers on last year’s equivalent number.

Final thoughts
For various reasons, Australia is a bit of an outlier where viewing figures are concerned, and Bahrain tends to give a ‘truer’ picture of the state of play.

A drop of over half a million viewers year-on-year looks bad, and rightly so. However, the race last year clashed with Chelsea versus West Ham, whereas this year it clashed with Liverpool versus Tottenham.

Even if F1 aired live on free-to-air television yesterday, audiences may still have dropped with the tougher football opposition, maybe not by half a million viewers though. Yesterday’s peak audience of 3.76 million viewers is closest to the 2016 peak of 4.01 million viewers.

When you combine the football with Line of Duty, and Mother’s Day in the UK, it makes for the perfect storm, where actually F1’s viewing figures look worse than what they are.

However, to swing the debate the other way, a dramatic race such as yesterday’s may have sent more viewers towards the F1 had it aired live on free-to-air television instead of behind a pay wall on Sky, an argument supported by the trajectory for Sky One’s audience figures.

As in Australia two weeks ago, Sky One’s viewing figures were strong in Bahrain. But again, where are those viewers heading after China? Does Sky continue to air F1 races on Sky One, which in turn would make a mockery of their ‘best-ever offer‘?

It is a worry because Sky One’s figures could be hiding the true drop that is yet to come moving forward, unless all of Sky One’s viewers migrate either to the Sky F1 channel or to Channel 4’s highlights.

If few of Sky One’s viewers have opted in to Sky Sports F1, then that is a major concern beyond the Chinese Grand Prix, which takes place in two weeks’ time.

The 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

A peak audience of nearly 1.4 million viewers watched the season opening Australian Grand Prix across Sky’s portfolio of television channels, overnight viewing figures show.

The figure includes those who watched either live, or one of Sky’s repeat airings before Channel 4’s highlights programme started.

As always, this site reports overnight viewing figures supplied by Overnights.tv. The figures include those who watched between live and 02:00 the following morning, known in the industry as Live + VOSDAL (live and ‘video on same day as live’).

The audience figures reported exclude those that watched the programming via platforms such as All 4, Sky Go and Now TV.

For 2019, to present an equal measure across years, this site will continue to use a 210-minute time slot for Sky’s coverage, covering 70 minutes before lights out, to around 50 minutes after the chequered flag. This covers the last half of Pit Lane Live, all of On the Grid, the race itself, and the first half of Paddock Live.

Race – Sky live
Sky aired live coverage of the race across their F1 channel, Main Event and Sky One from 04:00 to 07:30 on Sunday morning.

An average audience of 441k (31.5%) watched the broadcast, a strong increase on last year’s figure of 344k (18.4%), and their highest Melbourne average since 2015. 291k (20.7%) watched via the F1 channel, with a further 66k (4.8%) and 84k (6.0%) watching via Main Event and Sky One respectively.

Impressively, the broadcast hit a five-minute peak of 803k (38.0%) at 06:35, an increase of 43 percent on their 2018 number of 562k (20.4%), and their highest peak audience for Australia since 2014.

The peak audience increased proportionally more than the average because Sky’s wrap around segments have rated lower in recent years than compared to their 2015 numbers.

For Sky, the story does not stop there.

Race – Sky repeats
Following the race, the broadcaster aired five repeats of the race, before Channel 4’s highlights show aired at 14:00. The first repeat began at 08:00 across the same three channels, with another repeat across F1 and Sky One afterwards.

Normally, repeats do not make a statistical difference to the overall picture, and therefore go unreported. However, the difference for Australia is significant enough to report. Accounting for the different time slots, the five repeats recorded a combined peak of 574,000 viewers as Valtteri Bottas won the Grand Prix.

In totality (from a television perspective), Sky’s audience for Australia peaked with 1.38 million viewers, around double their audience from twelve months ago, and in-line with their peak audience from 2012, including repeat airings.

Sky One is the biggest contributor, as their two re-runs peaked with 382,000 viewers collectively. It is very rare for a sporting event on pay television to add that many viewers, the early start for the race more than likely contributing to the high repeat audience.

Some of the viewers that watched the race live may have watched one of the repeats later, but that number is unlikely to be significant enough to make a major difference. Overall, the viewing figures are fantastic for Sky, and bodes well for them moving forward.

Race – Channel 4
Despite Sky’s strong gains, Channel 4 remained the biggest Formula 1 broadcaster in the UK over the weekend, but with damaged goods.

Highlights of the race averaged 1.38m (13.3%) from 14:00 to 15:55, peaking with 1.81m (17.9%). Both figures are down significantly on last year’s average of 1.71m (16.8%) and peak figure of 2.15m (18.2%).

Given Sky’s strong audience figures, the transition of viewers appears to be from Channel 4 to Sky, as opposed to fans tuning out altogether, which is good news for the sport. The drop is of concern, the highlights programme struggling to pick up any additional casual viewers.

If you look at the live airings only, the combined average and combined peak audiences of 1.83 million and 2.61 million viewers respectively are the lowest on record for Australia. In isolation, the figures paint a very bleak picture, but on this occasion, it is also a false negative.

As referenced earlier, repeats add 200,000 viewers at its limit across multiple airings. Australia was different, with it being the start of a new broadcasting contract as Formula 1 heads into a new era primarily live on pay-TV.

Adding the five repeat airings together (considering the different slot lengths) increases the combined average to 2.09 million viewers, and combined peak audience to 3.18 million viewers, a significant increase, and in-line with the past three years.

Qualifying
Sky’s live coverage of qualifying from 05:00 to 07:30 brought in an average audience of 283k (16.4%) across their F1 channel, Sky Sports Main Event and Sky One, an increase on last year’s audience of 252k (15.2%) over a slightly longer time slot.

The F1 channel averaged 190k (11.3%), with Main Event and Sky One bringing in 29k (1.6%) and 65k (3.5%) respectively. It is Sky’s highest audience for Melbourne qualifying since 2015, when 339k (16.4%) tuned in to watch.

Their programme peaked with 528k (22.9%) at 06:50 as the start of the final qualifying segment started, again Sky’s highest since 2015.

In comparison, Channel 4’s highlights programme averaged 1.02m (11.8%) from 12:00 to 13:25, a decrease of 157,000 viewers on last year’s average of 1.18m (15.1%). Channel 4’s coverage reached a high of 1.37m (14.5%) at 12:55, also down on last year’s figure of 1.62m (20.2%).

The dent in Channel 4’s qualifying audience is likely due to stronger competition from ITV, the free-to-air channel airing live coverage of the Six Nations rugby tie between France and Italy.

The combined audience of 1.30 million viewers is down by around 100,000 viewers year-on-year and the lowest on record, whilst the combined peak audience of 1.89 million viewers is the lowest for Australia since 2006. Neither trend changes when including Sky’s repeats before Channel 4’s highlights programme started.

Final thoughts
A better result than Sky could have ever expected.

The worst case scenario here was that Sky struggled to increase their audience year-on-year, despite splashing the cash on blockbuster trailers. To double their audience year-on-year is a major success.

One of the drivers behind the increase was Sky One, which on its own added over half a million viewers. The first three races are airing live on Sky One, but what happens to those viewers when that disappears?

If Sky One’s viewers migrate over to the F1 channel to follow the sport, then that is great news for Sky. Similarly, the opposite is true if Sky One’s audience returns back to Channel 4’s highlights package from Baku onwards.

Australia is always one of the lowest rated races, with viewing figures tending to pick up in Bahrain, where F1 heads to next. The Sakhir race has aired live on free-to-air television since 2015, and will be a good indicator of how Formula 1’s viewership could change moving forward.

Update on March 18th at 20:10 – Not long after I posted this, Sky’s F1 lead commentator David Croft posted on Twitter that Sky’s coverage reached 2.1 milllion viewers, and combined Sky and Channel 4 reached 3.5 million viewers. For those unaware, that is the amount of viewers that watched three consecutive minutes of coverage.

The 2018 Australian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.