The 2016 Chinese Grand Prix recorded the lowest audience for a Formula 1 race in the United Kingdom for a decade, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.
Race
Live coverage of the race, broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 from 06:00 to 09:30, averaged 433k (11.1%). The programme hit a five-minute peak audience of 687k. The average audience is down 26.4 percent on 2015, whilst the peak audience is down 29.1 percent year-on-year. Considering nothing has changed year-on-year from a timeslot perspective, the large drop has to be a concern. The picture for Sky is similar to their Australian Grand Prix numbers from last month, whereby both average and peak are down a similarly large amount.
Channel 4’s highlights programme from 13:30 to 15:25 (tape-checked) averaged 1.68m (17.0%). The audience peaked with 2.25m (21.6%) at 14:45 as their highlights edit came to a conclusion. As is now usual, Channel 4’s programming won its timeslot and thrashed their own slot average. Last year, BBC’s highlights programme averaged 2.97m (24.5%), peaking with 3.42m. Year-on-year, Channel 4’s average is down 43.4 percent, with the peak audience down 34.3 percent. The percentage drop for the programme average is the largest recorded yet this year.
Unfortunately, the broader historical picture is bleak. The combined audience of 2.11 million viewers is the lowest for the Chinese Grand Prix since at least 2005. It is also the lowest audience for a Grand Prix since 2006. You have to go back to the 2006 Italian Grand Prix to find a lower average audience. That particular race averaged just 1.86m (23.2%) live on ITV1. The combined peak audience of 2.94 million viewers is also the lowest since Italy 2006.
Qualifying
Live coverage of qualifying on Saturday morning performed solidly on Sky Sports F1, averaging 308k (5.8%) from 07:00 to 10:05. The programme, slightly extended due to the two red flag periods, recorded a five-minute peak of 528k (7.9%) at 09:15. Both measures are down around 20k year-on-year, which in the grand scheme of things is immaterial.
As was been the case in Australia and Bahrain, Channel 4’s qualifying programme was down on BBC’s coverage last year. Highlights of qualifying from 12:30 to 13:55 (tape-checked) averaged 1.19m (14.1%), hitting a peak audience of 1.55m (17.6%) at 13:30. In comparison, BBC’s highlights last year averaged 1.81m (20.9%) and peaked with 2.04 million viewers.
The average audience for qualifying is 34 percent lower than 2015, whilst Channel 4’s peak audience is 24 percent lower than what the BBC recorded last year. These metrics are important to look at as the season progresses, for both qualifying and the race. My hope was that Channel 4 would close the gap on the BBC’s numbers as the season progressed. Early signs are that the gap is not closing and, if the Chinese Grand Prix percentage is to be believed, then the gap is in fact extended.
Final thoughts The big question: is China the low-point? My gut instinct is no. I have a bad feeling that we will see our first sub two million race day audience for 2016 very soon. I’m not prepared to knee-jerk based on the China number and write a lot of analysis based on one very low rating. Instead, I think we need to wait and see what happens in the next few races before analysing. As a number on its own though, the combined audience of 2.11m is very, very poor and that cannot be avoided.
The 2015 Chinese Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.
There is an old adage that if you were to give two people a piece of paper and asked them to draw or design something, the outcome would be different. One may choose style over substance. One may go for a simplistic approach. One may choose to focus on a different portrayal in order to tell the viewer a different story.
The same can be said for the UK television coverage of the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying session. Sky Sports F1 is led by Martin Turner, who has been producing their Formula 1 programming since the broadcaster started showing the sport in 2012. On the other side is Channel 4. Bahrain was Channel 4’s first ever live Grand Prix, picking up the television contract that the BBC surrendered at the end of 2015. Channel 4’s team behind the scenes is largely made up of former BBC staff. The likes of Mark Wilkin have moved over to Whisper Films to oversee Channel 4’s Formula 1 operation.
Both Sky and Channel 4 dedicated 55 minutes of build-up to qualifying until the World Feed kicked into gear, starting their respective broadcasts at the top-of-the-hour. This writer has watched both build-up programmes since the original airing, and the statistics make for fascinating reading.
Content
Channel 4
Sky Sports F1
Live
19 minutes, 12 seconds
20 minutes, 25 seconds
VT (Video Tape)
22 minutes, 46 seconds
23 minutes, 56 seconds
Commercial Breaks (including break bumpers)
13 minutes, 02 seconds
10 minutes, 39 seconds
The structure from a high level is similar with both broadcasters dedicating more time to pre-recorded material than live discussion. The only major difference surrounds advertising. Channel 4 spent around two and a half minutes more time in commercials than Sky. Channel 4 would have used their entire advertising usage in the Formula 1 build-up, with the additional time coming from break bumpers and sponsorship stings. Sky either cannot sell the ad-time, or choose not to given that they have revenue that comes from elsewhere (subscriptions).
Whilst the length of the pre-recorded material is similar for both broadcasters’, the make-up is significantly different. Sky’s 24 minutes of pre-recorded material was made up of 12 video packages coming in at an average of 1 minute, 50 seconds each. Only one of these pieces was over three and a half minutes in length: Ted Kravitz’s interview with Bernie Ecclestone was the longest VT that aired on either Sky Sports or Channel 4 during the Saturday programming. In comparison, Channel 4’s 23 minutes of material was made up of eight video packages. The average VT length for Channel 4 was 2 minutes, 50 seconds, a minute longer than Sky.
So, why the difference? When analysing the material, it is clear that Sky’s VT’s are reactionary and arguably more relevant to current events. Broadcasting every Grand Prix live means that you have to prepare more material, and Sky do this with shorter pieces that may not take as long to edit as Channel 4’s material. In contrast, Channel 4 can afford to spend time refining their content to ensure that the perfect package goes to air. Furthermore, based on the material from Bahrain, Channel 4’s packages are more memorable, whereas Sky is churning out material that may be forgotten in a few races time. It is almost certainly a budget issue too, as Sky have recently spent significant money on acquiring rights, meaning that they are trying to make their coverage as efficient as possible without losing the leading edge.
The longest five VT’s broadcast on either channel were:
Channel 4
Sky Sports F1
4 minutes, 15 seconds Red Bull Racing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
5 minutes, 35 seconds
Ted Kravitz with Bernie Ecclestone
4 minutes, 02 seconds Murray Walker with Jenson Button
3 minutes, 18 seconds Advances to open-wheel racing (Martin Brundle)
3 minutes, 55 seconds Eddie Jordan with Bernie Ecclestone
3 minutes Fernando Alonso’s future (Rachel Brookes)
3 minutes, 52 seconds Lee McKenzie with Nico Rosberg
2 minutes, 10 seconds The evolution of qualifying (David Croft)
3 minutes, 30 seconds Qualifying (Lee McKenzie)
2 minutes, 03 seconds Australian Grand Prix re-cap
All five of Sky’s pieces that are listed would have been conceived and edited on the back of events that transpired during the Australian Grand Prix weekend. Three of those pieces would have been voiced within 24 or 48 hours of the Bahrain qualifying programme airing. On the other hand, three of Channel 4’s pieces would have been planned well in advance of the Australian Grand Prix. The Red Bull film in Spain was shot as soon as testing ended, whilst their two key interviews (Walker and Jordan) would have been planned around their respective schedules.
It is no coincidence that all of Channel 4’s films are around four minutes in length. For them (and Whisper Films), four minutes is probably a ‘sweet spot’ for television: you can tell a story of substance in that time frame without losing your audience. It is also, to a degree, personal preference: one producer may prefer longer shoots, another producer may prefer shorter, snappier pieces. As long as Sky have been airing Formula 1, they have always gone down the shorter route, again this is an editorially driven decision. Readers may remember the Max Verstappen film that the BBC aired in its entirety last year, coming in at eight minutes long, an extreme example of a longer TV piece.
Both broadcasters started their qualifying show talking about Fernando Alonso, who was undeniably the key subject heading into the weekend. The alternative was to talk about elimination qualifying and what may or may not happen, but given that qualifying had not yet happened, it made no sense to start the qualifying show with a prolonged discussion about the subject (although Sky did touch on it in their opening speech). It was at this point though where broadcasters veered into different editorial directions.
Throughout Channel 4’s Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying programme, the team positioned themselves at different vantage points. Here, Christian Horner talks to Steve Jones and Mark Webber from Red Bull Racing’s hospitality.
Channel 4 spent around two minutes talking about the Alonso incident, interspersed with clips, before conducting a live interview with Alonso later in the show. Sky went for an alternative stance, instead looking at Alonso’s second McLaren stint as a whole and questioning whether Alonso should retire. Eventually this led to a debate between Johnny Herbert and Martin Brundle about Alonso’s future. This was a strange stance to take, and I stand by that thought now given that Alonso had escaped a near 200 mph accident two weeks earlier. But either way, something led Sky down that editorial train. Was it sensationalist? To a degree, yes. It felt like creating a controversial opinion for the sake of a controversial opinion. Sky is not the first broadcaster to head down this path, and they will not be the last either.
Around both the Alonso accident and the derided qualifying format, Sky created some good VT material, including a look at how qualifying has evolved over the years. At just over two minutes in length, it was also one of them which could easily have been double in length with the opinions of those in the paddock about which system has worked the best. But, it was good for what it was, as was Martin Brundle’s piece looking at the advances to the open wheel racing car, again on the back of Alonso’s accident. Given Channel 4’s stance towards the human element in order to attract the casual viewer, I could not imagine them producing the piece that Brundle did, or for that matter the Sky Pad analysis that Paul di Resta and Ted Kravitz conducted.
Sky Sports F1’s team of Martin Brundle, Johnny Herbert and Simon Lazenby in pit lane before qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
One aspect that Channel 4 have not taken from Sky is what I call ‘redundant’ pre-recorded material. Sky lead into ad-breaks with a VT of around 30 seconds to a minute: in the Bahrain qualifying session the VT’s focussed on ‘A to Z of World Champions’ and Paul di Resta’s Track Bites. I wish attention was paid elsewhere instead of on bite-sized VT’s of that nature. You could spend those 90 seconds of airtime extending and refining the other material already produced. In my opinion, the pieces mentioned in this paragraph are an invitation for the viewer to fast forward onto the next segment.
Evidence of Channel 4’s human element, which was emphasised during their media morning, was on hand throughout their qualifying programme. The material produced needs to be relatable to the viewer who is watching at home, whether they have been watching Formula 1 for ten years or ten days. I thought Lee McKenzie’s interview with Nico Rosberg struck this cord, as activity on and off the track was covered. Shots from Rosberg’s Instagram were shown on-screen in Channel 4’s house style, which worked brilliantly well and is a great example of how broadcasters can integrate social media into their product. The segment with Murray Walker and Jenson Button has been uploaded to the Channel 4 website in its raw 30-minute form, something that I love to see broadcasters doing. Sky have also done this with Ted Kravitz interviewing Bernie Ecclestone.
If Channel 4 remains committed to Formula 1, it will be fascinating to see their live programme evolve over the next three years. At the moment, we should count ourselves lucky: we have Sky who provide technical analysis and have their take on current events, and then we have Channel 4 who aim to dive into the human element and produce stunning visuals. We currently have the best of both worlds.
As the past few weeks, have shown: savour it, while you can.
For a full plan of Channel 4’s and Sky’s Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying output, see the image below.
As well as the Chinese Grand Prix, next weekend is another busy weekend of motor sport across British Eurosport, BT Sport, ITV4 and Motors TV.
The third round of the Formula One season airs live on Sky Sports F1 from China, with extended highlights on Channel 4. No word on who is conducting analysis for the latter, but I will not be surprised if it is a slimmer operation than Australia and Bahrain with the team of five featuring Steve Jones, David Coulthard, Ben Edwards, Lee McKenzie and Karun Chandhok.
If you look at the show lengths, there will not be a massive amount of analysis around the highlights package itself so it makes little sense to take an extra pundit to China if they will not be utilised too much. The usual operation and scheduling over on Sky Sports F1. Three races in, and there is no sign of any additional supplementary programming yet beyond their current race weekend shows.
Outside of Formula 1, the World Endurance Championship gets underway from Silverstone. There was some confusion a few weeks back about who is screening the series live, but the answer remains Motors TV for 2016 (apart from Le Mans where Eurosport steps into the fray). As of writing, no highlights package is currently scheduled to air on Quest TV for either itself or the World Touring Car Championship. It looks like the experiment which started at the end of 2015 is not going to continue.
The first round of the brand new Formula V8 3.5 Series will air live on BT Sport 2. This is likely a similar arrangement to previous years under the previous Formula Renault 3.5 banner where themselves or Eurosport air the event live depending on what else both channels are covering during the weekends. I’ve included a lot more events than usual below, not something I usually do, but hopefully it gives an idea just how many events receive coverage of some nature on UK television.
Channel 4 F1 Sessions
16/04 – 12:30 to 14:00 – Qualifying Highlights
17/04 – 13:30 to 15:30 – Race Highlights
Sky Sports F1 Sessions
15/04 – 02:45 to 04:50 – Practice 1
15/04 – 06:45 to 09:00 – Practice 2
16/04 – 04:45 to 06:15 – Practice 3
16/04 – 07:00 to 09:45 – Qualifying
17/04 – 05:30 to 10:15 – Race
=> 05:30 – Track Parade
=> 06:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 06:30 – Race
=> 09:30 – Paddock Live
Supplementary Programming
13/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
14/04 – 08:00 to 08:30 – Driver Press Conference
14/04 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
15/04 – 09:00 to 09:30 – Team Press Conference
15/04 – 09:30 to 10:00 – The F1 Show
20/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review
BBC Radio F1
15/04 – 02:55 to 04:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
15/04 – 06:55 to 08:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16/04 – 04:55 to 06:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16/04 – 06:55 to 08:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
17/04 – 06:30 to 09:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
British Touring Car Championship – Donington Park (ITV4)
17/04 – 10:30 to 18:15 – Races
Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 – Aragon
16/04 – 11:30 to 13:00 – Race 1 (BT Sport 2)
16/04 – 17:15 to 18:15 – Race 2 (BT Sport//ESPN)
17/04 – 11:00 to 12:30 – Race 3 (BT Sport 2)
European Le Mans Series – Silverstone
16/04 – 14:15 to 18:45 – Race (Motors TV)
16/04 – 14:15 to 19:00 – Race (BT Sport 2)
FIM CEV Repsol – Valencia (BT Sport//ESPN)
17/04 – 09:45 to 15:00 – Races
Formula V8 3.5 – Aragon (BT Sport 2)
16/04 – 13:00 to 14:15 – Race 1
17/04 – 12:30 to 13:45 – Race 2
IndyCar Series – Long Beach (BT Sport 2)
17/04 – 21:30 to 00:00 – Race
V8 Supercars – Phillip Island (BT Sport 1)
16/04 – 07:00 to 08:45 – Race 6
17/04 – 04:45 to 06:45 – Race 7
World Endurance Championship – Silverstone
17/04 – 11:30 to 18:10 – Race (Motors TV)
17/04 – 16:00 to 18:10 – Race (Quest)
17/04 – 16:00 to 18:10 – Race (Eurosport 2)
World Rallycross Championship – Portugal(Quest)
17/04 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Race
World Superbikes – Assen
16/04 – 09:15 to 13:00 – Qualifying and Race 1 (Eurosport 2)
17/04 – 10:00 to 13:00 – Race 2 and Support Races (Eurosport 2)
19/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights (ITV4)
World Touring Car Championship – Slovakia
16/04 – 13:00 to 14:30 – Qualifying (Eurosport 2)
17/04 – 11:00 to 12:00 – Race 1 (Eurosport)
17/04 – 13:00 to 14:00 – Race 2 (Eurosport)
As always, if anything changes, I’ll update the schedule.
The 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix peaked with 4 million viewers in the UK yesterday, around two million viewers down year-on-year, unofficial overnight viewing figures show.
Race
Live coverage of the race was broadcast on Channel 4 and Sky Sports F1 from 15:00 to 18:30.
Channel 4’s live coverage, their first live race averaged 2.30m (16.2%), peaking with 3.24m (20.2%) at 17:30 as Nico Rosberg won the Grand Prix. Numbers stayed relatively stable throughout the Grand Prix on Channel 4, hovering constantly around the three million mark before rising in the last few laps. Last year, BBC’s live coverage averaged 3.83m (26.0%) over a shorter 185-minute slot, peaking with 5.31m (30.8%). Channel 4’s peak is down 39 percent on what the BBC managed for their live Bahrain Grand Prix coverage last season. Channel 4’s race day programming, as in Australia, comfortably won its slot on Sunday afternoon, and performed well against its own slot averages.
#C4F1 live coverage of #BahrainGP was watched by an avg of 2.3m & peaked at 3.2m viewers making it the most watched channel over the slot
Sky Sports F1’s coverage, also airing from 15:00 to 18:30, averaged 546k (3.9%), peaking with 966k (7.3%) at 16:05. Sky’s average is down 14.7 percent year-on-year; however, their peak audience is up 1.6 percent year-on-year. It is interesting to note looking at Sky’s breakdown that their numbers dropped drastically through the race: from 966k at 16:05 to 783k at 16:40. By the time the chequered flag came out, 673k (4.2%) were watching Sky’s coverage. It is very unusual to lose a third of your audience as the race progresses. A good deal of viewers watching on Sky opted out as soon as Lewis Hamilton dropped down the order in the turn one collision, although there are multiple other reasons for the drop that are not F1 related.
The combined audience of 2.84 million is the lowest for the Bahrain Grand Prix since 2007, and is down 36.4 percent year-on-year. The peak came at 16:05, when 4.01m (30.2%) were watching on Channel 4 and Sky. At the time of the peak, the ratio was 76:24 in Channel 4’s favour. The peak of 4.01 million is down 36.0 percent on 2015’s number of 6.26m (36.3%), again the lowest for Bahrain since 2007.
As always, there are a lot of different issues which dictate a number and this is one of them where you need to look beyond the move from BBC to Channel 4. Of course whilst that has had an effect, there were other issues in play yesterday. The first was a lot of sporting opposition, both motor sport and non-motor sport. Alongside the usual Ford Super Sunday, you also had England in the final of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup. The cricket averaged 1.04m (8.0%) on Sky Sports 2 across the majority of yesterday afternoon. Combine that with the pleasant weather over the weekend, and the negative press that Formula 1 has received, and you can see why the number was where it was.
It is also worth re-iterating that Channel 4 won the slot yesterday afternoon whilst the Formula 1 was on, a more important point given the news last week that Sky will be screening every race exclusively from 2019. You can guarantee that, had yesterday’s race been exclusively on pay TV, it would not have drawn a peak audience of 4.0 million, instead it would have been swallowed up by the sporting events around it. In fact, it is probably a testament to the free-to-air coverage that a standard Formula 1 race recorded a significantly higher figure than a major England cricket match hidden exclusively behind a pay-wall…
Qualifying The universally unloved elimination qualifying format stayed for a second race in Bahrain, and attracted a peak audience of 2.60m (20.3%) at 16:55.
Live coverage on Channel 4 from 15:00 to 17:30 averaged 1.44m (13.2%), with Sky Sports F1 adding a further 360k (3.3%), albeit in a slightly longer slot. The combined audience of 1.80 million is the lowest for a Bahrain qualifying programme since 2008. The drop year-on-year is around 357k or 16.6 percent. That is not actually as bad as it sounds: the BBC’s live qualifying programme last year was 90 minutes long due to other sporting events, whereas Channel 4 were on air yesterday for 150 minutes, which makes a difference to the average.
Channel 4’s peak audience of 2.00m (15.6%) compares with 598k (4.7%) for Sky, a ratio of around 77:23 in Channel 4’s favour. The combined peak mentioned above of 2.60 million is not too far away from the combined peak last season of around 2.85 million, so on the whole the number is not as bad as the headline suggests. It is noticeable how much the qualifying numbers have dropped away for Bahrain since 2013: having the qualifying hour in the core Saturday football window is a bad idea, not just in the UK but across Europe.
Practice This site does not focus too much on the practice numbers, but the start of a new deal is a good time to have a quick check round the various numbers. Channel 4 aired all three sessions live to audiences of 312k (4.7%), 463k (4.5%) and 823k (10.0%) respectively. In comparison, Sky Sports F1 averaged 82k (1.2%), 82k (0.7%) and 149k (1.8%). The key headline there is practice three, which recorded a combined audience of 972k, and would have peaked at around 1.1 million viewers.
Practice one and three are above Channel 4’s slot averages, and practice two is in-line with their average. It is a really good number for practice three – we rarely focus on practice numbers, but it shows that even though it means little in the context of the race that still over 1 million viewers are prepared to watch it. That’s more to do with the time slot than anything else. Channel 4 Racing, which was situated between practice three and qualifying averaged 638k (7.5%), so the right decision was made with regards Channel 4’s scheduling.
The 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.
Nine days after the deal was first announced, we have our first public comments from Bernie Ecclestone on Sky’s new Formula 1 deal in the UK.
The deal, which comes into effect from the 2019 season, means that viewers will only be able to watch the British Grand Prix live on a ‘free to air’ basis, with the remaining 20 races behind a pay wall. What that exactly means with relation to the free to air aspect, as discussed previously, is unclear.
Ecclestone, the CEO of Formula One Management was speaking to AUTOSPORT’s Ian Parkes ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. It was the first time Ecclestone had spoken about the new deal outside of the press release issued by Sky.
“[Sky are] going to get to more people than you would believe. They’re going to get to 25 million people with the type of broadcast they are planning. Honestly, it was nothing to do with the money, it was to do with the fact this is the way we have to move forward.” – Bernie Ecclestone speaking to AUTOSPORT
I have read this quote multiple times and still do not understand what is being said. Overnight viewing figures last year showed that BBC F1 averaged 3.11 million viewers compared with Sky’s 638k for their race day programming. What Ecclestone, and a lot of other people within Formula 1 who do this deal making need to understand and digest, is that just because Sky may reach 25 million people, that does not mean you are going to get 25 million viewers. Far, far from it. One of my pet hates is seeing figures of this nature bandied around (unfortunately this kind of thing is common place, sadly), when it really could not be any further than the truth. If you’re going to throw figures around, let us have some context behind it, what does the figure represent?
The last sentence and a half of Ecclestone’s quote may lean towards something new and radical for 2019, if not earlier, such as over the top broadcasting, it may imply that FOM and Sky have already had discussions about new media ideas. As for the money, I’m sure the teams will be thrilled to hear that the deal was nothing to do with money, and more to the point why does Formula 1 need to move forward this way? Why does F1 need to move forward with pay TV deals that restrict the casual Joe, or the less financially stable fan, from watching?
Ecclestone was also asked about the future direction of the sport, following the qualifying debacle, which was ridiculed on social media during the Australian Grand Prix weekend.
“We’ll have to have a good look now and see which way we want to go. We’ve lost a television audience, like all sports have, including football. So while we’ve lost an audience one way, actually more people are viewing F1 now than ever before on their phones and tablets. So there is more interest than there was before, which is what we have to take advantage of, and which is what we are doing.” – Bernie Ecclestone speaking to AUTOSPORT
Motorsport Broadcasting 