For the second race running, Formula 1 found itself losing a ratings battle against the Rugby World Cup, as the Japanese Grand Prix slumped to its lowest rating since at least 2005, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Before analysing the figures, it needs to be stated that historical comparisons are difficult for Japan. In the UK in recent years, Japan has started at 05:30, 06:00, 06:30 and 07:00, probably more start times that I can count. From 2010 to 2014, the race started at 07:00 UK time. Prior to that, the race started at 06:00 UK time, although the two events from Fuji in 2007 and 2008 began at 05:30 UK time. You would hope the repeat airing balances things out, but it is worth noting. Due to the events of last year, which affected the viewing figures, no comparisons will be made with 2014 in this post.

Live coverage of the race, broadcast live on BBC One from 05:00 to 09:00 averaged 925k (35.2%). It was billed as an extended race day show with the forum from around 08:30 onwards. The coverage from 05:00 to 08:00 averaged 954k (41.9%), a big difference in share, but no major difference in the raw figure. Sky Sports F1’s coverage from 05:00 to 08:30 averaged 255k (10.2%), with Sky Sports 1 adding a further 21k (0.8%). All of the live numbers are down on 2013, however this is not a surprise given the earlier start time.

BBC One’s repeat struggled against the Rugby World Cup on ITV, averaging only 1.44m (17.0%). The Rugby World Cup match between Scotland vs USA, which kicked off at 14:00, averaged 2.13m (23.0%) on ITV, comfortably beating the Grand Prix highlights. The peak audience for the Formula 1 live airing came at 07:30, as 2.00m (48.2%) watched Lewis Hamilton take victory. The peak share was a massive 1.60m (70.3%) at 06:10, down to a lot of viewers no doubt timeshifting the action to watch later in the day.

Overall, the combined audience of 2.65 million is the lowest on record (since 2005) for the Japanese Grand Prix. The 2009 race from Suzuka averaged 3.61 million. The live airing did fine, it is the BBC repeat that has dragged the numbers down significantly. The drastic drops for Singapore and Japan have had a major effect on the season average, and the numbers need to pick back up, and fast, otherwise the final average at the end of the year will not look pretty. The Russian Grand Prix clashes with Argentina vs Namibia, but I don’t expect that to be troubling the F1.

Rugby World Cup hits BTCC too
Formula 1 was not the only sporting contest kicked into touch yesterday. Live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship from Silverstone, which aired on ITV4 from 10:00 to 18:30, averaged 112k (1.2%). The action peaked with 231k (3.4%) at 12:00. BTCC does not seem to have recovered much of the lost ground compared with 2014. I’m not sure what is happening, but the audience has shifted away from the series in the past year or two, or are consuming less of it compared to previously.

The 2014 Japanese Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.

The 2015 Italian Grand Prix may not go down as the greatest race ever, but what happened after the race helped boost Sky Sports F1’s post-race show, overnight viewing figures show.

Race
Live coverage of the race, broadcast on Sky Sports F1 from 12:00 to 15:30, averaged 657k (8.5%) with a peak audience of 1.09m (13.5%) coming at 14:15 as Lewis Hamilton claimed victory. Sky’s exclusive numbers are only up 7.5 percent versus 2014’s shared average of 611k (6.0%). Italy is one race where you expect lower numbers, simply because the race is not as long as the likes of Singapore and Monaco, meaning that there is more post-race analysis to fill.

Typically on a day like yesterday you would expect the audience to drift away to below 150k. However, the Mercedes enquiry meant that a specially extended Paddock Live from 15:30 to 17:05 averaged 256k (2.7%), one of the biggest post-race numbers of the season so far. The audience never dropped below 230k until the end of the programme, which clearly shows that there was demand for Sky to stay on air and capture the verdict live. There was very little drop off, 255k (2.4%) were watching Sky’s post-race show when the stewards decision came in at 16:45. I made the point on Twitter that this is exactly what Sky Sports F1 should be doing, and it is fantastic to see the viewing figures support that assertion. You almost need events like that to happen to justify the existence of the F1 channel, if the F1 was on another Sky Sports channel, they would have no doubt gone off air to cover the next sporting event in the schedules.

As for the race itself, I don’t like saying a race is “made for highlights”, but from the BBC’s perspective, Italy is exactly that (although they have, to my surprise, covered 2013 and 2014 live). BBC’s highlights programme averaged 3.23m (23.7%), in-line with their other highlights programming this year, so no surprises there. To prove the “made for highlights” point, the combined average of 3.88m is the highest for Italy since 2012 which averaged 4.37m, albeit the highlights were in a later slot. The viewing figures continue a run of good or solid numbers for Formula 1, however tricky waters lie ahead with the Rugby World Cup on ITV. BBC’s highlights from Singapore will clash with matches in two weeks time, but apart from that the F1 should escape relatively unscathed.

BTCC hurt by F1
Clashing with the F1 hurt the British Touring Car Championship on ITV4. On air from 10:45 to 17:45, the programme averaged 134k (1.6%). The programme average over seven hours may not tell too much, but the peak of 290k (2.8%) at 16:45 is lower than you would expect from a championship which regularly peaks with over 400k. With the World Series by Renault (BT Sport 2), ELMS (Motors TV), Blancpain GT (BT Sport Europe) and British Superbikes (British Eurosport) also airing live yesterday, it is easy to see how small the audience gets fragmented when the F1 is being broadcast.

The 2014 Italian Grand Prix ratings report can be found here.