176 replies to this topic

[Velocifer]

http://www.autosport...t.php/id/112399

 

"In the official 2013 Global Media Report published by F1's commercial rights owners, it confirmed a 50 million fall in worldwide viewing figures. Its data shows that there were 450 million viewers worldwide for F1 last year, down from just more than half a billion in 2012"

 

"In his introduction to the document, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has no doubts as to why television stations struggled to keep viewers:

"The less-than-competitive nature of the final few rounds, culminating in the championship being decided ahead of the races in the USA and Brazil, events which often bring substantial audiences, had a predictable impact on reach."

 

In my opinion, the whole thing is bizarre as China's 30 million drop from 2012 is squarely blamed on "a move away from state broadcaster CCTV to a host of regional broadcasters" and France's drop from around 27m viewers to 10m follows a switch to pay TV.

 

So that's 47 million drop in those 2 countries alone and it has nothing at all to do with Vettel.

 

In US and UK there is an increase in viewers so I guess they must love the Vettel domination then?

 

In fact it seems the fluctuations has all to do with the broadcasting more than anything else.

 

I just can't fathom Bernie's conclusion here, but then I can if my suspicion is right that his end game is the US market that has huge potential with only 11.4 million viewers currently. It will fit with the Nascar-esque double points races at season finale, permanent car numbers etc, plus the constant efforts to get more than one race there. So he just took the 'Vettel domination' thing out of the air in order to justify the double points season finale and what else is to come. I guess he sees the big money and sponsors to come from there next. 

 

Thoughts?

[Dmitriy_Guller]

The numbers cited in the article do not support the conclusion.  Having one less race this year, coupled with France and China losing viewership precipitously due to TV contract changes, seems to explain the fall in figures (and then some).

[charly0418]

I think it's only fair to compare viewers on the first races, were everything is still open.

[wepmob2000]

Its hard to know what to take seriously anyway, the official viewing figures given by the commercial rights owners for F1 have always had an air of complete fantasy about them. For a start their continual use of the word 'viewer' when it should be 'viewing', which is disingenuous at best. I'd suspect the real fall in viewing figures is considerably higher, its surprising they are admitting any fall in the first place, so it must be bad in reality.....

[Shiroo]

Well there are plenty of people (rest of my family included) that used to watch F1 only for example during a dinner or so, now when it will go in most cases to PPV, I highly doubt that they would like to pay it for it (though I will pay). Unless they will really lose all their taste cause something doesn't go Vroom Vroom while eating potatos.

[Gridfire]

While it may be true, I'd be totally against anyone trying to handicap Vettel to prevent him doing just as well this season also. Fortunately for the commercial rights owners, it looks like Renault are doing their best to provide that handicap.

 

Sports is sometimes dominated by a great team. That is not their fault, it's the fault of all the other teams for not doing as well.

 

Personally I only watch half the races now because I don't have any TV packages and am not willing to give Rupert Murdoch £50/month (or something like that) to get all the necessary packages just to let me watch the other 10 races. I content myself with BBC highlights or sometimes a friend's TV for those events. 

Edited by Gridfire, 04 February 2014 - 00:26.

[Morbus]

I wouldn't doubt that less people are interested in F1 because the same driver wins over and over again, but I still maintain that a F1 fan that only cares about who wins isn't a real F1 fan. There's so much awesome all around the grid, it hardly matters who wins.

[discover23]

It makes sense. The only reason why I did not make the trip to Singapore last year was becasue of RedBull's domination and I sure there were others like me,

[Velocifer]

It makes sense. The only reason why I did not make the trip to Singapore last year was becasue of RedBull's domination and I sure there were others like me,

Then how do you explain the increased popularity in US and UK and the overall big loss numbers because of broadcasting changes?

[discover23]

Then how do you explain the increased popularity in US and UK and the overall big loss numbers because of broadcasting changes?

I don;t know. I just know that people like me, hardcore fans, were not as interested to watch the races at the end of the season..

[Dmitriy_Guller]

I wouldn't doubt that less people are interested in F1 because the same driver wins over and over again, but I still maintain that a F1 fan that only cares about who wins isn't a real F1 fan. There's so much awesome all around the grid, it hardly matters who wins.

He may not be a real fan, but he's a real viewer.  Hardcore fans of all things never appreciate how necessary casual fans are.

[Exb]

It is obviously all Vettels fault, he could easily have taken a holiday for a couple of races so the others could catch up, or even crashed a few times on purpose to add to the excitement....

It is definitely nothing to do with the fact that it is now behind a subscription channel in a lot of countries - remember that is supposed to improve things for fans and make it more accessible to more people if I remember how they tried to sell us the Sky Sports deal in the UK when it was first announced.

[KingTiger]

No it's because the regulations are incredibly dull. Nobody cares about those pathetic tires, crap aero based formula, cruising around the entire race, drs and whatever other garbage the moneygrabbers thought would help (and had the complete opposite effect). 

[Deluxx]

Have to admit, I stopped following it as close as I usually do on races where I saw Vettel was on the Pole, and he had a better tyre strategy going into the race...

 

blah tyres are so boring

[SR388]

I know my interest in the season waned as Vettel secured his fingerhold on the championship. I still watched though, because I am a sad lonely man.

[Brother Fox]

Bernie talking sh*t to the press - means Round 1 is getting close.

[CoolBreeze]

Pretty much true. I turn off the TV after 5 laps. 

[tomspar]

can anyone explain tv ratings?

 

500 million viewers...

 

are 500 million, on average, tuned in anytime f1 is broadcast?

 

or is 500 million the average race viewership, by anyone who saw any part of the race.

 

maybe 500 million people saw any part of any race, qualy or practice all season long?

 

advertisers surely value so much more than this number.

[Atreiu]

I blame Pirelli. They ruined it when they made crap tyres and then had to implement a quick fix mid season.

And DRS? Gosh, drop it already.

Edited by Atreiu, 04 February 2014 - 03:30.

[sneaker91]

No DRS

No restriction on revs

No restriction on fuel flow

No restriction on fuel capacity

No requirement to quali on race fuel load (are they still doing that???)

 

 

That will bring back a few

[wepmob2000]

500 million viewings per annum, its hard to believe that 1/16 of the world population tunes into each grand prix, however much Bernie would like us to believe so..... Divide that 500 million by the number of races and you have a slightly more believable figure, although in my humble opinion still hugely exaggerated.

[bourbon]

450 million instead of 500 million.

 

cry me a river commercial rights owners

 

fix China and France and you have 47 million of that back. 

 

For Americans, it has less to do with no double points and car numbers, and much more to do with waking up Sunday at 5:30 to 8:30 am (depending where you are) to watch live.  Some of us do, but most won't no matter what.

[Watkins74]

Then how do you explain the increased popularity in US and UK and the overall big loss numbers because of broadcasting changes?

 

In the USA F1 changed networks so lets wait and see how many watch this year and we get a better apples to apples comparison.

Edited by Watkins74, 04 February 2014 - 04:58.

[Gorma]

No DRS

No restriction on revs

No restriction on fuel flow

No restriction on fuel capacity

No requirement to quali on race fuel load (are they still doing that???)

 

 

That will bring back a few

I doubt people watch F1 for the rules. 

[garagetinkerer]

I don;t know. I just know that people like me, hardcore fans, were not as interested to watch the races at the end of the season..

Please kind sir, do not use the phrase "hardcore fans" to describe yourself. Most of the proper fans will watch the racing nevermind what. I'm a tifoso, and i've groaned a fair bit during the last few years and i've never missed a race still.

 

______________________________

 

Some of the people here in the forums would kick Vettel for no good reason, and miss no chance at it and stuff like this gives them fodder. So bleeding what if Vettel wins all the time... then perhaps it is the wrong driver/ team you're backing. No? He has to be good to win sodding 4 titles in a row... and since when did we start penalising excellence? Let me ask fellow forumers this, who amongst us is asking for Usain Bolt to run with ballast? This is just as ridiculous. If the rest of the muppets aka drivers, are not keeping up with Vettel, how is it his fault? Of course, then some of us turn to rant about Newey and how we should neuter him and his dog for a good measure.

/sarcasm

/rant

Edited by garagetinkerer, 04 February 2014 - 05:03.

[garagetinkerer]

I doubt people watch F1 for the rules. 

Actually, the last time a rule change of significance was being proposed, 3 manufacturers left. They all cited different reasons, but make no mistake about it, it all has an impact. Do you not think involvement of 3 more manufacturers (BMW, Honda(well they're coming back anyways) and Toyota) will bring more fans to the fold? Everything has an impact, some more, but some less.

[Otaku]

No it's because the regulations are incredibly dull. Nobody cares about those pathetic tires, crap aero based formula, cruising around the entire race, drs and whatever other garbage the moneygrabbers thought would help (and had the complete opposite effect). 

 

this

[Anderis]

500 million viewings per annum, its hard to believe that 1/16 of the world population tunes into each grand prix, however much Bernie would like us to believe so..... Divide that 500 million by the number of races and you have a slightly more believable figure, although in my humble opinion still hugely exaggerated.

So do you suggest only 25 million of people watch each GP or even less than that? It's more for sure.

 

Here in Poland, when Kubica was challenging for podiums, more than 2 million of people were watching each race (yes, each race, not the sum of all races in the whole season). That would make a 10% of the world's whole audience? No way. Motorsport has never been that popular here.

[Murl]

Beyond the descent of F1 into "reality TV" farce, there is another reason for viewers to go elsewhere.

 

TV just is not that compelling for many people these days. They prefer to graze a la carte from the internets, and watch what they like, when they like. Thus far F1 has missed this boat. If they want to be "relevant" they should get with the program, offer a tempting slice of their product streamed *free* from f1.com or whatever it is called (honestly I don't even remember, because the last time I visited their site it was so lame I never went back).

 

Once they have people hooked on their fantastic product they can charge directly for PPV. On demand. It is called the market, they are not meeting the market.

[Tapz63]

I think I saw somewhere that the UK average was under a million per race though I'm not sure. I think 25 million per race sounds a little low too but why would they lie about that. Surely it would be counter-productive to the value of the sport. And their definitely isn't half a billion people tuning into each race so I'm inclined to believe the 25 million per race.

Edited by Tapz63, 04 February 2014 - 06:27.

[DanardiF1]

450 million instead of 500 million.

 

cry me a river commercial rights owners

 

fix China and France and you have 47 million of that back. 

 

For Americans, it has less to do with no double points and car numbers, and much more to do with waking up Sunday at 5:30 to 8:30 am (depending where you are) to watch live.  Some of us do, but most won't no matter what.

 

Judging by the growing audience in the USA who are getting up at the exact same times on Saturday/Sunday mornings to watch English Premier League football, it's not necessarily the time that's the issue but how the product is delivered to the US market.

 

http://www.theguardi...r-league-us-nbc

[GrandPrixAdvisor]

I don't think the viewership is equal from one race to another.

 

There a few factors to take in consideration. The below comes to mind but I'm sure there are others.

1. Timezone of a race compared to where the potential viewers are located. E.g. Australia is unlikely to be watched by the casual fan in France where there is no repeat on free TV.
2. Whether the race is shown on pay TV or free to air in the case of the UK and Italy, etc.
3. Championship status
4. Race status (season opener, Monaco, Silverstone, Spa, Italy, potential championship decider). Is China or Bahrain as exciting as Japan?

What I would also like to know is the statistical method used to count viewers. How do they estimate how many households or public places are showing the race and how do they estimate the number of people per location watching a race.

 

Also, If someone watches Qualifying and the Race, do they count as two viewers? In my case, if I add Free Practice, I may count as up to 40 viewers out of a 19 race calendar.

 

Finally, does the fact I have a TV screen in front my grandstand count me as a viewer when I attend a couple of race a year as a spectator?

 

I'd love to see the actual report...

Edited by GrandPrixAdvisor, 04 February 2014 - 06:37.

[seahawk]

The reasoning seems to be not far off. A sport needs a hero and a villain.. The last yeary have seen the villain dominate the series with no real competition to cheer for, most people find that boring.   

[HP]

No it's because the regulations are incredibly dull. Nobody cares about those pathetic tires, crap aero based formula, cruising around the entire race, drs and whatever other garbage the moneygrabbers thought would help (and had the complete opposite effect). 

Yup.

 

This very report the OP refers to tells what is a main issue IMO. If one deems the quality of a sport proportional with its viewership numbers then everything can be justified by commercial interests.Never mind the core product.

[LuckyStrike1]

I think the headline writer went over the top, far far away with a poorly formulated conclusion from the commercial rights holder and all we got in return was some half hearted attempt at sensationalist journalism - slow news day for Autosport now. 

[MP422]

2013 F1 was boring, I lost attention last year at the end of the season. I still watched the races but it was like "eh whatever..." This year looks to be good. This sport needs some help though, it needs to revisit going flat out.

[Tapz63]

2013 F1 was boring, I lost attention last year at the end of the season. I still watched the races but it was like "eh whatever..." This year looks to be good. This sport needs some help though, it needs to revisit going flat out.

I totally agree. After Vettel got past Hamilton at Spa and pulled away 3 seconds in the first lap I knew it was gonna be pretty boring. Although if I was a Vettel fan I would definitely have felt differently so it's just perspective really.

I think they need to have away to get advertising breaks in between the action to boost viewership and revenue. Maybe have qualifying and the race on the same day with 1hr in between of filler and adverts. Maybe even throw in a sprint race for driver points only where everyone uses a gp2 car or something.

This would probably take a few hours though and not everyone would wanna sit there for say 5 hrs on every other sunday or whatever, but they're on air for about that long already so why not put in more content with breaks in between instead of post race and pre race analysis being stretched to boringly long lengths.

[mlsnoopy]

It's not Vettel's fault that RedBull build a dominant car. The question is how did RedBull build such a dominant car, what gave them the advantage. And if the 2012 exhaust rules were written better, would the advantage still exist.

It's not Vettels fault it's the fault of the FIA and Bernie that gave one team a massive advatage.

[johnmhinds]

I totally agree. After Vettel got past Hamilton at Spa and pulled away 3 seconds in the first lap I knew it was gonna be pretty boring. Although if I was a Vettel fan I would definitely have felt differently so it's just perspective really.

I think they need to have away to get advertising breaks in between the action to boost viewership and revenue. Maybe have qualifying and the race on the same day with 1hr in between of filler and adverts. Maybe even throw in a sprint race for driver points only where everyone uses a gp2 car or something.

This would probably take a few hours though and not everyone would wanna sit there for say 5 hrs on every other sunday or whatever, but they're on air for about that long already so why not put in more content with breaks in between instead of post race and pre race analysis being stretched to boringly long lengths.

 

How does sticking in adverts boost viewership? The UK viewing figures went up when F1 moved from ITV to the BBC.

[ollebompa]

It's not Vettel's fault that RedBull build a dominant car. The question is how did RedBull build such a dominant car, what gave them the advantage. And if the 2012 exhaust rules were written better, would the advantage still exist.
It's not Vettels fault it's the fault of the FIA and Bernie that gave one team a massive advatage.

Rules are the same for everyone.

[mlsnoopy]

Rules are the same for everyone.

 

Don't forget the engine freeze. Could the Renault engine do something that Ferrari and Mercedes couldn't and because of the engine freeze the RedBull had an advantage?

[SenorSjon]

I'm quoting myself from the double points topic:

 

 

In the Netherlands, F1 moved to Sport1. It is about € 15,- a month with a host of other sports I don't care for, like many F1 fans in the Netherlands. So is 180 euros (~10/GP, discounting payment structures to combine with the BBC and end the contract off-season) worth my while? I don't think so. There is a European shift to pay-channels. When Germany goes from RTL, we have no free means of watching al races again. Then you end up with streams from 'other' places. A bit like the route MotoGP is taking this year, with no broadcaster here. And we used to have RTL7, Eurosport and BBC broadcasting it a few years ago.

 

My assumption is, the shift to the next generation is going to bite them in the ass. The 'new' fans are watching F1 untill the next best thing comes around. Or they watch only their home GP, see a horrible race and are put off again. People do have an attention span of a fly these days. Do you really want to reach those people? The most fans complaining here are (surviving) long time viewers and visitors of tracks. When you read the other threads, most of their friends have quit watching F1 and are spending time with family. *shudders*

 

Have you ever seen the math behind the yearly viewing figures? A viewer counts as one if he/she has seen 15 minutes of F1 during the WHOLE season. Technically, if you see a 1 minute item at your sport program after a GP, you have seen more than 15 minutes of F1 in a year.

 

 

Both the racing and championship are boring. They are gradually skipping more and more entertaining features (they think otherwise). The super reliability prevents freak results. Cars look akward, tracks look akward, no more rain races, to many races that makes each one a little less special, etc.

 

The testing ban is in full effect and together with an engine development ban they struck F1 in its core.

 

 

Don't forget Schumacher left last year as well, it usually has a big impact on Germen viewers.

[Miggeex]

It's not new that someone dominates once in a while and naturally it makes it less exciting. Anyway, half of 2013 is a short time of dominating in the sports history. It just happens once in a while and there's no need to be dramatic about it. It just makes the following championships more valuable.

[ollebompa]

Don't forget the engine freeze. Could the Renault engine do something that Ferrari and Mercedes couldn't and because of the engine freeze the RedBull had an advantage?

I don't know, you tell me.

Edited by ollebompa, 04 February 2014 - 08:19.

[kraduk]

I blame Pirelli. They ruined it when they made crap tyres and then had to implement a quick fix mid season.

And DRS? Gosh, drop it already.

 

no they did exactly what they were contracted to do by the FIA, why do ppl keep forgetting this?

[thomin]

Well maybe it's because F1 is ever more moving away from being a sport and towards being a show? DRS, crappy tires and now double points. As a show it will never be able to compete with "Game of Thrones", "X-Factor", whatever and as a sport it's losing all credibility. 

 

Seriously, I want to see a fierce competition, both by the drivers as well as the engineers and if that results in domination, then so be it. People are not turning off the Olympics because Usain Bolt is dominating, they are tuning in to see him dominate. People who enjoy sports enjoy excellence, domination be damned. 

 

Nigel Mansell utterly dominated the 1992 season, probably more so than Vettel ever did. Do people look back at that year in disdain? I don't think so. If people of the future have a bad memory of 2013, it will not be because of Vettel dominating, but because of the shenanigans regarding blow-up tires and DRS, taking the sport out of F1. What good are all those DRS passes when there's zero excitement, zero sense of accomplishment? What good does it do to the sport to have 5 different winners in 5 consecutive races, when none of it has anything to do with either driving or engineering skills and everything with guessing the correct tire-response? 

 

I have the feeling that these people don't know how to conduct a poll and even less so how to read it. Of course people will always say that they'd like to see more passes. That doesn't mean that they want an unfair advantage handed to the trailing car.

Similarly, of course people will always say that they'd rather see an exciting championship that goes down to the wire. But that doesn't mean that they want double points at the final race.

People above all want to see an honest sport, an authentic sport, not manufactured excitement. If the sport turns out to be exciting, all the better, but everyone knows that this can not always be the case. People want to be invested in something real, not something fake. When I get up in the middle of the night to see a race in Australia, when I spend my free time to read the Twitter feed of my favorite team, when I take my hard earned cash to purchase some F1 gear, let alone one of those expensive tickets, then it better be authentic. When I get the feeling that it's not, that it's all manufactured excitement, then I'll feel cheated and I will stop caring.

[tifosiMac]

Audiences started to decline in 2012 so I can't lay all the blame on Vettel and Red Bull's dominance because that was a season where it could have gone either way. It may be partly true for some people but I don't think it has such a drastic effect worldwide. The most significant problem is pay TV. Not everyone can either get it, afford it or justify its expense and it will naturally cut down the amount of viewers who watch. Its not rocket science and its not as though this hasn't been a hot topic for the past 2 years now. There are races I have missed and this was unheard of before the end of 2011. How many other F1 fans are in my position or indeed have stopped watching altogether? There are Sky exclusive races that no longer pick up casual viewers too. When I say casual I mean the people who don't follow the sport but will stumble upon it when they sit down for Sunday lunch and stay tuned because its either different or something has caught their attention. This type of viewer sometimes goes on to having a healthy interest and its how a sport builds popularity.

 

Putting F1 behind a pay wall will force people to make the decision to either pay or not watch and the fact numbers are falling suggests F1 isn't considered in the same league as many other sports out there. How do people get interested in a sport in the first place if they haven't previously got access to it? Do they say 'oh I've never seen F1 before but I might pay 43 quid a month to see if I like it?... It doesn't work like that and I think the powers that be have got a bit complacent with the previous viewing figures and expected the demand to be there regardless of what channel it was shown on. I can only talk about the UK, but many of the countries where F1 has proven popular have experienced a big drop off in the number of people taking an interest.

 

F1 might be getting the quick cash from the TV companies and for those lucky enough to have pay TV, this is fantastic. However, I think we should be worried how fast viewing figures are falling and with that comes less interest from sponsors, because less exposure is not value for money. F1 has made its bed, it needs to lay in it now.

[SpeedRacer`]

Don't forget the engine freeze. Could the Renault engine do something that Ferrari and Mercedes couldn't and because of the engine freeze the RedBull had an advantage?

 

No. The Renault engine was slower than the others after the initial freeze, and in 2009 they were allowed to bring it up to spec with agreement from the teams.

 

Look at the difference in pace between the RB4 and STR3 which was basically the same car with different engines. Webber was amazed when he drove the STR3,

[HoldenRT]

Each F1 race is like a movie and what's important is that it's an interesting or entertaining movie.  Each weekend is an event in of itself and it's only the final few races that the championship matters more.  Who wins is secondary compared to that, and I don't believe the diehards or fanboys are an accurate representation, because most people don't talk about F1 on the internet, yet still watch.  And last season for example, there were some great races where Vettel won, but it was an interesting 'story' to see who'd finish 2-5th etc.

 

The worst races are the ones that has a mad dash in the first 5 laps.. then the order settles down, then it's a wait until the first stop and that's the final stop and everyone just waits until the end, and that was the way in a lot of the Bridgestone races of 2010 for example.  Compare that back with the days of refueling when you had a 3 stopper vs a 1 stopper.. and there were different phases, key points in those phases.. having to overtake certain cars to make the strategy work.. while the 1 stopping car had to try and make his tyres last.  Every lap matters in that situation, nothing is static or predetermined, everything is to play for.. each lap trying to stay infront or below the target times to make it work.  That to me, is what racing is about.. every lap is edge on the seat stuff, especially for the lighter 3 stopping car.. and any overtaking (which is inevitable with that strategy) is just a bonus.  DRS sort of helps account for that, but sometimes it's too easy and DRS doesn't work well in trains of cars that use DRS simultaneously.

[Donkey]

2nd place is first loser. It was just so predictable when Vettel would have a 2 second advantage after lap one and the others were already managing tyres, and my god his victory speeches got annoying (this coming from someone who was a Vettel supporter when he won his first championship). You couldn't even hope for his engine to blow up because they were so reliable last year (unlike Webber's KERS...).

 

TBH I watched parts of most of the races last year. But towards the end of the season I would be doing other things at the same time, not really actually watching the races after the first few laps, and sometimes didn't even bother to stream the races only on sky. And I stopped bothering with qualifying (although this is probably a good thing, reverse/random grids for F1 would be a godsend).

 

I'm annoyed that it takes the powers to be so long to ban things that clearly weren't intended by the rules. Double diffusers/exhaust blown diffusers/off-throttle blowing/F-ducts/inconclusively bendy bits, none of them were intended by the rules. In fact they all went against the point of the 2009 reg shift to less aero dependency yet they didn't have the balls to just say, 'sorry mate, you can't have that' and just ban things straight up, not to mention allegations of favoritism with certain teams and a cheese manufacturer...