10 replies to this topic

[raceday]

I have read recently that F1 is one of the absolutely biggest TV-sports in the world, 300-400 million/race. So what is it that attracts people to that degree?

The only thing I recall when I’ve asked people at work etc. is something along the line: “I watched the start cause that’s always exciting. Then I did this and that and I saw Schumacher won…” Or possibly “Man, a lot more happened than I thought, rain races are great”. And if you ask them a bit more you often get to hear: “Well, for most of the time it’s just cars going round, but that overtaking (or that crash) made me sit up straight!!”

The bulk of all these people watching F1 don’t know much about what’s going on with all the strategy, development and advanced technology and so on. My opinion is that most of the viewers only want some drama and excitement. That’s sure to happen at the start and after that during overtaking or when somebody goes off. Basically it’s when something happens other than “just cars going around”. I’m also of the opinion that what’s making this viewing figure so sky-high is that something bad or even really bad might actually happen…

I think Bernie & Co knows this all to well and that’s why he’s so forgiving towards the sports “bad boys”. Because their deeds will basically only make the media report all the more about it and that will give an even bigger audience...

That massive audience of course creates very good conditions for sponsorship and that in turn has pretty much made the sport what it is today. So I think ultimately for the audience at large and hence the basis of the sport it’s not of a paramount importance if drivers are sporting or not, as long as it keeps creating a bigger audience.

For the initiated it matters though. But even among them you could doubt weather it matters in the long run? For example both Prost and Senna, both surely “bad boys”, are held very high in regard among people today, not least by me.

Well, am I right or is this just half-wit thinking?

[Rene]

I have spoken to many F1 fans over the years, and most have been fairly sophisticated in their knowledge, that is knowing whats going on in the whole F1 Circus. From what drivers are moving where, to history of relationships amongst teams, drivers, engine makers etc. So from personal experience I would say that F1 fans seem to be the most knowledgable about their sport than any other fan is of their sport....
But what do I know???

[raceday]

That is among the initiated. The audience per race are aparently 300-400 million. It's the bulk of that figure i'm mainly talking about.

[f1racer]

lol @ Rene.

Yeah what do we know?

[Ali_G]

Jerez in 97 got an estimated 500 million.
I think most people watch it for the accidents.

But seriously everyone I know who watches F1 has a fair deal of knowledge of tech etc.

Niall

[NYR2119935]

open wheel race cars

[BlackGhost]

There are thousands of reasons I suppose.

Murrary Walker.
Michael Schumacher brilliance in some races.
The beauty of the cars.
The engine noise's.

The man to man competition.

Watching an F1 car enter the tunnel in Monaco.

How can you not love F1?

This forum?

[raceday]

OK, to simplify my previous post:

Let's say, like Ali_G said, it's 500 million people watching a race

The population of the earth is roughly 5000 million.

That's 1 person out of 10 of the whole population of the earth, that's A HELL OF A LOT!!!

That means if I go downtown and randomly ask 100 people "Did you watch the race", the likelyhood is that 10 of them would have watched the race.

To my experience, out of those 10 people I would say that at the most 1 out of those 10 would be knowledgeable about F1. But let's stretch it and say 2 out of 10. That would mean 100 million of the viewers would have a quite good knowledge of what's going on in the race. So my question was basically why do the other 400 million people watch F1?

Well, my guess is that it's because they want some drama and excitement, not least I think the anticipation that something really bad might happen is a contributing factor.

My conclusion is that the leading men of F1 knows this and that's why they have been so forgiving towards questionable driving ethics. Because it will only create an even bigger audience.

[Williams]

Before we get really serious about these viewing figures, (and I think this has come up in some other threads on the this issue), we have to realize that it is unclear as to whether these figures represent actual or potential viewing figures. How they are accumulated is kept secret, and it is possible that they are based on the number of people who could possibly watch a race (i.e. the estimated number of people who are watching television at the time). In either case, a "viewer" includes anyone who might stop on the channel for a short time, then carry on surfing up the channels.

Britain's Financial Times had access to some independent research on this topic which puts the actual raceday audience at about 60M (Europe 32M, Brazil and Argentina 18M, Japan 3M and U.S. 0.3M, based on 1998 figures). These numbers are still pretty big, big enough to draw sponsors to F1 like bees to honey.

[BlackGhost]

Originally posted by Williams

Britain's Financial Times had access to some independent research on this topic which puts the actual raceday audience at about 60M (Europe 32M, Brazil and Argentina 18M, Japan 3M and U.S. 0.3M, based on 1998 figures). These numbers are still pretty big, big enough to draw sponsors to F1 like bees to honey.

What's even more important about viewing audience is purchasing power.

As an example, Jay Leno draws a bigger audience than David Letterman but David's audience is much richer in terms of purchasing power.

Ultimately, advertisers are looking for purchasing power and F1 delivers.

[nzkarit]

Once u start wacthing it, it is like a bug and u will most probaly spend the rest of your life wacthing it.