The Guardian is reporting the overnights for tv viewing yesterday.
600,000 people watched the race live in the UK, and 2m watched the
afternoon repeat. That’s by far-and-away the lowest figures this season
I’ve seen reported.
By contrast, an average of 2.2m watched the Chicago marathon
yesterday…
—
Stephen M Baines http://www.motorsport.org.uk
"Brushing my teeth last night before I went to bed I had a similar optimistic
feeling to what Rubens felt before Hockenheim" Mika Hakkinen
Stephen M Baines wrote:
> The Guardian is reporting the overnights for tv viewing yesterday.
> 600,000 people watched the race live in the UK, and 2m watched the
> afternoon repeat. That’s by far-and-away the lowest figures this season
> I’ve seen reported.
> By contrast, an average of 2.2m watched the Chicago marathon
> yesterday…
In the UK? In the country that builds most of the F1 cars, and in which
most of the teams are based? Wonder what it was like in other countries.
This has to be serious news.
Doc
> —
> Stephen M Baines http://www.motorsport.org.uk
> "Brushing my teeth last night before I went to bed I had a similar optimistic
> feeling to what Rubens felt before Hockenheim" Mika Hakkinen
–
Doc Fredrik B.Knutsen
Cheek Racing Cars
http://www.cheekracing.com
On Mon, 14 Oct 2002 20:48:11 GMT, Stephen M Baines
<step…@the-samurai-in-autumn.motorsport.org.uk> wrote:
>The Guardian is reporting the overnights for tv viewing yesterday.
>600,000 people watched the race live in the UK, and 2m watched the
>afternoon repeat. That’s by far-and-away the lowest figures this season
>I’ve seen reported.
Not sure it’s particularly surprising for the last race of a season
which was decided a long time ago, though. Nice to know there are as
many as 2.6m true enthusiasts who will always watch, whatever the
championship situation.
>By contrast, an average of 2.2m watched the Chicago marathon
>yesterday…
Yep. Live at a convenient time with Britain’s most popular athlete
taking part and expected to break the world record. Surprised the
figure isn’t higher. (Anybody care to bet against Paula for BBC Sports
Personality of the Year.)
David Betts (dav…@motorsport.org.uk)
"In the end it’s always a matter of more accelerator and less brake" – Frank Gardner
British Racing Green: http://dbetts.motorsport.org.uk/brg
Fredrik B. Knutsen wrote:
> In the UK? In the country that builds most of the F1 cars, and in which
> most of the teams are based? Wonder what it was like in other countries.
> This has to be serious news.
‘Fraid so. The figures have dived and dived all year long in the UK.
It’s got bad enough that The Guardian, amongst others, are now reporting
that the BBC feel confident enough to bid for F1 rights, pretty safe in
the knowledge that ITV will not want to bid with the future being so
uncertain.
–
Stephen M Baines
Stephen M Baines wrote in message …
>Fredrik B. Knutsen wrote:
>> In the UK? In the country that builds most of the F1 cars, and in which
>> most of the teams are based? Wonder what it was like in other countries.
>> This has to be serious news.
>’Fraid so. The figures have dived and dived all year long in the UK.
It’s not the lowest audience of the year – in fact 2.6 million is quite good
for this season.
And audiences have fallen in most countries this year…they’ve fallen less
in the UK than other key markets like France, Italy and Germany which have
seen a decline of 30-40%(it is about 15-20% in the UK).
>It’s got bad enough that The Guardian, amongst others, are now reporting
>that the BBC feel confident enough to bid for F1 rights, pretty safe in
>the knowledge that ITV will not want to bid with the future being so
>uncertain.
Can’t understand why the BBC want to bid for the rights for 2008, even
though the manufacturers are all going to pull out at the end of 2007?
Nor why they think it is worth 25 times more now than they were paying seven
years ago, despite the market for sports rights collapsing.
I suspect that Bernie will stay with ITV, he has publically praised their
coverage several times – most recently in a TV interview last weekend, and
in the last five year, ITV have won the FIA award for best F1 coverage
twice.
On Tue, 15 Oct 2002 21:01:38 GMT, "Tim" <t…@tim-gray.org.uk> wrote:
>Can’t understand why the BBC want to bid for the rights for 2008, even
>though the manufacturers are all going to pull out at the end of 2007?
Well, the BBC has virtually no sport any more and is desperately
trying to get back in. I don’t doubt it believes that the problems
will be sorted out one way or another. It will have to be careful that
it doesn’t end up paying for a secondary series, though, whilst
somebody else gets the real thing. (Don’t forget, this was the channel
which bought the rights to World Superbikes just as Fogarty retired
and GPs went four-stroke <g>.)
>Nor why they think it is worth 25 times more now than they were paying seven
>years ago, despite the market for sports rights collapsing.
Collapsing is a bit of strong word, isn’t it? It certainly hasn’t
fallen back to where it was seven years ago…and don’t forget that
the BBC was paying well under the odds then. I believe they are
talking about offering something like twice what ITV are paying at the
moment.
David Betts (dav…@motorsport.org.uk)
"In the end it’s always a matter of more accelerator and less brake" – Frank Gardner
British Racing Green: http://dbetts.motorsport.org.uk/brg
On Tue, 15 Oct 2002 13:26:19 GMT, Stephen M Baines
<step…@localhost.motorsport.org.uk> wrote:
>Fredrik B. Knutsen wrote:
>> In the UK? In the country that builds most of the F1 cars, and in which
>> most of the teams are based? Wonder what it was like in other countries.
>> This has to be serious news.
>’Fraid so. The figures have dived and dived all year long in the UK.
>It’s got bad enough that The Guardian, amongst others, are now reporting
>that the BBC feel confident enough to bid for F1 rights, pretty safe in
>the knowledge that ITV will not want to bid with the future being so
>uncertain.
Worldwide figures for the season are, it seems, only down eight per
cent…….so not quite the cause for panic that some people are
trying to suggest. (For reasons of their own, not unconnected with the
background row over who will ‘own’ F1 in future?) Of course, an eight
per cent drop year on year would become a problem very rapidly, but I
suspect it only needs a closer battle next year to claw that back.
What we shouldn’t forget, of course, is that we had a hell of a good
season in 2001 with exactly the same rules and exactly the same teams
at the front. The only real problem in 2002 is that
McLaren-Ilmor-Michelin and Williams-BMW-Michelin didn’t do a good
enough job.
(Incidentally, the BBC is denying the rumour of a GBP175m bid.)
David Betts (dav…@motorsport.org.uk)
"In the end it’s always a matter of more accelerator and less brake" – Frank Gardner
British Racing Green: http://dbetts.motorsport.org.uk/brg
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -
David Betts <dav…@motorsport.org.uk> writes:
> On Tue, 15 Oct 2002 13:26:19 GMT, Stephen M Baines
> <step…@localhost.motorsport.org.uk> wrote:
> >Fredrik B. Knutsen wrote:
> >> In the UK? In the country that builds most of the F1 cars, and in which
> >> most of the teams are based? Wonder what it was like in other countries.
> >> This has to be serious news.
> >’Fraid so. The figures have dived and dived all year long in the UK.
> >It’s got bad enough that The Guardian, amongst others, are now reporting
> >that the BBC feel confident enough to bid for F1 rights, pretty safe in
> >the knowledge that ITV will not want to bid with the future being so
> >uncertain.
> Worldwide figures for the season are, it seems, only down eight per
> cent…….so not quite the cause for panic that some people are
> trying to suggest. (For reasons of their own, not unconnected with the
> background row over who will ‘own’ F1 in future?) Of course, an eight
> per cent drop year on year would become a problem very rapidly, but I
> suspect it only needs a closer battle next year to claw that back.
You may be right – but. . . .
The works economy is off, the political situation is unsettled in
several different ways, so sponsorship prospects are less than robust.
On the other hand everyone (no doubt including their sponsors and
partners) is exhorting Williams and McLaren to "raise their game" to
match Ferrari, which hardly can be done while cutting costs. I doubt
the pressures within Renault and Jaguar/Ford are any less.
This in an environment in which costs have been steadily rising, I
think. (Anybody got, or care to hazard an estimate of, total team F1
spending over the past 5 to 10 years?) Exponential growth is not
sustainable indefinitely (you do the math) and the transition out of
such a state is often painful, sometimes fatal.
An eight percent viewer decline in these circumstances may be a
perfectly rational justification for blind panic!
–
Mark Jackson – http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~mjackson
How can anyone be expected to govern a country with two
hundred and forty-six cheeses? - Charles de Gaulle