Prost: F1 viewership collapsed in France
Television viewership has collapsed in France, according to F1 legend Alain Prost.
In the country, all the races are only shown live on Canal Plus, a pay broadcaster. The sport's free-to-air coverage, on TF1, only involves three races.
"We used to have 8 million fans in France watching TF1, but now that it is on Canal Plus it is 750,000," the quadruple world champion and Renault team advisor told Speed Week.
"But that's how it works when you move everything to pay TV."
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Yep, pay to view is killing all sports
Hey, we are starting out at only 667,000 viewers in the US, and that is spread over the entire ESPN platform. Make it pay to view and the entire audience can gather in my living room for the broadcasts.
Amen, brother.
Won't miss much with "RUBBISH" racing will we??????????
Take out the word 'racing' and you have a point dear chap. Oh for the 70s and 80s to make a comeback. At least we have the Duke videos to watch ad infinitum.
Has there ever been a more short-sighted decision than to kill free to air?
Why would anyone sponsor something that nobody watches?
I remember when I had to check a broadcast schedule before each race to see what channel it would be on. F1 racing has never been "popular" in the U.S. and probably never will be. When there is the rare occasion I mention F1 to someone I automatically and a description of what it is.
To reinforce your comment, when queried about my past I will mention that I raced cars. The first, and usually only, question that people ask is, "How fast did you go?" Sad.
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