F1 has eight times less German TV audience than 10 years ago
Oct.12 - F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali's claims that the category is "more alive than ever" is not borne out by television statistics.
With 'ghost races' still fresh in the memory, and multiple races cancelled in 2021 due to covid, Domenicali said last week that interest in Formula 1 is actually "growing dramatically".
"In Turkey we have 80,000 spectators, there will be 120,000 in Austin and Mexico is sold out. Formula 1 is more alive than ever," said the Italian.
However, Germany's Bild newspaper has done an analysis of the television audience numbers this year, comparing it to the average of 6.29 million viewers who watched RTL's coverage in 2010.
"That is almost eight times as much as in 2021," concluded the newspaper report's authors, with the heading reading: "The world championship thriller that hardly anyone sees".
When asked what impact those low numbers have on the teams and their sponsors, a Mercedes spokesman answered: "Of course the audience numbers are lower this year.
"But we have seen the same trend in other European countries in recent years - and yet the sport is now growing rapidly there."
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thank you mr Murdoch.... and sky tv in europe, 1m paying sky customers in germany and 2 M in uk( 1.8/1.9 M on c4 re run of it.
A success, i hardly think so ...
It's no wonder the Germans are tuning out despite Mercedes having a lot of success.the commentary is poor and biased towards shamilton and russell.hill andherbert are watching the race in a bubble where they still live in the empire.lando deserves the praise that comes his way.if I could watch F1 live on another channel I would
in no way defending uk sky commentary, but they are i presume predominantly broadcasting to the uk sky customer base first, hence there bias, but , as in 2020 , 2022 there will be 4 british drivers on the grid , nowt to do with the "empire" its just the brits are good racers it seems
As for the Germans, well Germany was Schumi mad... Vettel just didn't capture there interest, ok not next yr but in a few it will be the old rivalry between Merc and Auto/union/Audi as it was in the thirties again, and interestingly the cars back then made about 800 hp so nothings changed,fyi Hitler funded both companies to see who could make the fastest and best car
But yes SKY is a rip off allround imo
there is no empire shrop thats the point.whats left is the disunited kingdom and a few islands here and there taken by force by the bully boys in the navy
Don't the Germans get their own commentary or are you saying there is a translation service and/or sub titles.
own commentary , sascha roos commentating apparently
Love to see Sky actual viewing figures versus Channel 4's when the highlights are shown at 6:00, no wonder why Sky hide the figures.
Plus, on a summers day I'd rather keep the radio turned down to avoid the result and watch the race at 7:00 after a BBQ.
Yeah yeah ski F1 shailton racing supporters badly needs an audit.by news now Yorkshire or similar
Sky F1 shamilton racing supporters.
Caught half of it Shakespeare
Formula 1 is in danger of being watched only by “motorsport freaks” if it is solely available on pay-TV, according to a media expert.
Long gone are the days when all grands prix were free-to-air on the traditional television channels, with Sky now holding the rights in the big markets of UK, Germany and Italy. Only with few exceptions can non-subscribers in those countries watch a race live.
In Germany, this is the first season F1 is, for the most part, being broadcast exclusively on Sky’s pay-TV channel.
Consequently, the viewing figures have been slashed, down from an average of 4.55 million in 2020 when the races were also shown on RTL to just 816,000 on Sky this year.
Ian Holmes, media rights director of Formula 1, quoted by Sport Bild, said: “We’ve had success in the German market and appreciate the large audience RTL brought, but overall viewership and rights revenue were down.”
He added that viewing figures are “about as expected” this season but Formula 1 are “happy”, adding: “There’s still a lot of coverage on digital and social channels which keeps German fans heavily engaged.”
That in a country of 83M, but sky playing the long game i suppose....
I don't have any idea what the Sky coverage is like. I assume it is commercial free. When ESPN2 shows the race, they will cut in midsentence to ram commercials down our throats. And they will show the results as well in their endless tickers. We generally don't watch the races at 5:00 AM.
I have heard better broadcast teams. (Varscha and Peter Windsor were really good in their day.) Its very difficult being an F1 fan in the US but it beats the hell out of hillbilly racing.
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