BBC F1 TV ratings for first two races of 2009

Posted on

| Written by

How is the BBC faring since taking over from ITV as Britain’s F1 broadcaster? Here’s its preliminary viewing figures for the first two races:

2009 Australian Grand Prix live: 2.1m average, 3.4m peak
2009 Australian Grand Prix repeat: 2.8m average

2009 Malaysian Grand Prix live: 4.4m average, 5.2m peak

Last year ITV’s replay of the Australian Grand Prix attracted more viewers (3.8m) but its live programme had far fewer. Its figures for the Malaysian Grand Prix were below 2.8m.

It’s important to remember that the BBC will have benefitted from the later start times of these two races as well as increased attention not only in Lewis Hamilton but also Jenson Button.

These are preliminary overnight figures – when the official data is available they will be added to the F1 TV audience figures page.

Read more

Source: MediaGuardian

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

14 comments on “BBC F1 TV ratings for first two races of 2009”

  1. These figures will in part vindicate Bernie’s moving of the schedule. As Europe is apparently more important than other places.
    Shame Malaysia was washed out though with such a large viewing figure. Many probably won’t make it back for China.

  2. Do you know if these figures include numbers from iPlayer?

    1. They wont if they are the stardard BARB overnight figures which i belive they are.

      I dont think as a rule the bbc release iplayer viewer numbers for individual programs.

  3. What about if you Sky+ and how many people have watched the Full Replay and highlights via the red button

    1. These figures come from a survey of 5000 homes with BARB’s monitoring equipment installed. I guess they just multiply by several thousand… Sky+ and other recorders are included in the survey.

      Wonder how many they’d have got for a 8am or 9am start in Malaysia? Hopefully we’ll find out next year.

  4. I can’t help but feel the uplift in UK viewers is more heavily influenced by:

    1) Jensen Button pole positions / winning
    2) Move back to BBC ie NO ADS

    I’m not convinced the time change alone has made SUCH a big difference. We’ll see when we return to Europe, when times return to normal.

    1. I’m sure that if viewing figures are up this summer, Bernie will say that the later running times inspired more people to watch.

  5. German free-TV ratings:
    2009 Australia live: 3.65m average (Start 8am CET)
    2008 Australia live: average 1.6m (Start 5.30am CET)

    2009 Malaysia live: average 5.4m (Start 11am CET)
    2008 Malaysia live: average 4.3m (Start 8am CET)

  6. I’m not shocked, the ITV coverage was rubbish, not an good angles and some very annoying presentation team members, the BBC is far better for repeats (although I always watch live, but I watch repeats too), website, info, angles, presenters and of course no ads!

  7. From a viewers perspective I think the late starts have been a turn off. The poor light and low sun (oz not Malaysia!) rendered many of the onboard shot as worthless. Therefore the overall qulity of the broadcast, for me was spoilt. On the plus side you could get a reel feel for how the drivers were having to cope.

    I wonder if casual viewers will be put off future races after seeing this?

  8. BBC coverage so far is rubbish! They are out of their depth and it shows
    The music is dead sounding, what have they done to Fleetwood Mac?
    The commentaries are dull, amateurish and irritating. There is a miserable sounding Scottish woman from time to time who sounds like she would rather be elsewhere.
    Where is the fizz?
    Never thought I would say it but I actually prefered the ITV coverage. It ends too quickly, it is not repeated later for those who missed it. Useless!
    Very disappointing indeed.

  9. If you want a repeat, why don’t you record it?

  10. Bing Killsmith
    19th April 2009, 13:39

    I agree with Lisa. ITV is in terminal decline but had much better F1 coverage than this amateur effort from the BBC.

  11. when will we find out about all the other races ratings?
    cool site

Comments are closed.