F1 TV audience dwindling.
Discussion
MissChief said:
Deesee said:
blueST said:
Everything I've seen suggest F1 TV Pro is geo-blocked in the UK. is that no longer the case?
Nothing that a VPN can’t slip around.If F1 was ever to return to the BBC in the same way as it was back in the days of Murray and James, it may see a slight rise in viewing numbers but nowhere near the levels it had then. This has nothing to do with the sport itself or any perceived lack of excitement but everything to do with the vastly different way people watch TV and the choices available to them.
In the 80s and early 90s, Grand Prix might attract 20million views but that was largely because the options were limited – just three other channels. So someone may be inclined to give a race a watch on account of there not much else being on but if it were possible to determine the proportion of ‘fans’ watching then – those interested enough to make a deliberate effort to watch a race rather than just have it on, I would suspect it would be a similar number that who are watching today on Sky or C4.
The one downside is that it is from the casual viewers that new fans emerge so without free and easy access, this may be affected. But it’s difficult to see how this can be addressed for the reasons I stated; free access would today not necessarily result in significant numbers of additional viewers. All it would do is loose the income F1 gets from Sky to reach the pretty much the same number of people as it does at the moment.
As for new and younger fans, according to IPSOS, 35% of new fans to F1 are under 25. Two thirds of the sport’s fans are under 45. The average age of a F1 fan is 40 – almost identical to that of Football. Liberty’s embracing of Social Media and the F1 eSports Series is cited as having a big impact in opening the sport up to a wider and younger audience and the stats suggest that it’s working.
Advertisers and sponsors no longer need to get their brand in front of the maximum number of people. Today, marketing is all about targeting and the ability to more precisely target a message is something that all the major brands are capitalising on. Most of the brands active in F1 are not targeting the UK market (at least principally) so any decline here is not going to be an issue. Places like China, India, South East Asia and South America are key growth economies and in those regions, F1 is increasing its following by a significant amount.
It’s like music – for some, it was ‘always better in the past and anything new is crap’. But when you bother to have a listen, you find that actually, this isn’t case at all. More a case of it simply being ‘different’. For some, that ‘different’ may not be to their liking and that’s fine and anyone who considers the 2019 F1 season as dull, uninteresting or ‘not as good as they used to be’, I rather think that the sport is no longer for you.
Either way, we have to accept that many things are different today compared to the past and that F1 is a global sport and as important as the UK is to it, it is no less or more important than anywhere else.
In the 80s and early 90s, Grand Prix might attract 20million views but that was largely because the options were limited – just three other channels. So someone may be inclined to give a race a watch on account of there not much else being on but if it were possible to determine the proportion of ‘fans’ watching then – those interested enough to make a deliberate effort to watch a race rather than just have it on, I would suspect it would be a similar number that who are watching today on Sky or C4.
The one downside is that it is from the casual viewers that new fans emerge so without free and easy access, this may be affected. But it’s difficult to see how this can be addressed for the reasons I stated; free access would today not necessarily result in significant numbers of additional viewers. All it would do is loose the income F1 gets from Sky to reach the pretty much the same number of people as it does at the moment.
As for new and younger fans, according to IPSOS, 35% of new fans to F1 are under 25. Two thirds of the sport’s fans are under 45. The average age of a F1 fan is 40 – almost identical to that of Football. Liberty’s embracing of Social Media and the F1 eSports Series is cited as having a big impact in opening the sport up to a wider and younger audience and the stats suggest that it’s working.
mat205125 said:
I hope that the principle sponsors of the sport see this viewer decline, and fight to get the sport accessible to all, without a fee.
Advertisers and sponsors no longer need to get their brand in front of the maximum number of people. Today, marketing is all about targeting and the ability to more precisely target a message is something that all the major brands are capitalising on. Most of the brands active in F1 are not targeting the UK market (at least principally) so any decline here is not going to be an issue. Places like China, India, South East Asia and South America are key growth economies and in those regions, F1 is increasing its following by a significant amount.
Tyre Smoke said:
The point is that F1 has become boring
This is an entirely subjective opinion but the facts do not support it. F1 has throughout its history gone through periods of single team dominance and the irony is that some of the dullest ever seasons were those when anyone could watch it on the BBC (or latterly, ITV).It’s like music – for some, it was ‘always better in the past and anything new is crap’. But when you bother to have a listen, you find that actually, this isn’t case at all. More a case of it simply being ‘different’. For some, that ‘different’ may not be to their liking and that’s fine and anyone who considers the 2019 F1 season as dull, uninteresting or ‘not as good as they used to be’, I rather think that the sport is no longer for you.
Either way, we have to accept that many things are different today compared to the past and that F1 is a global sport and as important as the UK is to it, it is no less or more important than anywhere else.
It’s worth noting that Liberty were a big driving force in the massive increase in social media (The F1 YouTube channel has had a massive increase in subscribers since the Bernie era and has loads of great content) and the Netflix Drive to Survive series has resulted in massive interest around the world, but especially in the US.
MissChief said:
It’s worth noting that Liberty were a big driving force in the massive increase in social media (The F1 YouTube channel has had a massive increase in subscribers since the Bernie era and has loads of great content) and the Netflix Drive to Survive series has resulted in massive interest around the world, but especially in the US.
Very worth noting. They have done so much to expand the reach of F1 to a new audience by turning the drama and battles during and in between races into a form of entertainment. It makes the detail of the sport accessible to the masses and provides a way of starting to understand the sport and what they're really watching come race day. That's been missing for a long time, maybe forever.Eric Mc said:
Liberty are doing a good job overall. They are just hamstrung in the UK by Bernie's dopey deal with Sky.
Thing is... If ppl really give up paying sky in the next couple of years, sky will want to end the agreement prematurely themselves, and as liberty already resent it, with both parties in agreement to end it then it would happen. In the end, the consumer will vote with their wallets. If that doesn't happen, then whatever we feel the reality is that it's working for sky on a business level, and it really is their business what rights they buy and what they charge us...
Liberty are doing good and for them, the UK is important for historic reasons but in terms of revenue, we're tiny in the overall picture. They're well advised to focus on improving their core product and promotion of it, and probably don't give UK rights very much thought until renewal time, or until sky approach them to renegotiate etc.
Eric Mc said:
Too many people vastly underestimate the UK’s importance in F1. If you tell UK fans to essentially ”p
s off”-which is what the gSky deal effectively did, the entire edifice will rue the consequences. I genuinely expect Sky to try and end the deal earlier, if they can.
As I said, it depends how people vote with their wallets. The situation isn't really helped by the racing currently being better than it has been for years. I pay sky via now TV and unless I can get F1TV working, I will pay sky again this year s off”-which is what the gSky deal effectively did, the entire edifice will rue the consequences. I genuinely expect Sky to try and end the deal earlier, if they can.
Sorry..
No need to apologise. It's your money and your choice as to what you want to spend it on.
If and when a decent F1 coverage returns to free access viewing (it could be internet based as much as TV these days), I MAY return to following it more closely.
But I think I've been weaned off it now and probably won't ever return to the diehard enthusiasm I had 20 to 40 years ago.
If and when a decent F1 coverage returns to free access viewing (it could be internet based as much as TV these days), I MAY return to following it more closely.
But I think I've been weaned off it now and probably won't ever return to the diehard enthusiasm I had 20 to 40 years ago.
Eric Mc said:
No need to apologise. It's your money and your choice as to what you want to spend it on.
If and when a decent F1 coverage returns to free access viewing (it could be internet based as much as TV these days), I MAY return to following it more closely.
But I think I've been weaned off it now and probably won't ever return to the diehard enthusiasm I had 20 to 40 years ago.
Well lets be honest, you lost enthusiasm a little while ago (based upon your posts...) so the paywall has all but killed any chances of you getting it back. Sky's gamble appears to be that they can disregard those such as yourself, and make good money from those still enthusiastic, however dwindling, for another 5 years until the current agreement runs out.If and when a decent F1 coverage returns to free access viewing (it could be internet based as much as TV these days), I MAY return to following it more closely.
But I think I've been weaned off it now and probably won't ever return to the diehard enthusiasm I had 20 to 40 years ago.
In the interim I do hope that Sky will offset the decline by putting several races on FTA via C4 in full each year, just to keep folk such as yourself engaged. Failing that, I'm not sure what they think will incline more people to convert to subscribed Sky F1 customers... Although as I keep saying, they have no doubt considered all such things and if they don't change, we have to accept their plans and projections are working out as they expected.
It is indeed very sad that these forums of fanatics are now split between those watching live and those not able or willing to. On a personal note, I would love to see that change.
I used to love the live chat that we could all engage in as the race progressed. That has dwindled significantly as far fewer are now watching the races live. And, of course, it means that those of us who intend to watch the highlights package only have to keep away from the F1 thread if we don't want to know the result.
So, with all this and other factors, I have dropped away a lot. I still keep an eye on what is happening but watching the race live is neither here nor there for me any more.
And I hate the sound of the cars.
At least the 2021 cars look a bit better. Something to look forward to.
So, with all this and other factors, I have dropped away a lot. I still keep an eye on what is happening but watching the race live is neither here nor there for me any more.
And I hate the sound of the cars.
At least the 2021 cars look a bit better. Something to look forward to.
Eric Mc said:
I used to love the live chat that we could all engage in as the race progressed. That has dwindled significantly as far fewer are now watching the races live. And, of course, it means that those of us who intend to watch the highlights package only have to keep away from the F1 thread if we don't want to know the result.
So, with all this and other factors, I have dropped away a lot. I still keep an eye on what is happening but watching the race live is neither here nor there for me any more.
And I hate the sound of the cars.
At least the 2021 cars look a bit better. Something to look forward to.
That's the sad reality, and it is very sad. You're posting often enough so no doubt you would let F1 back in to your Sunday life even in-spite of the engine noise and so on if it was FTA.So, with all this and other factors, I have dropped away a lot. I still keep an eye on what is happening but watching the race live is neither here nor there for me any more.
And I hate the sound of the cars.
At least the 2021 cars look a bit better. Something to look forward to.
I've been self employed since I was 14, so I can't help but defend Sky as a business - the rights were for sale, they bought them, they profited. No one at Sky needs to be an F1 fan for that to happen or make sense, I get it. And it's all fair and reasonable.
Just a real s
tter that the UK F1 community is now split between the two camps that either will, or will not hand over the money Sky demands. It's shoulder saggingly depressing in fact. We're a capitalist nation and enjoy that on various levels but as F1 fans we got stiffed, sewn up. Every year half the cars roll out of UK factories and traverse the world, and we have to pay more than the rest of the world to see what they do!!!It really does make me sad. In spite of a few moderate disagreements we have had in the past - I think we clearly agree that the money derived split in UK viewership habits has taken a lot away from the joy of watching together.
Eric Mc said:
I used to love the live chat that we could all engage in as the race progressed. That has dwindled significantly as far fewer are now watching the races live. And, of course, it means that those of us who intend to watch the highlights package only have to keep away from the F1 thread if we don't want to know the result.
So, with all this and other factors, I have dropped away a lot. I still keep an eye on what is happening but watching the race live is neither here nor there for me any more.
And I hate the sound of the cars.
At least the 2021 cars look a bit better. Something to look forward to.
Which 2021 cars have you seen, Eric?So, with all this and other factors, I have dropped away a lot. I still keep an eye on what is happening but watching the race live is neither here nor there for me any more.
And I hate the sound of the cars.
At least the 2021 cars look a bit better. Something to look forward to.
Just the concept images that were revealed a few months ago. Of course, when the REAL cars arrive in 2021 they may look just as ugly as the current monsters. But for me the big improvement is the ban on the raised nose and full span front wing, which has been a feature of F1 cars since the early/mid 1990s. I never liked it.
Eric Mc said:
I used to love the live chat that we could all engage in as the race progressed. That has dwindled significantly as far fewer are now watching the races live. And, of course, it means that those of us who intend to watch the highlights package only have to keep away from the F1 thread if we don't want to know the result.
So, with all this and other factors, I have dropped away a lot. I still keep an eye on what is happening but watching the race live is neither here nor there for me any more.
I hate having to keep "off grid", and stay up until stupid o'clock on a school night.So, with all this and other factors, I have dropped away a lot. I still keep an eye on what is happening but watching the race live is neither here nor there for me any more.
Not enough to stomach paying for sky though.
Tempted with the Now TV streaming idea though.
Eric Mc said:
Liberty are doing a good job overall. They are just hamstrung in the UK by Bernie's dopey deal with Sky.
It wasn't a dopey deal in the context of the time. Bernie was employed to deliver the maximum return on CVC's investment for a short term exit. Not to look at the long term good of the sport.Eric Mc said:
Failing to think long term is the definition of "dopey" in my view.
Your view is correct if one is to assume that F1 is a company which is operated altruistically for the benefit of the sport itself and others who are involved. However in the real world it is a publically traded company built on a pyramid of venture capitalism.
Kraken nailed it in the post before yours.
He nailed it in the assumption that treating a sport purely as a corporate entity for the benefit of shareholders or investors is concerned. That counts as an utter failure when looking at the real picture and the far more important issue of the sports longevity and survival.
Kraken just reaffirmed how dopey the deal was. Excellent for short term gain - dumb for longevity.
However, Liberty are more intelligent in what they are trying to do and will reverse Bernie's idiocy as soon as they legally can. Let's just hope that the damage isn't so severe that recovery is impossible. I fear it may be.
Kraken just reaffirmed how dopey the deal was. Excellent for short term gain - dumb for longevity.
However, Liberty are more intelligent in what they are trying to do and will reverse Bernie's idiocy as soon as they legally can. Let's just hope that the damage isn't so severe that recovery is impossible. I fear it may be.
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