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F1 'reveals' drop in viewing figures

NEWS STORY
25/03/2023

Contrary to the ongoing claims that F1 is booming like never before, TV viewing figures for 2022 actually show a drop compared to the previous season.

Every year since Liberty Media took control of F1, around the start of the season they have issued a press release citing the previous year's TV figures.

However, no such release was issued this year.

Indeed, in its Fourth Quarter and Year End Financial Results, issued on 1 March, Liberty refers to "Cumulative TV viewers of 1.54 billion in 2022".

In the release it lists various other metrics - attendance, social media followers and cumulative TV viewership in the US - proudly declaring that all were up, while it merely states that the figure for the cumulative TV viewers (i.e. the worldwide audience) last year, omitting to say whether it was up or down. (link)

Checking the same metric from the previous year and lo-and-behold the figure is down. OK, only slightly at 0.01 billion (1.55 billion viewers in 2021 compared to 1.54 billion viewers in 2022) but nevertheless it has still gone in the wrong direction.

The crucial point being that interest in F1 did not skyrocket last year as it did in 2021, as Liberty would have us believe. (link)

While one can understand Liberty's reluctance to admit that viewer numbers have declined, there remains that question of why fewer people watched last season.

This omission is intriguing and mirrors the approach seen in the sports betting world, where platforms like Mostbet analyze trends and probabilities behind sports events, underlining the importance of understanding the full context behind raw data. The process typically involves visiting the Mostbet site, as detailed at Mostbet login, where users are prompted to enter their credentials, which include a username and password.

Pitpass is aware of a number of fans who stopped watching following the controversial end to the 2021 season, however there is also the question of Drive to Survive, the instrument, according to most insiders, and Liberty itself, that has driven the recent boom.

Fact is, Drive to Survive presents F1 as being dramatic and having excitement around every corner, but Christian and Toto's spats aside, what do these new fans find when they tune in to races? The same team winning every Grand Prix.

Consequently is it any surprise that the TV audience is going down. Indeed, it has even fallen in Liberty's beloved US market.

Adam Stern, of Sports Business Journal, reports that in the US, for the season opener in Bahrain ESPN had 1.318 million viewers, compared to 1.353 million in 2022. "Fox TV got 3.991 million viewers for (that same) Sunday's NASCAR race, down from 4.544 million last year," he adds, while "NBC got 1.189 million for (that) Sunday's IndyCar opener, down from 1.405M last year."

For the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, ESPN had 1.523 million viewers, according to Stern, up on last year's 1.445 million. At the same time Fox had 3.422 million viewers for Sunday's NASCAR race at new Atlanta, down from 4.003 million viewers last year.

Given that the budget cap and the regulations are locked in until 2026 one can safely say that Red Bull is going to be dominant during that time, consequently if Drive to Survive continues to present F1 as a non-stop, drama-fuelled spectacle, those new viewers are going to continue turning off when they tune in and see the sort of procession witnessed on Sunday.

Indeed, such is the concern at F1 Towers that there is already talk of regulation changes, with some believing that the FIA overreacted in its decision to raise the car floors.

Some believe this has actually taken the sport in the wrong direction and is now actually compromising overtaking again.

However, the complaints from the teams over spending aside, any change to the regulations would have to be on safety grounds and thus far safety hasn't been an issue.

As a result, as we see designers introducing all manner of 'additions' in the form of wings and slots - exactly the sort of expensive, fanciful architecture the sport was seeking to move away from - there is talk of a need to take more advantage of (groan) DRS, possibly by increasing the number of zones and extending them.

What next, reverse grids?

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READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by elsiebc, 27/03/2023 15:23

"@ MossMan "they might as well be racing on a car park." And hence we have Miami."

Rating: Positive (2)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by MossMan, 27/03/2023 9:07

"Quoting @Anthony: "The big turnoff for me is street races in “destination cities”. My fear is that Liberty see these as the solution rather than the problem….."

For me it's street circuits at night. I have a personal connection to Singapore so I was really looking forward to the first race there... but when it happened I realised that what you mostly see on TV is a strip of track, wall and fence - so far from being as dramatic as the press would have you believe I actually found it the equivalent of real-life Scalextric. Took me the whole race to orientate which shots were where on the circuit, and I'd only been staying at a hotel at the centre of it a couple of months previously!

Same thing at the Middle-East races now - my wife came in during the season opener and asked how it was - I said dull as usual and pointed to the screen saying they might as well be racing on a car park."

Rating: Positive (1)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by Editor, 27/03/2023 8:47

"@ ancient70!

As we have written many times it was COVID - or at least the lockdown that gave F1 its boost.

F1 was the first sport to put together a world championship in 2020 and this combined with Drive to Survive, which hadn't had impressive viewing figures up until then, helped give the sport the boost. Effectively, F1 had a new, captive audience."

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4. Posted by ancient70!, 27/03/2023 8:38

"I wonder if the popularity of F1, track attendance, is a due to a covid hangover, where many of the big outdoor sporting events were either cancelled or conducted with zero spectators. I think the tv viewing figures were less affected during this period. My 1969 experience was Kyalami, Stewart disappeared in the distance and half the field did not finish. So not much close racing. "

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by Editor, 27/03/2023 7:56

"@ trackrecords

Or even two old blokes making bitchy comments about the female pundits... albeit using the same Sky log-in and living at different ends of the country."

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6. Posted by trackrecords, 27/03/2023 7:53

"How on earth do Liberty know how many people are watching a Sky F1 subscription? It could be a family of 6, or it could be 2 old blokes making 'bitchy' comments about female pundits.
My first sight of F1 was the 1977 International Trophy - an event almost held in a paddy field: sliding down the muddy hillock on the inside of Woodcote in horizontal rain, as we watched the marshals pick yet another car out of the catch fencing and laughing at the programme's article proclaiming the superior weather grip of the circuit's new Dunlop Delugrip tarmac. When we admitted we were too cold and wet we went home without seeing the chequered flag.
First GP at Brands wasn't much better, perched on the ledge leading to Hawthorn Hill, my folding chair slid off, and I fell backwards into a patch of nettles on the prophetically-named, Pilgrim's Drop... "

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

7. Posted by elsiebc, 25/03/2023 17:40

"F1 lost fewer US eyeballs during these first two race weekends in both numbers and percentage. While I don't like the changes that have been occurring [like the overuse of full course yellows, a.k.a VSC's, and safety car interventions (what, no article on the Albon safety car fiasco?!?)] the drop in viewing figures is hardly as negative as presented in this article."

Rating: Negative (-1)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

8. Posted by VC10-1103, 25/03/2023 13:56

"KKK - Back then there was also the chance to meet your hero’s in the paddock if you had a paddock ticket."

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9. Posted by didaho, 25/03/2023 1:34

"It's just as likely to be too many races than real competition for the top step (which hasn't been a factor for 10 yrs other than '21).
Also, the other broadcasters lost more motorsport audience YoY - perhaps people are watching less regardless of the content."

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10. Posted by KKK, 24/03/2023 21:26

"Sorry, meant you can't get that on Netflix....typo, I'm Old!"

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11. Posted by KKK, 24/03/2023 21:25

"I went to Brands 69 and stood behind the barriers at Hawthorns. They were so fast. I was then hooked on F1. I feel sorry fir the youngstersniw, because they will never feel the vibrations, the wind pushing past you. You can get that on Netflix. "

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12. Posted by Paulinho, 24/03/2023 10:30

"Let's hope "they" don't use this small drop to introduce gimmicks to the racing weekend. "

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13. Posted by Editor, 23/03/2023 22:43

"@ Anthony

A grandstand? Luxury.

That said, the previous year my mother had taken me to Brands Hatch for the Grand Prix, we turned up on the day and were able to buy seats in the grandstand right opposite the pits there and then.

'69 was the time I had the ice cream mishap with Chris amon."

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14. Posted by Anthony, 23/03/2023 20:33

"@ Editor and VC10-1103

And I was in the Woodcote grandstand! It was also the first GP that I went to although I did go to the (very wet and cold!) International Trophy race in the Easter holidays.

The big turnoff for me is street races in “destination cities”. My fear is that Liberty see these as the solution rather than the problem….."

Rating: Positive (2)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

15. Posted by Editor, 23/03/2023 18:44

"@ VC10-1103

I was on the outside at Copse that day and it was indeed a glorious battle... then again, in those days track like Silverstone allowed such cut and thrust racing."

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