Ferrari and viewing figures

DOF_power

Banned
teabagyokel said:
Again, a statement of undeniable truth. Why did F1's viewing figures fall in the UK in the early 2000s and rise again in 2007 -. Its partly because the racing was closer, but mainly because Hamilton came along. I loved 2003, but apparently no-one else did!

My ambivalence to business comes as I am a dyed-in-the-wool lefty. Please excuse my pseudo-socialist babble.



The UK figures fell from 1997 onwards actually (after D. Hill won his title).

And therefor the difference between Britain and Italy, and also between Ferrari fans/fanboys and driver fans/fanboys.

In Italy if Ferrari does well the ratings are good regardless of the nationality of Ferrari's drivers, in Britain if Williams, McLaren are fighting Ferrari (like in 2003) but if there's no national british driver/hero in the fight the ratings still go down.
 
DOF_power said:
teabagyokel said:
Again, a statement of undeniable truth. Why did F1's viewing figures fall in the UK in the early 2000s and rise again in 2007 -. Its partly because the racing was closer, but mainly because Hamilton came along. I loved 2003, but apparently no-one else did!

My ambivalence to business comes as I am a dyed-in-the-wool lefty. Please excuse my pseudo-socialist babble.



The UK figures fell from 1997 onwards actually (after D. Hill won his title).

And therefor the difference between Britain and Italy, and also between Ferrari fans/fanboys and driver fans/fanboys.

In Italy if Ferrari does well the ratings are good regardless of the nationality of Ferrari's drivers, in Britain if Williams, McLaren are fighting Ferrari (like in 2003) but if there's no national british driver/hero in the fight the ratings still go down.

I suppose the reverse would be true to some extent if, say in some parallel universe, Fisichella fought Raikkonen for the Championship instead of Alonso.

Obviously, this is just a theory since there has been precious few Italian successes in the Formula One Television era.

Of course, the people that are always ignored in viewing figures are those that watch no matter what, i.e. the majority of the population of this site [I was young in 04!]

Personally, I'm not always able to support who the BBC tell me too (with tennis's Andy Murray being the best example) but I don't find it surprising that a success from your nation's driver leads to widespread interest.

The Italians love Ferrari though..., they're not even the last Italian constructor to win at Monza!

Hehe!
 
If this article is to be believe Bernie is messing up global viewing figures by messing about with the starting times, regardless of what teams line up on the grid. So the reasons why people watch F1 would appear to be far more complex than which teams are lining up.

Global viewing figures for Formula 1 slumped by more than 80 million to about 520 million in 2009.

The drop – the first in five years – is being blamed on later race times but will be a blow to the sport’s commercial rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Group, because it is likely to affect the value of television contracts.

In recent years, F1’s governing body the FIA has moved the start times of races around to cater for the lucrative European market. That has meant that, in certain regions such as Asia, races clashed with other sports, although there were also falls in more traditional countries including Spain and Brazil.

The UK bucked the trend, largely because of the success of Jenson Button, and the BBC enjoyed a 6 per cent rise in its audience in the first year since it regained the broadcast contract from ITV.

Ecclestone also revealed that F1 is unlikely to be broadcast in high definition in the near future because of a lack of demand.

"If somebody guarantees to broadcast it we'll do it." he said. "We'll do a deal when people are more interested."

Source - http://www.sports-city.org/news_details.php?news_id=10851&idCategory=80
 
FB said: If this article is to be believe Bernie is messing up global viewing figures by messing about with the starting times, regardless of what teams line up on the grid. So the reasons why people watch F1 would appear to be far more complex than which teams are lining up.

I remember commenting on this subject some months ago, on another forum. I've always thought the later start times are stupid. As well as being unfair on the local audiences, who deserve to be able to attend their own race at the proper time (why did Bernie, in forcing some venues to have evening starts just so european viewers wouldn't have to get up so early, presume to speak on my behalf as a european fan; I don't mind getting up early for two or three races of the season, in fact I quite like it - it's a part of what makes me a fan).

But it seems Bernie shot himself in the foot in terms of TV audiences anyway, as the evening starts for the Far Eastern races has put them in direct competition for viewers with established sports events like major league football and baseball. Someone didn't do their research thoroughly enough.
 
DOF_power said:
In Italy if Ferrari does well the ratings are good regardless of the nationality of Ferrari's drivers, in Britain if Williams, McLaren are fighting Ferrari (like in 2003) but if there's no national british driver/hero in the fight the ratings still go down.

And your point is what, exactly?

Are you trying to say that Italian fans are constantly supporting Ferrari no matter the drivers, but in Britain, we don't support anyone unless there's a British driver?

First of all, that is nonsense. There are plenty of fans in the UK that support non-British drivers. Secondly, what does it matter to you if British people are different about the way they select someone to support? How does that affect you? Thirdly, how does supporting Ferrari make you more of a loyal fan? Because people in Italy are supporting a huge corporate brand? Is that something they should be proud of?

To compare Ferrari and Italian fans to F1 in Britain is crazy.

People have their own opinions and favourites, it's nothing new. Stop the stirring.
 
Enja said:
Are you trying to say that Italian fans are constantly supporting Ferrari no matter the drivers, but in Britain, we don't support anyone unless there's a British driver?

Maybe all DOF_power meant was that different nationalities tend to support F1 in different ways; if so, I would agree. It has always seemed clear to me for instance that Brits tend, in general, to support the driver while Italians, in general, tend to support the team.

I can remember an occasion many years ago when Riccardo Patrese in either a Williams or a Brabham was leading the Ferraris (both driven by non-Italians) at the Italian Grand Prix; Patrese retired with a mechanical failure coming out of the Parabolica, and even on the TV you could hear the Tifosi cheering wildly as their beloved Ferraris moved up.

I guess it's also true that Brazilians tend to support the driver, although this may have more to do with there not being many Brazilian F1 constructors.

All this is not to be in any way disparaging, it is merely an observation of differing national traits; and it is not to say that just because a nation like Britain tends to support its drivers, that their interest in the sport stops completely at times when they have no successful driver to support; but there is likely to be a correlating downward effect on viewing figures at these times.

German viewing figures for instance, and unsurprisingly, rose enormously with Schumacher's success, declined severely after his retirement and have recently recovered again with his return (and the relative success of Vettel).
 
Chad Stewarthill said:
Maybe all DOF_power meant was that different nationalities tend to support F1 in different ways; if so, I would agree. It has always seemed clear to me for instance that Brits tend, in general, to support the driver while Italians, in general, tend to support the team.

Exactly my own point. :)

DOF seems to be implying that that is something bad.
 
My own F1 allegiances would backs that up, my first F1 memories are from mid-late 80's when I started watching and I remember rather disliking McLaren (during his Williams years especially) as I wanted our Nige to win.

Now I'm somewhat older I would still follow teams like McLaren and Williams but my support for title contenders does tend to be far more driver-centric. I would for instance support Button/Hamilton in a Ferrari over a non-Brit driving a McLaren, it might be a close run thing though.
 
Presumably the Spanish fall into the category of 'driver' supporters, given that before Alonso arrived in F1 there was very little interest in the sport, compared to say rallying and motorbikes; there wasn't even a Spanish constructor to follow before Campos/Hispania came along.

I wonder how F1 viewing figures in Spain will fare should Alonso or others, like Algersuari, not continue to succeed; could they sustain their support for F1 with only a team (assuming HRT survive) to follow?

In which case how long could two Spanish GP's per season realistically continue?
 
The Spanish figures also received a boost from Briatore, he acquired them and vigorously promoted F1 in Spain on the back of Alonsos early success. A small migration from bikes may have occurred as Alonsos rise coincided with a relatively lean period for top Spanish bikers.
 
Diverging a little,

I wonder what F1 viewing figures are like in Belgium? They have never had an F1 constructor to my knowledge and, ok, they've had the likes of Ickx, Gachot, Boutsen etc. but who was the last Belgian GP driver? I am sure someone cleverer than me will know. In Spa-Francorchamps of course they do have an all-time classic track.

So can a nation sustain good TV viewing figures on the basis of their circuit alone?

The same goes for Hungary but even more so. The only Hungarian Grand Prix driver I know of is Zsolt Baumgartner, and his F1 career was hardly long or impressive; and the Hungaroring is not exactly one of the F1 world's most loved circuits.

The question is also relevant to the newer GP hosts where there is little or no history of either drivers or constructors competing in F1; Turkey, Bahrain, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.
 
Found these figures from 2004 but no Belgium I'm afraid :( :

Monaco
Australia .455mil
Austria .792
Denmark .234
Finland .973
France 5.015
Germany 10.820
Greece .394
Holland 1.053
Hungary 1.390
Italy 12.482
Poland .441
Spain 4.337
UK 3.912
US .361

Wonder why the Germans watched so much F1 in '04? ;)
 
...seems the only people who could stand to watch F1 in 2004 without some sort of nausea were the Germans and Italians. What a shocker!
 
Reading both this post and the original got me thinking about this.

Posters were quoting number and facts but not giving source and data and it all got a bit heated didn't it? Anyway I looked into it and this thread from Autosport was the most informative source of info I could find: -

http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?s ... 12436&st=0

Its 7 pages but bear with it, there alot of good stuff in there.
 
Chad Stewarthill said:
Diverging a little,

I wonder what F1 viewing figures are like in Belgium? They have never had an F1 constructor to my knowledge and, ok, they've had the likes of Ickx, Gachot, Boutsen etc. but who was the last Belgian GP driver? I am sure someone cleverer than me will know. In Spa-Francorchamps of course they do have an all-time classic track.

So can a nation sustain good TV viewing figures on the basis of their circuit alone?

The same goes for Hungary but even more so. The only Hungarian Grand Prix driver I know of is Zsolt Baumgartner, and his F1 career was hardly long or impressive; and the Hungaroring is not exactly one of the F1 world's most loved circuits.

The question is also relevant to the newer GP hosts where there is little or no history of either drivers or constructors competing in F1; Turkey, Bahrain, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.
The only problem with trying to find figures for Belgium is that Spa is very close to the German border and therefore you get a lot of Germans going to and watching the race.
 
Enja said:
DOF_power said:
In Italy if Ferrari does well the ratings are good regardless of the nationality of Ferrari's drivers, in Britain if Williams, McLaren are fighting Ferrari (like in 2003) but if there's no national british driver/hero in the fight the ratings still go down.

And your point is what, exactly?

Are you trying to say that Italian fans are constantly supporting Ferrari no matter the drivers, but in Britain, we don't support anyone unless there's a British driver?


First of all, that is nonsense. There are plenty of fans in the UK that support non-British drivers. Secondly, what does it matter to you if British people are different about the way they select someone to support? How does that affect you? Thirdly, how does supporting Ferrari make you more of a loyal fan? Because people in Italy are supporting a huge corporate brand? Is that something they should be proud of?

To compare Ferrari and Italian fans to F1 in Britain is crazy.

People have their own opinions and favourites, it's nothing new. Stop the stirring.



That's exactly what I'm saying. And it's the truth.

Secondly, Ferrari fans/fanboys outnumber any driver fan/fanboys. I'm not saying it's better, just that there are more and they have been around for a long time were-as driver fanboys come and go easily.
 
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