Michael Schumacher might have been overshadowed (unexpectedly) by Nico Rosberg in Bahrain, but his presence in Formula 1 made a huge difference to viewing figures for German broadcaster RTL, which reported an average audience during the F1 race of 10.5 million. The audience went as high as 11.5 million at one point. Last season’s Bahrain Grand Prix was watched by an average of 5.39 million viewers
Fernando Alonso’s success also helped boost figures in Spain where La Sexta reported an average audience of 4.95 million, peaking at 6.8 million.
It’s amazing how the good news of massively increased viewing figures, even the UK was half a million up, has been torn apart by ignorant journalists looking for a ‘Bad News’ story.
OK the race wasn’t a classic, but I’ve seen far, far worse, most at Silverstone.
Interesting! One thing I always wondered: how are these numbers being obtained?
I wonder how the German figures compare to Australia last year, though? I guess there might be a bit of a boost purely because it’s the first race of the season, as well as the undoubted appeal to the Germans of the purple-scarved one.
Hi Joe,
Is there a way to source a ballpark number for the worldwide TV figures for a Grand Prix?
FOM puts out fairly sensible numbers each year
Doubt they’ll tune in for the next race though…
I was wondering where one could see the f1 tv ratings for each country? Is there such a website?
In recent months F1′s profile has been raised in the USA with articles on USF1 and Schumacher’s return. With no NASCAR on last weekend and the IRL race on the elusive Versus network F1 had its best opportunity in years to hook this audience. How’d they do?
There must have been increased interest in Russia and India, you’d think. Any word on them?
But this is the first race of the season, while last year the 1st race was Australia, so there’s that factor too.
Oh yes, RTL, my local channel, and the Schumacher ass-kissing (and that’s being polite) channel, I bet they did something to their pants when they realized he’s racing this year. Great decision by Mercedes GP to pick him, now their brand gets a solid hour of German air-time before the race with the RTL reporters loitering outside and inside their garage. They’re also too focused on the German drivers, always reporting where they are in the race, even talking about Sutil when he was in a crap car running 17th, and when Vettel lead the race they were ecstatic too, until 2/3rds of the way, when it went all horribly wrong, and the podium came to be occupied by a Spaniard, a Brazilian and a Brit… there’s a German word for that, Schadenfreude.
Sorry, just wanted to express my annoyance at this crap channel, I guess it stems from the fact that I’m a McLaren fan, and they’re a Ferrari/Schumacher fan, it satisfies me when the race doesn’t go to their obviously biased wishes.
@Jon Wilson
Australia (round 1) got 4.98 million viewers in the UK last year, which was a 3 year high for the race, it also had a peak of 5.5. Bahrain this year got 4.85, with a peak of 6.1 (on mother’s day too, and no UK winner).
Bahrain 2010 also achieved a bigger overall % of all TV viewers than Australia 09.
Antonio,
its done by market research. In Germany, GfK have recruited a more or less representative sample of all households and logs all their TV-”activity”. These numbers are then used to statistically find the viewing numbers for the whole country.
It ist just like after an election, the result is predicted very accurately after having counted the votes in just a few burroughs.
So the US do not need a team or a race, they need successfull American drivers in F1. The rest will follow…
@Louis: I have stopped watching RTL at some point during the Ferrari years as I just couldn’t stand it any longer (though 75,3 percent of that goes to their appalling grid reporter Kai Ebel). I’ve watched Premiere/Sky ever since and they do a good programme which is a lot more balanced and acknowledges the other 18 drivers. And pundit Mark Surer seems to know a lot more about driving and setting up an F1 car than Christian Danner does.
Danica Schumacher and Michael Patrickb seem to have something in common.
I’m another who’s stuck with RTL’s coverage. I think it has been pretty good for the last few years, despite its natural pro-German bias, but last weekend’s full-on Schumacher show was excessive, to say the least.
Strangely enough, the higher viewing figures for RTL’s coverage now that Schumacher is back are not a good thing for the fans themselves – the advert breaks have extended again. For the last couple of years they have been just about on the limit of acceptable, but I timed one of the breaks during Sunday’s race at just over 6 minutes and another at a whopping 7 minutes. And that is during a live race! I really wish I had another option, but I don’t.
And I agree with Martin that Kai Ebel is just horrendous…
Well after last weekend’s dullfest and Schumacher’s lacklustre performance, I doubt that many will be watching come the next race.
Schumacher overshadowed by Nico Rosberg unexpectedly? Mmmmhhh, we shall see.
RTL average audience for Bahrain of 10.5 million versus 5.39 million viewers last year?
Bahrain was not the first race of the season last year…
Let’s see how many people come to Hockenheim. At the last Grand Prix there, most of them were, as the saying goes, disguised as empty seats…