TV viewing figures

[cos]

Taken from the article on the Toca news site:

ITV: 800,000
Motors TV: 202,000

I don't know much about this sort of thing, but the MotorsTV figure seems very enouraging, especially for a minority digital channel only carried by SKY. The ITV figure seems a bit on the low side, but it should pick up on weekends when it is shown after the F1 qualifying.

[Peter]

Do the Motors TV figures apply for just the UK?

[The Stig]

Wonder how much of an influence these figures have on potential sponsors, especially the ITV figure, which seems to me quite disappointing.

[bramble]

It is the beginning of the season though, I'm sure they will pick up. Personally I didnt see any advertising for the ITV programme, so maybe with a bit more publicity, the figures will improve.

[John]

The GA motorsport web site has the ITV figures for last season if you are interested.

Silverstone highest I think then Croft - thats from memory so might be wrong!!

[Claw]

Back in the supertouring days the viewing figures were in the millions!

10 million for the live Mansell race!

[Steven_L]

That Motors TV channel is amazing!

I watch the BTCC, AMA SBK, DTM, V8 SUPERCARS and sometimes the WORLD SBK aswell as the MOTO GP!!!

For a channel you get with the most basic package on sky digital I think that is amazing, and remember Eurosport cover the British GT, Moto gp and World SBK LIVE and they have the euro touring cars and the world moto cross - its allll good!!!

Steve

[Insider]

It is not the number of viewers that is important but %share of viewers. You are never going to get as many people watching TV sport on a saturday lunchtime as you are at 7.30 pm on a wednesday or on a Sunday afternoon. The era of the Mansell live meetings were Sunday pm when the shops weren't open. That was also a one off. Now you are competing with shopping, more and more people working weekends and more choice of channels (Sky/ freeview/ cable etc) that wern't as readily available then.

It is wrong to compare viewing figures of today with those of 5 years ago. TV viewing has changed dramatically over these last 5 years. As pointed out, the 202k for Motors is stunning!

[touringlegend]

I think the ITV figure was dissapointing, IMO should and can be over 1.2 million at least. However, I think I read in that article the 800,000 viewers were nearly 10% of the audience share, so that's pretty good.

Anybody know how many people have access to Sky ?

[John]

Dont know if this is the case or not, but if people watched the race on Motors does this mean they wont watch it on ITV the following week? Obviously some will, but what about the majority?

If thats the case then the ITV figures would be expected to be affected compared to a lack of live coverage last year.

[Bill]

Originally posted by touringlegend
800,000 viewers were nearly 10% of the audience share, so that's pretty good.

I have to disagree.... 10% audience share is utterly dire for a channel such as ITV, which would expect to be on at least 20% for pretty much everything. Considering the vast majority of the population only have access to 4 or 5 channels, it's an extremely dissapointing audience share :(

[John]

So what were the other 90% watching? Thats the real question!

[Peter]

Those figures are no disaster. I believe they are fairly similar to last year.

I think it is unfair to compare them to the BBC days, as the figures were caused by viewers of other sports waiting to see their football results or the 3.25 from Ascot etc.

However, I would like to see promotion of BTCC programmes during mid-week prime time viewing, and on Grand Prix coverage.

[John]

Originally posted by Peter
However, I would like to see promotion of BTCC programmes during mid-week prime time viewing, and on Grand Prix coverage.

Good point - they're always advertising ****** Man Utd matches during the GP coverage aren't they! :rolleyes:

[tvgod]

Less than ten per cent for ITV is a terrible figure - the audience is significantly down on last year, and that can't all be because of Motors TV.

As someone said, ITV should be getting at least 20% - without higher figures I can't see them being able to justify renewing their contract to show the BTCC.

Even in today's multi-channel world, BBC1 and ITV1 will want at least 20% for everything - the big hitters like Emmerdale, Eastenders and Coronation Street get 50-60%, while live football or F1 gets 30-40%.

Having said that, the whole of that afternoon was weak for ITV - On The Ball and WWTBAM, which sandwiched Touring Cars only had 15% each.

As for what everyone was watching, most of them were tuned into the rugby league on BBC1.

[mark]

Originally posted by tvgod
Less than ten per cent for ITV is a terrible figure - the audience is significantly down on last year, and that can't all be because of Motors TV.

As someone said, ITV should be getting at least 20% - without higher figures I can't see them being able to justify renewing their contract to show the BTCC.

Even in today's multi-channel world, BBC1 and ITV1 will want at least 20% for everything - the big hitters like Emmerdale, Eastenders and Coronation Street get 50-60%, while live football or F1 gets 30-40%.

Having said that, the whole of that afternoon was weak for ITV - On The Ball and WWTBAM, which sandwiched Touring Cars only had 15% each.

As for what everyone was watching, most of them were tuned into the rugby league on BBC1.
Wow, sounds like you have such a good job tvgod, knowing what everone is watching!