FORMULA ONE’S TV viewers have dropped by a massive 8.6million following the move to Sky Sports.
F1’s former boss Bernie Ecclestone agreed the £120m deal to show all-but-one race a season live on the subscription channel.
Formula One’s TV audience dropped by 8.6m after move to paid-for Sky SportsCredit: Getty Images
Channel 4’s usual ten race coverage switched to just one last year – the British GP at Silverstone in July.
Now the massive decline in viewership has been revealed by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board.
Barb’s data, the official estimate used by channels to sell advertising, showed Channel 4’s post-race highlights were only watched by a total of 34.7m viewers this year – a whopping 10.8m less than 2018.
The drop was marginally offset with Sky’s viewers nudging up to 20.1m – a rise of 2.2m – but the total number of the UK audience is still down 13.6 per cent.
Channel 4’s most-watched highlights show was for the German Grand Prix, which was won by Max Verstappen after Lewis Hamilton had crashed.
Four per cent more viewers (2.1m) switched on for that than they did for the Monaco GP.
And the US Grand Prix, in which Hamilton sealed his latest championship, also lost viewers.
It was down 2m on the year previous when it was shown live.
The results will no doubt be worrying for F1 chiefs, especially after their global research director Matt Roberts claimed 12 months ago that Channel 4’s audience would surge with the post-race highlights being shown in a prime time slot.
He said: “Channel 4 will have the highlights next year and we have worked with them to ensure they show the races in a favourable prime time slot.
“We estimate that we will actually have more viewers next year in the UK (thanks to this prime time slot) than we had this year.”
Brit racing star Hamilton described the move to Sky previously as “definitely not cool.”
He said: “I remember growing up and turning on BBC and watching ‘Grand Prix’, it was awesome.
“It’s the fans that make the sport what it is so the more you almost block them or deter them the worse the business is going to be.”
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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
