Good television ratings during the Australian Grand Prix
Even though TF1 has decided to no longer grant its viewers the qualifying sessions, the leading French channel still gathered 1.8 million viewers in front of their TVs for the season launch.
TF1 managed to attract an additional 300,000 viewers compared to last season for the same event. One of the reasons for this success may be related to the fact that the Australian event opens the season this year due to the postponement, caused by political turmoil in the country, of the Grand Prix scheduled in Bahrain. Being the first race of the season increases media interest and focus around the race, which explains why Bernie Ecclestone charges a premium for this event.
The event also attracted crowds in front of their televisions in the host country since the Ten channel gathered 687,000 viewers for an event that took place at 5 p.m. local time. To this figure, we must add the 425,000 viewers who watched the event on One HD. These two channels managed to outperform Seven, which was broadcasting the Australian football match between Melbourne and Sydney but only gathered 421,000 people.
For TF1, it will be necessary to wait for the next Grand Prix to assess whether there is truly a renewed interest in F1, but the task promises to be challenging. The first reason is that France no longer hosts a race on its territory (Magny-Cours has been off the calendar since 2008), has no officially engaged drivers on the grid (despite the presence of Jules Bianchi as a third driver at Ferrari, Jean-Eric Vergne at Red Bull, and Romain Grosjean at Lotus Renault GP), and no longer has a team since Renault sold its remaining shares in its eponymous team.
But on the other hand, if these ratings rise, it will then be difficult to request a reduction in the broadcasting rights demanded by the FOM while the broadcaster’s current contract ends at the conclusion of the 2012 season.
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
