By Phil Giles
September 16 2002

Pitpass.com have posted an interesting story in respect to viewing figures for the British Terrestrial television broadcaster ITV. So far, viewing figures peaked at 6.1 million viewers for the race at Brazil, however that figure had dipped to just 3 million for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Looking at the figures posted by Pitpass, I wonder what effect the race times have on the number of viewers.  I'm not adverse to waking at 3am to watch the Australian Grand Prix, however, I'd rather be watching a race at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon.  This may explain the higher viewing figures for races like Canada and Brazil.  It will be interesting to see what the figures are like for the USA GP and Japan. 

Another reason for the lack of figures could be that Sky's F1 Digital Plus service is attracting a large amount of interest and now that for the first time, UK viewers have a choice, they are switching off ITV and turning to Sky.

Could there be a lack of interest in the teams involved in the sport.  A loss of some of the great British names like Johnny Herbert, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill from the sport mean that the British interest isn't with the characters that once ruled the track. Jenson Button hasn't made the splash with Renault that he did with Williams.  David Coulthard is just another fixture and Eddie Irvine is annoying and there's Allan McNish.  We haven't got a great outgoing talent anymore.  Someone who will get the media's attention.  Be on the front page, not just a few column inches three pages from the back. 

Come on Eddie, let's get the Joy of F1 back.  Jordan were always trusted to inject some good humour into the sport.  Their trackside antics kept the Fans involved and earned EJ his big red book.  Why else would little Katie Price have changed her name?

The argument remains that Ferrari's recent dominance of the sport is killing the interest.  The sport is becoming predictable with just three teams in a position to regularly fight for points.  Despite 10 teams on the grid at present, the majority of the points are going to just 30% of the grid.

Perhaps the FIA should now look at the points allocation system most recently changed in 1991.   Perhaps the grid should be reversed and the pole driver starts from the rear of the grid or like in touring cars, the slowest cars complete a racing lap before the fastest cars start! 

Read the PITPASS Story

Those of you who watched the news on BBC1 this morning might have been as surprised as the pitpass team.

Sports presenter Rob Bonnet started off by revealing that following their 3-2 defeat of West Ham yesterday (yes!), Tottenham, the only true north London football team, has joined that other club at the top of the Premiership.

Mr Bonnet then revealed that David Beckham will not face charges after elbowing another player in the face on Saturday, while an incident involving Thierry Henry (hiss) will be investigated.

In the minutes that followed Mr Bonnet gave us the low-down on the cricket, athletics, rugby, golf and an interview with a woman who is going to sail around the world, or something similar.

At the end of the interview Mr Bonnet smiled and handed over to Sophie and Dermot for the day's main news.

In other words a Ferrari 1-2 at Monza didn't get a mention.

According to Kevin Eason in The Times, British F1™ broadcaster ITV, which bought the rights to show F1™ until 2005 in a deal worth £30m, has lost 600,000 viewers since the French GP, when Schumacher won the title.

Despite Bernie Ecclestone's claims that there is plenty to watch in F1™ if you ignore the Ferraris, the simple truth is that the current fortnightly parade is slowly killing the sport.

Even worse is the likelihood that Ferrari and Schumacher will continue to dominate well into next season.

Food for thought surely.

Average F1™ viewing figures (supplied by ITV1)

Last year's audience figures in brackets.

Australia: 3 million (3.6m)
Malaysia: 2.4m (2.3m)
Brazil: 6.1m (6.2m)
San Marino: 3.8m (4.2m)
Spain: 3.9m (3.7m)
Austria: 3.4m (3.4m)
Monaco: 4.2m (3.9m)
Canada: 6.2m (6.2m)
Europe: 3.3m (3.1m)
Britain: 3.6m (3.7m)
France: 3.2m (3.1m)
Germany: 2.7m (3.0m)
Hungary: 2.9m (3.4m)
Belgium: 3.0m (3.6m)

Thanks to Chris at www.ptipass.com for permission to use the story.
(I kept the Spur's bit in just for you!)

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