F1 beats Nascar & Olympics in ratings!

[Fiorentina 1]

In Los Angeles it did!

The F1 race was shown on 2 channels at the same time. Only 1 of them had there ratings published by Neilson, so the real ratings are higher, when you considered that some people watched the race on the other channel.

The Indy F1 race drew a rating of .5 on Sunday, while the Nascar Dover race drew a .4. The Olympics on MSNBC & CNBC had a .6 & .7.

Qualifying on Saturday drew a .4, while the Olympics on CNBC drew a .3!

Too bad we could see the ratings on the other channel...

Not bad, eh? I thought all 30 L.A F1 fans were on my flight…

[Victor Broccoli]

Yes....Los Angeles.

One of the few cities in America that, to be honest, doesn't really care about much in terms of motorsports. As for beating the Olympics...that isn't saying too much. Somehow, NBC managed to make them completely boring.

Besides, NASCAR's bread and butter isn't the big cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, NYC)...although the latter two are about to change (the Donald seems intent on building a racetrack about three miles away from me).

In America, Formula One will get absolutely JACK in the ratings until Uncle Bernie (may his bottled water always be pure) swings a TV deal that DOESN'T place F1 live on a two-bit cable outfit (it's a great channel, but it gets absolutely nil promotion, except for commercials on its own network!) and on tape delay against the 1:00 NFL game on a channel that you have to pay $5 a day for programming (Sportschannel/FOX Sports).

Until that happens, F1 won't be able to hit above a percentage point in the ratings. Personally, I'd wait until the NFL TV rights go up in arms (should be in a couple of years), and then put the games on the losing channel (even if that means putting it on a cable outfit like a Turner Channel, at least everyone with cable gets the channel) or an ESPN (who, BTW, seem to have a gaping hole in programming now that NASCAR jumped ship from ABC/CBS to FOX/NBC. CBS is possible...but their cable network wouldn't fit in too much (TNN is the only channel in the universe that would run the WWF and Roller Derby! back to back).

Bottom Line: Speedvision just doesn't cut it. Although they do a FANTASTIC job (they're the best carrier of F1, next to ITV with the Murray/Martin show), it's simply that not everyone gets the station. And paying for programming? Formula One is NOT going to sell hits on cable foxes for FOX Sports/Sportschannel. People around here just seem to buy the station per game (in my case, it would be Mets (baseball) and Devils/Islanders (hockey).

C'mon Bernie...peddle your product on TV the whole country can see.

[Liz]

The major problem with putting F1 on a channel everyone can receive is that it will then be broadcast on tape delay, probably at an hour when it is not convenient for most people to watch, and well after everyone knows who won. F1 is just not considered important in America. Even in Canada we got it on tape delay on a cable channel with no other choice offered (it was blacked out on Speedvision, a decision I don't understand -- if you don't want to broadcast somethign, why not let someone else broadcast it?).

The bottom line concerning the F1 race in America is that it draws a small audience considering, and it is only once a year, and there will be no adjustments made for something that only a small audience watches country wide, only once a year.

I'd go for Digital Pay Per View, but I doubt very much it would be avaialble in Canada - we still have to pay a young fortune for BOTH NHL and NFL digital, and as far as I know that's all that is offered. And as has been said, not everyone has cable.

[Victor Broccoli]

On our major broadcast networks, it's not uncommon for something to be broadcast on tape delay.

Also, think about it. Excluding the North American and Asian races, everything would either be on tape delay OR live early in the morning. For a TV Programmer that would take a risk, putting on F1 early in the morning could pay off in spades. The most likely candidate would be ABC, as they are losing NASCAR (ABC also owns the ESPN networks). All the other major networks,in the early morning, run a news magazine/debate forum. With a programmer in charge at ABC that wasn't afraid to put comedian Dennis Miller in the Monday Night Football booth, Formula One Sunday Mornings seem hardly a stretch.

BTW, the reason that Speedvision can't carry F1 in Canada or Mexico is that the rights to F1 in those countries belong to other networks, and therefore can't be carried by Speedvision in those countries.

Meager audience watches only once a year? There's a meager audience that watches every week. I doubt that nobody watches it the other 16 races. It, of course, grew with the buzz. But you must also consider the fact that Fox Sportsnet/Sportschannel ALSO ran the race live, and therefore also steals some of the audience.

I also don't see how a much larger exposure could do the sport bad.

As for Pay Per View, that wouldn't work at all. When you're peddling a product that many people won't watch for the price of a cable bill...then why would they shell out $5 a race?