Just last week came the news that Formula One's television audience fell 5.6% to 425m in 2014 due to the increasing number of Pay TV stations broadcasting the sport. However it has now come to light that the picture was not so bleak in the United States where the audience grew 10.1% to 12.6m viewers according to an article in the Wall Street Journal by Christian Sylt.

Interest in F1 in America has been fuelled by the return of the US Grand Prix in 2012 at the purpose-built Circuit of the Americas in Texas. It also received a boost the following year when F1's broadcaster switched to the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) and its flagship NBC channel. Traction has been growing ever since.

F1's annual media report reveals that last year the number of viewers in the US who watched between four and nine races increased by 128% whilst those who watched ten or more doubled. It adds that "NBCSN recorded year-on-year increases for every single round shown. On average each race shown on NBCSN attracted 85% more viewers this season when compared to 2013. The main NBC channel naturally continued to pull in the biggest audiences for Formula 1 in the USA with the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2014 ranked as the most watched race this year."

The Canadian Grand Prix alone got 3.5m unique viewers using the industry-standard measurement of anyone who watched at least 15 non-consecutive minutes of the sport.

Since 2012 it has been harder for casual viewers to watch F1 in Britain as Pay TV network Sky Sports broadcasts all of the races live whilst its free-to-air rival the BBC only shows half of them. F1's boss Bernie Ecclestone says that the shared broadcasting "is working all right. We are still getting very good TV coverage. It just means that we are getting more coverage from the pay people now."

As viewers have to pay to watch all of the races in Britain it means that they are more likely to have a higher disposable income and be more committed. There has been a similar trend Stateside as the report states that "viewers watching in the US tend to hail from the ABC1 end of the socio-demographic spectrum and are twice as likely as the general population to be ranked as 'high-earners'."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Truthseeker, 17/02/2015 15:09

"To SideGlance: I totally disagree with your assessment of the team at NBCSN. I look forward to seeing and listening to the qualified and insightful comments from each member (especially the tech details from Mr Matchett). It is fortunate for the viewers/fans that USA coverage changed from Speed/Fox to NBCSN. It is quite obvious that the budget behind the broadcasts is much more substantial now that NBCSN covers the race weekends.
You are the only one slinging s**t, SideGlance... "

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2. Posted by PeterJ42, 17/02/2015 10:06

"Martin Brundle's team at Sky does a very good job - so much better than the frankly awful BBC coverage. If we lose some viewers to get quality for the rest, I'm all for it."

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3. Posted by PeterJ42, 17/02/2015 10:04

"Oh dear. So a fall in a very big thing is balanced by a rise in a very small thing??? The real shock here is that the US TV audience is still under 3% of the total - 13m out of 425."

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4. Posted by SideGlance, 13/02/2015 8:57

"The increase in USA has NOTHING to do with NBCSN but simply the race track in Austin! The previous carrier (Speed/FOXS1) had 3 races (about what is today on NBCSN/NBC) on FOX channels but was before COA, and I personally think the crew on NBCSN are worse now than they (except 1 change) were when on Speed/FoxS1 !! 3 Frothing mouth monkey boys !!

They seem to 'challenge' each other to see who is first to OOH, AHH, NO!, WOW, etc than they are 'commenters' of what is happening. And they are VERY redundant in what is said - explaining things that ANYONE after viewing a single race knows - yet again and again and again ! Foolishly they must think NEW viewers for every race !! Silly !! Besides, part of the fun is LEARNING any new thing, racing or anything !!

Awful studio crew, awful !!

PS: I watched most races with the center channel down to absolute minimum (5.1 speaker system) and could still hear ambient race noises but sometimes still too much of those 3 5H1T slinging monkey boys !! Yuck !!"

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5. Posted by stackvideo, 13/02/2015 7:00

"Just heard today in Australia that Channel 10 have done a deal with our pay TV Foxtel and will only show half of the GP's from now on. Minimum cost is $50.00 per month to get sports channels plus a entertainment channel which shows mainly repeats of 80's shows and only in SD. If you want to see the GP in HD I believe it will cost an $12.00 extra per month. Not sure how this cost stacks up to what England/Europe pay. Be interesting to know. BE, you can add me to one of those no longer watching the GP's. "

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6. Posted by Joop deBruin, 12/02/2015 13:10

"Note that the US deal matches the UK's. Only a handful of free broadcasts. however, that actually is good. Because the US free to air television is rife with commercials and the F1 race program may be cut off before the end of the race."

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7. Posted by REV, 12/02/2015 11:58

"Good news, especially given the current situation around the German GP. Good to see the success they are having in North America... hope it lasts!"

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8. Posted by Hondawho?, 12/02/2015 10:12

"You can read into these figures in the same way as the BBC always report "Sales of cars up x% from previous year and then go onto say, all excited that "car registrations were up x% to back up the sales figures!........... Car sales are not the same as car registrations of course. Cars can be registered without being sold (see old airports full of preregistered cars!) so %s are not really a full picture. The % shown above are not really firm either. It Could be for example 128% of 10 total viewers which is 22.8 viewers.

Viewers for F1, post pay to view, were 550-600m, they are now 425m so say what you will, they have lost just under a couple of hundred thousand viewers.

Several considerations here, (a) there will always be a turn off when something goes from non pay to pay (b) the pay to view figures possibly show the fans who are generally interested in the sport and are willing to pay for the privilege and(c) the new markets are mainly pay to view I am guessing.

In conclusion, if BE is seeking new markets and from a business point of view he is right to go pay to view. Us "poor people" in the UK (Bernie only likes people with dosh) have been given superb free coverage by the BBC for years and yes it was a loss to lose that total coverage , but; even now F1 remains the most watched sport on TV so whatever argument you may have BE was right to do what he did. (so far least, lets see what the stats are like at the end of 2015!)

p.s. If F1 becomes fully chargeable on sky then I will drop it as well. Its free for me as I have the basic sky package which includes F1, BT sport (Motogp, which is far better than F1 of course) If they decide to add F1 to Sky sports pay channels then I am off as well as its not worth it. BUT that is only my own opinion."

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F1 TV audience gets a boost in the US

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