Race Times/ Viewership/ Delay Broadcast - why big deal?

[TauToadmiester]

Bernie, came up with the night races and some tracks said no to night, thus the 'twilight' races.

If Euro viewership is so much greater at and after 5pm Euro time, and apparently thats all that matters (pretty self involved there Euros) then why not have the races at a reasonable time for local ppl (who pay the millions to 'host' the race with no profit guarantees) and simply have a news black out to Euro, and 'Delay the race until after 5pm Euro time).

Those that really care will 'close your ears/eyes' so not to be spoiled by early results and watch the race 'live' when it is broadcast in Euro time?

No one ever hear of 'delaying gratification' ??

Seems a very big 'fetish' that the world suffers 'Malaysia' race situations just to get a so-called 'world' sport to Euros at/after 5pm.

Wow!, talk about navel gazers!! (ie- VERY self involved beyond big picture folks)

Just my opinion, until teams split from Bernie Corp, they will be slaves and the world as well to his decisions, for good or bad!

PS: I personally do not like 1/2 races, don't know about you!

[mikhak]

If Euro viewership is so much greater at and after 5pm Euro time, and apparently thats all that matters (pretty self involved there Euros) then why not have the races at a reasonable time for local ppl (who pay the millions to 'host' the race with no profit guarantees) and simply have a news black out to Euro, and 'Delay the race until after 5pm Euro time).

Nooooo!! I could not bare to know that the race was happening and i could not watch it live. Races are 100 times better live than repeated even if you were in a news black out. I would much rather get up at any time in the morning to watch a race. The reason the asian/australian races are moved is to encourage the casual F1 follower who is definitely not goin to get up at 3am but may well sit down and watch it at 10am. Alot of the rules this year are for the casual follower but what about the hard-core fans who follow races religiously no matter what time and love all the technical parts and the complicatedness of the whole sport!

[blobslosak]

Worst idea ever. Sorry.

[modbaraban]

Watching F1 delayed? I'd rather wake up in the middle of the night to watch the races live! Oh wait... I did!

[sticky667]

Does anyone know who will succeed Bernie when he dies?

[flynfrog]

I watch almost all of the races delayed

[megz]

Being in NZ means EVERY race starts after 5pm. I don't mind, but Bernie, there are fans all over the world and FFS I don't want the few races that do start at a reasonable time (Australia, Malaysia, Japan) to be delayed further than they used to. Think about the locals that hold the race.

So in short I agree with the first poster

[Ciro Pabón]

Does anyone know who will succeed Bernie when he dies?

I know but I'm not telling.

On thread, FIA has to market its programs. What do you expect them to do? Do you have any idea of how they price TV time? People that sells vacuum cleaners can buy time at those ungodly hours, for the love of Pete. So, I guess somewhere in this world there is a group of people with actual market research figures taking those decisions. Actually, they should explain their decisions, but that's another issue.

However, for those in favor of raising at 3 am, because marketing has to work for F1 also (AND I'M ONE OF THEM! I'm a "small-market" inhabitant) I recommend this book:

Synchronicity, science, and soul-making

In Wikipedia there is a summary: "Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which are causally unrelated occurring together in a supposedly meaningful manner. In order to count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance."

So, that's why people, me included, want to watch the race live. It's a problem of meaning. When you watch a replay, sinchronicity cannot occur. When you watch it live, you can feel it has a meaning.

In english: somehow, you're part of the race.

NOTE: actually, when Bernie dies, we will enter a horrible phase of F1, the "headless" F1, as I've boldly predicted many times. Corporate executives will succeed Mr. Ecclestone. When I have nightmares, they involve the "Enron-ization" of FOM.

[meves]

So, that's why people, me included, want to watch the race live. It's a problem of meaning. When you watch a replay, sinchronicity cannot occur. When you watch it live, you can feel it has a meaning.

In english: somehow, you're part of the race.

I completely agree with Ciro, you don't feel part of it when it's not live. You completely lose the connection with the race if it's delayed or recorded I guess partly as you know that you can find out the results whenever you want.

On a business level, Bernies money comes from TV revenues and you just have to look at the viewing figures to each region to see why everything is European based. Taking the viewing figures in Europe for just 4 countries France, Germany, Italy and UK you get 130m viewers, and their are plenty more countries in Europe where F1 is incredibly popular (Spain, Holland, etc). I believe that over well over a third of viewing figures are in Europe which does not include Africa which is in the same time zone.

Additionally if you look at the viewing figures per race which ultimately dictates advertising revenues, the races in the far east are significantly less popular due to the time they are run (these are 2005 figures).



Only the circuits see the revenue from the ticket sales on the day which Bernie doesn't really care about as long as the circuit doesn't go bust and pays him his money.


Basically it's simple economics, run the races where the revenues generated are highest, hence races are run for European viewers in mind...

[gcdugas]

Drivers speak up Clicky

[Chaparral]

Interesting figures Meve's do you mind me asking where you got them from - they seem to tie into the 40 mil average viewers globally per race that Renault have - not sure how they come up with these o/s usually its sets in use or TARPS (target audience reached per set). I have full sets of the Aussie TV audience for each race in the series going back to 05 and there are some wild swings in numbers from year to year - the strongest in this market are Monaco, Monza, Silverstone, Spa, Japanese and of course the Aussie GP (note the Canadian & USGP barely rate as these are 3am starts) - you have to remember also that all GPs with the exception of the Aussie GP are delayed telecasts usually around 11 pm or later as currently its only available on SD free to air or terrestial TV (Network 10). They have just launched a HD sports channel here (owned by 10) and they now show F1 MotoGP and NASCAR live) so it will be interesting to see if that makes a big difference to the numbers for F1 - I think it will be marginal but we will see.

Basically it's simple economics, run the races where the revenues generated are highest, hence races are run for European viewers in mind...

Thats logical - the strongest audiences are in Europe yet we continue to lose Euro races with more Far East venues being added which are definitely not in the right time zone and apart from Singapore unwilling to run a night race to cater for Ecclestones needs. Ecclestone has struggled on two levels over the last few years - bums on seats/promoters unable to meet his increasing fees and TV numbers that have taken a hiding in the numbers and whilst still solid must be a huge worry to him. On top of that revenue at the various global networks has taken a huge hit on the last 6 months because of the GFC and in lots of cases has tumbled up to 50-60% - and thats not good for Ecclestone as its hardly a good bargaining position to be bargaining from when renewing or setting up new contracts for the TV rights. Despite what Ecclestone keeps saying he has problems - well CVC have the problems if the income stream keeps dipping.