TV audience drop triggered F1’s ‘double points’ move (Update)

UPDATE In Germany, Vettel's home country and where he scored his first home Grand Prix win last season, viewing figures were down by 8.7% – the number of viewers watching "at least 15 non-consecutive minutes of the sport" dropping to 31.3 million. While in Brazil, the sport's biggest single viewing market also suffered as the audience dropped by almost 10% from 85.6 million to 77.2 million.

In Britain, where in a controversial move the sport was 'split' ahead of the 2012 season between the BBC and Sky, the state broadcaster limited to just ten races while its rival had all races but on a pay-per-view basis, viewers were up by 1.7% to 29.1 million… though it is unclear how the switch has hit the figures of the two broadcasters. A similar move in Italy, dividing coverage between 'free-to-air' and subscription saw a rise of 2.9%.

A change from state broadcaster CCTV to a number of regional partners – a move made as part of the sport's quest to "ensure that Formula One coverage of every race and qualifying session is shown live" is said to account for the 29.8 million fall in viewers, though this doesn't explain the numerous empty grandstands at Shanghai year after year.

In France, home of Grand Prix, but which is now only represented in the sport by Renault, Romain Grosjean and Jules Bianchi and shows no sign of hosting a race any time soon, viewers fell by16 million to 10.2 million.

America's strange on-off-on-off love affair with the sport continues, viewer numbers increasing by 1.7 million to 11.4 million in 2013, just a year after Austin hosted the first United States Grand Prix since 2007. In part from Pitpass.com

02/03/14 (GMM) The reason for F1's controversial move to a 'double points' finale has emerged, after the sport hemorrhaged 50 million television viewers late in 2013.

That is the claim of F1 business journalist Christian Sylt, even revealing in the Wall Street journal an almost 9 per cent audience decline in dominant world champion Sebastian Vettel's native German market.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that the less healthy television numbers are due to "the less-than-competitive nature of the final few rounds" of 2013.

The news also shows why Ecclestone is pushing so hard for the 'double points' concept to be trebled to the final 3 races of the season, despite the fan backlash.

Mercedes' Toto Wolff, however, likened the backlash to a "sh**storm" and said the fans cannot be ignored.

"Was it (double points) the right move? 99 per cent of our fans and spectators thought it was the wrong move so perhaps it is something to revisit," he told reporters at Jerez last week.

"(But) things need to be done when you see TV audiences dipping, you need to try out things," Wolff acknowledged.