Formula 1 digital audience continued to grow in 2018
- Shahmir Khan
- Jan 20, 2019
- 3 min read
Formula 1 got increase in digital and Television audience for second year of Liberty Media taking over the commercial rights of the sport from Bernie Ecclestone.
In a document released by F1 Media team with the help of Nielsen Sports, based on YOY figures claimed F1's audience grew by 10% on digital platforms and Television for 2018, by a 490.2 million unique viewers tuning at least once all seaaon, only the second time the figures didn't drop since 2010. The viewership is higher than that of 2017, by 137.9 million.
2018 also saw a 20% growth in United States, where ESPN and ABC took the exclusive rights for all 21 races. ABC and ESPN gained 34.2 million viewers for the sport's coverage in 2018, making US the 3rd largest market in TV coverage behind Brazil (115.2 million) and China (68 million), with China getting more than three-times of that in 2017 thanks to the the return of rights to CCTV, a free-to-air broadcast.
The global cumulative audience (both Television and digital media ) grew by 3% (1.758 billion) in 2018. The highest cumulative audience was recorded at Monaco Grand Prix, with 110 million, a 10% increase on 2017. The races in Bahrain, France, Austria, Great Britain, Italy and Mexico had more than 90 millions. The French and Monaco GP audience was boosted by the French broadcaster TF1 airing the two races in along France along with Belgian and Italian Grand Prix.
“In today’s world, just having a flat TV number is a strong performance,” F1’s global research director Matt Roberts told Reuters.
“We’re really pleased that we’ve seen growth for the second year in a row after many years of decline for the longer term trend.”
In 2018, F1 launched it's OTT (Over-The-Top) service - F1 TV Pro - that gave access to fans to watch live races and archive content exclusively. The livestream was both critically acclaimed and praised alike by fans, the negative due to sound issues. Demo events in 5 cities (Milan, Shanghai, Marseilles, Berlin and Miami) and a new official Beyond the Grid podcast as well as Twitter live shows after the race boosted the digital audience figures.
The Facebook, Twitter and YouTube users also grew by 53.7% rise ro 18.5 million with the help of exclusive content on social media. Total impressions of the content grew by 29.2% by 10.4 billion, including 2 billion views on the YouTube channel in total.
The fanbase was also calculated on the base of average viewership age, that saw a three million increase to 506 million viewers under 35 years of age. Only 14% of viewers are under 25, which puts pressure on F1 to bring younger audience by interacting with targeted audience on social media platforms.
On a negative side, F1 lost its audience in United Kingdom, with only Sky Sports airing all 21 races live on subscription. Channel 4 broadcasted the 11 races alive with other races as highlights. As Sky Sports F1 will be only broadcaster to air all 21 races live, Channel 4 will further limit its free-to-air broadcast with just British Grand Prix live and free-to-watch race, making F1 lose 5 million viewers in Great Britain.
2019 is also possibly the last year for Silverstone to host a British Grand Prix, with the track organising British Racing Drivers' Club unlikely to renew the deal beyond 2020 in a territory with massive amount of fans.
All in all, it's been an amazing second year for Liberty Media, whose focus shifts from 2018 to 2019 and new decade, when new Concorde Agreement is expected to take place.
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