His UK annual figures of 28.6m at an average of under 1.5m/race seemed ludicrous.

Well my figures are from BARB – the official source of viewing figures in the UK. These are the average viewers for each race programme. Incidentally, Sky doesn’t particularly like this measure as they have a longer pre-race build-up than the BBC but instead of complaining about that fact I think they should concentrate on making the pre-race build-up more watchable, or shorter, or both – after all, that’s when they’re putting adverts on.

The figures quoted by Sylt are the “reach” figures which is simply the number of people who have watched more than 15 minutes of the 2012 F1 season. Those who have sat through some 30 hours or more will still be counted as one person and, significantly, you can’t really divide it by the number of races to get an average number of viewers per actual race.

Incidentally, the FIA’s approach meant F1 WASN’T the most watched annual sports event in 2012 as the World Touring Car Championship topped F1 with a global reach of 512 million viewers! (The Superbowl would make them both weep but that’s another story.)

More here: http://www.vivaf1.com/blog/?p=12757

lubricious…I wish! Ludicrous maybe.

Totally concur but late last year I took the advice of one fan and got a satellite kit (£50) and tuned it into RTL and (providing I use 5Live commentary) I got the last few restricted race’s live. Not BBCHD with all the bells and whistles admittedly and I don’t know how long it’ll last for but it works really well.

Anyway if the signal becomes encrypted at some point, I like you will I suppose lose all interest in F1, certainly the one thing I discovered about having half the season restricted to highlights, it diminished even the live transmissions to the point there were some I chose to miss.

Never ever thought that would happen. Classic error by anyone to overprice any commodity, simply stifles demand.

Wondering where the figures originated from?

Just looked a ‘Sylt’ article in the Guardian 16/02 on the same topic (I know, I know).

His UK annual figures of 28.6m at an average of under 1.5m/race seemed lubricious. Is there a reason other then Christian’s propensity for taking the first thing Bernie say’s and repeating it verbatim?

I was shocked by the way the BBC handled it, and serving us a platter of leftovers (despite the great job by Jake et al).

I was a die-hard F1 fan for 20 years too. Never missed a race (even when travelling around the world!).

I boycotted the 2012 season, and hardly checked any websites throughout the season, though I was present at the Chinese GP (tickets bought before the deal was announced).

It’s heartening to see the poor Sky figures. Shame for the BBC, but you reap what you sow.

I also won’t go back until it is back on FTA TV.

It’s certainly not the whole issue, but I wonder how much the figures would have dipped by if either Hamilton or Button where within a chance of the title in Brazil?

Maybe that’s what they need to get to hit their long-term target having missed the 2012 one.

Maybe they’re getting rid of Georgie Thompson

And potentially lose Poker Channel viewers?