Poor TV ratings for AGP

[peckstar]

are you serious Kmsport

you ever been to calder, it was great in the 70's, but they are over.

No the Gp is great, everyone knew that crowds would be down this year Cwealth games hangover (my hand is up as a non attender) plus it was close to clipsal as well and not on the long weekend.

Cant explain the ratings , if in fact its true, wonder who funded the nielsen survey? SAP maybe?

Victorian govt kick in considerable less to the gp than they did to Comm games like about 3% of the Comm games amount. Anyone who attends the race will be able to spot the large amount of o/s people there. in gen admin you are virtally guarenteed to find one with 3 meters of where you sit

[storyline]

All stations and subscribers fund the Neilsen surveys - follow the links from here: http://www.oztam.com.au and you can go directly to eh Neilsen web site which explains who they are funded by as well as how the surveys are done.

[Aarrgh8]

All sorts of interesting views about crowd figures, and the viability of the AGP, but Head Rev's original post was about TV ratings. I'm sure there's plenty of connections, but talking about TV specifically...

I don't know if I'm typical. I've been to a few AGPs - and I've been a motorsport enthusiast for over fifty years. I've crewed, owned, driven, photographed and officialled for around forty years, including two years travelling the world as an F1 team crew-member. I've been involved in numerous categories, and love motorsport in almost all its forms.

I didn't watch the AGP this year. I didn't watch it last year either. I recorded it both years, but just like last year, I haven't got around to watching this year's recording.

It's eight or nine hours of television, mostly waffle, with a couple of hours of racing interspersed with ads at inopportune times. I have zipped through a few hours of Sunday's coverage, but after a few attempts at watching and zapping, I got up to the AGP warm-up lap, rapidly losing interest. Seeing talking heads talking, with a monitor in the background showing racing that TV viewers aren't allowed to watch (for various petty reasons), I stopped the recorder and went back to the 730 report, or something else.

I'm not surprised that the ratings for the AGP aren't too terrific. It's a great lesson in how to turn people off motorsport. I did see The Wiggles and other celebrities in their BMW race. Absolutely riveting stuff. No Group Ns or other stuff. Endless talk and more talk to fill up many hours of TV, but not much action, let alone racing.

For many years, from '85 to about 2000, we used to get together with friends with a barbie. We used to spend most of our time in front of the TV, but a graph of our viewing vs our chatting 'round the barbie would show less and less time around the teev, and more time around the barbie. We don't even do the barbie anymore, and most of us don't bother with the TV either. Most of my friends are like me. We record the day while we do other things - and usually don't ever get to watch the recording.

Pity. I love F1, and have followed it since the mid-fifties. I just have better things to do on a nice Sunday.

[Rombles1]

Incidentally, no, Adelaide doesn't want this one back. We're perfectly happy with the Clipsal thankyou very much.

[Robert Ryan]

Pity. I love F1, and have followed it since the mid-fifties. I just have better things to do on a nice Sunday.

Agreed, it was mainly a fairly boring "chatathon". I saw the AGP, which was a lot better than previous years, but it still did little for me.

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by storyline

All stations and subscribers fund the Neilsen surveys - follow the links from here: http://www.oztam.com.au and you can go directly to eh Neilsen web site which explains who they are funded by as well as how the surveys are done.

but storyline this survey was not oztam it was a morgan (sorry used nielsen instead of morgan in previous post) phone poll of 650 people, it was funded by someone and not necessarily the tv companies


4.9 million people watched at least part of the f1 race on the sunday 1 in nevery 4 australians (roughly)

[rustyinsthoz]

Originally Posted by Rombles1

Incidentally, no, Adelaide doesn't want this one back. We're perfectly happy with the Clipsal thankyou very much.

Yeah, lets waste 20 million on a v8 race that no one outside Australia watches or cares about. Least when we wasted money on the GP, it gave Adelaide some international exposure.

[peckstar]

except that it only cost Sa's 3 million dollars and can be watched in 850 million homes. i wonder why it would be shown O/S if no one outside australia cared. guess it just plays and no one watches. or maybe there is an interest overseas, anyway off topic take your bias elsewhere rusty

[storyline]

peckstar - Morgan Research do many surveys - some commissioned by particular companies, some not. If they have released the results then maybe a phone call to find out what the basis of the survey was for would be in order?

[kmsport]

lets turn this into an Sa V Vic State of Origin match....

[retro]

**Morgan poll here**

[Falcadore]

The Crikey link when I followed pointed to a SAP piece dated last September, not the piece that was posted here.

But I do notice Crikey is continuing to advocate the construction of a permanent racetrack. However as Victoria already has four permanent race tracks, one of them considered good enough for international events, then the liklihood of being able to add additional events to such a venue is poor, and considering Ecclestone's long held view that any race in Australia should be held on a street circuit, just demonstrates their relative niavety.

It's all very well to champion a cheaper option but when the interested parties aren't interested, then where do you go? Basically Crikey is advocating the closure of the event permanently but are trying to soften their public stance by saying, lets build a permanent facility instead! in order to misdirect any negative reactions to their piece with a half-thought justification.

Even the language of the piece is not as well written is it could be.

"that still infuriates and dislocates the locals"

The sentence implies that over time a cure for this dislocation might be found. Errr... the dislocation is the same each year. The same roads close, the same stands are built in the same location, how exactly was it ever going to change for the betterment of the locals?

I'm not going to defend people like Ron Walker, whose detestable ability to find all blame belonging to others while his own poo is gold plated and smells of Calvin Klien 60+, continues to grate in the worst manner.

Everyone has an agenda, even, or rather especially those who claim not to.

[storyline]

Crikey have an agenda for everything they do - the self promotion of their founder and owner. If it isn't AMP and pushing his own barrow there, it is attaching yellow ribbons around the GP track (and as a thought - just WHERE does he live? Wouldn't be the Albert Park region would it?)

And don't ever try and argue or dispute anything with him (or his wife!) - you will find that any suggestion of being in opposition to his ideas and poicies is a personal attack against him and he will 'vent his wrath' against you with all his might!

Yet, despite all of this, crikey still remains a two-bit, small time player that sells his thoughts for money and still doesn't manae to achieve anything other than run a web site and issue emails.

[Oaksnaf]

-Wrong Topic-

Sorry guys.

[storyline]

Originally Posted by rustyinsthoz

Yeah, lets waste 20 million on a v8 race that no one outside Australia watches or cares about. Least when we wasted money on the GP, it gave Adelaide some international exposure.

How much exposure do you honestly believe that any F1 (or CART, or MotoGP etc) really give?

Apart from maybe a few buildings in the background you see nothing of the city or country the GP's are hosted in. About the only motor racing category that give ANY publicity to the host city/nation is the A1 GP telecast with their usual collection of drivers at a popular tourist location (Australia with the Bridge Climb).

[hoffy]

Originally Posted by kmsport

lets turn this into an Sa V Vic State of Origin match....

No, I don't intend this to become a state of origin match. I was just stating the way I felt.

Would Adelaide still have the GP? Unless the track went through a major revamp, no. What happened in 93, forced the inevitable.

In regards to exposure, don't beleive that it doesn't help. I remember when I was travelling through the US, whenever I met people (especially at the race track), when they found out where I was from, it was always "Adelaide...Thats where the Grand Prix is".... I was actually quite suprised by the amount of American's who knew that.

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand....Its going to be interesting What Bernie actually does in relation to the Australian GP being the first race of the year. As per his comments over the weekend, that the Aus GP is a poor rater in the UK and that its better to have a better rating race to get the season going, could have a fall on effect. Aust GP gets moved to 1 or 2 races in, gets moved away from the long weekend.....interest will start to dwindle more.....

[bestfit]

Crikey have an agenda for everything they do - the self promotion of their founder and owner.

Stephen Mayne no longer owns crikey.com.au From crikey -

"In early 2005 Stephen and Paula announced the impending sale of Crikey to Private Media Partners (see below), in order to return to (relative) normality with their three children Laura, Alice and Philip in suburban Melbourne."

[elephino]

The poor quality (of content, as production quality was ok) of the advertising wouldn't have helped. The timing was off as it was a month later than normal, which means that many casual viewers wouldn't have watched it nor been looking for it.

Adelaide made a profit on the race 2 or 3 times out of 11, one of which was the final race in 1995 with its huge crowds.

[peckstar]

the race rated no 7 in victoria, its was one spot behind the AFL game.

Rugby league which the victorian govt is about to spend 200 million on, did not rate at all

[storyline]

Ahhh but part of that $200 mil can also be used for soccer (wink, wink)

BUt even if rated No 7 - what was the actual difference in terms of eyes focused on the TV? (being the cynic I am, the difference between 1 st and 2nd in ratings for the most currently available week (2nd to 8th April 2006) is around 353,000 viewers or 16% of the top show. IN fact for that week, motor racing doesn't get a mention in the top 20 - the FAL game you mentioned came in at #13 with 1.4mil viewers - the 20th got 1.28 mil - so motor racing, whilst in sports shows MAY have been 7th, was certainly well behind the AFL.

The whole issue here is, though, that motor racing, apart from Bathurst and possibly Clipsal simply does not rate anywhere where TV stations are going to treat it any better than it currently is treated.

(Clipsal btw didn't even get a mention in the top 20 ratings for the period 26/3 to 1/4 http://www.oztam.com.au/documents/2006/E_20060326.pdf).

[rustyinsthoz]

Originally Posted by peckstar

except that it only cost Sa's 3 million dollars and can be watched in 850 million homes. i wonder why it would be shown O/S if no one outside australia cared. guess it just plays and no one watches. or maybe there is an interest overseas, anyway off topic take your bias elsewhere rusty

h
Hate to burst your bubble 3 Mil is about 15 mil shy of the mark. Yes 850 million homes could watch, but how many actually do. A generous guess would be 5% of 850 million, although closer to 1% would be more accurate. Me bias, no just stating some facts.

[peckstar]

well sure rusty, give me your source, Mine is an audited by independant auditor source.

cool so 1% of 850 million or 8.5 million. or 30cents per person to advertise adelaide 8.5 million people.

no bias just stating facts it time you woke up from your anti v8 daydream

[storyline]

They would probably be lucky to reach even 1/2% of total subscription based TV.

Australian figures give Pay TV - for the week of the GP - as having an overall 18% share of the total market - with FoxSports 1 3.1% of that 18% and Fox Sports 2 3.0% of that 18%. Without worldwide figures there is no way to gauge penetration into other arkets but there is no reason to presume, based on previous comments about Pay TV figures elsewhere, that it would be any higher - in fact in the US, given the total number of channels available (particularl sport and motor sport oriented) it would probably be even less.

But all that aside - unfortunately the cost of the event isn't spread over this 'supposed' audience - it is spread over an Australian population of what? arund 12 million who pay tax? And with a projected TV audience of 1/2 to 3/4 million (for the highest profile event - Bathurst) a lot of our tac dollars go towards an elite level of motorsport that already fleeces sponsors dry.

[rustyinsthoz]

Originally Posted by peck star

well sure rusty, give me your source, Mine is an audited by independent auditor source.

cool so 1% of 850 million or 8.5 million. or cents per person to advertise Adelaide 8.5 million people.

no bias just stating facts it time you woke up from your anti V daydream

Go to the Clipsal site. Its all there. Interesting that they do not state how much revenue they get from the race.
No anti V8 daydream for me. Just don't like seeing taxpayers money being wasted on something that doesn't deliver what it was meant to.

[peckstar]

well maybe you should go to the clipsal site and read it

cleraly a number of times it says 2.082 million dollars, also in the cash flow it says an additional capital payment of 958,000. so 3.04 million long way short of your ridiculous 20 mill.

and obvoiulsy you are unable to read note 3 which says ticket sale 5.6 million or sponsorship and 7.8 million

so your blind and biased, or did you just make stuff up (BSA)


Stroyline so half a percent or 4 million people watch it overseas, thats a good thing isnt. better than no percent that have watched previuously and the number appears to be going up every year so we can expect that over time it might be 0.6 % or 5 million