Formula One lost 80 million viewers in 2009, bad news for Bernie Ecclestone.
Viewing figures in 2008 hit 600 million as Lewis Hamilton battled the field to win the championship in the penultimate corner of the final race, yet in 2009 figures dropped by 13% to 522 million.
The reason? The F1 global broadcast report put’s the 13% drop down to conflicting race times in key markets such as China. This “meant that Formula One was broadcast in direct competition with domestic sports such as the Chinese Football Association Super League.”
China was F1’s biggest market in 2008, a massive 120m Chinese watched the sport. This dropped by over 30m in 2009 meaning Brazil took the number one slot, despite Felipe Massa exiting the sport after Hungary due to his horrific accident, the country still recorded 93.6m viewers, down by 17m.
The results could affect the amount broadcasters pay to FOM (Formula One Management). The BBC reportedly pay around £30m ($47m, €34m) annually to show F1 – one of the highest figures in the sport. Although the viewing drop shouldn’t affect the BBC, thanks to record viewers in the UK witnessing Jenson Button clinch his first title. An estimated 31m Brits watched F1 at some-point, that’s around half of the population and a 6% increase on ITV’s 2008 coverage.
