McLaren team principal and FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh has labelled the reports that the BBC are to drop Formula 1, as ‘sad’ and ‘unwise’.
Whitmarsh highlighted, as many have, including Jake Humphrey and Martin Brundle, that the article in the Sunday Times contained various inaccuracies which cast the show in a less popular light.
“Formula One insiders have been surprised by the recent newspaper reports, since they contain significant statistical inaccuracies,” he told the Telegraph. “The reality is that the F1 viewing figures in the UK are high and getting higher.
“In terms of average viewership, peak viewership and average share of viewership – the three key indices for TV executives – more people are watching Formula 1 this year than last year or indeed than in recent previous years.
“For example, the average share of viewership for the BBC’s coverage of the recent Chinese Grand Prix, which Lewis Hamilton won, was more than 50 per cent.”
What that means is, that over 50% of the people in the UK at that time, including all satellite and terrestrial channels, were watching F1.
The 53-year-old also reiterated his comments from earlier in the year that the sport must remain on free-to-air TV if it is to attract the required sponsorship and promotion needed to sustain it.
“It’s crucial to the commercial model of Formula One that TV coverage should remain free-to-air, and therefore universally accessible, and therefore widely consumed and enjoyed by large numbers of viewers – and the BBC delivers that in the UK,” he said.
Whitmarsh also praised the BBC’s coverage of the sport.
“Moreover, besides the quantity of viewership, the quality of the BBC’s coverage is consistently high too – which is just as important. Also important is the demographic data – which shows that F1 is now attracting an increasing number of younger and female viewers, which is also very positive.
“I think it would be very sad, and most unwise, if the BBC were to disappoint so many millions of British sports fans by axeing it, and that’s why I don’t believe for a moment that they’d seriously consider doing such a thing.”
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