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NEWS
MOTORSPORT: New dive in V8 Supercar audience
Twice as many makes under ‘Car of the Future' did not translate into more television viewers for the sport's first endurance race – quite the contrary2014 calendar late – and America is off it
A new decline in the V8 Supercar TV audience has been revealed – by the series organisers! – and there’s no sign yet of the calendar for next year’s championship.
The dates and venues for next season were to have been announced by today but have been delayed until next week – at least.
There won’t be a return next season to the Circuit of the Americas, where the V8 Supercars raced for the first time this year.
Under former executive chairman Tony Cochrane’s plans there were to have been another two overseas events next year and ultimately six among an 18-round season.
Without the America event in Austin, Texas, the only event outside Australia next year will be at New Zealand’s Pukekohe circuit near Auckland.
Meanwhile, a V8 Supercars circular this week – including to sponsors – has disclosed that the TV audience for last weekend’s first event of the endurance season, the Sandown 500 in Melbourne, was down an average of almost 20 per cent on last year.
That’s despite there now being four makes competing, with the arrival of three AMG Mercedes-Benz E63s and four Nissan Altimas under the ‘Car of the Future’, rather than just traditional duo Holden and Ford, and the parity controversy ahead of the event.
V8 Supercars said the TV average audience for the Seven Network’s coverage on the 500 race day, last Sunday, was 568,000 viewers, with a peak of 878,000.
They would be national figures – comprising numbers for the five major capital cities plus the regional component, which generally accounts for about 30 per cent of viewers.
Attributing its figures to OzTAM and RegTAM, V8 Supercars said the average on Saturday – when two 20-lap races without championship points were run to determine the grid for the 500 – was 435,000 and the peak 666,000.
While those numbers appear respectable, the circular said: “Over the entire weekend the Sandown average audience decreased 19 per cent and the peak audience decreased 12 per cent.”
We don’t have handy all of last year’s Sandown 500 figures, but a quick check has revealed that the telecast on Sunday, September 16, 2012, was not among that day’s top 20 programs on free-to-air TV (including Channel 7) in the five major capital cities or on the free-to-air multi-channels (including 7mate).
TV is a particularly hot potato in V8 Supercars, with the Seven deal for this year and next downgraded substantially from the previous six-year deal after a lot of softer viewing figures in recent seasons.
That downgrade is a major reason V8 Supercar teams no longer receive dividend payments from the central organisation, which for more than two years has been majority-owned by private equity company Archer Capital.
The chief executive who negotiated the two-year deal with Seven, David Malone, departed early this year and has been replaced by James Warburton, who for a year was chief executive of the Ten Network – and before that sales supremo at Seven - when the far more lucrative six-year deal was done.
The decline now revealed in the Sandown audience, and particularly its extent, does not bode well for Warburton in trying to extract a bigger and better deal next time around.
Despite the downturn, the circular claimed “V8 Supercars achieved the highest commercial share in Adelaide and Perth on Saturday. On Sunday V8 Supercars won the timeslot in all metro markets except Sydney.”
It also claimed that attendance at Sandown was up nine per cent at 62,264.
On the digital media front, V8 Supercars claimed to have had 419,340 website visits, average visits per day of 59,905, total page views of 1,263,088, average page views per day of 180,441, total Facebook impressions of 5,873,058, Facebook reach of 1,333,682 and race views on the V8 Supercars App of 4,031.
When finally released next year’s championship calendar is expected to list several rounds to be held at twilight – something Warburton already has signaled he sees as a way to revive the sport’s audience.
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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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