MOTORSPORT: V8 Supercars Australia 'comfortable' with its TV

The TV view - through the eyes of the series organiser
We have commented here regularly for quite some time now on the trend we have noted in V8 Supercar TV audiences -- a slide over several years and this season a particularly sharp decline in the figures for a couple of rounds -- most recently last weekend's Darwin event.

We saw in the OzTAM figures last Monday that the average audience in the five major state capitals for Saturday's Darwin race was 246,000 viewers -- down 33 per cent on the 369,000 reported a year earlier. Sunday's average audience in those same five capitals was 329,000 -- down 27.37 per cent from the 453,000 last year.

After seeing the latest numbers we put 10 questions to V8 Supercars Australia and telecaster the Seven Network.
These were:
1. Where have the viewers gone?
2. Why have the viewers gone?
3. Did the five-week break in the calendar, between Winton and Darwin (because of the cancellation of the Perth round) impact on the Darwin round in a TV context?
4. Do V8SA/Seven acknowledge that the slide in TV numbers is now alarming?
5. What should V8SA/Seven be doing about the situation?
6. What are V8SA/Seven doing about the situation?
7. Have Australians simply gone off V8 Supercar racing?
8. Have Australians turned against the participating manufacturers, Holden and Ford?
9. Do Australians not find today's V8 Supercar drivers interesting or charismatic?
10. Is the V8 Supercar of the Future proposal the answer -- can it, with the possibility of more manufacturers participating, arrest the drop in TV audiences?

V8 Supercars response, from group marketing manager, Bronwyn Humphrey arrived yesterday afternoon (Thursday, June 25). We have reproduced it below in its entirety.

"V8 Supercars Australia and Seven are comfortable with audiences in 2010, as are our associated broadcast partners, sponsors and advertisers that continue to flock to the sport.

"Primary Free to Air (FTA) channels have recorded an overall decrease following the introduction of new multi-channels and significant changes to the OzTAM rating panel.

"Time shifted viewing has also played a significant part in the rapidly changing Australian viewing audience and the way people view all forms of television.

"Ratings provider OzTAM advises: 'Due to 'break-in series'/change in panel, pre-and post-Time Shift Viewing data sets are not directly comparable'.

"In addition there are multiple additional consumption choices and the emergence of many forms of new media such as social, digital, online, applications, mobile and electronic.

"Television is currently the primary method of off-track engagement although V8 Supercars Australia is also strongly focused on new and emerging opportunities.

"Record attendance at last weekend's SKYCITY Triple Crown in Darwin, huge gains in digital engagement and constantly increasing media coverage confirm V8 Supercars remains in a tremendous period of growth.

"Signature events such as those in Sydney, Adelaide, Townsville and the Gold Coast all draw attendance larger than any annual event in any of those regions. The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 is one of the most viewed programs in the country.

"Leading V8 Supercar drivers are household names and appear regularly in prime time television space such as Craig Lowndes (Rexona's Greatest Athlete, Celebrity Singing Bee), Russell Ingall (The Enforcer campaign) and James Courtney (Dancing with the Stars).

"Young at-track audiences are at record levels, female followers are amongst the highest of any sport in the country and family event attendance is at an all-time high.

"V8 Supercars is very much on a dramatic upward curve in all areas and will continue to be well into the future."

Seven Network spokesman Simon Francis was happy to let V8SA handle the reply to our questions, other than to say:

"Year-on-year comparisons are fraught with danger -- the entire audience sampling is completely different from last year and represents a fundamental shift from any year from 2001-2009.

"We don't think we can answer any of the other questions, given it's a completely different ratings sample that renders comparisons with last year completely ridiculous.

"(And) most major advertisers and agencies aren't comparing this year's figures with last year's."

We appreciate V8SA and Seven's response, even if we feel they have not fully addressed our specific questions.

We won't cloud matters too much further today -- perhaps it's time to digest the above and seek independent opinion. We do, however, make three points.

V8SA's own SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis revealed here on April 12 listed "TV ratings decreasing 9 per cent -- 2008" as the second item in the WEAKNESSES column.

While V8SA and Seven have both told us that comparison of this year's and last year's figures is irrelevant and ridiculous, Mr Francis was quoted making just such comparison in this May 18 report on V8Supercars.com.au. At that time he saids: "The television ratings for Winton were up substantially for both Saturday and Sunday on the last time the V8s were at Winton."

When we queried Mr Francis on that statement, he told us by email on May 24 that: "Ratings for (Winton) Saturday this year were up 27 per cent on Winton Saturday last year. Sunday was down 9 per cent on Winton Sunday last year. Across the two days of coverage, ratings were up on the two days of coverage last year."

As we didn't have ready access to last year's Winton Saturday figure we were pleased to hear of the increase and thought it may have been an indication of renewed interest in the series after James Courtney by that stage having won a couple of races for Ford -- although it seems that Jessica Watson sailing into Sydney Harbour had a major impact on the number of TV viewers that day.

Nonetheless, it is interesting that barely a month ago such comparison was made by one of those we have questioned this week but that now year-on-year comparison is supposedly "completely ridiculous".

And yes, V8 Supercar drivers have been exposed in other TV programs and advertisements, and surely that ought to be translating into more viewers -- not less -- for the race telecasts.

Points may be best Webber can hope for at Valencia
Round nine of the Formula One world championship this weekend on what in the past two years has proved to be a pretty dull street circuit at Valencia in Spain.

Australia's Mark Webber is third in the championship for Red Bull Racing, six points behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and three behind Jenson Button, also of McLaren, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso nine points behind Webber and the Aussie's teammate, Sebastian Vettel, another four points back.

Webber is the only driver to have scored points at every GP so far this year, but indications are that Valencia will not be a particularly favourable circuit for Red Bull's RB6 cars.

"Looking at the races after Valencia (the next two are at Silverstone in Britain and Hockenheim in Germany) I think we can be a bit stronger again," Webber said.

The McLaren-Mercedes MP4-25s may have an edge again in Valencia courtesy of the F-duct aerodynamics -- which, incidentally, will be outlawed next season. Ferrari will have upgraded F10s this weekend for Alonso and Felipe Massa, with Red Bull-like low exhausts -- to channel air more effectively into the double diffusers to create more downforce -- the most significant change.

Mercedes and Renault are working on similar exhaust set-ups for the British GP.

Hamilton is chasing his third win in a row, after his successes in Turkey and Canada. The last McLaren driver to win three straight GPs was Mika Hakkinen in the late 1990s.

A 14th GP victory for Hamilton would bring him equal with the tally of Australia's triple world champion Sir Jack Brabham -- and the late Graham Hill and Emerson Fittipaldi.

Hamilton is 9-4 favourite for Valencia, ahead of Alonso and Vettel at 7-2, Webber and Button at 11-2 and Massa perhaps a good long shot bet at 18-1.

Interestingly, Valencia will be the 500th GP for the famous Lotus name, but the first 491 were by the team created by the legendary designer Colin Chapman that fielded F1 cars between 1958 and 1994. Only three marques have started more races -- Ferrari 801, McLaren 673 and Williams 592.

It's been confirmed this week that Pirelli will be F1's sole tyre supplier for the next three years after Bridgestone's exit at the end of this season. Pirelli last supplied F1 tyres in the early 1990s.

The World Motorsport Council has also made a couple of other important decisions for F1.

"Driver adjustable bodywork" will be allowed from next season "for the sole purpose of improving overtaking opportunities during the race.... The driver may only activate the adjustable bodywork in the race when he has been notified via the control electronics that it is enabled," the council said.

"It will only be enabled if the driver is less than one second behind another at any of the pre-determined positions around each circuit."

And the 107 per cent rule will be reintroduced in qualifying -- meaning that a car/driver not within 107 per cent of the fastest car in the first session of qualifying will not be allowed to start, other than in exceptional circumstances.

This rule was last used in 2002 but, now that there are three new teams with the likelihood of another next year, it is a way of pressuring backmarkers to get up to speed.

Aussies doing heaps abroad
Marcos Ambrose gets his first chance to put his Sonoma embarrassment behind him at this weekend's round of NASCAR's Sprint Cup at Loudon, New Hampshire.

Meantime, Chris Atkinson will make his Intercontinental Rally Challenge debut at Belgium's Ypres Rally, driving his works Proton Satria that he's also driving in this year's Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. It's one of 25 Super 2000 cars entered in Belgium.

Atkinson has said the car will be suited to the asphalt -- "it's got a great engine and it's so light" -- but is not looking for anything more than a top 10 result, despite his Belgian co-driver Stephane Prevot having won the event several times.

There were some excellent performances overseas by Aussies last weekend that we should note.

Scott Pye from Mt Gambier (SA) won another two races in the British Formula Ford Championship. That's six wins now in that series for him, but he's 43 points behind leader Scott Malvern -- 205 to 248 -- mainly because of a horror round in Holland. But he's 47 points clear of his Jamun Racing teammate Josh Hill, son of 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill.

Queenslander John Martin won the fourth round of the Superleague open-wheeler series at Jarama in Spain. Martin claimed pole position, won race one, was ninth in the reverse grid race (from 18th on the grid and despite losing eight places when he overshot his pit box) and was second in the final, collecting 75 points and 75,000 euros.

And Perth's Daniel Ricciardo stormed to within 0.25 seconds of victory in the latest race of the World Series by Renault in France after a penalty for swapping his tyres on the grid in the changing weather conditions.

On pole position at the Magny Cours circuit, Ricciardo's crew changed him from wet to dry tyres on the grid and he shot into the lead. However, he was one of six drivers penalised mid-race for having swapped tyres late and found himself down in fourth place.

Ricciardo then stormed back to finish on the tail of Frenchman Nathanael Berthon, who took his first win in the championship.

Ricciardo regained second place in the series on 66 points -- nine behind Russian Mikhail Aleshin, who was fourth in the latest race after winning Saturday's race.

Hybrid era dawns in sports car racing
Very interesting times in the international sportscar racing scene.

Peugeot sporting director Oliver Quesnel is quoted in this week's Auto Action magazine saying that diesel production engines will be a thing of the past by 2020 and that alternative fuels and drive train technology needs to be developed in racing under new rules for the Le Mans 24-hour classic from 2014.

"The standard car will be hybrid, so the racing car will have to be hybrid," Quesnel said. "For the standard car in five years there will be no more diesel cars."

Peugeot will run a hybrid system in its new LMP1 category car next year.

Audi has disputed Peugeot's claims and prefers to look at reducing weight than developing hybrids for racing.

Audi's head of engine technology Ulrich Baretzky said: "What we have to do is reduce the reliance on oil. You have to make things more efficient than they were before, and you have to use other forms of energy or other ways of fuel."

Audi and Aston Martin are lobbying the Le Mans organiser -- the Automobile Club de l'Quest, otherwise known as the ACO -- to change its recently-released rules governing hybrid systems next year. They argue that the regulations force them to build hybrid systems rather than leave the choice to manufacturers.

They are also campaigning to have the base weight of a non-hybrid car reduced as an alternative method of improving fuel economy.

Auto Action's Luke West has devoted his column this week to the changing Le Mans rules.

West writes: "Le Mans is set to become the supreme battleground for the car manufacturing giants chomping at the bit to blaze the hybrid and electric car trail... Such racing will enable roadcar makers to prove the durability of hybrid cars.

"Forms of motorsport that don't strive to push the fuel efficiency boundaries will become increasingly irrelevant to car companies... Finally claims that motorsport develops roadcar technology will have some substance."

Image: markwinterbottom.com

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