MEDIA NUMBERS: MELBOURNE
BIG CROWDS and big numbers watching on TV have highlighted the 2019 Australian Grand Prix held last weekend in Melbourne.
IMAGE: Renault Sport
The 2019 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix race drew 979,000 viewers, with 689k watching on 10 and 290k on FOX Sports.
This represents an almost 10% increase on the 890,000 that watched the race twelve months ago (612k on 10, 279k on Fox).
The 2019 number will project to well over 1 million once regional figures are released.
The race was the most watched Grand Prix in FOX Sports history, the company reporting they reached more than 500,000 viewers yesterday.
Qualifying on Saturday was up slightly as well, 576,000 watching across both networks compared to 571,000 last year.
FOX Sport’s share of that number was up significantly, to 227,000 from 181,000 last year.
The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship continued their strong start to their ratings year in Melbourne, with 567,000 tuning in to watch Sunday’s sixth race of the season on 10 and Fox.
This was two per cent higher than the same race last year and makes it the second most watched race of the season so far, behind race two in Adelaide.
FOX Sports has shown steady gains in most of their Supercars programming this year; notable included Race 4 of the championship drawing 28% more viewers on FOX this year when compared to 2018 (133k vs 104k in 2018).
Good scheduling is key to TV ratings and this was also seen by the Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia series in Melbourne, with their Saturday race drawing more than 400,000 viewers on 10, Fox and in regional areas thanks to the primo afternoon slot, just before F1 qualifying.
Outside of the Sunday morning Bathurst 1000 races, it’s likely to be among the most watched Carrera Cup race in the series’ history.
Australian Grand Prix organisers confirmed a four-day event attendance of 324,100 for the 2019 event, the highest four-day crowd since 2005.
More than 102,000 attended the event on Sunday alone with all 25,500 grandstand seats sold out for Saturday and Sunday.
Many attribute the huge crowds to the excellent weather coupled with the fact that the event was being staged outside of the first round of the AFL season for the first time in several years.
Sources: Mediaweek, TV Tonight.
Richard Craill (administrator)
Working full time in the motorsport industry since 2004, Richard has established himself within the group of Australia’s core motorsport broadcasters, covering the support card at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix for Channel 10, the Bathurst 12 Hour for Channel 7 and Porsche Carrera Cup & Touring Car Masters for FOX Sports’ Supercars coverage. Pretends to be a PR guy / Journalist and sometimes photographer to make ends meet when not yelling at a television in a padded room.
