THE ONGOING drama created by MotoGP week in, week out is proving to be a winner with Australian TV audiences in 2020, big numbers tuning into the action; proving that being on a secondary channel means nothing if the product is good..

WORDS: Richard Craill IMAGE: Supercars / Mark Horsburgh

ANOTHER BIG weekend of Motorsport on the box saw Supercars back on 10, F1 in Spain and MotoGP in Austria.

There’s some interesting number crunching ahead, however it’s clear that MotoGP is punching well above its weight on local screens in 2020..

MOTO GP

197,000 people watched the Austrian MotoGP on 10Bold and Fox Sports on Sunday night, the biggest audience of the two-wheeled year to date.

The breakdown saw a record 137,000 on free-to-air and another 60,000 on Fox, though the number is actually larger again: With the red flag – due to the enormous crash at turn three – delaying proceedings, the race audience is more likely to be the positively huge 167,000 who watched what was listed as the post-race show on 10Bold..

It’s a larger audience than the 147,000 who watched the Supercars on 10’s primary channel on Saturday.

The dramatic Moto2 crash prior to the main race – plastered on social media – would no doubt have drawn eyeballs to the big show, while the incredible near-miss of the opening laps of the main race would have done the same, explaining the rise in numbers for what was labelled the post-race show on 10Bold, but in reality contained much of the race itself due to the red flag delays.

10Bold’s post-race show audience was No. 2 on the Multichannels list on Sunday.

The 60,000 watching on Fox Sports was the equal third-largest on the subscription TV network on Sunday.

SUPERCARS

SUPERCARS returned to free-to-air TV on Sunday with both days of the BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown aired live on Channel 10, as well as the usual live coverage on Fox Sports 506.

SUPERCARS SATURDAY

382,000 watched Race 13 on Saturday, at that point the third largest race audience of the year.

That number was made up of 147,000 watching on Channel 10 and 106,000 on Fox Sports 506. An additional 129,000 watched in regional areas via 10 / Win, taking the total audience for Race 13 to 382,000.

The 106,000 watching on Fox Sports was the equal lowest of the year, tied with Race 8 held in the middle of the day on the Sunday of Supercars’ racing return in late June.

Supercars filled 8 of the top 20 STV programs on Saturday, with F1 qualifying and the Ford v Ferrari movie premiere technically giving Motorsport 10 spots of the 20.

SUPERCARS SUNDAY

SUNDAY saw races 14 and 15 of the 2020 championship.

359,000 watched Race 14, held in the earlier timeslot on Sunday; 247,000 on Channel 10 (Metro + Regional) and a further 112,000 on Fox Sports 506.

While separate metro + regional numbers were not available at time of publication, Saturday saw 46% of the total free-to-air audience come from the regional numbers. Translated to Sunday, that means approximately 134,000 watched Race 14 in metro areas and a further 113,000 in the regions.

The audience grew for Race 15, 422,000 tuning in on 10 (Metro + regional) and Fox Sports 506 making this the third-most watched race of the year – behind the two legs of the Adelaide 500.

By way of comparison: 680,000 watched the Sunday leg of the Adelaide 500, and 565,000 the Saturday.

296,000 watched on Channel 10, with our breakdown suggesting approximately 160,000 in the metro areas and a further 136,000 in the regions.

The Fox Sports number grew to 126,000 for Race 15: The second-largest Subscription TV (STV) audience for a Supercars race since the series returned to racing in late June.

Seven of the top 20 shows on STV on Sunday were Supercars related, including 68,000 watching qualifying and 60,000 the post-race Supercars Trackside debrief.

As always, the audience watching on Kayo and / or Foxtel Go is not published.

FORMULA 1

97,000 watched the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday night, a dip in numbers from the 113,000 who watched both British races at Silverstone proving that F1 fans in Australia enjoy good racing tracks..

Across the six races held in seven weeks, an average audience of just over 104,000 has watched races so far this year.

Qualifying on Saturday continues to impress, with 88,000 – the second largest audience of the year – tuning in to watch Hamilton edge Bottas in the most exciting part of the Spanish weekend.