12/05/2019
THE highest and lowest live speedway grand prix (SGP) television viewing figures for 1999 to 2018 are in and don’t make pretty reading. The patient remains on the critical list but, thankfully, the eyelids are fluttering. The info below also includes the average for each season – if available – from all live SGP meetings […]
19/11/2017
The highest and lowest live British speedway viewing figures for the period 2002 to 2017 are below (extracted from the BARB figures kindly and diligently compiled by Charles McKay). These tables also include the average for the season from all live British speedway meetings for which BARB speedway viewing figures are available. These are the […]
17/11/2017
The ongoing decline in the popularity of the Speedway Grand Prix series for UK television viewers (the main way the British speedway fan experiences the SGP) has continued in the second year of the BT Sports coverage. After the massive fall in British TV viewers using BT Sports to watch the SGP series live in […]
16/11/2017
BT Sports stepped into the breech when Sky Sports pulled out live domestic coverage of top level Premiership speedway in 2017. Though only on a one-year contract BT Sports didn’t bother with any live British Speedway coverage until mid-June. Compared to the increasingly tired Sky Sports Speedway format and relentless hyperbole, the BT Sports broadcasts […]
15/11/2016
After the Speedway Grand Prix UK television viewing figures black hole of three years of Eurosports speedway grand prix broadcasts, for the first time since 2012 we have verified audience figures. Despite widespread acclaim for the knowledgeable and authoritative BT Sports Speedway studio team of Natalie Quirk and Scott Nicholls in combination with the established/experienced […]
07/12/2014
Judged by the industry standard of the minute-by-minute statistical sampling method employed by Broadcasters Audience Research Board, Elite League speedway shown on Sky Sports Speedway satellite television during 2014 improved in its popularity by 22.4% (up 12,563 viewers on average per meeting) to 68,563. There are quite a few possible factors behind this uplift: perhaps […]
31/10/2013
There is no easy way to dress up that Sky Sports Elite League SPEEDWAY^ viewing figures for the 2013 season are the worst ever recorded. Where audience figures are available, the average audience fell by 9,194 (or -12.8%) to an all time low of 62,615. The full glory of the available figures is below: […]
17/11/2012
Despite the extremely rare notional ‘drama’ of a Speedway Grand Prix series actually remaining undecided until almost the last race of the season, the “most exciting ever” 2012 series saw average UK viewer numbers reach an all time low of 67,454. Worse still, these awful figures exclude the likely deleterious impact of the inaugural New […]
30/03/2012
Apparently the inaugural (will it be the only ever?) Speedway Grand Prix from Auckland New Zealand will be shown from 04.00 this morning on satellite television channel Sky Sports. Raced on a specially prepared (slick) track at Western Springs Stadium, the event will be shown in “High Definition” and, for once, – possibly because there’s […]
02/11/2011
After a catastrophic plunge in popularity in 2010, the ‘new look’ Elite League of 2011 – where BARB figures are available – attracted an average Sky Sports Speedway audience of 80,611 viewers (5,870 viewers a week up on previous year). Hopefully, though it’s on a low previous year base figure, this 7.8% increase represents the […]
05/08/2011
BSI just announced a change to the start time of the 2012 FIM British Speedway Grand Prix at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on August 25th 2012 from 5pm to 6pm apparently completely forgetting that Paul Bellamy hailed their decision to adopt an earlier (5pm) start time as a sign of how fan friendly BSI are nowadays. […]
12/11/2010
Judged by the industry standard of the minute-by-minute statistical sampling method employed by Broadcasters Audience Research Board, Elite League speedway shown on Sky Sports during 2010 continued the decline in its popularity started the previous season. BARB counts the average number of people watching any television programme throughout its duration (excluding advertising breaks) – for […]
27/07/2010
The catastrophic 2009 loss of 104,000 Sky Sports Cardiff Speedway Grand Prix speedway viewers – or a reduction in the British television audience of 39% – should, surely, give even the most complacent ‘businessman’ pause for thought about the format and ongoing appeal of this event? Luckily, the Managing Director of BSI/IMG speedway franchise, Paul […]
24/06/2010
In Monty Python’s Life of Brian, there’s the wonderful moment where the question ‘what have the Romans ever done for us?’ gets asked (answer: quite a lot). Some speedway fans have had the temerity to wonder similarly – what exactly have Sky Sports done for British speedway (with their regular coverage of the sport)? On […]