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Reading today’s Sun newspaper Big Brother is getting more viewers than racing, now that is scary.
The Sun newspaper reports that the Pope is Catholic
Back when Derby Day formed part of the national fabric, parliament rose and ‘everyone’ threw a sickie on that first Wednesday in June I’m pretty confident that the viewing figures for The Black and White Minstrel Show would have been somewhat greater than that for The Derby
We inhabitants of the racing asteroid do seem to believe we live on Jupiter
I also agree that staging multiple away meetings on your blue riband showcase day is a bit of an own goal.
I’ve never entirely seen the logic of that as an argument. The Derby moved back to a Saturday afternoon in 1995. A quick dart at the
Post
archive indicates that Derby day that year was also seven meetings strong – Epsom, Doncaster and Worcester as per this year, plus Haydock, Market Rasen, Newmarket and Wolverhampton.
All that’s changed in the interim, apart from some of the participating courses, was that the split between afternoon and evening fixtures has on occasion been 4/3 rather than the current 5/2.
The question, therefore: was there any perceptible sense back in the mid-late 1990s that so many meetings on Derby day was to the detriment of the purported main event? I don’t recall any.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
To me it’s losing viewers because of two things. Adverts,especially two minutes before the derby. Absolutely ridiculous. There should be no adverts after ten minutes before race start time. This should be used to get a good look at the horses and to go over the form 8. Cramming adverts in is a sure fire way for viewers to switch off. Secondly the lack of coverage of the winners. It’s on to adverts and then the next race. Australia is a great story as the great Vincent obriens daughter is part of cool more and of course is part ownedby a Chinese gent which will no doubt spread the racing gospel there. Also Joseph obriens ride was so eerily like the great piggot himself. Rather than call cool more faceless just remember how much they are willing to give interviews and how much aiden gets pilloried for expressing a view. We will look back in years to come as how great aob was but in true British style won’t accept his genius. I’ve no idea why but why he isn’t give the credit sir Henry Cecil did is beyond me. Australia is a gorgeous looking animal and moves beautifully. Let’s just enjoy this horse and leave the cynicism behind.
The Channel 4 commissioning editor was unresponsive when quoted in the RP stating "…Australia’s win in the Derby was watched by a bigger peak audience than the French Open Ladies’ final, the Challenge Cup rugby and the Formula 1 practice session."
This is a totally pointless statement. I watched about 2 minutes of the tennis just to see how it was progressing, as probably a lot of people did, but it wouldn’t have been the same 2 minutes. Those watching 2 minutes of the Racing would have been the 2 and a bit minutes of the actual race.
To me it’s losing viewers because of two things. Adverts,especially two minutes before the derby. Absolutely ridiculous. There should be no adverts after ten minutes before race start time. This should be used to get a good look at the horses and to go over the form 8. Cramming adverts in is a sure fire way for viewers to switch off.
This is all to do with Revenue though. Those advertising 2 minutes before the Off time would have paid a damn sight more than those advertising at say 2pm.
edinahib; there was an article in yesterdays Observer to the effect that we have a young lad in Joseph who, thus far has won two Derbys [and been placed in two others?]and yet there is no interest in him whatsoever and not a great deal of respect for his fathers race record. It’ll be interesting to see if Royal Ascot pulls in more viewing figures. Maybe the bad decision by The One Show to follow McKelvey the year that he died was pretty bad for racing, given that a lot of schoolchildren were following the story.
"moehat" wrote: edinahib; there was an article in yesterdays Observer to the effect that we have a young lad in Joseph who, thus far has won two Derbys [and been placed in two others?]and yet there is no interest in him whatsoever and not a great deal of respect for his fathers race record. It’ll be interesting to see if Royal Ascot pulls in more viewing figures. Maybe the bad decision by The One Show to follow McKelvey the year that he died was pretty bad for racing, given that a lot of schoolchildren were following the story.
You could be spot on there Moehat. I remember that, they had a 24 hour webcam in the stable. I remember watching the horse having his tea and thinking "if he were to die in the race how terrible it will be for the public persona of racing…"
A none horsey friend watched the Derby with me and when Cirrus Des Aigles pulled up lame said "Well that’s why people don’t like racing, that horses was whipped and whipped till it was in pain" I pointed out that he was running on and happy and she said "…well it had no choice, it was being whipped"
So public perception is of animal abuse; the jockey never hit Cirrus des Aigles at all but because the jockey holds a whip they assume it is being. Perhaps a whip ban would help, but I think Animal Aid and Peta have made huge in roads, especially among the ignorant.Public national sporting events have changed over time. Many are no longer in the forefront of the nation’s consciousness. The FA Cup Final, University Boat Race and with no terrestrial TV, test match cricket are not what once were. I fear the Derby is going the same way.I’m not a big fan of the C4 coverage, but doubt whether the ratings would be much different however the race was presented.
Racing can be complicated and punting success is often elusive, but true racing fans love the sport for a whole variety of reasons and look for its traditional appeal to be retained. The core supporters will put up with the fickle lighter side of the sport being given prominence sometimes, but not all the time. If the serious side of racing is neglected, any amount of theme nights, post race concerts, indulgent drinking and trivial media coverage will only shrink the size of racing audience and not produce loyal new followers that every sport needs ensure future success.In my ‘golden square’ of Bookies on Saturday morning, Corals, Ladbrokes, Hills and Powers within 20 yds of each other and not one of them had any advertising material for the Derby or any kind of publicity that today was ‘Derby Day’.
So it’s no wonder viewing figures are down when the general public have no idea that it’s on, can’t remember seeing any sweepstakes kits in the papers or anything that used to be there to tempt the once a year punter.
I’m not sure that C4 is to blame for viewing figures being down but their coverage doesn’t help bring viewers in.
Just goes to show the difference in public perception of racing doesn’t it, Christophe immediately becoming a superhero in my eyes after he dismounted from Cirrus and showed such concern [felt the same about Graham Lee after something similar happened at Kelso albeit not until they’d reached the winners enclosure]. We’re also, as a nation, far more removed from horses than in my childhood when, even in central Birmingham horses still delivered some items, and my grandad had worked with the railway horses. By the way, did anyone see the, amazing footage in the Ray Mears programme about America when a cowboy rode his horse down the side of a cliff to show how sure footed wild mustangs were and what confidence he and the horse had in each other. Ray Meras said it was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen. It was in the last 10 minutes of the third programme in the series [still on iplayer I believe]. McKelvey was a terrible accident waiting to happen and I couldn’t believe they were running the story. Maybe, though, in general there should be should be more footage of horses in their stables, as they do in America, and have easier access to seeing horses training, again as
they do over there
.
Can we trust the viewing figures when they are calculated from such a small selection of tv watchers.
The whole tv viewing scene has changed in the last 20 years with wall to wall tv coverage of sports meaning that many sporting occasions are no longer the big events they were(does anyone remember when race meetings started in the morning on FA cup final day). I would definitely favour moving the Derby to wednesdays where it wouldn’t have the same competition from other events.
As for the comment from a previous poster about it being ridiculous that we have two racing channels that’s nonsense. we should be glad that we have the only sport with dedicated channels.
As for the comment from a previous poster about it being ridiculous that we have two racing channels that’s nonsense. we should be glad that we have the only sport with dedicated channels.
Why should we be glad? I’m not glad at all. It costs £50 a month to subscribe to both. Why are there 2 dedicated channels for a "minority sport" as some call it?
When all the British racing has been on RUK the coverage has been far better than when split between the two channels.
Does anyone know what the TV viewing figures were when the Derby was on a Wednesday?
As for the comment from a previous poster about it being ridiculous that we have two racing channels that’s nonsense. we should be glad that we have the only sport with dedicated channels.
Why should we be glad? I’m not glad at all. It costs £50 a month to subscribe to both. Why are there 2 dedicated channels for a "minority sport" as some call it?
Christ is Racing UK over £30 a month now?
I think you can get a Virgin TV package only for £16 a month which gives you 70 channels one of which is ATR.
The Derby`s unlikely to hold much appeal for the casual viewer now. We`re just a few years on from the switch off of the analogue television signal. Chances are that another channel on a digital platform will hold more interest than a short race from Epsom with horses almost no one has heard of.
I try to follow the Guineas weekend, the trials at Chester, York, Lingfield, Leopardstown etc to give me something to interest me for the Derby. Without that context and the fact that I quite like Epsom, it would n`t be a must see for me.
For all it`s faults. I don`t find the C4 coverage as horrible as the latter day BBC output.Presenters hogging the camera when we should be seeing the horses are now a long standing failing of both broadcasters though. No doubt a characteristic of the production company.
I don`t see the event as one with widespread appeal any longer. I think the decision of the management to put the 1996 race second on the card to avoid clashing with the Euro `96 football was acknowledging that some time ago.
Although there has been general delight at the relative stability of the Grand National audience, it’s a fact that it has also lost around a million viewers
That, then, is the net effect of the switch from BBC to Channel 4 of racing’s crown jewels – about 1m people lost to the sport’s feature events
In part it’s because major occasions acquire extra gravitas and spare viewers just by being on BBC1. It’s a huge marketing tool for any TV show, so it’s incredible that those who run racing felt they could turn their backs on it
The reason was that Ch4 were prepared to cover every Saturday, but a compromise should still have been worked out
And of course the style and presentation of the show is crucial too. If viewers enjoy watching a programme, they will stick with it. It’s been obvious from the start that the new format doesn’t make the sort of entertaining television that would attract a new audience (or for that matter even entertain many of those who already like racing) in the modern era
It’s dull, lacking in chemistry and there is no presenter who can get people tuning in just to see him or her (the Simon Cowell effect)
Racing will be in terminal decline if Ch4 and the BHA don’t do something about it – and pronto. Currently they are both in denial, and sleepwalking towards disaster for our wonderful sport
On the other hand the alternative to Channel 4 isn’t that good or appealing to the casual viewer. I cannot and will not pay for Racing UK, so I cannot be accurate on their output. ATR is very irritating as it sometimes shows three races simultaneously, often with the commentary from one of the lesser races too. Even on a large screen TV one cannot see what’s happening and the coverage of the runners prior to the race is poor. This channel can only be any good for a part time gambler, it is never going to attract people who love the sport for it’s own sake and the horses.
If Channel $ pull the plug, and I believe they will, then racing will become a minority sport right on the margins, after all there are lots of things promoted by bookmakers than racing with less of the effort for the gambler. The horses are the important bit, they are being "touched" on by Channel 4, but seem ignored a bit by satellite. Someone who watches RUK might be able to shed some light on what their coverage is like in this respect.
It seems racing has to contend with the following:Clashes with other events on the big days
An increasing Animal Rights lobby
Poor coverage by the TV companies
Poor press coverage (never anything in those free newspapers, Metro, unless it is negative
Welfare/cheating issues within flat racing
Lack of personalities that people can relate toDrone – I take the point re-ITV, but you could hardly describe ITV in those days as a
majority
channel, given that there were only three channels and it was one of the two who shared the majority of the audience.
Typo, I think you meant
minority
; but anyway forget ITV, did you think that the Derby should have been on the BBC during the near-20 year period prior to 2001 when it was on C4? A 20 year period over which there seemed little concern about it being on a ‘minority’ channel, little concern about viewing figures and little concern about ‘personalities’ (ugh)
The causes of the illness infecting the Derby and racing in general are rather more complex than the TV channel it’s shown on and the format of the programme
Kicking the C4 scapegoat is easy
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