Top-class media presence of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship

In 2014, the second FIA Formula 3 European Championship season, not only the competiveness level on the grid was once again increased. At the same time, the planet’s most competitive young-driver series also once again upped the ante regarding its media presence. The performances of the fast rookies such as Esteban Ocon (Prema Powerteam) and Max Verstappen (Van Amersfoort Racing) thrilled both the crowds on site and the TV audience with their exciting battles for points and positions against fast and well established drivers such as Tom Blomqvist (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) or Lucas Auer (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport). Now, following an interim report dealing with the period of time from November 2013 to August 2014 and published in October, 2014, the media data for the entire 2014 season are available.

Once again it was confirmed that the FIA Formula 3 European Championship is the place to be if you want to witness tomorrow’s motor-racing aces in action. After all, 18 of the 22 drivers on the 2014 Formula 1 grid learned their trade in Formula 3 and with Max Verstappen, Lucas Auer as well as Tom Blomqvist, three of the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship drivers succeeded in securing a race seat for the 2015 Formula 1 or DTM seasons right away. This certainly also is a reason why a total of 653.500 spectators witnessed the race meetings live on site, last year. The season finale at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg was attended by the biggest crowd – 155,000 spectators and the Norisring race weekend attracted 121,000 visitors

The TV coverage

Meanwhile, the 35 drivers from 22 nations that represented the colours of twelve teams, in 2014, also thrilled the TV audience. Over the course of the season, the TV coverage of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship on-track action amounted to more than 2,560 hours, representing an increase by 38 percent, compared to 2013. The total of 5.142 programs dealing with the series was brought by 156 TV stations in 204 countries and regions. And although just 147 of the 2,560 coverage hours were broadcasted in Asia, the largest and most populous continent registered the biggest TV audience: more than 66 million motor-racing enthusiasts followed the programs broadcasted by the 18 Asian TV stations.

Meanwhile, Europe was the continent with more broadcasting time than any other area in the world. In the FIA Formula 3 European Championship core market, more than 53 million viewers watched more than 1,388 hours of race action. German TV station n-tv as well as Motors TV with its channels in France, England and its Pan-European offering were the most important live partners on the home continent of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

Their coverage of the up-and-coming young talents added up to more than 450 hours. In addition, the 33 FIA Formula 3 European Championship races also were covered live or re-live on the other continents. In Indonesia, for instance, this task was carried out by Metro TV. ESPN provided the regions Africa and South America – particularly Brazil – as well as Israel with live or re-live pictures and more often than not, direct cooperation with the drivers resulted in TV deals in their home countries.

An innovation for the 2014 season was the realisation of a 26-minute magazine that was brought by Eurosport following each of the eleven race weekends. The magazine highlighted all the three races of the respective meeting and explained what was going on around the Championship. In addition, the audience was provided a glance behind the curtains as well as technical analyses and explanations. These programs alone could be viewed – thanks to the first showing at Eurosport International and the reruns at Eurosport 2 – in 54 countries and 20 languages and attracted an audience of 5.5 million viewers.

Free live stream and online coverage

In addition to the TV coverage, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship fans once again also were offered a free live stream at the series’ official website. This service was used by an average of 27,000 motor-racing enthusiasts per race weekend and due to the eleven race meetings, this resulted in a total of 304,000 viewers, representing a 660-percent increase compared to 2013. At the official YouTube channel, all the races could be viewed re-live on demand or as short weekend roundups. In addition, the Eurosport magazine also was made available there, after the first showing. Altogether, this content was watched by a monthly average of more than 28,000 viewers, from November 2013 to October 2014, representing a 240-percent increase compared to last year.

The official FIA Formula 3 European Championship website represents the basis for the series’ media presence in the World Wide Web and its popularity keeps on increasing consistently. In the first ten months of 2014, the site already was visited by 840,000 users – three times as many as in the entire year 2013.

The social media offerings of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship also registered consistently increasing user figures. The official Facebook site could announce more than 9,000 fans and the official FIA Formula 3 European Championship twitter account registered more than 5,600 followers (state of affairs 27th February, 2015).

Traditional media

At the same time, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship presence in the traditional media also mustn’t be neglected. In the European core markets – Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, more than 1,500 articles achieved a print run of more than 126 million copies.

With regard to the 2015 season, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship organisers are delighted about the fact that nearly every media cooperation of the 2014 season will be continued – and some of them even are planned to be expanded. Consequently, the competitors on the 2015 grid once again may rely on the significant and valuable attention of the motor-racing enthusiasts and excellent media coverage.

FIA Formula 3