TV Figures

First thoughts on reading Autosport's piece on how Seb's relentless performance has caused TV figures to drop, it appears to me (again) that the CRH is taking the F1 audience for idiots.

The viewing figures dropped by 50 million, which is a chunk but I don't think it's solely down to Mr V. It would of course be convenient if it were true, a justification for the ludicrous double-points-for-tedious-Abu-Dhabi race (unless Seb starts at the back and then it's actually quite interesting). But there are other factors.

30 million viewers were lost in China alone, due to a change in the TV provider there. That's 60% of the loss explained in one hit. And why did we change the provider? So that the CRH can increase its revenue, with no care about the audience at all. And that in the most important economic growth area, where there is no history of F1 and where audiences need to be encouraged, not punished.

That happened recently in the UK too, and figures are unsurprisingly down there as not everyone will switch to Sky. Same story in France.

So it seems that the main factor in reduced viewing figures (which affect teams' abilities to attract sponsorship and thus actually race) is the CRH's desire to increase revenue at any cost. Stop it.