(Motorsport-Total.com) – The mid-season review of the 2026 Formula 1 season shows different results for German-speaking TV broadcasters: In Germany, TV ratings remain largely stable, while in Austria they are declining. An overview.
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Pay-TV broadcaster Sky has reached an average of 561,500 TV viewers after eleven race weekends so far, almost exactly at the level of the previous year at the same time. If this trend continues, Sky is expected to perform slightly worse overall in 2026 than in 2025, when an average of 573,000 viewers was recorded for the entire year.
For comparison: Only in 2024 did Sky achieve a lower season average in the past five years with 514,000 viewers. The peak value in this period was an average of 706,000 viewers per Grand Prix in the 2022 season.
At seven Grands Prix, the broadcaster gained viewers in 2026, while it lost audience at four. In numbers: Barcelona (+112,000 viewers compared to 2025), Miami (+200,000), and Melbourne (+67,000) are among the biggest winners of the year. The biggest losers from Sky’s perspective are Budapest (-141,000) and Monaco (-118,000).
With 739,000 TV viewers, Silverstone represents the best season value so far, closely followed by Miami with 735,000. The current bottom is Suzuka with 297,000 viewers.
Still (too) few numbers for an RTL assessment
A reliable season analysis is hardly possible for RTL yet. Only two races have been broadcast so far, Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps. This results in an average of 1.675 million viewers. This is slightly above the figures for 2025 and 2024 but significantly below the seasons before that.
In 2021, RTL last achieved an average of more than three million viewers per Grand Prix, in 2022 the season average was last above two million viewers, and in 2024 the average fell to the current region of about 1.6 million, where it has remained stable since.
A real decline at RTL due to repeated broadcasts is only noticeable for the race at Spa-Francorchamps: 1.83 million watched in 2024, 1.81 million in 2025, and only 1.55 million in 2026 – the weakest RTL value in years. There is no previous year comparison for Monaco because RTL did not report from Monaco in recent seasons.
Noticeable ratings decline at ORF
In Austria, the public broadcaster ORF remains below last year’s values so far: For 2026, the average viewers per Grand Prix are 559,000, whereas in 2025 an average of 574,000 viewers tuned in. ORF was only weaker in 2024 with an average of 533,000 live viewers – a development also observed at Sky in Germany.
Due to the rotation with ServusTV, there is only one real year-on-year comparison for ORF in 2026 – and it is declining: With 511,000 viewers, 41,000 fewer watched the Grand Prix of Barcelona-Catalonia in 2026. This is the worst value for this race in the past five years.
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Overall, ORF covers a range of 466,000 (Monaco) to 652,000 viewers (Silverstone) in its broadcasts this year.
Early morning races lower ServusTV’s average
At ServusTV in Austria, especially the early morning races in Melbourne (239,000) and Suzuka (306,000) contribute to a comparatively weak season average of 474,000 viewers so far. In 2025, it was 599,000. All the more positive is the ServusTV home race: 751,000 viewers followed it on the Red Bull channel – the clear season best performance.
The only direct year-on-year comparison is for the Canadian Grand Prix, which has been clearly declining for ServusTV since 2025: 641,000 viewers watched in 2024, 623,000 in 2025, and only 467,000 this year – the lowest in the past five years.
Which races generate good TV ratings – and which do not
It is noticeable that some race tracks have now established themselves as reliable rating generators. Silverstone is one of the strongest TV events of the season in both Germany and Austria. Miami is also developing into one of the most watched races of the season, especially on Sky.
In contrast, Monaco is noticeably losing viewer interest despite its traditional image. That the most prestigious race of the year fell significantly behind last year’s figures on Sky and ORF is probably one of the most remarkable developments of the season so far.
How Formula 1 views its TV numbers
Although TV numbers in the German-speaking region are stable to declining, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali does not appear alarmed. He recently said at a press conference regarding the global TV development of the racing series: “Overall, everything is developing very positively.”
“We are currently extending contracts that would actually expire at the end of 2028 or 2029 for an even longer period. In a normal business world, no one does that if they are dissatisfied with the product. Therefore, I am convinced that our growth worldwide is very solid.”
In Germany, Sky holds the Formula 1 rights until the end of 2027. In Austria, ServusTV recently extended its Formula 1 contract by three years until the end of 2029. It is still unclear whether ServusTV will share the rights with ORF as before.
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