F1 Rocks the world as tie-in event reaps massive global TV audience

10:15 | Monday November 16, 2009

The remarkable viewing figures are likely to reach 30m globally according to independent research, making the F1 Rocks concerts and TV programmes one of the biggest music shows worldwide.

“It’s a massive TV audience for a music event and to put the numbers into context, the Grammys pulled in 19m viewers this year,” says All The Worlds CEO Paul Morrison. “I always knew this was going to be big, but to come out of the traps with those kinds of numbers is incredible – I’m over the moon.”

The inaugural F1 Rocks events, held in September in Singapore, involved three multi-artist concerts in front of a total of 27,000 fans and two TV shows: the first an hour-long music and entertainment show featuring music stars, racing drivers, celebrity interviews, unique performances and lifestyle features; the second a music special showcasing the best of the live music performances and interviews.

The footage from those shows was broadcast in 172 territories worldwide, helping principal sponsors LG Electronics and the Singapore Tourism Board to benefit from an estimated broadcast value in excess of $47 million (£28.3m).

Those statistics are prompting Morrison and his team to shift up a gear ahead of the 2010 Formula One season. “This gives us some good ammunition to increase the level of conversation we are having with commercials partners and major brands,” says Morrison.

The lure of a tie-up with the glamorous world of Formula One has also proved tempting for agents, artist managers and the talent they represent, with Morrison revealing that offers have been flooding in for acts to perform live since the concept was announced earlier this year.

“We’re planning to have five or six F1 Rocks events next year and because of the promotional exposure we can give to acts, we already have tons of artists who are speaking to us and who want to be involved in the shows,” he says.

One facility All The Worlds has been providing is the ability for broadcasters to pick and choose what they want in the TV shows according to their audience preference.

“Broadcasters are used to just being given a TV show and told to get on with it, but because of the diversity of the acts we booked for Singapore, we were able to offer our TV partners a checklist of the footage they wanted and tailor the shows to their requirements,” Morrison explains.

The F1 Rocks Singapore bill included Beyoncé, the Black Eyed Peas, No Doubt, N*E*R*D, ZZ Top, Simple Minds, Jacky Cheung and A-Mei.

“Some broadcasters were more interested in having footage of Jacky Cheung than they were Beyoncé,” continues Morrison, “so we were able to provide that for them. It’s a simple thing to do, but the feedback from the broadcasters has been fantastic and we ended up providing 30 different versions of the TV shows to different countries.”

The Singapore events were also used to showcase the F1 Rocks idea to other Grand Prix organisers from around the world. “We were able to take all the race controllers from the Formula One calendar around our live locations to see what we were doing. Then we were able to show them the TV shows and now we’ve furnished them with the viewing figures.”

That exercise has resulted in the competing Formula One circuits clamouring to be involved in next year’s F1 Rocks series, while Morrison says that the response from the Formula One hierarchy has been equally as enthusiastic.

“What we’re hearing from Bernie Ecclestone’s people is that the sport’s sponsors like the fact that we have an extension brand that is bringing in a younger audience and there is even some talk about some of the big-name sponsors perhaps also sponsoring the F1 Rocks shows to take advantage of that,” adds Morrison.

“It all means that we’re off to Heathrow on a daily basis at the moment and we’re way ahead of where we envisioned we would be, but it’s fantastic that F1 Rocks has been embraced so wholeheartedly and we’re looking forward to making some announcements about next year’s events in the near future.”