Channel 4 Racing reports it achieved an average audience of 470,000 with a peak of 580,000 for its first broadcast on Good Friday. A spokeswoman for the programme described the figures as “very solid” in the absence of an equivalent broadcast with which to compare them.
The programme centred on All Weather Finals Day at Lingfield, an event that is in only its second year and was not shown on terrestrial television last year. In that context, the figures are encouraging and are most unlikely to be Channel 4 Racing’s weakest audience of the year.
The average is more than 40% ahead of the 330,000 achieved for the Oaks programme on the Friday of Epsom’s two-day meeting last June. It is less than 3% behind the 482,000 who watched Ascot’s King George on the last Saturday of July.
Those associated with the programme are likely to be mortified about missing the first half of one of Friday’s races, the mile contest won by Four Seasons, while showing adverts. A statement issued on Friday said this was caused by “a timing miscalculation within production”.
It is understood that a key member of staff, who would ordinarily have responsibility in this area, was a late absentee from the programme because of illness in the family, having to be replaced by an emergency stand-in.
Carl Hicks, Channel 4 Racing’s executive producer, was not on duty on Friday, when he was preparing for next weekend’s Grand National broadcast.
