How Does Formula One Compete for Attention in the Second-Screen Era?

Cricket, for instance, now comes in increasingly shorter formats, with The Hundred the latest attention-grabbing variant of the classic sport.

Sports need to do what they can to ensure that people aren’t missing out on them in favour of their smartphones, but they should also lean into this habit and benefit from growing phone use.  

Unlike some sports that have struggled to capture the attention of the internet generation, Formula One has thrived over the last couple of decades. In fact, viewership is rapidly increasing, with recent research finding that there are now more than 750 million fans of the sport. While sports like baseball and cricket may have struggled, this hasn’t been the case for Formula One.

The reason for this could be that Formula One is the perfect option for people who like to multitask. It’s rare that you’ll see only one thing happening on the screen during the Grand Prix, with countless other elements to capture your attention. There’s a vast array of information overlaid on the action, with everything from leaderboards to onboard cameras covered.

The sport doesn’t demand uninterrupted attention, as a lot of the time when drivers are speeding around the track, not much is happening. It can still stay compelling when shared with other screens, meaning that viewers can even watch other entertainment on a second device without it taking away their enjoyment of the race.

Formula One’s growing popularity with digitally fluent audiences reflects its compatibility with second-screen culture. It realises that it doesn’t need to compete with the smartphone, but to ensure that it can be enjoyed simultaneously. Indeed, the fact that there are so many different things to take in during a Grand Prix race gives viewers the feeling that they are already multitasking.

Today’s internet-savvy viewers are accustomed to this juggling of different things. Various other forms of entertainment require people to multitask or combine different elements in the same place, meaning that the mixture of information seen on screen during a Grand Prix is familiar.

For example, there’s a huge audience out there for live streamed videos now, with people watching content creators in every genre from cooking to sports. They have the chance to comment and interact with the creators or other viewers, thus training to do two things at the same time.

There are various online games that combine different elements as well. Slingo casino games are good examples of this, as they bring together elements of slots and bingo in the same place. Players need to pay attention to what happens on each spin, while looking at the numbers they need to eliminate as well.

Formula One’s success hasn’t come from competing with second-screen culture. Instead, it has embraced it and made itself more accessible to this digitally conditioned generation. The sport itself has various elements to appeal to those who enjoy multitasking, and it also lends itself well to being watched alongside other forms of entertainment.