ITV TV Coverage

[WoodyTJ]

How did everyone feel about ITV's television coverage?

I think it is geeting worse. I was sad enough to watch the whole race live at 6.00am and then the "Complete" race again at 1.30pm. But anyone with any sense could see that they had chopped chunks out of it this afternoon!

Do they think that fans will not notice? Why can't British fans have coverage like RTL?

[wodonnell]

I know that this isn't directly ITVs fault but the TAG timing and scoring has gone downhill a lot too.

During qualifying we only got a couple of full rundowns of the order and I noticed that they have started just listing retirement as "OUT". The previous "Drivers not running after n laps" graphics were really good but now all we see is that they are out.

[Ralf's Girl]

I thought the race live wasn't too bad. Okay, there was an ad break three minutes into the build-up programme, but when the race started they only had two or three breaks in an hour. Must be a record for ITV!

ITV's coverage is, in general, not very good though. I noticed they'd cut some of the race out during the 'full' rerun. Well, at least I did before I fell asleep.

Like Wodonnell, I'm not too impressed with the timing and scoring. I noticed at the beginning of the race today that they were only listing the top 16 runners along the bottom of the screen, as opposed to all 22.

And while we're on this subject, was anyone else slightly miffed to see that Ralf gained about 13 places before we actually got to see him overtake?

[jonboyG]

Didn't notice much in car footage either.

And where was the post race press conference?

[Jay]

It;s the best race coverage of any series in Canada. Gosh that's pathetic!

[Ralf's Girl]

Originally posted by jonboyG
And where was the post race press conference?

I saw the post-race press conference - very boring it was, too.

[Billy_Hunt]

Pathetic is the word that comes to mind and why do they keep trying to plug how good the coverage is (because it isn't)
I actually watched the race from two different channels today.
Ive rigged up my old satalite dish to pick up RTL
although they do have adverts, they are not as frequant as ITV and the commentry makes as much sense as Murray sometimes anyway (I do not speak german )
So overall Ive pretty much got the coverage sorted but I long for Digital Coverage

[Rizman]

I wish I had your problems. Here in Australia we can't even get the race live and it's in our time zone. I dream for the day when we get to watch the race live. We don't get qualifying at all and 15 out of 17 races are shown prerecorded so be happy with what you've got. I think I'll have to move to England.

[Epsilon]

I gotta vent about the Canadian coverage now...

During qualifying, the satellite feed was down for the first 20 mins. We got to watch bloopers from last year's "X Games".

Our replay this morning also got messed up. It was advertised to start at 8, but with all the incidents, it started about half an hour early.


I'm also bugged by one new "feature" of the timing/scoring: the smaller font size. It's quite a nuisance having to squint to see who's in what spot. At least now they have the sense to wait until someone's officially eliminated before putting up (name) OUT.

[Liz]

I was considerably startled to find the F1 race re-run on Speedvision this afternoon - normally this coverage is blacked out because of TSN's contract! Perhaps they were feeling bad because of the **** coverage we usually get and thought they'd give us a break?

The press conference was stupid except for three things:

The look on TGF's face when the guy asked him about saying on the radio that the race was 'boring';

Rubens saying that the Ferraris were 'ro-BOOST, but they are not off-road vehicles' (and his repeat-by-rote 'michael is a hell of a driver' with accompanying grimace); and

The look on DC's face when he was asked if his making up places on the grid was "Good driving or were you just lucky."

[Maximum F1]

I personally think we are lucky with out coverage, over here in Northern Ireland, some of us have a choice of 2 channels. ITV or RTé. And although ITV has more breaks, in comparison with RTé it is so much better! We should be thankful we are not recieving the treatment that Australians and Americans seem to be getting at the minute.
---------------------------------------------
Maximum F1
http://www.maximumf1.com

[wodonnell]

Something that annoys me about the longhaul races (which are shown during the night) is that the rerun is ALWAYS preceded by the news. Of course the last item on the news is always the sport so if you turn the TV on 2 minutes early for the rerun you risk being told the result.

[WoodyTJ]

For the last two races Murry has said "ITV has the best coverage" but do we?

I think I would like to comment on the coverage not necessary complain to them .... anyone got any ideas to where I should write/e-mail?

[Carrie]

Originally posted by WoodyTJ
I think I would like to comment on the coverage not necessary complain to them .... anyone got any ideas to where I should write/e-mail?

How's about Autosport or one of the other motorsport publications.

[Tristan]

Arguably the worst peice of live TV I have EVER seen!! Nothing to do with the ITV lot, might I add. They were fine. But as for the Malaysian director, HE MUST BE FOUND AND SHOT!!! Wrong camras, dodgy camra angles, missed incidents, too much coverages of Ferrari's going round and round. At least they stayed with the Jos/Mika/HHF battle to their credit.

[jonboyG]

Oddly enough, I remember last year that the malaysian director actually did quite a good job, and some of the shots looked brilliant. Evidently a different bunch this year.

[yorkie]

The good news is that the BBC have lots of money now that they no longer have Premiership matches (MoTD) and are looking to bid for the TV rights to F1. The deal will mean that they will have to provide a similar service to ITV (ie full qualifying) but with the added advantage of no ad breaks.

[wodonnell]

The only problem if the BBC were to get it is that Qualifying would be included in Grandstand so timings would be "subject to change".

If they ran F1 as its own programme that would be great though.

[MichaelC]

Oh yes please please please. Bring back GP and the ultimate sound track

Go on go on go on GO ON BBC you know you want to...

[Sparky]

Any weight to the theory that now the commercial possibilities have been realised on ITV, the advertisers will twist Bernies arm to keep it that way? I know we'd all prefer BBC coverage, but money talks.

As for Malaysia and it's TV director, I have to say that I was quite pleased that the mid field seemed to get the lion's share of the coverage. In fact, if I was a Ferrari supporter, I'd be quite upset!

Pop quiz...

Did the BBC ever fail to deliver a qualifying session due to other priorities or withheld licences?

[Don K]

Originally posted by Sparky
Did the BBC ever fail to deliver a qualifying session due to other priorities or withheld licences?

I thought they didn't deliver the qualifying sessions in the early 90's.
I remember a commentator explaining to the Brittish spectators how the results of the two quallifying session were evaluated ...

[Steven Roy]

How does Murray know how good the coverage is he never sees it?

If you want to complain there is a section on http://www.itv.co.uk for comments. http://itv-f1.co.uk used to have e-mail addresses for all their presenters (I am not sure if they are still there). In the past groups of people have sent co-ordinated batches of complaints but have only ever received standard lame letters.