ITV F1 coverage, your opinions please!

[Katherine]

Given the decline in broadcast quality of ITV's Formula One coverage, what do forumers in here think of the coverage over the last couple of seasons? I personally think it's beyond a joke, it's absolutely diabolical! Read the following message from them, and detect the feeble excuses!

I apologise for the fact that our coverage has not met your expectations. We are a majority broadcaster, and have a wide ranging audience who all have their preferences, and we need to balance all of our programmes with this in mind.

I fully appreciate that the latter is not what you want to hear, but obviously it is vital that we stay in touch with our viewers, and I will gladly pass your concerns onto the programme producers.

A review of the season will be shown around Christmas time.
We delayed the start of our Malaysian GP coverage, because were restricted by GMTV to a later start time. Jim Rosenthal and Tony Jardine hosted the Malaysian and Japanese Grand Prix from London, because it was felt that they could provide the same level of coverage from the
studio. Budget issues also come into play, and our controllers try to send them to a balance of races.

Malaysian Gp qualifying was tape-delayed because, we were restricted by GMTV. We do not show free practice and warm up, because we are restricted by the early Sunday morning political and religious programming commitments. Our highlights have occasionally been shortened due to religious programming. The Canadian Grand Prix qualifying, US GP qualifying and race were tape delayed, because they interrupt prime-time viewing.

We allow GMTV priority over F1 because GMTV is a separate broadcaster, with it's own broadcast licence, and is not ours to decide on its priority. Coronation Street is moved for football, but not F1, because the Wednesday night Champions League coverage is a regular change to the schedule.

Regards,

ITV Duty Office

'Regards'? Surely, 'disregards'!

[Toth]

Maybe you could show ITV the light.
Over here in the Netherlands we get every race and qualifying life and we only have one guy in F1. And he isn't even winning! And every race has it's 2 hour pre-race show, no political or religious program interferes with that.
Germany has pretty much the same deal.
If we can get our racing live, surely you can too.

[Ralf's Girl]

Germany have really good F1 coverage. RTL show the practice sessions and warm-up and plenty of interviews. And didn't Eurosport used to show practice when they had the rights to show F1?

[Katherine]

If you want to see just how strong the anti-ITV feeling is on the Internet, then point your browsers at http://www.itv-f1.com and look at the amount of replies to the 'Message Board' thread entitled 'Not happy with ITV F1 coverage?'. There are over 1250 now!

[Ralf's Girl]

Well, it shows just how poor ITV's coverage is. I posted a reply on that forum once, but I think in general that the board is a load of rubbish. But the fact that so many people are complaining doesn't seem to make ITV do anything about it - they seem to be getting worse.

[Tris]

Well if I were ITV contoller I would dump Murray for a start. I have never liked his commentary. I would love ITV to get Clive James... now that would be worth watching.

[Gerard]

Move over to the Netherlands, Katherine and you're in for a treat.
Here, like Toth already said, we start off every Grand Prix coverage with a 2 hour pre-race show.
I also have digital and can watch Friday's practice sessions, Saturday's practice and qualification sessions and Sunday's race.

About ITV, I think they are in a difficult situation. They have to consider all the people who are watching the channel, whether they want to see sport, news or drama.
Also, the advertisers will probably have something to say in this matter.
Nevertheless, they should have completely comprehended the situation when they took over Formula One from the Beeb, which I think they didn't.
If ITV cannot be flexible enough to move around with broadcasting times, they should not have taken the task upon them.
And sending a letter full of excuses after the season has closed is not enough.
They should have send a letter in which they explained what they were going to do about the situation.
Now, it seems that the fans who are dependent on ITV, will face the same irritations next year.
Buy BernieVision!

[D428 CHO]

One of the things that's always irritated me is Rossenthal's going on about ITV's football coverage instead of talking about something useful. His only purpose seems to be as the program's own built-in advert for ITV sport. Perhaps hating football is why I find this particularly annoying, but is F1 ever advertised in football coverage?

The distrubution of adverts once a race has finished is also a bit odd, presumably to make up for the fact that they've tried to cut down on them during the race itself. The last half hour is spent quite literally with more adverts than F1; it'd all be out of the way in ten minutes if it weren't for this leaving me to go and get on with something better.

[Gt_R]

Hearing all these complains...guess i should be grateful with what i have at my home, live Qualifying, race + a 1hr pre-race briefing~.....all these repeated 12 hrs later if you missed the earlier one!~

However, it should not be ITV's excuse to "We are a majority broadcaster, and have a wide ranging audience who all have their preferences, and we need to balance all of our programmes with this in mind." and broadcast what the majority likes...F1 afterall is the MOST WATCHED ANNUAL SPORTS



MOST WATCHED ANNUAL SPORTS

[ozywoodwards]

Could someone please clarify one point for me. I thought that the Malaysian GP was broadcast live, not tape delayed, and now people on this thread are saying the opposite.

[Katherine]

Originally posted by Gerard
Move over to the Netherlands, Katherine and you're in for a treat.
Here, like Toth already said, we start off every Grand Prix coverage with a 2 hour pre-race show.
I also have digital and can watch Friday's practice sessions, Saturday's practice and qualification sessions and Sunday's race.

WOW! Gerard, lead me to this Promised Land of Comprehensive F1 TV Coverage called the Netherlands! You are sooooooo privileged! I am so jealous right now! Can you get this coverage on cable or digital from the UK? If so, I will leave no stone unturned in my quest to get it!

[Carla O]

well in Portugal we had no drivers and we got all races and qualifying live so i don't complain too much.
what i didn't like of the portuguese coverage was - they start 5 minutes before the race (but thank god i had RTL) and they never showed the post-race press conference.

here... well, could be worse... but yeah - too many ads, total disrespect for the watchers and not showing the US gp live was really bad, instead of watching in a pub near me i had to go to the west end to the Sports Café too crowded, too expensive... at least now i have a telly at home!

xxx
C

[Billy_Hunt]

Hi ! Katherine
I agree F1 coverage in the UK is to say the least appauling.
I often go to the ITV message board just to see how the protest is going, although I have never posted there as F1 seems to be least popular topic.
Here are some links to threads on this topic, we have to keep the protest going over the winter

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=5003

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=4922

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=4662 A clear interruption in ITV's 5am TV scheduling...

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=4665 ITV screws up again

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=4643 Are you unhappy with ITV coverage

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=4211 ITV will not show US Grand Prix live

Digital F1 Television This is what we need in uk

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by Katherine

WOW! Gerard, lead me to this Promised Land of Comprehensive F1 TV Coverage called the Netherlands! You are sooooooo privileged! I am so jealous right now! Can you get this coverage on cable or digital from the UK? If so, I will leave no stone unturned in my quest to get it!

Katherine,

It all sounds really good until you realise that RTL5 (Netherlands) has:

A) More and longer add breaks.

B) They time delay but don't tell you.

C) You get loads of information about someone called Jos Verstappen.

&

D) (This is the worst bit). Every broadcast, they have a minor celebrity in a GP 3 set up to run a qualifying lap of the circuit. I just never see the point of this.

Maybe I appear harsh (if so I apologise) but I have experienced coverage all around the world (except the USA and Canada). I found the worst (for breaks etc.) to be RTL in Germany.

RAIUNO is a "pay per view" Italian broadcast with a very sexy sounding lady commentator. However it's unintelligible to me so I don't watch it.

The best (surprisingly) was a Russian station I used to get in Georgia. They had very few breaks and whilst I could not understand the commentry, they sounded like Murray on speed so I knew when something was happening.

The good thing about RTL 5 is the coverage they give to Dutch national racing. You get about a half-hour of Alfa Romeos, Single Seaters, National Saloons etc.

The other man's grass is always greener - until you have to cut it.

[Don K]

Originally posted by Peter Mallett
RTL5 (Netherlands) has:

A) More and longer add breaks.

B) They time delay but don't tell you.

[/B]

Are you sure?

I don't think they have commercial breaks during the race that are longer than a minute (unless there's a black flag situation, of course), and they allways tell you the number of seconds the break will last.
Even if something happens during a break, they let you see it immediately when they're back.

And when dutch RTL started broadcasting F1 in the early 90's, they definitely didn't delay (I used to switch during the breaks, to German RTL, Eurosport, or BBC).

[Gerard]

Peter, are you perhaps watching another RTL5 (Dutch station) than I am?
Like Don said, add breaks are usually between 40 to 60 seconds and they defenitely don't time delay.
The information about Jos Verstappen is not only very informative but also understandable, it's a Dutch TV station.
About the minor celebrity who runs a lap in a GP3 set up, this is done before the Grand Prix broadcast starts, but on this one I agree with you completely, I also don't see the point of this.
Furthermore, a lot of people here consider the studio presenter a total moron. (Which he is by the way!)

Fortunetely I also have digital. I watch the race on RTL5 and tape it on digital.
That way, I can look at it another time from a totally different camera point.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by Gerard
Peter, are you perhaps watching another RTL5 (Dutch station) than I am?
Like Don said, add breaks are usually between 40 to 60 seconds and they defenitely don't time delay.
The information about Jos Verstappen is not only very informative but also understandable, it's a Dutch TV station.
About the minor celebrity who runs a lap in a GP3 set up, this is done before the Grand Prix broadcast starts, but on this one I agree with you completely, I also don't see the point of this.
Furthermore, a lot of people here consider the studio presenter a total moron. (Which he is by the way!)

Fortunetely I also have digital. I watch the race on RTL5 and tape it on digital.
That way, I can look at it another time from a totally different camera point.

Well.

They do have longer breaks than 40-60 secs (although I've never timed them).

They certainly have breaks during the race.

They delayed the coverage of Suzuka. (I was in Tunisia for Malaysia) and watched it live on RTL 3 (German) and THEY have a five minute break every fifteen minutes!!!

Furthermore, a lot of people here consider the studio presenter a total moron. (Which he is by the way!)

I agree and I don't even understand him.

I know about Jos and understand that as a Nederlander he gets coverage. It was sarcasm.

ITV also show any missed action after commercial breaks.

I can understand why you watch digital and I had remembered this, so I was looking forward to your post Gerard.