ITV F1 coverage rant !!!!
Discussion
Apologies if anyone else has picked up on this but it's great to see that ITV have commited to top quality F1 season coverage already !!
Friday's pratice - no coverage (nothing new there)
Saturday's Qualifying is being shown live at 2.20am
Sunday's race is being shown almost 12 hours late !
13:30 F1: Australian Grand Prix
Guess we should get used to this - I can't see the qualifying sessions being shown in full for most of the races - the extended qualifying sessions I can't see that ITV will be covering them all. just look at ITV's coverage of Rallying at the moment!
Remember when Eurosports covered F1 friday, saturday and Sundays - Rally reports throughout the days
F1 digital was superb.
Rant over - pssed off though !
Friday's pratice - no coverage (nothing new there)
Saturday's Qualifying is being shown live at 2.20am
Sunday's race is being shown almost 12 hours late !
13:30 F1: Australian Grand Prix
Guess we should get used to this - I can't see the qualifying sessions being shown in full for most of the races - the extended qualifying sessions I can't see that ITV will be covering them all. just look at ITV's coverage of Rallying at the moment!
Remember when Eurosports covered F1 friday, saturday and Sundays - Rally reports throughout the days
F1 digital was superb.
Rant over - pssed off though !
Well in the old days of BBC coverage the Fridays were never shown either and this was when it was 1st qualifying.
This year all qualifying is on Saturday so Friday is just a practice session.
Yet to see what ITV will do for the 2 qualy sessions on Saturday when they go to Brazil (afternoon & early evening, what will they do with Coronation St viewers - except perhaps euthenasia) And why must they always put the caption "Coronation St will follow Formula One qualifying" as if they are so thick as to have not looked at the TV guides........ok, maybe they are thick after all.
As for Australia they always show the race live it's on 2am Sunday morning till 4:30am'ish.
>> Edited by FourWheelDrift on Tuesday 2nd March 11:41
This year all qualifying is on Saturday so Friday is just a practice session.
Yet to see what ITV will do for the 2 qualy sessions on Saturday when they go to Brazil (afternoon & early evening, what will they do with Coronation St viewers - except perhaps euthenasia) And why must they always put the caption "Coronation St will follow Formula One qualifying" as if they are so thick as to have not looked at the TV guides........ok, maybe they are thick after all.
As for Australia they always show the race live it's on 2am Sunday morning till 4:30am'ish.
>> Edited by FourWheelDrift on Tuesday 2nd March 11:41
err - take it back (a bit)
Missed it when I was looking at the ITV site that it was being shown live on Sunday morning - duh !
But still ....
BBC did show Friday practice but only for the British GP (at least I can remember watching as a kid at least once on a Friday).
Amazes me that they just don't give the practive sessions to eurosports - surely it's better to have coverage for the sponsors ?!
Anyway - Melbourne's going to be very interesting.
Prediction: JPM to take both the Schuey brothers off - first corner, first lap ?!
Missed it when I was looking at the ITV site that it was being shown live on Sunday morning - duh !
But still ....
BBC did show Friday practice but only for the British GP (at least I can remember watching as a kid at least once on a Friday).
Amazes me that they just don't give the practive sessions to eurosports - surely it's better to have coverage for the sponsors ?!
Anyway - Melbourne's going to be very interesting.
Prediction: JPM to take both the Schuey brothers off - first corner, first lap ?!
Coulthard eyes strong year
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/3524587.stm
Not again......get a grip man!woof said:
err - take it back (a bit)
Missed it when I was looking at the ITV site that it was being shown live on Sunday morning - duh !
But still ....
BBC did show Friday practice but only for the British GP (at least I can remember watching as a kid at least once on a Friday).
Amazes me that they just don't give the practive sessions to eurosports - surely it's better to have coverage for the sponsors ?!
Anyway - Melbourne's going to be very interesting.
Prediction: JPM to take both the Schuey brothers off - first corner, first lap ?!
Regarding friday, they did not show it live but when returning from the pub on many fridays at midnight ish there was F1 on for an hour or so.
Sorry but F1 races are boring as hell, so why anyone would want to sit through QUALIFYING is a mystery to me.
I'm not deliberately trying to wind anyone up, just like to hear why you think F1 should be given better coverage. Below are the reasons why I think it needs a SERIOUS overhaul.
Seriously, why does ANYONE want to watch 22 (or thereabouts) cars go round & round a circuit without the merest hint of overtaking? Sure, the speeds involved are pretty exciting but because of the car's aerodynamics no-one can get close enough to overtake anywhere other than a straight.
As for the number of cars, it might be in the twenties at the start, but by the end of the race it'll be about half the number that started.
The result is pretty much a foregone conclusion in as much as the costs involved are so astronomical that only the top 2 or 3 teams are really in the running for any kind of success. The only time someone else wins is when the top teams have all retired.
It doesn't get much better with the drivers themselves, again, because of the costs involved. Just because you're the fastest thing on four wheels, if you ain't got the sponsership money behind you, you're going nowhere fast (Perry McCarthy?!). As for personalities geez.......where are all the rivalries from years gone by?
Sorry, but F1 is just nowhere near as exciting to watch as most other forms of motorsport e.g. WSB, MotoGP, WRC, BTCC etc etc.
If you can give me one good counter-argument to any of the above, let's hear it.
I'm not deliberately trying to wind anyone up, just like to hear why you think F1 should be given better coverage. Below are the reasons why I think it needs a SERIOUS overhaul.
Seriously, why does ANYONE want to watch 22 (or thereabouts) cars go round & round a circuit without the merest hint of overtaking? Sure, the speeds involved are pretty exciting but because of the car's aerodynamics no-one can get close enough to overtake anywhere other than a straight.
As for the number of cars, it might be in the twenties at the start, but by the end of the race it'll be about half the number that started.
The result is pretty much a foregone conclusion in as much as the costs involved are so astronomical that only the top 2 or 3 teams are really in the running for any kind of success. The only time someone else wins is when the top teams have all retired.
It doesn't get much better with the drivers themselves, again, because of the costs involved. Just because you're the fastest thing on four wheels, if you ain't got the sponsership money behind you, you're going nowhere fast (Perry McCarthy?!). As for personalities geez.......where are all the rivalries from years gone by?
Sorry, but F1 is just nowhere near as exciting to watch as most other forms of motorsport e.g. WSB, MotoGP, WRC, BTCC etc etc.
If you can give me one good counter-argument to any of the above, let's hear it.
Understandable, but there's hardly any overtaking in Rallying either is there.
Bikes are better because they are smaller and can go 3 wide round corners.
F1's are bad because of the tight regulations which no longer allow designers to come up with innovative ideas (why they all look the same) and end up having to get 1/10ths of seconds off laptimes through under skin development.
I think they should introduce the pit-stop in F1 that ITV use in their advertising. The driver comes in and while the tyres are being changed the driver hops out and is pun round 5 times by his crew before getting back in, that would make for some interesting lines
Bikes are better because they are smaller and can go 3 wide round corners.
F1's are bad because of the tight regulations which no longer allow designers to come up with innovative ideas (why they all look the same) and end up having to get 1/10ths of seconds off laptimes through under skin development.
I think they should introduce the pit-stop in F1 that ITV use in their advertising. The driver comes in and while the tyres are being changed the driver hops out and is pun round 5 times by his crew before getting back in, that would make for some interesting lines
FourWheelDrift said:
Understandable, but there's hardly any overtaking in Rallying either is there.
Quite true but watching a WRC car sideways at 100mph+ down a narrow gravel track makes up for that! I think anyways!
FourWheelDrift said:
Bikes are better because they are smaller and can go 3 wide round corners.
No argument there! But they're also not as reliant on aerodynamics as F1's either, which helps.
FourWheelDrift said:
F1's are bad because of the tight regulations which no longer allow designers to come up with innovative ideas (why they all look the same) and end up having to get 1/10ths of seconds off laptimes through under skin development.
Yup.
FourWheelDrift said:
I think they should introduce the pit-stop in F1 that ITV use in their advertising. The driver comes in and while the tyres are being changed the driver hops out and is pun round 5 times by his crew before getting back in, that would make for some interesting lines
lol...oh yes.
barry sheene said:
which means avoiding all TV and radio broadcasts Sunday morning or having the result spoiled......I'll get me bike...
Or get Sky Plus, or some other form of time-shift recorder, and just watch it as soon as you wake up on Sunday morning!
On a similar note, last year a mate of mine was working on a Sunday, and couldn't watch the live football match involving his team (which was a 12 noon kick off)
I recorded the match for him on video, and he managed to avoid all TV/Radio etc, and got all the way home, (via my house to collect the tape)
Sat down in his living room, put the tape in and pressed play.
At that precise moment, his wife came home from a day out with the kids, and said "Oh, we watched this at my Dad's earlier..... we won 3-2!"
Before 1978 only a handfull of F1 GPs were shown on TV - the exceptions usually being the British GP, Monaco GP, German GP and Italian GP. They were usually shown live but often with lots of interruptions to go to more popular sports - like showjumping.
Following James Hunt's World Championship win in 1976 which resulted in a massive increase in interest in F1 in the UK, BBC decided to show recorded highlights of all the GPs on Sunday nights. They were unable to do so in 1977 because the governors of the BBC were concened about advertising on the cars. However, a deal was worked out for 1978. Therefore, 1978 is the first season where ALL the GPs were shown on British TV, although only the usual four or five were shown live.
As the years progressed, more live GPs were added to the BBC coverage. Matters picked up from 1985 with the emergence of Nigel Mansell and his huge following. The first year where BBC showed ALL the races live was 1992. Obviously, with Damon Hill picking up where Mansell left off, UK interest remained high and it was on the back of this popularity that ITV out bid the BBC for rights to show the races.
At the moment I would hazard a guess that British interest is at its lowest since pre-Mansell days as it is not clear if the UK has any genuine title contenders and Brits are getting a bit fed up with Schumacher winning every year. The fact that the racing can be processional is a factor but it is not the main reason for declining viewer figures.
My prediction is that within two years ITV will try to unload their F1 deal - especially if no Brit contenders for the World Championship appear.
Following James Hunt's World Championship win in 1976 which resulted in a massive increase in interest in F1 in the UK, BBC decided to show recorded highlights of all the GPs on Sunday nights. They were unable to do so in 1977 because the governors of the BBC were concened about advertising on the cars. However, a deal was worked out for 1978. Therefore, 1978 is the first season where ALL the GPs were shown on British TV, although only the usual four or five were shown live.
As the years progressed, more live GPs were added to the BBC coverage. Matters picked up from 1985 with the emergence of Nigel Mansell and his huge following. The first year where BBC showed ALL the races live was 1992. Obviously, with Damon Hill picking up where Mansell left off, UK interest remained high and it was on the back of this popularity that ITV out bid the BBC for rights to show the races.
At the moment I would hazard a guess that British interest is at its lowest since pre-Mansell days as it is not clear if the UK has any genuine title contenders and Brits are getting a bit fed up with Schumacher winning every year. The fact that the racing can be processional is a factor but it is not the main reason for declining viewer figures.
My prediction is that within two years ITV will try to unload their F1 deal - especially if no Brit contenders for the World Championship appear.
If anyone has broadband there is superb coverage here of the 1973 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. It was shown as part of the US GP coverage of 2003 and is presented by David Hobbs & Sir Jackie Stewart.
Quality of the original footage is superb, it could have been run last week.
202mb AVI
right Click, save target as here
Quality of the original footage is superb, it could have been run last week.
202mb AVI
right Click, save target as here
meeja said:
Or get Sky Plus, or some other form of time-shift recorder, and just
I enjoy watching F1 (being a Woking local I have to support my team
, but I'm sure as hell not going to fork out any extra money to do so when there's racing that's ten times more exciting already available for no extra cost (MotoGP and WSBK).
Anyway, it's already been said that they are showing it live so it's a moot point.
On a similar vein, when is the Tuscan racing starting and do we have a provisional TV slot time yet.
I often wonder where a lot of this old footage is. Some of it has obviously been wiped or was never recorded in the first place - but some must survive.
Unfortunately, before 1981, there was no one agreement covering TV rights so pre-1981 records of TV broadcasts are still owned by the original broadcasters. If anyone wanted to cobble together a review video/DVD of (say) 1979, they would have a nightmare trying to negotiate with 16 individual broadcasting bodies. As a result, no one has bothered. Whatever we may say about Bernie, at least since 1981 the rights have been owned by FOCA which has allowed compilations of all seasons from 1981 onwards to be made available for purchase.
Unfortunately, before 1981, there was no one agreement covering TV rights so pre-1981 records of TV broadcasts are still owned by the original broadcasters. If anyone wanted to cobble together a review video/DVD of (say) 1979, they would have a nightmare trying to negotiate with 16 individual broadcasting bodies. As a result, no one has bothered. Whatever we may say about Bernie, at least since 1981 the rights have been owned by FOCA which has allowed compilations of all seasons from 1981 onwards to be made available for purchase.
FourWheelDrift said:You saw the TV advert as well did you?
I think they should introduce the pit-stop in F1 that ITV use in their advertising. The driver comes in and while the tyres are being changed the driver hops out and is pun round 5 times by his crew before getting back in, that would make for some interesting lines
Rich...centurion07 said:
Sorry but F1 races are boring as hell, so why anyone would want to sit through QUALIFYING is a mystery to me.
I'm not deliberately trying to wind anyone up, just like to hear why you think F1 should be given better coverage. Below are the reasons why I think it needs a SERIOUS overhaul.
Seriously, why does ANYONE want to watch 22 (or thereabouts) cars go round & round a circuit without the merest hint of overtaking? Sure, the speeds involved are pretty exciting but because of the car's aerodynamics no-one can get close enough to overtake anywhere other than a straight.
Seriously, have you even watched an F1 race?
centurion07 said:
As for the number of cars, it might be in the twenties at the start, but by the end of the race it'll be about half the number that started.
And? You want interesting racing but none of them to crash?
centurion07 said:
The result is pretty much a foregone conclusion in as much as the costs involved are so astronomical that only the top 2 or 3 teams are really in the running for any kind of success. The only time someone else wins is when the top teams have all retired.
This is simply a question of economics in one of only 2 formulas I can think of where you have to design your own car. The benefits far outway the drawbacks when it is considered what F1 contributes to the engineering world at large.
centurion07 said:
It doesn't get much better with the drivers themselves, again, because of the costs involved. Just because you're the fastest thing on four wheels, if you ain't got the sponsership money behind you, you're going nowhere fast (Perry McCarthy?!).
Motor racing is expensive. Nuff said.
centurion07 said:
As for personalities geez.......where are all the rivalries from years gone by?
Same place as all the deaths in the sport I should think.
centurion07 said:
Sorry, but F1 is just nowhere near as exciting to watch as most other forms of motorsport e.g. WSB, MotoGP, WRC, BTCC etc etc.
In your opinion. Bikes are interesting to watch because they're bloody hard to ride fast! WRC is interesting cause the skills of the driver are much easier to observe. BTCC is interesting because the drivers aren't as good as F1 drivers and there isn't really enough space for them all on the track at the same time A bit like Premiership versus nationwide football...
centurion07 said:
If you can give me one good counter-argument to any of the above, let's hear it.
Sadly my best attempt...
>> Edited by Frik on Tuesday 2nd March 14:28
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