BBC reporting of F1

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AlexRWD

Original Poster:

1,254 posts

238 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
Does anyone else get annoyed by the fact they're generally completely uninterested in F1, rarely reporting much on the races, yet on Sat morning, "Breakfast" decided to report the results of qualifying, so spoiling it for anyone planning to watch later that afternoon on ITV?

And then this morning on Breakfast, on the Sports report I watched, there was not a single mention of yesterday's amazing race!! Instead they spent ages reporting the fact that one of their commentators was on a crappy reality TV football show, and lots of stuff about some golf!

I've posted the following complaint through their website address

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

"My complaint is about the sport coverage on Breakfast on the 7th and 9th October 2006.
Since you lost F1, there is a lot less reporting of F1 on your news programs, which in itself is disappointing. I was therefore very surprised that on Sat 7 Oct, early in the morning, you reported the results of the F1 qualifying, which you rarely do. As ITV were not showing qualifying until the afternoon, this would have spoiled their coverage for many F1 fans, and being cynical perhaps you did this on purpose, as you do not normally even bother reporting F1 qualifying.
What was even more astonishing was the sport coverage this morning. Yesterday's F1 race had an amazing turnaround, which has probably decided the F1 championship, but there was no mention of F1 at all today. Instead a lot of time was given to one of your reporters having appeared in a reality football show. Yet the F1 story was probably the biggest worldwide sports story over the weekend!
This just reinforces my opinion that the BBC has no real interest in F1, and the reporting of qualifying on Saturday morning was just an attempt to spoil ITV's coverage."


Edited by AlexRWD on Monday 9th October 10:13


Edited by AlexRWD on Monday 9th October 10:14

puffpuff

20,984 posts

227 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
I would have thought your complaint would be better directed at ITV for not showing qualifying live.

I listened to qualifying live on BBC Radio 5 Live and watched the race live on ITV. Between the two they did an excellent job of covering the event.

Nicholas Blair

4,096 posts

285 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
O/T I'm sure the reporter you mention pushed the ref in the game last night and was yellow carded.

He should have been off.

Eric Mc

122,053 posts

266 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
You are referring to BBC TV of course. BBC Radio 5 has very good F1 coverage and much better commentary than ITV.

killer2005

19,656 posts

229 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
There was a mention of it on yesterdays sports news, not necessarily until after the race was shown on itv though

AlexRWD

Original Poster:

1,254 posts

238 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
puffpuff said:
I would have thought your complaint would be better directed at ITV for not showing qualifying live.

Admittedly ITV haven't shown every quali live, but overall I think ITV put a lot more effort into their coverage than the Beeb ever did, with a lot of pre-race features and build up, so apart from the ads and James Allen, I don't have any complaint with ITV.

My complaint is that BBC TV clearly aren't interested in F1, I honestly can't remember the last time they reported on quali before this Sat, and perhaps you could have believed they were showing more interest as we near the climax of the season, but the fact they didn't even mention the race today makes me suspicious of their motives on Sat.

puffpuff said:
I listened to qualifying live on BBC Radio 5 Live

Must admit I've never tried listening to F1 qualifying.

VETTE_1978

3,239 posts

223 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
puffpuff said:
I listened to qualifying live on BBC Radio 5 Live and watched the race live on ITV. Between the two they did an excellent job of covering the event.


I listened to 5 Live on Saturday morning for the last session of qualifying and thought it was superb. As for the race, I got a wake up call in a hotel and fell asleep about 3 times due to only having 2 hours kip. Then yesterday I decided to watch the re-run, only to fall asleep AGAIN and missed all the good bits (Spyker falling apart, Schumi engine).

I'm guessing that ITV2 has a highlights thing on tonight for me to fall asleep during.

At least the final race is a reasonable time for us Brits (for once).

miniman

24,990 posts

263 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
Responses I got to the same complaint about the coverage of the China round:

bbc said:
I understand your disappointment that the result of the Chinese Grand Prix was given on the BBC website before the race was repeated on ITV.

While there was no deliberate attempt to spoil the enjoyment of those who had been hoping to see the repeat on ITV, the BBC has a duty to report on stories which are of interest to our website users. The information was in the public domain as the race had already been shown live on ITV earlier in the morning.

Nevertheless, rest assured that your comments have been fully registered on our daily audience log. This internal document will be made available to the bbc.co.uk and Senior BBC Management.


itv said:
I can confirm your comments have been noted and will be available for
viewing by the production team and senior management.

Thank you for taking the time to contact ITV.


Or to paraphrase, "Don't care" and "not listening" rolleyes

Ian Sowman

52 posts

218 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
So you're making a serious complaint that a sports news website carried news of a sporting event, and that a TV news programme, that includes sports news (remember, the Saturday Breakfast is shared with News 24), carried news of a sporting event.

Clearly you have never seen the relevant episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads. If you don't want to know the result, don't watch, listen to or read sources that are likely to contain it.

marc w

3,782 posts

212 months

Monday 9th October 2006
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It wouldn't hurt them to put out a warning before revealing the result though. They're always happy enough to do it for Football! rolleyes

kevin ritson

3,423 posts

228 months

Monday 9th October 2006
quotequote all
Radio 5 also do an excellent Podcast after each race which includes discussion from Alan Henry, Maurice Hamilton and Johnathan Noble, together with post-race interviews

AlexRWD

Original Poster:

1,254 posts

238 months

Tuesday 10th October 2006
quotequote all
Ian Sowman said:
So you're making a serious complaint .... that a TV news programme, that includes sports news (remember, the Saturday Breakfast is shared with News 24), carried news of a sporting event.


I accept that on Sat it was my own fault for watching a news prog, no issue with that in isolation, my issue is that surely the actual race result was a MUCH bigger news story than quali, but they didn't report on the race (which they couldn't report on before it was shown on ITV), so how come they reported quali (which they could report before ITV coverage)?

ramthorne

4,069 posts

217 months

Tuesday 10th October 2006
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Just a thought, wouldn't the BBc have reported the race result on Sunday morning rather than Monday morning? By then the news is 24 hours old.

VETTE_1978

3,239 posts

223 months

Wednesday 11th October 2006
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A bit O/T this but I was on the BBC website this week and they had a picture of poor old Fred Elliot lying dead and then a quiz on all the other deaths in Coronation St. The only thing was, that Fred didn't die until that nights episode which really annoyed my housemate when I announced that "he's going to die you know" during the opening credits.

The Beeb must have done this just to annoy the ITV viewers that use their website.

chrisgr31

13,487 posts

256 months

Wednesday 11th October 2006
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VETTE_1978 said:

I listened to 5 Live on Saturday morning for the last session of qualifying and thought it was superb. As for the race, I got a wake up call in a hotel and fell asleep about 3 times due to only having 2 hours kip. Then yesterday I decided to watch the re-run, only to fall asleep AGAIN and missed all the good bits (Spyker falling apart, Schumi engine).


I wouldn't worry too much as after all watching the race live we missed Schumi's engine blowing as it happened just as they went to an ad break! This of course always happens as part of sods law.

As an aside I am not sure it is fair to compare current ITV coverage of F1 with the BBCs coverage. There have been huge technological advances over that time, and the BBC coverage was, I believe, good for the time. Also wonder how much interest ITV shoed in F1 before they got the rights!

Eric Mc

122,053 posts

266 months

Wednesday 11th October 2006
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BBC built the audience in the UK - ITV reaped the rewards - although I'd like to see their current audience figures. I bet they are WAY down on what they were in 1997.

Edited by Eric Mc on Wednesday 11th October 13:35

VETTE_1978

3,239 posts

223 months

Wednesday 11th October 2006
quotequote all
Whatever happened to F1 Digital? I seem to remember the grey haired hobbit plugging this at every race in the grid walk but it's all gone quiet the last few seasons.

I sincerely hope he lost an awful lot of money from this venture, and even more face!

AlexRWD

Original Poster:

1,254 posts

238 months

Wednesday 11th October 2006
quotequote all
VETTE_1978 said:
Whatever happened to F1 Digital? I seem to remember the grey haired hobbit plugging this at every race in the grid walk but it's all gone quiet the last few seasons.

I sincerely hope he lost an awful lot of money from this venture, and even more face!


Yup, I think it was a pretty huge failure, and must have cost the hobbit quite a few gold pieces - not that he appears to be suffering!

I do wonder what will happen to F1 when he finally retires or dies - will it all fall apart in a mass of huge squabbling between the teams / manufacturers / circuits? Whatever you think of him, Bernie has managed to hold it all pretty well together for a long time now.

thunderbelmont

2,982 posts

225 months

Wednesday 11th October 2006
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Saying that the BBC don't care about F1 is a but harsh.

The just didn't have the £SD to go up against ITV who wished to foist James Allen on us all as some sort of perverted punishment.

As has been said, if you don't want to know the result, don't (a) open your eyes, (b) listen to anything, or (c) take a single breath of air until such time that you can watch the re-run or recording that you wish to watch.

In some ways, it's like why did people flock to the movies to watch "Titanic". We all know the bloody thing sinks at the end with terrible loss of life. Pointless.

I found out who won when I over-slept, missed the race, then checked autosport.com to see whether it was worth watching the re-run, or going down the pub.
As it happens, it was worth watching (a bit). Could have done with some rain to spice it up though.

Note to Grey Haired Hobbit - change date to put race at wettest time of year.


stubby pete

2,488 posts

247 months

Wednesday 11th October 2006
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Opening post has a point but with competition between channels understandable in a way.

Imagine checking teletext on ITV (terrestrial) for the programme start time to have "Massa gets pole in Japan" flashing on your screen!!

Just how stupid are these people?