No Japanese qualifying on ITV either

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ITV have delivered another blow to Formula One fans hoping to watch the thrilling denouement of this year’s championship live.The broadcaster will not show the qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix live.

They are also refusing to show the same session for the Chinese Grand Prix live.

As ever the only recourse for F1 fans is to complain directly to ITV. They do at least appear to be acknowledging such complaints, so it is definitely worth contacting them via dutyoffice@itv.com to register your disapproval. You never know, they might just find a way to squeeze it onto some digital channel or something, if nothing else.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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7 comments on “No Japanese qualifying on ITV either”

  1. First of all i cannot express how stunned i am that once again ITV is letting it’s F1 fans down.

    I really hope that something comes out of our complaints. Who knows, when i wake up in the morning, i hope to see it live on ITV4 (like Canada).

    Below is the email that i sent to ITV tonight to express my disaproval for their decision not to show live the overseas Qualifying sessions.

    “FAO: F1 Team Reporters

    To Whom It May Concern:

    I would like to express my utmost dismay over the fact that you are not going to show live the Chinese & Japanese Qualifying. After the whole fiasco with the Canadian and USA GP this year, where you announced that you would not show live the qualifying sessions but then found a way to squeeze it in. Even though it was Saturday evening! I really thought that this would be the last time ITV would let its F1 fans, down.

    Boy was I wrong. You claimed that the fans are top priority, but it is fairly obvious to that they are NOT. Once again, the political agendas, which you pointed out in your f1 programs for Ferrari and their own “sporting agendas”, you are letting us down! On the other hand, when you need our support for your competitions or the British GP’s, we suddenly appear in your “horizon” and your “interest”.

    As I was browsing through your itv.com/f1 website tonight, a questionnaire/ survey about market research purposes and such popped up asking me to spare 2 minutes of my time! Why would I bother??? Why would anyone bother???

    Last year in San Marino GP, you cut for commercial break 3 laps before the end of the race. I was stunned. To my surprise, all the complaints and your understanding brought a solution to this problem. The result was that such mistake would NEVER happen again. Why can’t the same happen for the overseas GP’s?

    You claim to be the top F1 team reporters (which I totally agree), and yet you cannot spare 60 minutes of your Teleshopping at 4.35am or Nightscreen at 5.35am, on your 4th channel!

    I do not expect anything else from this email but to be heard.

    Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I really hope the future will be benefiting both the “Business” of ITV but ALSO the fans and viewers. There is a very thin line as to which should go first; in my (biased) eyes it should be the customer/viewer/fan and then the Business. That is my humble opinion.

    Warm Regards,

    Ilias Zygomalas”

    Hope always ends last!!! ;)

  2. I have written a couple of e-mails to dutyoffice@itv.com tonight. My first was roughly as above with a few changes. I received within minutes the following reply, which I guess is just a standard reply for the many protests I expect they’re receiving just now. It reads:
    Thank you for your recent email regarding F1 QUALIFYING COVERAGE.

    ITV broadcasts the majority of F1 qualifying live but when the Grand Prix takes place in countries whose time zones differ greatly from the UK it has an impact on our schedule and other broadcasting commitments.

    ITV remains committed to broadcasting each of the main Grand Prix races in the F1 calendar live.

    Duty Officer-AT

    ITV Viewer Enquiries
    Gas Street
    Birmingham B1 2JT
    Tel: 0870 600 6766
    Minicom: 0870 241 6346
    Fax: 0121 634 4898
    Email: dutyoffice@itv.com
    Office Hours:
    0800-2300 Monday to Friday,
    1000-2200 Saturday & Sunday.
    Closed on Bank Holidays

    My reply siad the following…
    Thank-you for your standard issue reply to my protest on tomorrow’s no-show for the Japanese Grand Prix Qualifying until 8 hours after the event.
    As national newspaper journalists, my colleagues have suggested we start a nationwide public protest to blacklist all advertisers who appear during the 8-hours late qualifying broadcast. Whilst I have no wish to take away support of ITV advertisers, it’s a sign of the feeling amongst a lot of us F1 viewers!
    Best wishes
    Ken Mac

  3. They have also been very quick recently to shove Live qually aside in favour of rugby – and that was Europe!

    We have been led to believe that, because ticket prices are astronomical, chicken wire eveywhere makes racing too distant and unapproachable to ‘be there’, it’s now just a ‘sport for TV’ – well, it’s not even that now!
    Perhaps we should lobby for a return to BBC?

  4. Dont worry they will make way for live Football!
    If Bernie writes a big enough Cheque the same as the Foootball Clubs do then I am sure we will get the coverage.
    It is obvious that the Producers do NOT watch F1 with the sheer lunacy of where they put their precious adverts in.

    Bring back the BBC coverage thats all I can say!

  5. Japanese Grand Prix on ITV

    Live qualifying Saturday 29 September 0530-0720 ITV3

    Qualifying re-run Saturday 29 September 1000-1120 ITV1

    Live race Sunday 30 September 0430-0735 ITV1

    Race re-run Sunday 30 September 1130-1330 ITV1

    Highlights Monday 1 October 0010-0115 ITV1

    Highlights re-run Monday 1 October 1800-1900 ITV4

    Hope this helps guy….!!

  6. Hey Guys
    Get real. all the qualifying is on live or do you still only have itv1 from a coathanger in your 12″ b&w tv? the solution to the ad problem is to start the race live then when the ads are in the live feed should be frozen till the ads are finished. sounds complicated but we wouldn’t miss a lap then. easy isn’t it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! any other probs’ give me a shout

  7. Guys you should probably note this story was published in 2006 and refers to the qualifying session that year – check the date on the headline.

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