ITV’s often-criticised Formula One coverage has come under fresh attack – from its own TV text service.
Their TV text service Teletext carries a story which slates ITV for missing Michael Schumacher’s retirement in Japan during an advert break (“not the first time television coverage has disappointed this season…another numbing low point”), points out that the qualifying session was not shown live, joins the widespread criticism of commentator James Allen and makes several forthright points about the weaknesses of their “poorly timed, ad-intensive” F1 broadcasting:
I was smart enough to listen to the radio…which doesn’t feature James Allen. If I had four digital TV channels at my disposal I’d certainly make sure it took priority over the likes of The World’s Funniest Animals and re-runs of Emmerdale… anybody fancy a bet on whether they cut the post-race coverage to show a repeat of Airline?
People with access to ITV can read the tirade in full on page 484 (at the time of writing).
Happily it’s not all bad news for F1 fans. ITV will be showing qualifying live this weekend for the first time since the Italian Grand Prix six weeks ago. However it will only be on the digital channel ITV4, which is hard luck for terrestrial viewers.
And, contrary to the rant, there should be a decent amount of time to cover the post-race celebrations and stories as the regular programming has been relocated.
Related links
- ITV Brazilian Grand Prix TV schedule (external)
- What the FIA’s F1 survey really tells us
- No Japanese qualifying on ITV either
Tags: f1 / formula one / grand prix / motor sport / itv
