Comments on: ITV defends Canada F1 coverage

By: Pointer

Pointer — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:47:08 +0000

The Chain, The Chain, The Chain. If they don’t bring that back, I’ll cry. Still brings a shiver to my spine when I hear it to this day. Oh… and no adverts will be a bonus too.

I don’t know if it’s even possible with FOM, but could the BBC offer a ‘red button’ service whereby you could pick your own cameras, e.g. follow your favourite driver for a few laps? Also, switching from TV commentary to 5 Live has saved my sanity on many occasion whilst watching the football.

By: ITV F1 wins another Bafta — they must be clueless » vee8 - a Formula 1 blog

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:04:44 +0000

[...] are not fools. We know a bad broadcast when we see one and we don’t have fish-like memories. Here is Keith Collantine’s post about it. You can also read [...]

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:20:49 +0000

Astonishingly, despite having to apologise for it, ITV have just won a BAFTA award for their coverage of the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. Read more here.

By: Nostagic Returns for F1, Famous Five and Mars Bar Slogans « Pete’s PR Hall of Fame

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:40:52 +0000

[...] Today’s press has the extremely welcome news that F1 will return to the BBC – a godsend for the many Formula 1 fans like myself who’ve had to put up with ITV missing some of the best moments of motor racing due to a Honda Advert running a little too long. [...]

By: Tommy B

Tommy B — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:57:28 +0000

ITV is awful!! Get it back to BBC who understand people care about F1, leave James Allen behind but bring Martin Brundle over and find a new commentator?

By: andrewbf1

andrewbf1 — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:48:17 +0000

After the race, I couldn’t believe the poor coverage either and I’m really glad I found this forum…
ITV have been throwing in advert breaks and missing important bits of F1 races for years … E.G Damon Hill or Schumacher suddenly retiring whilst they were on course to win. The poor presenters were left apologising for missing such moments.

I’m in my early thirties and have been an F1 fan since ITV took over the coverage and it is slick, but commercials always interrupt the coverage and some advert breaks do seem over long …

Kind Regards,

A B

By: Don Speekingleesh

Don Speekingleesh — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:15:06 +0000

Just been watching the BBC’s coverage of the 1996 San Marino GP – 28 minutes of build up – all ad free. Interviews with all the leading qualifiers, and a “Grandstand Guide” where Jonathon Palmer talked intellegenty about starts.

So more proper F1 information in half the scheduled time it takes ITV to tell us about drivers’ cooking habits and so on. FAR better than ITV, even if the BBC weren’t always this good it shows what was possible 11 years ago and how ITV haven’t improved on it at all.

By: Simon Stiel

Simon Stiel — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 09:01:13 +0000

With the exception of the abrupt end to the programme, where ITV’s coverage really shined in Canada was Martin Brundle’s F1 Insight which is really educational. It’s interesting to note that on Talksport Radio, listeners can hear the opinions of Autosport’s Andrew van der Burgt and Anthony Rowlinson.

Since Mark Hughes already provides information for James Allen and Martin Brundle in the commentary box it would be truly beneficial to hear from him. He has excellent observation skills and knows what makes F1 drivers tick in terms of driving technique. ITV providing him with a slot on the show will provide the “intelligent analysis” that viewers want.

By: Alianora La Canta

Alianora La Canta — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:53:37 +0000

That was just a weird bunch of excuses. The race did not over-run – ITV simply couldn’t be bothered to allocate enough time for it. That is easily corrected – since the maximum race length is two hours, the race coverage should not end until at least two hours after the red lights go out. After all, ITV is contractually obliged to show the entire race, so there should be space in the broadcasting schedule to do that. Otherwise they’ll be in trouble with Bernie. Surely people on other programmes could stand having delayed coverage of their (non-live) programmes for a couple of weeks a year?

The programme may have ended on a high, but many of us do not consider the race over until it is analysed. The ITV director has finally seen sense in putting over-running comments on ITV4. It’s just that ITV shouldn’t try fooling us into being satisfied with an inferior product when we know it can and should do better. Particularly when it already has (if the director has forgotten, he should review the archive tapes for the 1997-1999 ITV broadcasts).

Granted that BBC’s interactive services don’t work where I live, but a similar service for ITV (even if it’s in a form of Teletext, as per Sky Sports News on Freeview) for overspilling interviews would be a useful enhancement. The technical aspects of ITV’s broadcasting may be top-notch – but it is not on the same part of the technology curve as its rivals, and it would be advisable for ITV to not claim otherwise. Even if this race has guaranteed ITV next year’s Sports BAFTA…

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:38:23 +0000

Well for starters they only talk about one British driver – there are four of them!

Anthony Davidson, for example, was set to take third last weekend until he hit a groundhog. That’s newsworthy – ITV missed it completely.

It’s fine for them to be enthusiastic about Hamilton – but to misrepresent the facts about the Monaco the way they did last weekend was disgraceful.

They misunderstand how knowledgeable much of the British public is about motor racing. Plenty of foreign drivers and teams get a lot of support from British fans.

And then there’s the usual complaints – they ruin the coverage with adverts, they cut it short, James Allen is hugely unpopular, etc…