Comments on: ITV Sport to broadcast in HD… but not F1?

By: vic

vic — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:47:15 +0000

can someone please tell Steve Slater to do somethng with his hair please

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:30:48 +0000

I don’t believe there is a F1 HD feed available from FOM in 2008. So it’s not ITV’s fault that we won’t be able to get the stunning picture quality that has been common for quite a while in other sports. There are many networks that carry F1 who are ready to broadcast F1 2008 in HD, but won’t be, at least for the start of the coming season, including Premiere in Germany, Ten in Australia, Sky Italia and Speed in the US.

It seems strange that F1 has opted to languish behind all other major sports in not having HD. The best we can hope for this year is a new set of widescreen onboards to replace the cropped 4:3 ones of 2007 , which resulted in a pretty dismal picture quality.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:04:15 +0000

i cnt believe it, F1 is gonna be shown live in AUS in 2008, butt only on ten HD channel!

By: Geoffrey Raymond

Geoffrey Raymond — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:52:14 +0000

I worry less about the HD question than I do about the announcers. General sports commentary is so “dumbed-down” in the US that I’m not sure whether it’s praise or faint praise to say that Speed TV’s Varsha/Matchett/Hobbs trio is one of the best booth teams on television, regardless of sport.

I’m also kind of a whore for Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, but that’s a bit off subject.

By: Robert McKay

Robert McKay — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:50:31 +0000

“The BBC will never co-operate with ITV, it’s against their policies, surely?”

I’m not entirely sure if it’s the same, but they seem to work well enough when it comes to sorting out the rights to the football World Cup and European Championship finals.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:00:15 +0000

I think you will find the 2 to 3 hours HD content is actual HD programming and still show SD upscaled. I think ITV will still show F1 but it will possibly just be upscaled to HD so should still look significantly better than what ITV currently show.

By: f1minute.com

f1minute.com — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:14:08 +0000

“All this points to one bad thing – Sky or Setanta pay-per-view F1 by 2011.”

personally i’d happily pay for ad-free coverage.

i don’t care if it’s on sky, or online, or whatever. just let me see the whole race.

By: Vertigo

Vertigo — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:29:26 +0000

The BBC will never co-operate with ITV, it’s against their policies, surely? The problem with the licence fee is that the British public won’t put up with a higher fee, meaning that the BBC can’t splash out on expensive stuff like high-def F1, no matter how great the demand. As long as ITV keeps losing ad revenue then they will have to cut costs, and, according to F1 Racing (February), the costs of showing F1 in Britain are likely to soar due to the Lewis Hamilton effect. ITV may not pay for F1 at all in the near future, never mind shell out for HD F1. All this points to one bad thing – Sky or Setanta pay-per-view F1 by 2011.
And that’s bad.

By: alan

alan — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:19:57 +0000

I work with a broadcaster who does carry hd as part of their sevices – at present I have not heard any confirmation on itv providing any hd services apart from the possibility of them co-operating with bbc for a shared service – itv currently are running with severe losses on their advertising revenue – bbc is meant to be a public? service provided for the licence payer.
How they can go to bed with one another and fullfill both sets of customers/advertisers is one of those catch22 questions – if the bbc are seen to be acting with a commercial company – presumably to get profit? – should they loose their licence money?

By: MrPippy

MrPippy — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:35:28 +0000

The F1 in cinema is not in HD–at least, not HD as we understand it in America (720p or 1080i/p).
The Cinema feed was the regular PAL 576p world feed, just upscaled to 720p–no improvement over what everyone watches at home. The overlay graphics were at a higher resolution though, and were framed for widescreen.

Hopefully F1 will be in actual HD this season, and I’ll be able to see it for the 3 or 4 races that FOX carries this year (since SpeedHD will probably be DirecTV exclusive for a while)

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:56:41 +0000

Yes they do use HD cameras. FOM cover the majority of the races – all but about three I think.

By: Scootin159

Scootin159 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:52:31 +0000

Does the FOM broadcast in HD? Without an HD feed, there’s no way they can provide HD coverage.

By: Fred B

Fred B — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:45:40 +0000

Slow down, we only just got F1 in widescreen last year!

By: DanielPT

DanielPT — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:32:46 +0000

Hey Keith,

In France (where i live now) i don’t know any HD plans of TF1 for Formula 1 but i read in some blogs that they will do it, but either way, i can’t afford such TV. In Portugal (my home country) i think it is expected to start HD transmissions later this year, but that shouldn’t apply to Formula 1.

By: milos

milos — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:37:13 +0000

I am getting English Premier League in HD in Hong Kong I unfortunatelly haven’t heard of any plans for F1 HD broadcast from ESPNStarSports

By: harrison

harrison — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:54:46 +0000

Here in the US, Speed Channel is going HD in Feb.
I wish we had a race here, though.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:25:13 +0000

Hi Keith,

Here in Aus we are yet to find out what Channel ten is going to do but one suspects that they will do Albert Park in HD. They have just launched their dedicated HD channel.