Are ITV to pull the plug on WRC coverage??

[AndyRAC]

You are right, anyone familiar with UK press will know that football is up there as the No.1 sport, golf, rugby, cricket, athletics, F1, rallying etc all get some coverage always but it increases and decreases depending on how successful the home grown people are doing, right now there is not a lot in WRC to interest the average sports fan, diehards will still follow but the specialist press is for them, mainstream publishing pretty much will ignore WRC till a UK driver starts to do well.
ITV have all the viewing figures, they are a commercial business, if people dont want to watch WRC they cant sell ads so the program gets dropped, dare I say it but its just a little sign of how 'healthy' WRC is right now ;-)

Healthy is the word, if it was healthy there would be more manufacturers, more paid seats,etc. So in my opinion it isn't in a healthy state no matter what people might say, so you can't really blame ITV for thinking of pulling their coverage. Why can't it return to BBC2 like it used to, seeing as the only motorsport BBC have now is the excellent MOTO GP, but no cars. We can always hope...

[cut the b.s.]

Well I'm from Australia

never before have 4 words explained so much to me before :-)

[BDunnell]

Healthy is the word, if it was healthy there would be more manufacturers, more paid seats,etc. So in my opinion it isn't in a healthy state no matter what people might say, so you can't really blame ITV for thinking of pulling their coverage. Why can't it return to BBC2 like it used to, seeing as the only motorsport BBC have now is the excellent MOTO GP, but no cars. We can always hope...

Why would the BBC want it either?

The fact is that the 2006 WRC has passed more people by who used to at least have a vague idea of what was going on in it than I can recall.

[Simmi]

Yeah I think we've established the current coverage isnt worth having and is definately not worth being made to pay that much for. They keep saying global audiences are going up but I dont understand how.

[cut the b.s.]

Yeah I think we've established the current coverage isnt worth having and is definately not worth being made to pay that much for. They keep saying global audiences are going up but I dont understand how.

Maybe they are being counted by the same people who used to tell us 2million people watched the RAC Rally.......

[NjHarwood]

To be honest i think the only reason ITV bought it off Channel 4 was too try and get all the motorsport they could and make them look like a good channel. I first cought bit of WRC when BBC had it. Then i didnt know what was going on and then 4 got it...by then i watched it as much as i could. But now ITV has destroyed it further. No advertisments for fans watching there favourite soap, nothin like F1 where every 5mins and in the weather you hear about it! Anyway ITV are going downhill themselves and loosing money. They have got the Main bloke of the BBC now running them to try and turn things round!

I have freeview, so i dont get Eurosport and now Men and Motors has vanished from existance on my TV.

What i would like to see is the destruction of tacky graphics, leaders only, 1 corner per stage coverage!

As a fan i am discused in the coverage. 1 hour on one day in the early hour of the morning is beyond stupid! I would love to see F1 or at least BTCC standard viewing. Even BTCC which i never used to watch has jumped out of the darkness!

I think WRC and ISC and Imersat or whatever should get Colin and Bec's and so on onto our tv sets as well as radio, so we have some intelligent commentators and get some far better editors who want to work for there money and get the viewing up!

[DoN_cz]

anyone knows if Eurosport will broadcast WRC in 2007?

[Talbot]

The main problem I have with terrestrial WRC coverage is the camera men. Whether it be BBC, Ch. 4 or ITV they all seem to focus on a front wheel of a car as it goes past.
For goodness sake pan back. We need to see the whole car!
Afterall, as has been suggested you can ignore the c**p comentary, or put some decent driving music on to accompany.

[Simmi]

The terrestrial coverage is just the same as the Eurosport coverage though. And all of it is bought from the ISC, so its the ISC cameramen. Its the footage that they supply that is the problem because its boring and unimaginative.

[Daniel]

The main problem I have with terrestrial WRC coverage is the camera men. Whether it be BBC, Ch. 4 or ITV they all seem to focus on a front wheel of a car as it goes past.
For goodness sake pan back. We need to see the whole car!
Afterall, as has been suggested you can ignore the c**p comentary, or put some decent driving music on to accompany.

Very true. Or they focus on a corner off in the distance and the car then goes out of view and then into view in the foreground. Bores me to death........