Originally Posted by kirungi okwogera
I work in TV and used to prepare the NZ showings of WRC programmes. It would never be intentional to air any sport programme without commentary, in fact the satellite feed to MotorsTV and anyone else who played it out should have been noticed within a few minutes of feeding, which would still be several hours before it played to customers. The receiving sat-ops people at MotorsTV/whatever local broadcaster for each country should have rejected it and the dispatchers would track down the producers of the show and get them to send it again with commentary. They are normally sent with two audio tracks, one full mix, and one without commentary but with music and effects - it's possible MotorsTV messed up by playing only the M&E track, but I think it's more likely they weren't given the full mix track. Colossal technical screwup for someone, never should have aired without commentary, and would DEFINITELY never have been made without commentary! I was pretty shocked to see that...
From my perspective there are only a few companies on the earth with the specialized experience necessary to cover rallies well (collecting onboard footage after each stage, organizing those many hours and syncing them to where the roadside cameramen are in each stage, setting up the higher-tech stuff like the simultaneous footage stuff that Eurosport does, or virtual spectator with telemetry and so on...). Any one of them would do a fine job, it's just a matter of getting the deal solid so we're not getting jerked around with crappy episodes missing sound, unscripted/unedited stumbling commentary like with Monte this year, or uncertain TV coverage in general, lack of live powerstages and all that. I really can't believe the FIA has been so blase as to wait so long without making a deal, even a temporary one just for 2012...
