Last grand prix on ITV

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wmcot

ITV's commentators are too Lewis-loving, Ferrari-hating for me. I guess they never heard of balanced reporting!

---

I would dispute that because a) It's a British broadcaster with British viewers, hence covering and supporting British drivers is only natural and b) I would say that James Allen does his best to brown nose Ferrari at every opportunity, he even called his own son Enzo for heavens sake!

As for ITV's last race in Brazil - good riddance! The advert breaks are utterly intolerable, unlike many of our younger posters on this forum I watched years of uninterupted coverage on the BBC pre-1997, yes it wasnt perfect back then but at least you could follow the races properly, the ad breaks disrupt the flow of the race and utterly ruin it. I expect that the BBC's coverage in 2009 will be a significant improvement over 1996, the last season that the BBC carried the coverage, as a lot of development has occured over the last 13 years in broadcasting of F1 (much better production values, FOM feed etc.) and of sports broadcasting in general. In the days when BBC carried F1 it was often part of the Grandstand programme, sharing time with others sports, now that Grandstand is a thing of the past it will have it's own focused coverage, free from time pressures of other sports.

Finally - The Chain - the most evocative BBC Sport theme tune from a library of classic BBC Sport themes, if the BBC don't use this music I think they will have a mutany on thier hands!

The chain still raises hairs on the back of my neck.

I I expect there will be a little nostalgic addition for the first race with possibly a handover from Murray.

:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by philipbain

...unlike many of our younger posters on this forum I watched years of uninterupted coverage on the BBC pre-1997, yes it wasnt perfect back then but at least you could follow the races properly, the ad breaks disrupt the flow of the race and utterly ruin it.

---

Ahhh yes, but at least we get the race live, as opposed to the highlights show I remember when the BBC began their regular tv coverage in the late 1970's :p Happy days. Happy Days 2.

Whether it be ITV or now the BBC at least F1 hasn't gone to pay TV like Sky in the UK. As someone who has just 4 channels (+ the internet) I'm grateful for that at least :)

People forget that BBC wasn't that great.

Qualy wasn't shown till the mid 90s, press conferences would sometimes be missed out which made the highlights show the better proposition for post race stuff, the live races would be interrupted with horse racing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wedge

People forget that BBC wasn't that great.

Qualy wasn't shown till the mid 90s, press conferences would sometimes be missed out which made the highlights show the better proposition for post race stuff, the live races would be interrupted with horse racing.

---

That was the case until the mid-90's, ironically after they lost the contract to ITV, when they upped their game.

Lets not forget that ITV regularly cuts short the press conference. Lets not hear from the 3rd placed driver, lets hear Mark Blundell state the bleedin obvious. He's much better than someone who was actually in the race :hmph:

I don't ever remember F1 being interrupted by other sports on the BBC, Eurosport was the king for that. Having said that I was only 13 in 1996 so maybe there's something I forgot.

Yes the BBC coverage was very bare bones but it did the job and I'd take a return to that over ITV's all-style no-substance approach any day.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wedge

People forget that BBC wasn't that great.

Qualy wasn't shown till the mid 90s, press conferences would sometimes be missed out which made the highlights show the better proposition for post race stuff, the live races would be interrupted with horse racing.

---

The promise is that even on those rare times when other events put pressure on the schedules, qually and the races will still be shown in full while everthing else (including practice sessions) will be available on the red button and online.

:up:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by heelandtoe

here we get the ITV feed courtesy of TSN, so i guess it will now be a BBC feed i hope. Never cared much for James Allen, and the love affair with everything Hamilton/McLaren is a little much, but being one of the top drivers/teams i guess i can't fault them too much

Murray Walker and James Hunt, now they knew how to call a race. It helped that there were guys named Senna, Mansell and Prost though.

---

Don't you have access to Speed TV? I normally opt for this instead of TSN. And if you're a frog like me, you can watch with French commentary on RDS :D Typically both Speed TV and RDS have live coverage of practice, quals and raceday.

I dont know how this would go down, but anyway. (and apologies if this has already been mentioned)

As part of a build-up to the new season and the BBC's return, maybe they could show full re-runs of some of the best races they covered on one of their digital channels, it would be a great way for them to say that F1 is back where it belongs and would also show the younger generation what F1 used to be like in the good old days, here would be a few examples i would like to see replayed

DIJON 1979 - Gilles Villeneuve -v- Rene Arnoux, a prime example of what would never be allowed today if the FIA's current racing rules are anything to go by

MONACO 1982 - More drama in the final 3 laps than there was in 5 Schumacher title winning seasons put together

SILVERSTONE 1987 - Possibly the greatest comeback and arguably one of the greatest overtaking manouvers ever witnessed, Our Nige' at his very best

DONINGTON PARK 1993 - Arguably Ayrton Senna's finest drive, from 5th to 1st within the 1st lap and going on to win by nearly a lap

I'll be happy with the end of ITV's stint as Britain's F1 broadcaster. I can't stand the ad breaks, the biggest plus of the TV licence fee comes in; no commercials.
Ignoring commercials (hardly the F1 team's fault that a commercial channel has to make money somehow) ITV's coverage has been pretty good, it generally improved on what the BBC had been doing. However ITV's post-race coverage is often too short with the driver's interviews cut short. It will be interesting to see what the BBC will do different next year.