Appallingly bad GP2 coverage

[Hayley]

I don't think that's the case. ITV4 has been the best coverage of GP2 since it began. At least you don't need to pay to watch it. When BBC takes over F1 next year hopefully GP2 will follow. GP2 is still a young formula and I'm sure it will get bigger and bigger. Fans love and enjoy the racing so it can only get bigger. One thing I think it is lacking is advertising. GP2 could better advertised on TV and around the world so fans know where to access it.

[MikeD]

I don't think that's the case. ITV4 has been the best coverage of GP2 since it began. At least you don't need to pay to watch it. When BBC takes over F1 next year hopefully GP2 will follow. GP2 is still a young formula and I'm sure it will get bigger and bigger. Fans love and enjoy the racing so it can only get bigger. One thing I think it is lacking is advertising. GP2 could better advertised on TV and around the world so fans know where to access it.

I am sorry Hayley, but Copse is absolutely right. I have worked as a journalist in GP2 since it began and previously in F3000, and trying to sell the TV rights for GP2 to a TV station in each country in stead of using Eurosport has been a major disaster in terms of TV ratings this year. The consequenses will actually be seen over the next couple of races where we will see more and more pay-drivers take over some of the seats in GP2, because major sponsors are pulling out from the teams due to the low TV ratings so far this season. The fact that Sakon Yamamoto is getting the seat at ART is the first sign that GP2 can risk getting down the same route as F3000 did in its final years.

It's clearly a step in the wrong direction, so for the sake for GP2 surviving as the great racing series it is, let's hope that it goes back to Eurosport (but I doubt it will).

PS: Eurosport has also lost MotoGP from next year, because DORNA thought that MotoGP was such a strong series that it could be sold to a TV station country by country. Problem is that only two (Two!!!!!!) TV stations world wide has expressed interest in buying it. BBC is one of the two but they will only show the MotoGP race and no qualifying or the 250cc or the 125cc races. Actually DORNA has been so surprised by the low interest that they has actually contacted Eurosport again....

Fact is that it's only F1 that is big enough a motorsport to be sold individually in each country. MotoGP only generates 1 TV viewer per 20 F1 viewers world wide. And since GP2 hardly is as big as MotoGP, that should give you an indication of the lack of exposure that GP2 is suffering right now.

[Shirk]

Quite agree on your Eurosport comments, although their GP2 coverage was far from ideal. Remember that they usually had one of the weekend's two races on Eurosport 2, which, just like Premiere, is a pay channel and not widely available anyway (at least on the continent). I for one would be quite happy if they'd go back to the level of Eurosport's Int. F3000 coverage of that series' final years, which was live if possible but at least same-day for all races.

Why racing series (and I'm sure other sports' promoters as well) continue to seek country-by-country deals is above me. Of course, fifty-odd individual contracts would yield far more than you could ever get out of a single pan-European broadcaster but the additional business effort must be overwhelming, good luck finding half-a-dozen.

Sure, other series fade when compared to Formula 1, audience-wise that is, but look at all the, with all due respect, marginal sports that have better TV coverage than GP2. Anyway I find it hard to imagine that the likes of volleyball, table tennis or gymnastics draw a bigger TV crowd than some of motorsports' finest acts, yet those seem to be on the tube all the time. BTW, the first championship I remember trying to turn it's back on Eurosport this way was CART back in ca. 2000, and we all now how well they did in the wake of that decision (and others) ...

In addition to the BBC, German sports channel DSF has now acquired MotoGP rights for next year (and probably beyond). That channel is quite notorious for frequent and intrusive advertising, rather half-witted commentators (not that Eurosport's German crew is much better, but at least you can switch over to Moody et al.) and unreliable schedules, e.g. if paid programming is running late due to earlier delays. Also, they've already stated on their website that they will broadcast the top class "live or as live" (i.e. delayed) and might cover 125cc and 250cc in round-up format only. So maybe (if at all) a financial gain for Dorna, but an obvious disadvantage for the fans.

About myp2p.eu - there's been a single user streaming this year's GP2 races, and not always reliably (not that I'm complaining, after all it's a free service). Above all, said user is depending on ITV's coverage, and they are becoming increasingly unreliable themselves, currently preempting live coverage for cycling or whatever...

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[Hayley]

I personally didn't like the Eurosport coverage, especially of the GP2 Asia series. I think I remember one comentator saying "yes the red car just overtook the other red car".

Plus I don't have sky so I could never watch it and there was never much in the way of pre race build up and interviews after the race. I think ITV4 in the UK has really hit the nail on the head, F1 is on ITV so when thats finished they tell you to switch over to ITV4 for the GP2.

Also revenue and sponsorship for teams is on the up rather than down. Many big name brands are now getting involved so I don't think thats a problem. The signing of Sakon Yamamoto to ART isn't really an indication of anything as Fillipi has gone to Arden so obviously he has a budget. All the drivers in GP2 are pay drivers I'm afraid they all have to bring a budget!

I suspect there are more difficulties across the rest of the world so here is a list of countries and what channels it is being broadcast on.

Europe
TV2 Sport: Denmark
MTV3: Finland
Eurosport: France & Italy
Premiere: Various
Channel 9: Greece
RAI: Italy
SKY: Italy
RTL Nederland
POLSAT: Poland
Sport TV: Portugal
Setanta: Ireland
REN TV: Russia
La Sexta: Spain
CNN Turkey
ITV4: UK

Americas
Globo TV: Brazil
SPEED: USA
Fox Sports: Latin America
CH7: Argentina
TVES: Venezuela

Middle East
TEN/Zee Sports: Various
ESPN Star Sport: Various

Asia Pacific
Fuji TV: Japan

Africa
Supersport: Various

Oh and GP2 do not sell the rights to any TV channels. All TV rights to GP2 are controlled by FOM and Bernie so they are the ones selling it.

[Dave B]

ITV4 make a decent enough job of covering GP2 but as is so often the case with their channels they do an utterly piss-poor job of promoting it; even at the end of F1 races they'll plug the BTCC, boxing, football, cycling - even the bloody Coronation Street omnibus - but not mention GP2.

[dc10]

I agree. The GP2 coverage by ITV4 is good and informative. But you are right they could do so much more to promote it. Took me ages to find out when and where it was being shown at the start of the season.

[Hayley]

Yeah I definately agree with that.

[Nikki Katz]

I'm still a bit annoyed by some of the pronunciation from the ITV4 broadcast. They've finally managed to start pronouncing Parente right, but it's taken them long enough hasn't it? Didn't they speak to him after he won that race? How hard would it have been to just ask him. They also seemed to get Soucek right when he was in the lead of that race, but as soon as it looked like he wouldn't win they reverted back to getting it wrong again. Why???

Admittedly the Eurosport guys did sometimes have trouble with car recognition and could waffle at times, but I think that they seemed to offer a lot more insight into the drivers, and not just the British ones (or one).

ITV4 isn't bad though, I've seen much worse commentry in the past. I also love how dismissive they are of Valerio

I think that the best thing about the ITV4 coverage though is that it's on freeview, whereas Eurosport isn't, so there's a reasonable chance that if I move out with friends soon then I won't have it. Of course, as ITV and F1 are parting company at the end of the season anyway, I doubt that GP2 will still be on ITV next year, and I don't see BBC jumping to show it either.

[mattlamb]

The presenter on ITV4's GP2 coverage is awful. What is she doing there?
"How do you feel about the last lap, Giorgio"? What a stupid question!