tags: F1
ITV F1 Shambles - how it was reported.
April 25th, 2005, by Rich.
The shambles of ITV’s 2005 San Marino F1 coverage has been picked up by several of the UK’s newspapers and news websites. Here’s what they’re saying:
Jim Rosenthal, the presenter of ITV’s formula one coverage, sided with disbelieving viewers last night after the channel broke away from the climax of the San Marino grand prix to take a commercial break. The Guardian
Neil Duncanson, executive producer of ITV F1, confessed: “None of us are happy. The Sun
Furious fans flooded ITV with complaints after producers cut away from the action to an advertising break with three laps remaining as the world champion and young charger Fernando Alonso diced for victory. The Mirror
Mark Whittell, a spokesman for ITV Sport, continued to defend their coverage. arguing that they were ‘obliged to include five commercial breaks during a race and that they did not want to take the final break while Jenson Button was in the lead’. However, as the Guardian pointed out, Button lost the lead on the 47th lap of the 62-lap race. Planet-F1
ITV admitted that it was as frustrated as anyone, but that it had obligations to its advertisers. “They are the people that keep things like Formula One on television,” a spokesman insisted. crash.net
Of course you don’t hear or see any of this. You’ve already put your foot through the TV set and are currently en-route to the headquarters of the broadcaster, along with several hundred thousand others, to let said commentator, and his employers, know how you really feel. pitpass.com
Notably, at the time of writing, ITV have yet to mention the debacle on their website.
If you’ve seen other coverage, please post a link in the box below.
August 4th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
I agree there is way too much of a bias in the ITV coverage towards Button. If Martin wasn’t so good the commentary would make the racing unbearable and even he is being brought down by Allen. Five Live might have to fill commentate for me soon! Still - at least Grim Jim has gone.
As for the ads, are they getting longer or what? At least you can tell when a break is looming so you can hit mute or change channel to avoid the chickens. Maybe we should lobby Bernie, or something. In the FIA survey i gave TV coverage the lowest score possible and hope all the Brits did they could then see it as a reflection of the host rather than the actual tv feed which is really on the up :-)
August 6th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
I have been watching F1 since I can remember and after 59 years have never been as frustrated. Why don’t they use a Split screen for the adverts? I make a point of Never Buying anything that is advertised during F1/Moto GP or Superbikes. All do the same, we might get somewhere. Can anyone imagine the FA Cup Final being in-cut with adverts, I don’t think so, so why F1?
August 7th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Put it back on BBC, bring back ‘The Chain’ !!!
August 8th, 2006 at 9:08 am
I think the Hungarian director almost got his own back on Button this weekend, when instead of seeing Jenson Button’s successful final lap, we were treated to prolonged views of the goings-on in the ‘red’ corner.
By the way, please can anyone explain to me why M.S. was given a finishing position, when he had clearly retired?
September 9th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
for my money the whole formula 1 coverage of ITV has been useless at all times with total bias toward Ferrari and Michael Schumaker, listen to the excitement in the commentaters voice.
September 10th, 2006 at 3:34 am
There is NO REASON to show add’s through live coverage of the GP race
You dont show add’s through football matches
If there is a real reason for the add’s then do what they do on the continent and show it on a split screen
September 21st, 2006 at 11:53 pm
I am a female pensioner in my mid-sixties who was introduced to the thrills of Formula one racing in the early 1970s by the current boyfriend who eventually aggravated me as much as the ITV coverage. After every race this season I’ve declared I will not watch another Grand Prix until Bernie Ecclestone & ITV realise the disservice they hace done to the many thousands of British F1 fans.
I go back to the old days of such wonderful racing legends like Alain Prost,Keke Rosberg and James Hunt, and my favourite of all Ricardo Patrese I find this current ITV obsession with Jensen Button intensely infuriating, OK so he’s a Brit, and purely for that reason alone I am delighted when he does well.
I wonder if I will find the strength to resist watching the rest of the season’s Grands Prix. Immediately after every race I always read the BBC1 Teletext motor racing pages to get their unbiassed view along with some honest reporting of the race as it really was.
October 1st, 2006 at 10:33 am
Personaly i’m really fed up with ITV’s coverage of Formula One in general. Rarely do I get to watch any of the Races without already knowing the results as they seem to insist on spashing the results all over TV and Website throughout the day before the races is aired on the Sunday. Maybe im the weird one, but I really dont fancy waiting up till 4am sometimes to watch a race live. Unfortunatly another privilege football supporters have that we do not is the “if you do not want to know the result look away now” part of the news.
Laughably as I write this gripe the news just came up blerting out the winner of the Chinese GP. (Something I have the sense not to repeat in this post just in case anyone has the chance to read it in the next couple of hours).
Nevermind though because I already knew the result, not wanting to go on ITV to check my guide for the start time of the GP, I attempted my patented holding hand over screen on ITV website looking for tv guide link at the top technique. This usually works as I have a tablet pc with a small screen and big hands (lol). Unfortunatly today ITV were extra vigilant spashing the result over ever bit they could squeeze it into so I still managed to get a glipse of it.
So at this point I wonder why they bother re-airing the late night races. So well done ITV, well done for being compelely incompetent at servicing the customers needs you muppets!
October 1st, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Every week ITV come up with an inventive new way of spoiling the race. This week, the producer/editor needs to be especially commended for helping thousands of F1 fans miss the start of the race.
The programme, scheduled as a rerun of the Chinese GP (and not “highlights”) began as normal with a little waffle about teams, cars, qualifting and such line.
The typical run of events is that as the race countdown begins, Martin Brundle does his grid walk and chats to the racers, he hands back to his co-presenter; ITV then go to an advert break, giving MB tiem to get back to the commentary box. As the Ad-Break finishes, the FIA F1 logo film is displayed, then the cars do their sighting/warm-up lap, and then the race starts.
Today, as Martin finished his grid walk, thousands of poor ITV viewers nipped off to the kitchen to make a pot of tea only to hear the familiar shouts of James Allen embarrasing himself with over excitement as the race commenced.
No adverts, no sighting lap, just the a race, already underway.
Gee, thanks ITV, perhaps you need to understand your viewers a little better.
October 21st, 2006 at 11:10 pm
This is typical of the anti motor sport lobby in TV.
This is not the only thing to happen like this the MotoGp race was ended on the BBC Yorks & Lincs 4 laps from the end they went to the bloody rugby where for 10 mins they talked about the run up to the match. Well tonight the ITN news as just given out the result before the Qualifying begins. USELESS no one should get a award for this type of TV reporting and coverage.
When will they get it right?