They just don't care. (ITV Sport & Media)

Member Name: MichaelR

Product:	ITV Sport & Media
Date:	10/02/01 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No subscription to view

Disadvantages: No commitment to the sport.

I really don't like ITV. Not just because of what it has done to Formula One, but also because of the way it conducts itself generally.

It is nothing more than a greedy, commercialist, uncaring station that cares nothing for its viewers until they start switching off. All that matters to ITV is ratings and money, and the only reason that ratings matter is that more ratings = more money.

I was very, very concerned when ITV first acquired the rights for Formula One, as I knew they would do what they have done... introducing commercial breaks, failing to commit to live coverage of qualifying sessions for every race, and now even failing to commit to live coverage of races when they would have to move their precious Coronation Street to accommodate it. (Something that they are perfectly happy to do every time even the most unimportant football match comes along)

The most notable thing about ITV F1 coverage as opposed to the BBC coverage that preceded it is obviously the ads. Now, I realise that being a commercial station, perhaps ITV really needs to advertise mid-race... but does it really need the 6 advertisements per race that it is currently running? It wouldn't do that during the FA Cup Final would it? Football fans would storm the ITV headquarters and burn it to the ground!

I realise that Football has half-time, and so adverts can be shown there, but F1 has the pre-race and post-race which is also full of ads, and so the proportion of advertising versus action is much higher with ITV's F1 coverage than it is with it's football coverage.

The most notable thing after this is ITV's dumbing down of coverage. Why oh why did they employ Jim "Let's talk about the football" Rosenthal? This man knows nothing about Formula One and you get the impression that he really doesn't want to... and it's all presented from the "Let's see what those good ol' British boys got up to"
angle...

I also felt that a lot of the features and studio chat (especially back when they had Simon Taylor in the studio) in the early days was insulting to the intelligence of fans... especially in the early days.

Having said that, the standard of features at the moment is actually really good. "Murray meets" was and excellent series of features, and Martin Brundle's insider guides were very interesting and informative too.

Now all they have to do is give Rosenthal the boot... he's clearly happier talking about ITV's upcoming coverage of Man Utd versus whoever in the Champions League than he is about Formula One (His face visibly lights up when he realises he's going to get to talk about footy again).

The worst thing about ITV coverage though is most definitely its lack of commitment to the sport. For Football, ITV moves heaven and Earth. This seems to be partly down to the fact that Football attracts high ratings, and so more money, and partly due to the fact that ITV has a great love of Manchester United Football Club, but the bias there is a separate issue.

ITV will not commit to allowing F1 any time in its weekend prime-time slots. It has consistently failed to show live Canadian Grand Prix qualifying - preferring to show trashy game shows and soaps instead, just because they are popular with ITV's target audience. It couldn't possibly move them just that one time each year... the channel does no favours for itself by relegating the tape-delayed coverage of this session to gone midnight either. I have no problem staying up that late, (It's inevitable that I will already know the grid by this time, but I still like to watch) but many people do have a problem with it.

They also failed to show Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying live last year, despite the fact that this would have been in the early hours of the morning. They made some excuse about how it would have encroac
hed about 15 minutes into GMTV time, and how they would have had to pay for that... how greedy!! Decent qualifying coverage for the last GP of the season was the least they owed us after their shocking treatment of fans at the US Grand Prix.

And that treatment was scandalous. They moved live coverage over to ITV2 - a channel that maybe six people and a dog somewhere in London can receive - (I even tried to buy an OnDigital box to watch it, but there is no OnDigital coverage in my area - so I was left high and dry) just so that they would not have to move Coronation Street (one of their biggest ratings winners) and mess up their prime time schedule. Funny how they have no problems moving Coronation Street for the Champions League, something which attracts lower ratings than Corrie itself...

When fans complained, and many did, ITV basically told us all to go and take a running jump. It's what they've done all the way through their four years of shockingly awful F1 coverage.

The only alternative at the moment is to watch the race on RTL, on the Astra 1G satellite. It's a free channel, and you can get the receivers for next to nothing, but unfortunately at the moment I switch addresses up to five times a year, and so having a dish installed is not really an option at the moment. If it were, I would watch the races that ITV chooses not to cover on RTL - a channel that has far better commitment to the sport, even if the commentary is in German!

I was reduced to listening to the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis - the first USGP since 1991, one of the most eagerly awaited races of the year, and a crucial race in the championship - on Radio 5. I then got to watch tape-delayed (and very poor quality) coverage at 11:45 PM. This seemed to have been thrown together as an afterthought almost. It was very, very poor.

The other major gripes are that ITV is now filling the victory lap with adverts - this is something many of us
like to watch, it's part of the celebrations - and they are also getting into the habit of running over the start of the podium ceremony with studio chat now. Not only is this annoying and disrespectful - it is also a breach of their contract with FOA (Formula One Administration).

Also - why do we not get to see full press conferences anymore? You sometimes don't even see them at all unless there is either a British Driver or a McLaren driver in the winners seat... it would be nice to hear from ALL the drivers - regardless of where they hail from or the colour of their overalls. I would also like to hear a little more from some of the drivers that finished outside the top three, but ITV doesn't seem to want to interview them much now unless they are British.

In summary, ITV coverage is exceptionally poor - how it ever won so many awards is beyond me - and more worryingly, it is getting worse. The coverage of the last Grand Prix in 2000 in Malaysia had me shocked - I didn't think it could get that bad!

There is even talk of ITV tape-delaying the Canadian Grand Prix as well as the US Grand Prix this year in order to free up prime-time viewing slots.

If only another channel in this country was also allowed to show F1 in competition with ITV, F1 fans would desert the channel in droves.

I would recommend it to a friend only because there is currently no alternative.

Please Bernie, give it back to the professionals at the Beeb!

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