11 replies to this topic

[postajegenye]

I know ITV4 will broadcast it in the UK, but will there be any other channels to broadcast GP2 this season?
I didn't see it in Eurosport's coverage so it looks like we can't watch it this year.

[noikeee]

Eurosport won't broadcast it anymore, it's confirmed.

Over here in Portugal SportTV will broadcast it, but I have no idea yet on if it's going to be live or delayed.

[pingu666]

got a feeling itv(4) might stream it on the web, notsure...

[Andrew Ford &F1]

A German TV channel, Premiere, is going to broadcast it. However, it's pay-per-view. I was shocked to hear that there would be no coverage on Eurosport.

[elia37]

It's a shame it's not on Eurosport any more

The scheduling on ITV4 might be a bit more reliable though

[Imperial]

I got the impression during the Bahrain GP weekend that Eurosport looked to have an unrivalled GP weekend package (excluding the F1 of course) as Sunday morning featured Speedcar (which admittedly was boring and also wouldn't be running during the F1 season after that race), Porsche Supercup and GP2.

Now they don't have GP2 I suspect they won't show the Supercup either. They're hardly going to send a crew to every F1 race just to cover that.

What a pity.

ITV4 meanwhile will, I suspect, most probably piss about with the format and broadcast times of GP2 until it is unrecognisable. If they decide that yet more repeats of ****ing Coronation Street or some similar shite would pull in more viewers then they'll have no qualms about shoving GP2 into late-night obscurity.

I'm unhappy about minor sports being snapped up by non-sports channels as they basically don't care about the sports.

[blackhand2010]

Originally posted by Imperial
I got the impression during the Bahrain GP weekend that Eurosport looked to have an unrivalled GP weekend package (excluding the F1 of course) as Sunday morning featured Speedcar (which admittedly was boring and also wouldn't be running during the F1 season after that race), Porsche Supercup and GP2.

Now they don't have GP2 I suspect they won't show the Supercup either. They're hardly going to send a crew to every F1 race just to cover that.

What a pity.

ITV4 meanwhile will, I suspect, most probably piss about with the format and broadcast times of GP2 until it is unrecognisable. If they decide that yet more repeats of ****ing Coronation Street or some similar shite would pull in more viewers then they'll have no qualms about shoving GP2 into late-night obscurity.

I'm unhappy about minor sports being snapped up by non-sports channels as they basically don't care about the sports.

Um, ITV4 was specifically set up as the "men's" channel of the ITV network (ITV1 the main channel, ITV2 womens/family channel, ITV3 for the older demographic, and ITV4 for men). As far as I'm aware the soaps are on ITV2 or ITV3, however I will stand corrected.
And for those concerned, it will probably only be for this year. When F1 goes back to the beeb, I can't see ITV sending crew out just for GP2...

[Imperial]

Originally posted by blackhand2010
And for those concerned, it will probably only be for this year. When F1 goes back to the beeb, I can't see ITV sending crew out just for GP2...

Makes sense too, I never thought of that.

[nigel red5]

Originally posted by Imperial
Now they don't have GP2 I suspect they won't show the Supercup either. They're hardly going to send a crew to every F1 race just to cover that.

They haven't sent a 'crew' to a Formula One race weekend for years.

Haven, Rees, Kirby et al sitting in Eurosport's Paris studio talking over the world feed pictures streaming into the building doesn't count as an on-site crew for GP2 and PSC. They may as well have been sat in somewhere thousands of miles away, like North Carolina for example. Oh wait...

If your example is how we judge things, then ITV in fact have done a better job production-wise for the last two years already, as at least they provide extra on-site programming in terms of interviews specifically for the GP2 events.

On the whole though, I agree it's a shame that the situation is changing, not least because Eurosport was so widely available to a good 30 countries and more. No Eurosport coverage forces GP2 to sell the product onto 20 or more individual networks who are already paying an arm and a leg just for the Formula One rights, in order to just 'reach' the same amount of people as in 2006 and 2007. ITV4, Sky Italia, Premiere and Sport TV are just four of them.

The powers that be have made a big mistake on this, and should have been busting a gut to keep GP2 on Eurosport. Lots more work to do to get anywhere near the same numbers of viewers.

[blackhand2010]

Originally posted by Imperial


Makes sense too, I never thought of that.

Indeed, and it makes me wonder whether the BBC will pick up GP2, or the Supercup. If not then both could be lost to terrestrial/Freeview TV completely.

[Haddock]

Originally posted by Imperial

ITV4 meanwhile will, I suspect, most probably piss about with the format and broadcast times of GP2 until it is unrecognisable. If they decide that yet more repeats of ****ing Coronation Street or some similar shite would pull in more viewers then they'll have no qualms about shoving GP2 into late-night obscurity.

I'm unhappy about minor sports being snapped up by non-sports channels as they basically don't care about the sports.

I'll miss Martin Haven and Gareth Rees' commentary on Eurosport, but having just watched a fantastic FIA GT race on ITV4, I think there's a reasonable chance they'll do a decent job of the GP2 coverage. No lifestyle bollocks, just a fairly straight presentation of a great 5 way battle for victory at Silverstone today.

[jonpollak]

I picked the DTM race to watch today...
zzzzzzzzz

Seems I'll get to watch the North Carolina F1/GP2 broadcast for the next few months....

Jp