41 replies to this topic

[shemp]

Hi people:

How is the TV coverage in your country? I was reading in the Broadcasting page here in Atlas F1, that in Australia the qualifing seasions are not broadcasted. You can't see them? There are some countrys that races are tape-delayed. Why?

I'm from Uruguay (Gonzalo Rodriguez land) but now I live in Venezuela, here the are two TV-stations that broadcast F1, qualify and race both live. Both are terrible... I can't see free-practice seasions.

How is this in your country? If you have digital TV, how much you pay for a race?

We have to wait only a week to see the first prictice, good luck...

[Eli]

Let´s see. There are two channels here in Spain, the free one don´t show qualifiyng and sometimes they show the races live, but not always. The second option is the digital version (Thank God). With it, you get to see everything, except the free tests, from seven differents channels and it costs around $10 per race. It´s really worth it and I´d die if I didn´t have it.

[Sally]

In the UK-

One word.
crap.

[A3]

In the Netherlands we have RTL5 (qualify & race) and Canal+ (everything) who broadcast Formula1. RTL 5 does the best job but Canal+ has better images but crappy commentators. I'm paying $30 a month for Canal+. Can you imagine, last year only the half of a qualifing session was showed, because som lame soccer game was delayed............

[This message has been edited by A3 (edited 03-02-2000).]

[Mr. Salty]

In the US (I live in the Southeast, NASCAR country) we have Speedvision for live feeds, the commentators watching the same feed and trying to deliver information based on what some far away director shows them.

Fox Sports Net tape delays the races from Europe, and usually shows Japan and Australia live.

Speedvision will show Saturday qualifying, but I have never seen free practice. F1 usually gets 10 seconds of coverage on other sports channels, as in "Micheal Schumacher won the Monaco Grand Prix" followed by a quick shot of Mika Hakkinen spinning on some oil. Thank God for the internet and Atlas to give us real information.

[Nuno]

Here in Brazil , since the 1970 season , the qualifying sessions and races are broadcast live ( without intervals for ads ) by Rede Globo - best and biggest Brazilian TV network .
For a short time ( from 1996 to 1998 ) ,there was also a cable TV that used to show the recorded races .
We have no digital TV yet , so the inboard takes are unfortunately gone ...

[Loz]

In Canada we have TSN, who show both qualifying and the races live(Unless their is something of dramatic importance on). Even so it is only delayed till after the "other" event. Qualifying is covered by Gerry Donaldson, TSN's roving F1 reporter, with a fairly good inside track on JV I find. The 1/2 hour pre race show is hosted again by Canadian reporters, but once the cars start to line up on the grid, its Murray Walker and Martin Brundle!!!!!

TSN do a great Job in my opinion.

The only time I had a complaint was during the final race of 98, we were in a commercial when MS blew his tire. It was sort of like "oh, while you were watching an add for motor oil the WDC was won!!" Not sure if the timing was TSN's fault or the coverage by the "Murray Walker" feed they show.


[This message has been edited by Loz (edited 03-02-2000).]

[IRISH]

Here in Eire we have the ITV coverage (BRITISH) which is good ,we also have the Irish RTE which is o.k the good thing about it is that they have some good inside info on the Jordan team,during the race ,pit-stop stratages ,tire compounds,also interviews with the drivers & Eddie so I always tape that channel & watch Murray & Martin!

Slan.

[Hoffy]

In Australia, we get no qualifying, just a report on the local news broadcast (if that), except for the Australian GP, where we get Saturdays Action.

As far as the races go Most of the European rounds are delayed telecasts, shown generally late Sunday night (after 10:30 pm) which somtimes are edited, with generally no post race press confrence. The Asian rounds are shown delayed as well on Sunday afternoons and the American Rounds usually hit the screen at about 3:00 am Monday morning.

[IRISH]

strategies

[Peeko]

Not only do we have TSN, but RDS as well (French version) which mean, when there's acommercila on TSN, u can usually flip to RDS and not miss much, if anything at all. RDS does not wait for programs to finish either, and is never delayed.

[The Swerve]

Sally, do you really think the coverage is crap? Which bit?

I think it is very good apart from 1 thing - Jim 'cheesy grin' Rosenthal. I can't stand that guy. Apart from that the coverage is very good I think. James Allen is brilliant and Martin is excellent too. I like his grid walk minutes before the race and his track guide is very informatve because he drives the cars there (well the McLaren 2 seater anyway) so he knows what the conditions are like.

Okay the commercial breaks piss me off a lot, how can you break the race up like that?!?!? I guess in the US you are used to it but for UK viewer it is very annoying. However, it is ITV, so it has to be done.
As some of you know I work for the BBC and I can tell you now I don't think we could have done a better job BUT if we get it back (you never know! ) we will do a lot more with it now ITV have shown what is possible!

I have a friend who works for the tv crew and he goes to every race (lucky bugger) and I'm trying to get him to pull a few strings for me!!! You never know!! Then you'll ALL be jealous!!

[JayWay]

Swereve,

No, then we will just all blame you for crappy coverage

[Alfisti]

In other words Hoffy, the coverage here in Oz is absolute crap!!!!!

Instead of infomercials why don't we get Saturday qualifying??? I just don't get it... who watches infomercials???

I know the high number of Aussies on this BB is more a result of the fact we have the 3rd highest internet usage (per capita) in the world than any great support of F1. But there are many supporters because our GP crowds are extremely high given our population and the ridiculous distances one has to travel to ghet from city to city.

[Indian Chief]

I am better off than you American or Australian fans because I get qualifying and the races live.
The last race that I didn't get live was Nurburgring '97 when they chose to show some crap Ryder Golf.

[The Swerve]

Well I won't care cos I'll be seeing it all from the pits!!!

[BlackCat]

in Estonia local TV shows only race, but as Finland is quite near and they show qualifying and warmup also, i see those too. during race i usually mix local picture (a bit better) and finnish comments. (and no, i dont have to have 2 TV sets for this.) local commentators sit in the studio and don't know much. finns are better, especially if they can get Keke Rosberg to comment, but of course there are moments, when crying (mika! MIKA!! MIIIKAAA!!!) gets a bit too loud for me and i switch back to local dumbsters...

[Pascal]

TV coverage in France is not exactly great. Basically, it feels like commercials are sometimes interrupted to show some of the race going on. But at least we get it live. Qualifying is another story. Most of it is shown tape-delayed at around 1:00 in the morning on Sunday.

Commentary is not too bad at least. Pierre Van Vliet and Jacques Laffite do a good job, and 2 other journalists are in the pits, reporting what is going on there.

Another option is of course to get digital coverage through the Kiosque channel, but it is only available via cable or satellite, and you have to pay 50 francs (a bit less than $8) for each race you watch. Quite expensive, considering you have to pay a monthly fee for the cable connection too.

[Williams]

Basically, what Loz said. In Canada, except for the commercials, the coverage is probably the best anywhere in the world,

[shemp]

I can see that all free TV block races with commercials. I can't understand why they stop the transmition to put commercial if when they are boadcasting a football(soccer) game they don'n do it.

Why you think is that for?

Here they put in a little side of the screen (top left) the commercial but this block sound of the race, also banners in the low of the screen block the telemetry and cronos.

I think one they we could have Digital TV? I think is the best way to see our favorite sport, no?

[molive]

Canada´s coverage the best in world???

In Canada we have TSN, who show both qualifying and the races live(Unless their is something of dramatic importance on).

If by ´dramatic importance´ you mean CURLING, then you´re right...

Thank goodness there was RDS when I was up there.

(Here in Brazil, the images from Globo TV ar e good, but commentating is crap.)

[Gemini]

In Poland we have broadcast through Canal+, digital, on 7 channels. It costs around $10/m. It's excellent.

[J]

Finland is pretty lucky as far as the F1 coverage goes. MTV3 has pre race warm up, qualifying, and the race. Digital feed has every session this year. MTV3 has our version of Murray, who is clueless but.. amusing, thou sometimes they have Keke Rosberg as a commentator, which is great! Digital has the most b o r i n g commentator you could ever find, but the help he has is pretty good.

P.s. Oh, those "And now a word on your own language" things that MH gives actually make sense and are way more informative/critcal than the ronspeak/broken english the rest of you have to go by.

J


[This message has been edited by J (edited 03-03-2000).]

[Lantern]

Here in the U.S. we get Speedvision which gives us live qualifying,race and press confrences from both so I can't complain. BUT, I sure would like some of that digital sweetness!!!!!!!!! And what do I hear? Digital will be here like......LAST compared to the rest of the world. Not exactly a good marketing scheme Bernie!!

[FerrariFanInTexas]

Here in Texas we don't seem to have Speedvision, at least not in the Austin market. So, I'm stuck with the tape-delayed crap from Fox Sports Net.

I really hate tape delay. So I hop on the Internet and "watch" the race by following the live race updates on two or three of the F-1 web-sites. And last season, some began experimenting with streaming video feeds. Very cludgy, but it's a start. Thank God for technology.

BTW, Fox is going to broadcast a few more races live this year. I think I saw that Brazil, Montreal, Indy, and Malaysia will be live. Oddly enough, though, not Japan.

[This message has been edited by FerrariFanInTexas (edited 03-03-2000).]

[Loz]

Molive,

I was referring to the fact that while we here on this web love F1, not everyone else does. There are more people in Canada interested in Curling, than in F1. There are more Canadian Athletes involved in Curling than in F1. Seems logical to pre-empt F1 for something like that. I don't complain because I understand this.

[pa]

I hate to defend Bernie, but the only reason the U.S. isn't on the digital F1 horizon is technical. As usual, the U.S. broadcasters have watered down the digital standard to allow a compromise signal that's compatible with older NTSC equipment. Bernie would be insane not to want access to the U.S. market with his digital signal. You can say a lot of things about Bernie, but he didn't get to be Britain's richest man by making stupid business decisions.

Here in Canada, we get the ITV feed for the most part, but for the Canadian GP we get the idiotic and totally incompetent arriviste Brian WIlliams. I'd rather have a root canal. The guy is a total dolt.

During qualifying, TSN's Vic Rauter (sp?) blunders his way through the session with the aid of semi-relevant commentary from Gerry Donaldson (he wrote a book about JV, so he's sort of clued in to F1). Rauter is a total embarrasment to his profession and should be put to death immediately. Better we should have no commentary at all than his idiotic patter.

[Nuno]

Brazilian TV coverage has at least one big advantage when compared to some of it's first-world counterparts: no commercial breaks .
It's really disgusting when you're watching a racing on a American TV channel and they make that outrageous interruptions for ads .
We got shocked in the beginning of the cable TV services here in Brazil , to realize that American channels use to discontinue abruptly the transmissions , even when something really exciting is happening , to insert commercials . "How dare they ? Don't they have any respect for the public? ", people said .
Since the very beginning of the Brazilian TV direct coverage of world's motorspor events ( in the early 70s), our stations adopted the system of putting commercials only BEFORE and AFTER the whole event (race or qualifying ) , without any interruption during the coverage itself .
Otherwise viewers probably would hang TV men by the balls or something...

[TBone]

Regarding the commercial breaks issue, in Canada they did something that was pretty cool during the Canadian GP last season: they stopped for commercial breaks, but they kept a little square with live race images in one of the corners of the screen, so we didn't miss any race action during commercial breaks.

I wish they did it every time, but I guess sponsors aren't too crazy about this idea ... I mean people are already not concentrating on their ads to begin with, so you can imagine that they don't even pay attention to it when there are still live race images in one corner of the screen!

[luisfelipetrigo]

=========
| MEXICO |
=========
Someone said 'CRAP' for TV coverage in Englad. Nos so in Mexico ... for something to be 'crap' it has to exist in the first place.
-
In Mexico we have never had qualifying coverage, live or differed (unless someone gets killed) and I mean NEVER ... since 1963 on (that is as far as I remember).
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Then for race day it depends, usually it is at 6:00 am or midnight. Some times live but mostly delay. And some races are not broadcasted at all, sadly Monaco seems to be the one they drop more often.
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Also, since Mexico is a 'soccer country' any 'major' soccer game kicks (pun intended) GP coverage.
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While I am sure there are some very F1 knowledgeable people in the country the TV station seems to choose commentators with some level of mental handicap and no understanding of what autoracing, in general, and F1 in particular is all about. They are watching the race at the same time as the audience and are trying to figure out what is going on so that they can comment on it, 90% of the time they fail at this.
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:(And last, we get numerous cuts for commercials, no matter what is going on on the track or the original signal they cut the action. Another thing they do is put commercials/banners on top of the image usually covering the information about positions or time gaps between drivers.

All in all it is quite poor and frustraiting ... but I still watch as many races as I can.

------------------
Saludos
Luis Felipe


[This message has been edited by luisfelipetrigo (edited 03-03-2000).]

[Mr. Salty]

Damn, luis. I guess I'll stop bitching about US coverage, then. I feel for you, but I think it's a testament to your loyalty as a fan that you remain interested in the sport.

[jonpollak]

Here is the Digital story for the English speaking countries.
For 2000 the news AIN'T good
But the Author IS
http://www.sunday-ti...psmot03002.html


[This message has been edited by jonpollak (edited 03-12-2000).]

[busternuck]

MALAYSIA :

We get live coverage of Qualifying and Raceday on 2 channels throughout the season. No coverage of Friday Free Practice nor any of the Free Sessions though.

TV3 (free terrestrial TV) takes the British feed - which unfortunately has Murray Walker in it - and StarSports (satellite) which takes another feed from Hongkong (decent English commentators). So when Murray starts on another of his nationalistic bluster speeches on any of the British drivers I switch to StarSports.

If Bernie's Digital feed is *ever* made available here I would plunk my cash in a heartbeat.

[Jonathan]

Pascal -

"Commentary is not too bad at least. Pierre Van Vliet and Jacques Laffite do a good job, and 2 other journalists are in the pits, reporting what is going on there."

Jacques Laffite ? I havent heard a word from this man since his accident in a Williams at the British GP maybe 15+ years ago.

How is he ?

Here is the US we get to listen to Derek Daily, David Hobbs and sometimes John Watson (while I respect John as a driver he really isn't much of a commentator).

[AD]

I live in Ireland and get both ITV and RTE's coverage. When ITV has a break, I just switch over to RTE for a few minutes as they both rarely have ads at the same time. The Jordan team tell their race stratagies to RTE every race!!!!!!

[Eli]

I´ll update my answer as there have been some changes in this first race. The "digital expirience" is now more expensive (I bought the whole season for something like $150) but it´s definetely worth. Now, not only you get everything live and from seven different channels, now I can hear the radio communications too, which I found amazing. Another new feature is something like e-mails on the screen. At first I didn´t know what the messages were but they I realizes that it was Charlie Whiting writing to the teams. During the race, a message like this appeared: "E-mail from Charlie Whiting. Please remind your drivers not the cross the yellow line in the pits". It´s pretty weird but it adds to the show.

[Yelnats]

Incidently not only do we Canadians have live coverage (Murray and Mark) with local comentary and Gerald Donaldsson on site, of qualifying and races but there was a one hour pre-race show summarizing the 99 season, over winter developments, testing and qualifying. To top it all off there is a reapeat broadcats of the race at 8am for those who dozed off during the late evening coverage of the night before.

Eat your hearts out Guys! TSN be praised!

[Fabiola]

The idea of split screen for commercial breaks sounds good.
What I really want is digital where you can select camera shots.
I also feel there must be one F1 TV editing team which controls every race.
eg in two weeks time we will be in Brazil where surprise surprise we will spend 50% of the time watching Rubino .
The Australian editing was just okay. We missed out on so many interesting battles especially during the early part of the race. I always find it fustrating to watch the lead car drive round by himself while a fantastic scrap is being ignored further down the field.
And really whats so special about watching Mika Hakinen drive out in front. Its the car thats great isnt it. Full marks to Adrian Newey. Mind you he did the same thing when he was at Williams.
The ITV team seeem to be pretty good but it would be interesting to see more coverage of the event. You know how exciting it is at a grand prix. What happens in the stadium never seems to be captured by the ITV team.

[Sally]

Swerve-

Jim's grin drives me insane, as does his Football plugs.

Mind you, I posted before the Oz GP, which I found that Simon Taylor wasn't there- that bloke really drives me mad!

Also when we had the beeb we didn't have adverts and been forced to watch it German for a while

Couple of things are good- like the grid walk through and Murray & Martain

[speedy]

Hi Shemp,

where in Venezuela do you live ? I visited Venezuela (the country of Johnny Cecotto, saw him live on his bike in Finland, early 70's)a couple of times about 20 years ago.

[desmo]

Can anyone explain why the in-car shots (when we get them) have such atrocious fidelity? CART and NASCAR figured out years ago how to give race viewers crystal clear video from the in-cars cams (excepting tunnels). Whoever is responsible for these shots in F1 is incompetant.

[shemp]

This weekend was worst that ever. Why people that no know anything about this are there commenting F1? The international broadcast I think it was good...