63 replies to this topic

[917k]

Surprisingly good[forget the Red Bull stuff.]
A great many onboards,great new camera angles,and stuck with the midfield battles as the Ferrari's pulled away.
Best of all,very,very few commercials,totally blows Speed away.

For all the doom and gloom about ABC,so far I have been really pleasently surprised by their coverage.If the penalty for getting the digital feed is a 20 minute Red Bull infomercial,bring it on,all season long,as far as i am concerned.

Speed is OK,and would be great if they had the digital feed,but they are too small to be able to afford it and they need to cram so many commercials into the broadcast.

[nicohu]

I think ABC did offer some interesting camera angles and on-screen info. But what bothers me is that the broacast feels like a packaged persentation of the race without the anticipation of the pre-race and the excitement of the post race (the complete trophy presentations, for example). I don't know if the race is abridged but I prefer watching a live race on Speed with longer commercials than a packaged taped race with shorter commercials.

Nicolas

[Ian Smith]

I'm totally PO'd about it.

I didn't realize this race was on ABC. By the time I went looking for it on Speedvision, ABC had arleady aird the race for their ona and only showing. I missed the damned race!

[IMHO]

At the end of the broadcast there was some text:

"The preceding program was paid for by Formula 1 Management" IIRC

so I guess we got a full two hour commercial for F1 paid for by Bernie.

[Xodiac]

ABC didn't do anything. The whole feed, except for the comatose Danny Sullivan, is provided by Bernie. It is 1 of the channels of the Digital pay feed the rest of the world gets. ABC then cuts out a bunch of actual race related stuff, and gives us "Coma" Man's Red Bull commercial., but bills must be paid.

As for the actual race coverage, I would rather see the Digital feed with all it's in-car shots then the "World feed" I can ignore the announcers. Besides, anythings better than Rick Debruhl.

[RedWolf]

I hope is was a good race. KGC-7, the ABC affillate here in the Bay Area, decided to show a 5-hour bicycle race in place of the F1 race. Dam disappointing !!!!

[mika911]

For those that missed the race...

Don't forget that Speed will air it next Sunday. Not a great answer for you, but better than nothing ever I guess.

During the ABC broadcast they would even pick the action back up right where they left off...so viewers really saw the entire race just about...not even the commercials caused more than 1-2 minutes from missing.

However, the pathetic pre-race, post race, and problems with having F1 on network TV (delayed....different times in different parts of countries and even not being shown b some affiliates) makes it pointless!

[AyePirate]

Originally posted by Ian Smith
I'm totally PO'd about it.

I didn't realize this race was on ABC. By the time I went looking for it on Speedvision, ABC had arleady aird the race for their ona and only showing. I missed the damned race!

Speed(vision) is re-broadcasting the race next Sunday 9/22 at 9 pm EST (and again @ 1:30 am Monday 9/23).
The commentary will be by the usual Speed crew, but alas (I think) the camera work will be
the standard world feed and not the swinging BernieVision that ABC just broadcast.

On the bright side you will miss out on the Danny Sullivan Red Bull infomercial.


Cheers,


Patrick

[nicohu]

I actually like Speed's announcers. They might not be the best but at least they are informative and relatively mistake free. Also Speed is one of the digital channels here in Nebraska so the picture quality is way better than ABC.

I really hope that Speed will do F1 again next year. I don't think I can stand ABC's tape delay broadcasts for the whole season.

Nicolas

[zango]

My biggest complaint about ABC's coverage is with the post race coverage. Or rather the lack of any post race coverage.

The race coverage itself didn't have as many in car shots as I would have expected from the digital feed and there was virtually no telemetry.

The pre race was also pretty pathetic apart from the cool telemetry shoing G loadings and stuff from one of the Sauber cars.

Oh and by the way, what was up with team radios? Every once in a while the footage would show "Team Radio" on the screen but the audio was completely missing. D'oh!

[Hunt the Shunt Fan]

Originally posted by nicohu
I actually like Speed's announcers. They might not be the best but at least they are informative and relatively mistake free. Also Speed is one of the digital channels here in Nebraska so the picture quality is way better than ABC.

I really hope that Speed will do F1 again next year. I don't think I can stand ABC's tape delay broadcasts for the whole season.

Nicolas

The Speed announcers suck. How many times does Rick Debruhl say the word RUMOR? Rumor this. Rumor that. Rumor this. Rumor that. Over and over. During the next telecast count how many times he says that word. You can tell the guy reads all the F1 web sites that we all read - autosport.com, f1live, dailyf1, inside f1, itvf1. etc... I wonder if he shells out the money for atlasf1 or shells out the big bucks for the autosport paper mag that comes two weeks late here in the u.s.a.

[BuonoBruttoCattivo]

What has ABC done besides beam a previously taped version of BernieVision?
There post race coverage was geat, just f_)king great!
Please, return ALL races to Speed, live and the whole 3 hours.

[Galaxy]

I want LIVE race coverage, not 10 hour tape delays. ABC can kiss my ass.

[nicohu]

I don't think that the fact that Debruhl reads all the websites is a bad thing; after all, many of us do the same. But at least everything is relevant to the race at hand or the events of the week. But I have never watched a complete race on a European channel so I don't know how good the announcers are (I have a few F1 videos with Murray Walker and I do not like him). The only non-English broadcast that I've watched was when I lived in Argentina in the mid-80's but I don't really remember how they were.

I guess my point is that between the 2 brodcasts here in the US (Speed & ABC), I like Speed a lot better.

BTW, I will be ready to count Debruhl's "rumors" on the next broadcast.

Nicolas

[wherezmyz]

Well, while we are at it, why don't we thank Speed for delaying the broadcast of the fastest qualifying lap in F1 history to show us live, roundy-round coverage from Rockingham?!

[jhodges]

Originally posted by RedWolf
I hope is was a good race. KGC-7, the ABC affillate here in the Bay Area, decided to show a 5-hour bicycle race in place of the F1 race. Dam disappointing !!!!

I bailed from the top of the Fillmore climb to run home & watch Italy. Boy was I surprised when I got back to the house to find the race I'd just left had pre-empted the Italian GP.

That said, the SFGP was a damn good race. Hincapie took a 20 mile flier and the finish came down to any of about 9 riders including Lance Armstrong and Viatcheslav Ekimov. Some Quebecois ended up winning in a sprint.

[Menace]

ABC sucked ASS! It was suppose to be on at 10am Western time, but they only showed it at 3.00pm, with atleast 15+ laps cut out of the race!!!!

Bring on SpeedTV with world feed rather then this delayed broadcast crap with 15+laps missing!!!

[mika911]

Originally posted by Menace
ABC sucked ASS! It was suppose to be on at 10am Western time, but they only showed it at 3.00pm, with atleast 15+ laps cut out of the race!!!!

Bring on SpeedTV with world feed rather then this delayed broadcast crap with 15+laps missing!!!

I agree that races should be on Speed.

However, west coast ABC affiliates were NEVER going to to have the race at 10:00am. They were always scheduled to have it at 3pm (after IRL race). Is it right? No! However, it was planned to happen this way.

[F1Rulz]

Originally posted by mika911


I agree that races should be on Speed.

However, west coast ABC affiliates were NEVER going to to have the race at 10:00am. They were always scheduled to have it at 3pm (after IRL race). Is it right? No! However, it was planned to happen this way.

My affiliate had to show the ever important InfoMercial at 10AM. So what do I do for the USGP? Set the VCR for 10:30 Pacific or 3:00 or there after?

Doesn't the Digital feed have another SuperStation feed w/ Damon Hill and some other guy. Maybe they should let us hear them. I kinda missed the Speed crew. I don't think DeBruhl is any more of a pain than John Watson. I kinda missed D. Hobbs.

[Sphinx]

Pros:
ABC (BernieVision) : Few commerical breaks and they are short too. Hardly had time to run to kitchen and refuel. Great race coverage and views. Picks up midfield battles. I enjoy the race commentators for their enthusiasm.

SpeedChannel: Prerace coverage. Pitlane interviews. Live practice, qualifying and races. I like Matchett and Hobbs. Post-race coverage. Get more of a feeling as a viewer that I'm part of the race atmosphere.

Cons:
ABC: Prerace. I'm not sure at this point how the Danny Sullivan bit actually helps any prospective racer from the U.S. get into F1, other than saying you gotta move to Europe. Announcers talking through most of in-car shots. Postrace...hey, you gotta have the parc ferme coverage, podium and post-race interview with some commentary from the announcers at least. ABC does cut some laps, but so does SpeedChannel since they have more commercial breaks.

Speed: Worldfeed (when compared to BernieVision). I'm sorry, but Rick DeBruhl for some reason is just on the edge of annoying.

[Scudetto]

I despise that 20 minute Red Bullshite infommercial prior to the race. On this, Speed absolutely shames ABC. And let's face it, that part is the only input ABC has in producing the broadcast. All they have to do give plug in to the digital feed.

Because this was such a short race, time-wise, ABC did not have to edit out any laps of the race to squeeze it in before the IRL broadcast. In fact, if you look at the first commercial break after the race began, the race resumes about 10 seconds earlier than when the commercial break began. That was kind of impressive, and a far cry from Monaco when ABC edited about 12 laps out of the race.

Yes, It's nice not to have the commerical onslaught that you get with Speed, but I do like their pre-race show; I like the fact I see the whole podium celebration; and I like the fact you see the whole press conference. I HATE having an editor in NY showing me what HE thinks is relevant.

Still, I'd NEVER trust ABC to air an entire season. Right now, they're OK with it, because it's still a "special" event for them to air. Once it becomes run-of-the-mill to them then they get lazy about it. CART coverage comes to mind in this regard.

I prefer to stick with the devil I know.

[titrisol]

Agreed, not even a shot of the qualifying...
and just showing RB, EI and M$ spraying champagne is not a good way of showing races, while in the following show (IRL or CART) they even show the winner's lap, milk spray and all that crap....
Also the commentators were looking at a different race at times, not bad for american network TV but it sucked... hope they allocate a bit more time for the US GP

Originally posted by zango
My biggest complaint about ABC's coverage is with the post race coverage. Or rather the lack of any post race coverage.

The race coverage itself didn't have as many in car shots as I would have expected from the digital feed and there was virtually no telemetry.

The pre race was also pretty pathetic apart from the cool telemetry shoing G loadings and stuff from one of the Sauber cars.

Oh and by the way, what was up with team radios? Every once in a while the footage would show "Team Radio" on the screen but the audio was completely missing. D'oh!

[Hubert]

I live in SF bay area and the ABC affiliate was showing the SF grandprix (cycling)
Arrrrgh. Now I am worried about the next race at Indy, what are they going to show next
instead of F1.

[Locai]

Maybe I'm the only one here that thinks this, but I actually don't care for the announcers that do the ABC coverage. They seem to be calling the race like they're calling a horse race on the radio. They are just non-stop chatter.

I prefer the (what I consider) much more laid back approach of the Speed Channel announcers. Especially when most of the races are on (need I mention LIVE ?) at 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning. Thankfully, Rick DeBruhl has calmed down quite a bit from his debut telecast.

I just wish that we could get the Digital feed on live with the Speed Channel announcers. That would be ideal. I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting, though.


The funniest part of the telecast was when the British announcer was doing a promo for Monday Night Football. Does anybody think that he has a clue who Steve Spurrier is?

[jdanton]

Originally posted by jhodges


I bailed from the top of the Fillmore climb to run home & watch Italy. Boy was I surprised when I got back to the house to find the race I'd just left had pre-empted the Italian GP.

That said, the SFGP was a damn good race. Hincapie took a 20 mile flier and the finish came down to any of about 9 riders including Lance Armstrong and Viatcheslav Ekimov. Some Quebecois ended up winning in a sprint.

Charles Dionne from 7up, they're one of the smaller US teams and this was extremely good result for their team.

Tantamount to Sauber winning a GP heads up against Ferrari (due to the unusual presence of the full USPS team)

[AndreasF1]

Does anybody know who wrote the song for the ABC summary at the end of the race. It was really cool.

[Haz 2]

I couldn't care less about pre race and post race stuff, (hardly ever watch them). My main concern is the quality of the race coverage, and the amount of commercials. ABC is given the good feed, and has very few commercials, so I'm a happy camper. Its almost impossible to watch F1 on speedvision (or is it channel now?) with their insane amount of ad breaks. Even if ABC edit out 10 laps of racing, you will still see more action then if it was on speed.

However, if I'm not mistaken, the race wasn't edited for time at Monza or Canada, and Indy will be live. I'd be OK with ABC airing all the races, if the format stays as it is. Tape delayed is no big deal for me, I stopped watching races live anyway ever since i got Ultimate TV.

[jonpollak]

As bernie has stated that he would like to see more terrestrial coverage in the USA......
Perhaps we should get used to it????

link to SPEED's programming comments

I liked it..
(having the digital thing at home in Europe I am used to Watson/Edwards)

as Scudetto said....They returned from commercial to tape of BEFORE where they left off

world feed is world feed......reliable, if nothing else

Jp

[tanja]

Originally posted by jdanton


Charles Dionne from 7up, they're one of the smaller US teams and this was extremely good result for their team.

Tantamount to Sauber winning a GP heads up against Ferrari (due to the unusual presence of the full USPS team)

Not "the" full USPS team...many of them are in Spain for the Volta a Espana.

We saw the SFGP from the top of Taylor. I think it's great that the bike race was shown on ABC. It was really exciting, and really just amazing to see those guys climb those hills. Especially when you compared them to the great cyclist in the corporate challenge. The pros went up those hills like it was flat! I just think ABC should have also shown the Italian GP, delayed even a bit more.

[ehagar]

I don't like Rick DeBruhl, but I am getting used to him. THe first race it was like nails on a chalk board.

[Scudetto]

Originally posted by ehagar
THe first race it was like nails on a chalk board.

It certainly was. I missed (and still miss) Varsha, but DeBruhl has become tolerable. He's finally recognized that Machett and Hobbs are infinitely more knowledgible than he, and defers accordingly.

The ABC vs. Speed thing to me is, I KNOW what I get with Speed. With ABC, its an unknown quantity. ABC has demonstrated a permissive attitude in allowing races to be preempted by local coverage. Then there's the editing. Then scheduling the race at a time most advantagous (or least detrimental) to ABC, as opposed to live coverage according to a schedule I know 6 months ahead of time.

Yes, I dig the digial coverage and appreciate that ABC (Bernie) is trying to expose F1 to the masses in the U.S. But it's a matter of liking the message but not trusting the messenger.

[Ricardo F1]

Sucked ass. I nearly fell asleep, though I think that might have been the 'race' rather than the coverage. Some nice shots but nothing special.

BTW - does the Italian race director control Bernievision as well? I thought he had his own director . . . if so why were we watching Ferrari's tootalling around on their own when there were decent battles going on further back???

[Option1]

I didn't even watch the ABC coverage because it was delayed until TWO F***ING A F***KING M IN THE MORNING here!!!

Give me Speed's coverage anytime!! I don't mind getting up at some ungodly hour to watch it live, but no way will I give ABC my patronage for a tape-delay at that time of night. I'll watch Speed's replay next weekend.

I detest the thought of what would happen should any of the networks ever get full season coverage. Couldn't stand there bull!

As for Rick de whatshisname, like others, I miss Bob Varsha, but have gotten used to Rick. Certainly he now lets Hobbsie and Matchett talk a lot more now than he used to. In fact, now it sounds more like the three of them actually calling the race rather than one commentator and two color commentators.

Neil

[Hunt the Shunt Fan]

One good thing about having races on ABC is the security of the U.S. Grand Prix. The more races on ABC, the greater the chance of the U.S. retaining it's race in the future.




DeBruhl, Machett and Hobbs all need to go. DeBruhl brings nothing to the broadcast. Hobbs isn't very exciting, and Machett I just don't like. I really liked the color commentator who worked with Mike Joy on the Fox Sports Net broadcasts three years ago. Maybe DeBruhl, Machett, and Hobbs would be more exciting if they were allowed to go to three or four races a year for the broadcast.

[Lateralus42]

Yesterday was the first F1 race I have missed in 10 years. I thought it was going to start at 10 am for some reason, I waited and nothing on. I watched some NFL and checked back but saw that they had the GayRL race. I finally said screw it, and went out with my friends instead.

[Agent V10]

Originally posted by Locai
Maybe I'm the only one here that thinks this, but I actually don't care for the announcers that do the ABC coverage. They seem to be calling the race like they're calling a horse race on the radio. They are just non-stop chatter.

I prefer the (what I consider) much more laid back approach of the Speed Channel announcers. Especially when most of the races are on (need I mention LIVE ?) at 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning. Thankfully, Rick DeBruhl has calmed down quite a bit from his debut telecast.

I just wish that we could get the Digital feed on live with the Speed Channel announcers. That would be ideal. I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting, though.

The ABC guys were so agitated, even during the parade lap! It was like they were anticipating a pass on the warm up lap! My wife and I found it distracting and aggravating. The on screen graphics showing position, etc. seemed to only be showing the first three drivers most of the time. It made it hard to follow what was going. Of course the spiffy camera angles and all are nice, but it should be a criminal offense to skip the podium and edit the news conference. I'll take Speed's live coverage any day. I did like that goofy montage at the start of the ABC coverage. That's what ABC does best. During the Tour De France, the only thing ABC's coverage is good for is the nice camera shots and *local color* footage.

[RedWolf]

I just got finished watching the 2:00am tape-delay coverage of the Italian Grand Prix from KGO-7 (ABC). I thought I would set my VCR to see if the race came on. I was surprised that it was aired. One good thing about watching the race on VCR tape. Is the ability to fast forward thru the RedBull commercial. Other than that and the commentary. I have to say the coverage was very good. Good in-car shots and very good over-all race coverage. But the commentators need to work on thier commentating. I have to agree on this comment. To much chatter.

posted by Locai

They seem to be calling the race like they're calling a horse race on the radio. They are just non-stop chatter.

[RedWolf]

O'ya, forgot about the very poor podium coverage and Driver interview !! As a lot of you have reminded us in this thread. Speed TV will be showing it the weekend. Thank God ! At least we will see what ABC forgot or did not want to show us.

[917k]

C'mon!Bitching about pre and post race coverage?

F1 is a flyspeck in the US and will not get[nor does it deserve]those ''extra's'' on a network broadcast until its popularity increases.Hell,the NHL crowd whines about the same thing.

Sure Speed can do it.Hell,they can show WRC about 15 times a week because they are desparate to fill the timeslots.ABC is not.

Speed is good,yes,but is a TINY niche channel and will not help F1 at all.I want to see a USGP for years to come and with F1 on Speed,that probably will not happen.Even CART is suffering on Speed and they should have a much better hardcore crowd.Denver had only 155,000 viewers,less than an ARCA race,less than WOO,so think again.

[nigel red5]

I`m gonna try and help you work out what you missed.... and how the Watson / Edwards F1 digital race transmission works.

45 mins b4 the race.....the "super" channel comes on with wattie / Edwards commentary. They are sitting with 8 screens in front of them, which would help explain why sometimes they maybe were talking about different things other than what you saw during the race transmission. They do all the pre-race blah, blah blah.
They keep going through the full podium and press conference. On the wattie / Edwards channel we even see the "local language" part of the press conference on screen, but commentary resumes.....
They then continue talking for a further 15-20 mins with a short "highlights" section of the race, and also lots of shots of the teams packing up, crowd wandering on the track.

Basically the Watson / Edwards super channel broadcast in it`s original form, lasts for 2 hrs 45 mins non-stop.
This will be what ABC have been sent.......they have then chopped it apart with the results you saw yesterday.

- meantime on the "master channel" all the same happens, with interviews, and studio based chat in amongst it (Damon Hill, Jeremy Hart, Matt Lorenzo & Peter Windsor)

About 10 mins after the podium Peter Windsor will change Microphone (F1 D+ to SPEED), and rolls his "race suit" (F1D+) down to the waist, so that his SPEED t-shirt will be revealed. - so that there`s no conflict when Speed show the post-race Windsor round-up / interviews later in the day.

Over here we can tell (on the live races that you get with the Watson commentary) when you are going for ads.
I did suspect that you only joined the coverage / picture with 0.12s left on the clock before the cars rolled away for the parade lap (Very long pause then Edwards started saying that the formation lap was about to start) - which is bad really.

You guys should have had more pre & post race coverage. I just hope that ABC do you all a half-decent job for Indy.

[jhodges]

Originally posted by jdanton


Charles Dionne from 7up, they're one of the smaller US teams and this was extremely good result for their team.

Tantamount to Sauber winning a GP heads up against Ferrari (due to the unusual presence of the full USPS team)

I couldn't remember his name from the broadcast. He was a superstar yesterday, winning from Vogels and Eki - Vogels being a well-known sprinter in the USPRO circuit. You're right...it was an upset as it looked every bit like a setup for Lance.

[BuonoBruttoCattivo]

Originally posted by 917k
C'mon!Bitching about pre and post race coverage?

Ok guy, the pre- and post-race segments are important elements of a GP weekend.
Its an excitement build-up, sometimes interesting **** happens when the guys line up on the grid (RB Brazil 2001, MS Europe 2001 etc. etc.). U see the faces of the drivers, their emotions (or lack thereof).
If there is an incident during the race, I like to see the press-conference explanations, replays of key moves and podium antics.
All these are fundamental elements of a GP weekend, that should be televised, and I thank Speed hugely for showing us these portions.
ABC can go to hell along with its dumbed-down Dorito-eating audience and marketing/demographics.
After reading the poor posters which were denied even a taped race until god-awful hours, mesays F1 does not deserve USA, and USA does not deserve F1 if this is the treatment reserved to it once again (remember Foxsports, ESPN etc. a few years ago, nothing has changed).
How the f+_k can an infomercial be more important that a world-followed car race?
Nothing has changed here.

[Option1]

Originally posted by 917k
C'mon!Bitching about pre and post race coverage?

F1 is a flyspeck in the US and will not get[nor does it deserve]those ''extra's'' on a network broadcast until its popularity increases.Hell,the NHL crowd whines about the same thing.

Sure Speed can do it.Hell,they can show WRC about 15 times a week because they are desparate to fill the timeslots.ABC is not.

Speed is good,yes,but is a TINY niche channel and will not help F1 at all.I want to see a USGP for years to come and with F1 on Speed,that probably will not happen.Even CART is suffering on Speed and they should have a much better hardcore crowd.Denver had only 155,000 viewers,less than an ARCA race,less than WOO,so think again.

I think most of us are aware that F1 is niche/small-time in the US. I don't think that will ever change.

Speaking for myself, because it is a niche sport here then I want the best coverage I can get. As far as I'm concerned that is LIVE on Speed. The best coverage is most definitely NOT the US network way of showing it whenever they damn well please and pre-empting it if some exciting episode of Jerry Springer is available and showing that instead.

Personally I'd rather see the USGP fail and be able to see every GP live than cater to the few who might watch a GP occasionally when it's on network TV just so we keep a GP here. Obviously, I'd rather see the USGP succeed AND be able to see every race live, but given a choice (although I actually don't think much of a choice exists) give me every race live over retaining a GP.

There is no way any of the networks would ever consider showing every race live all season long and for that reason I'd rather see them go F*** themselves.

In other words, I want to see a whole season rather than be screwed over by the networks.

Neil

[BuonoBruttoCattivo]

Originally posted by Option1
There is no way any of the networks would ever consider showing every race live all season long and for that reason I'd rather see them go F*** themselves.

In other words, I want to see a whole season rather than be screwed over by the networks.

Neil

[Mila]

I tend to think that 917k is right. if Speed Channel and ABC get the same sort of ratings five years from now (once the F1 "brand" has been given a chance to take hold), regardless of the influence of IMS, potentially they would ditch GP coverage.

btw, for everyone who had a hissy fit over Bob Jenkins' momentary lapse in spotting NH's Sauber during the early laps of last season's USGP, please take note of John Watson's blunder this past weekend. upon observing that the Williams team was setting up for a pit stop on lap 34, Watson expertly predicted that the stop was going to be for one of the two Williams, but likely for JPM. seeing that RS had retired 31 laps earlier, as the leader . . . well, you get the picture. how can we blaim ABC for that one?

[Bart]

I was surprised to see that Bernie had to pay to get F1 on ABC, and it doesn't bode well for the future of the sport. I wonder why Bernie picked Monza though, and not Spa, which is usually a better race (and had much better coverage of the lower-order battles).

Bernievision's always nice, although I was annoyed that they kept removing the rev counter just as the cars shifted up into top gear on the main straight. Watson's voice is so annoying though, and he and Edwards were nowhere near as insightful as Hobbs and Matchett. I'll be watching the Speed coverage next weekend, I think.

[917k]

A bit of a reality check here,folks.

Speed is in about 50 million homes in the US,ABC is in 120 million.So ,virtually half the viewers cannot GET Speed,unless they fork out the dough to get the bigger package.i'm sure there are thousands of people pretty grateful that F1 is occassionally on ABC,so they can actually watch the race for once,instead of reading about it on the net.

Speed is great but so few people actually get it,it might as well be pay per view.Sorry,but I will take the digital coverage over the prerace stuff every time.the race is the thing.

PS-the GP scored a 1.0 overnight rating[about a million],actually slightly better than the IRL race.That's 4 times better than the avg. on Speed.

I'm no network shill,but I can also understand why this is important for F1 in the US.Just because you think F1 cannot suceed in America is no reason not to try.

[Option1]

Originally posted by 917k
A bit of a reality check here,folks.

Speed is in about 50 million homes in the US,ABC is in 120 million.So ,virtually half the viewers cannot GET Speed,unless they fork out the dough to get the bigger package.i'm sure there are thousands of people pretty grateful that F1 is occassionally on ABC,so they can actually watch the race for once,instead of reading about it on the net.

Speed is great but so few people actually get it,it might as well be pay per view.Sorry,but I will take the digital coverage over the prerace stuff every time.the race is the thing.

PS-the GP scored a 1.0 overnight rating[about a million],actually slightly better than the IRL race.That's 4 times better than the avg. on Speed.

I'm no network shill,but I can also understand why this is important for F1 in the US.Just because you think F1 cannot suceed in America is no reason not to try.

I just look at it differently. Call me a selfish bastard, but I couldn't care less if others get to see it or not, as long as I can - LIVE!!! And remember "live" is the key here, because that's not going to happen on the networks.

As far as I'm concerned anyone who believes that the networks would show us every F1 race withot screwing around constantly with the scheduling is living in a fool's paradise. In fact, this weekend was the perfect example - they couldn't show it at 4.30am (Pacific), but they could show it delayed at 2.00am the next freaking night. That pretty much sums up the networks' bullshit attitude to F1.

I'll take Speed Channel's coverage every single time over that crap.

Neil

[dick]

917k,
Actually any home can get Speed. Just buy a dish. As soon as I learned F1 was not on ESPN anymore but on Speedvision back in '97 or '98 when ever it was, I immediately went out, bought a dish and installed it. I can't imagine any real F1 fan not doing the same, whatever it costs. Today you can get a dish for very little and someone installs it for you. The monthly charge is not much different than cable.

[Ian Smith]

Color me niave, but what does the size of the network have to do with it? In an ideal world, the revenue produced by a particular broadcast would determine what they could spend on it.

Speed is OK,and would be great if they had the digital feed,but they are too small to be able to afford it and they need to cram so many commercials into the broadcast. [/B][/QUOTE]