29 replies to this topic

[BRG]

ITV are taking over coverage of the WRC on British terrestrial TV from Channel 4 who have apparently surrendered the final year of their contract. I think that the absence of McRae and Burns has swayed them, as the C4 come-on-you-Brits presentation style would become rather hollow with no British drivers to cheer on and hype up.

Good riddance, I reckon. I am all in favour of the British media taking an interest in British competitors, but I found the gung-ho C4 flag-waving a bit sickening. In the Monte Carlo coverage last year, they contrived to cover the whole of the first day without showing or even mentioning Sebastian Loeb once – a pretty stunning effort considering that Loeb was leading the rally!

Then there was C4’s scheduling – on a typical rally, the Friday and Saturday coverage would be at 12.30am, and then the final Sunday show might be at 4pm. None of it was prime time, not even close.

Finally, in a half hour programme (the one hour shows that were initially promised soon evaporated) at least half of it would be studio punditry or set pieces with one of the presenters showing us a gravel road and saying “This is a road – Colin McRae and Richard Burns will drive along this during the rally” and “This is a corner – there will be lots of these that Colin McRae and Richard Burns will have to drive around”. C4 presumably bought in all the action footage from Dave Richard’s company ISC but didn’t use it, preferring to sit around talking about McRae and Burns and their prospects.

Latterly, I had given up on C4 and gone back to Eurosport (whose scheduling is also erratic and anti-social, but at least they show you ALL the competitors and you get a lot more action. Let’s hope that ITV’s shows will be at better times and will be better balanced. – just as long as James Allen isn’t involved!

[Bumper]

Originally posted by BRG
Let’s hope that ITV’s shows will be at better times and will be better balanced. – just as long as James Allen isn’t involved!

Heaven forbid I think Channel 4's coverage wasn't that bad but what really got on my tits was the scheduling: it started out with lshowing times of 17.00 or 19.00 but over the last year that quickly deteriorated to 12.30 am at night or worse sudden cancellation of the whole segment in favour of some more popular drivel

[FredF1]

Autosport are reporting that Jon Desborough will continue to be the anchor.

No escape from the mindless cheerleading then.

[philhitchings]

Thanks for the nod BRG


One question though: Is this ITV preparing the way for BBC to take over F1 coverage, or has that died a death?? Or does it mean that we could be lucky enought to get F1 or Rally at the same time slots each weekend

I hated the mess C4 gave us with schedules. I wouldn't mind if there was some kind of consistency to it. Also waiting 24 hours for a highlights programme frem New Zealand and Australia really was too much!

I hope it pans out for us

[FredF1]

Originally posted by philhitchings
Thanks for the nod BRG


One question though: Is this ITV preparing the way for BBC to take over F1 coverage, or has that died a death?? Or does it mean that we could be lucky enought to get F1 or Rally at the same time slots each weekend

I hated the mess C4 gave us with schedules. I wouldn't mind if there was some kind of consistency to it. Also waiting 24 hours for a highlights programme frem New Zealand and Australia really was too much!

I hope it pans out for us

The Observer had an article on this last Sunday.
Apparently, ITV will alternate between the F1 and WRC coverage each week - similar to the way they did F3000.

[philhitchings]

Excellent news thanks Fred

[se7en_24]

Before everyone starts cheering about this - it said on the Autosport website at the weekend that ITV will have a 30 minute preview programme, and then only a 1 hour highlights programme of the whole rally on Sunday evening.

Edit: I found this link which says similar:

http://www.tiscali.c...ally/83472.html

[BRG]

Yeah, it looks like you're right, se7en_24. But the key thing seems to be that it will be a regular slot, at the same time on a Sunday. As opposed to C4's moveable feast. But I guess I will still be using Eurosport's daily reports, but maybe they will now be at liberty to schedule them earlier - I believe that contractually, British Eurosport could not show their report until after C4's had aired.

Funnily enough there isn't a sniff of any of this on ITV's own site.

[Peter Perfect]

talking of the WRC, does anyone know how Richard Burns is doing?

[BRG]

I think that I saw a little report in MN last week saying that he was doing well and passing on his thanks to everyone for their good wishes.

[philhitchings]

Yeah, the BBC posted a news story last week which had Burns quoted as saying that he was worried about everyone worrying about him!

se7en 24, whilst you may have dented my enthusiasm, I am still pleased that we will get some coverage on a regular basis as BRG pointed out above.

[tintin]

Originally posted by FredF1




The Observer had an article on this last Sunday.
Apparently, ITV will alternate between the F1 and WRC coverage each week - similar to the way they did F3000.

ITV are launching a Sunday afternoon motorsport strand, which will run every week from end of Feb to mid October.
It will include F1, WRC, BTCC, F3000, a weekly motorsport news/features segment, a motoring show (like Driven), a motorsport reality show, and various special events.

[BRG]

Originally posted by tintin
a motorsport reality show

As opposed to the usual unreal motorsport that we are all used to?

[tintin]

Originally posted by BRG
As opposed to the usual unreal motorsport that we are all used to?

Well, it's Formula Woman... need I say more?

[JDeRosa]

yeah spot on BRG.... completely agree. coverage was very poor. too many interviews and bollocks chatting in the studio. If you took an average I'll bet that actual rallying footage was 7 or 8 minutes worth for the 30 minute program. Would also be nice to see the group N's and some FF drive action too!!!

[Bumper]

Just a reminder to say ITV will carry two segments for this weekend's Monte Carlo rally: one half-hour programme on Sat 14.10-14.40 with a general preview for the coming season, and a one-hour segment on Sun 15.40-16.40 with highlights of this weekend's rally.

ITV are not exactly advertising this new rally coverage on their website, nothing on their F1 nor general sports page at all, and I had to dig deep to find it in their tv schedule

[tintin]

There's a preview of the Monte Carlo rally tonight at half past midnight on ITV.

[JDeRosa]

Originally posted by tintin
There's a preview of the Monte Carlo rally tonight at half past midnight on ITV.

nice one I'll stick that one in the reminder.

[tania_walesuk]

ITV are getting everything to do with sports lol. Oh well with it being on that channel I am less likely to forget about it.

[FredF1]

Having watched the hour long programme yesterday - I have to say that it was far less annoying than CH4's coverage. Thankfully, they got rid of that annoying fool doing the pit reporting "So Marcus, you won the rally by over 2 hours from the next car - you're just a lucky b@stard aren't you?"

[BRG]

Well, the loss of the studio based pundits was welcome. But I could have done without TWO interviews with F1 drivers, neither of whom actually know anything at all about rallying. Happily, no F1 drivers live in the all other WRC rally bases, AFAIK, just in Monaco, so that should not recur in future.

I tried to watch Eurosport's daily coverage but they excelled themselves - the Friday programme (which I tried to tape) was presumably delayed by over 50 mins (my tape ran out then,,,), the Saturday programme was cunninigly brought forwar 30 minutes, so it ended just as you tuned in to watch it, and the Sunday programme went walkabout - I gave up at that piont, having seen the ITV coverage by then. A pathetic effort, when British Eurosport had an audience ripe to capture. But apparently African football and Australian tennis are far more important

[JDeRosa]

yeah, the coverage was greatly improved with plenty of footage. I think Eurosport have to have the worst timetable accuracy of any channel. Perhaps a few complaint emails would sort things out.

[madmac]

I caught the Sunday round up show & thought ir was pretty good. The interviews with Button & Mcnish were a bit crap & they have got rid of Penny Mallory & Nicky Grist which is a shame, but overall great job.. Also anyone else notice thatit seems ITV's virtual spectator can only show two catrs on the stage at once

[FucF1]

Why has ITV brought the same idiotic commentating team from Ch4?

I *hated* the Ch4 coverage, it almost did the impossible and totally ruined watching WRC. Everyone time I see that smirking face of Jon Desborough I want to punch it (though he and the others were a bit more subdued this time)

Apart from the commentators the coverage was fine, they really do need to cover each day of the rally though.

Is there anywhere you can write to complain? Desborough and the others irritate the hell out of me. (as you may have noticed)

[philhitchings]

write to ITV head of programming. you should even get some sort of reply if you ask for it. Get rid of John "look at me I'm on telly again" and install Penny Mallory. at least she has raced.

[Bart]

I was disappointed by the coverage. Instead of three 30-minute programmes, one for each day of the rally, we get one 60-minute programme, which included two interviews with F1 people.

There was significantly less on-track action. How can anybody claim it's an improvement???

[philhitchings]

Bart. because of the eratic scehduling I taped a lot of the 2003 season. On Sunday I noted that there seemed to be a lot more stage action compared to the 3 programme format of the Channel 4 effort.

It's a bit like the Sunday F1 show on ITV the pre race show always includes loads of stuff that has been aired on the Friday and Saturday shows. The WRC 1 hour eliminates this. nid you I would stil like a 90 minute show ;)

[Bart]

And with their mindless "We must have a Sunday afternoon show" attitude, we don't get to see Day 3 of the WRC Mexico until Monday night on ITV2, or Wednesday for people without Freeview or satellite. Although I watched it on Eurosport this morning. And there's no "shakedown" programme either. Definitely a bad thing, all in all.

[Adder]

Originally posted by Bart
And there's no "shakedown" programme either.

Yes there is, the last one followed the F1 Highlights show on ITV1 last Sunday night/Monday morning at 1.10am.

[Bart]

OK, I must have missed it. Still, I would object to having to wait two days to find out the result from the rally if I didn't have Eurosport.