ITV Coverage

[bramble]

Why arent they showing it live? Im watching race 3 on Motors now, but on ITV its an interview with Matt Neal.

Shame to end the season with Muller Plato and Eaves all going out together. Must have been scary for Muller!

[Jonathan McLeod]

Been watching on Motors TV. Someone told me the race hadn't started on ITV, switched over and couldn't believe it was true! How crap is that. Shame on ITV, there coverage has been generally quite good this year.

[bramble]

I had a look back after the restart and saw ITV was at the same point as Motors, does that mean they cut straight to the race without showing the start?

[Jonathan McLeod]

Yes, they did just cut out the opening laps

[Sugarmouse]

Copy of letter sent to the ITV duty office. (dutyoffice@itv.com)

Well, thank you.

after showing how much in contempt you hold motorsport fans earlier in the year with your F1 advert break, you excelled yourself today with you "Live" coverage of the final BTCC race.

Play a pre-recorded championship piece about Matt Neal while the first laps of the final race are happening, and then compleatly ignore the incident which happened in the first laps of the final race, so that the interest level of the race is zero.

I sometimes wonder why I pay sky the fee for their subscription channels. Thank you for reminding me. Also, you have pursuaded my brother that he needs to get a sky box, so that's another viewer you've lost.

With disgust.

[LEE.TCC]

ive not long got back from brands and i taped the itv programm, havent watched it yet though will do later on :)

[Sugarmouse]

Lucky person. Wish they would move Brands closer to me, it's a four hundred mile round trip for me! But then, I wouldn't swap it for Oulton if only more high profile stuff came opp norf!

Nathan.

[kevin ritson]

After race 2 I was thinking "ITV must be feeling pretty stupid right now, they're showing the wrong race live", so I guess they had the same feelings...

[Claw]

Shame on ITV, there coverage has been generally quite good this year.


The ITV coverage this year has been, Dull, dull, dull!

[psq43]

My good lady was at home watching it and she said the coverage was gaslty, as per usual! Not only are ITV making the best possible pigs breakfast of thier F1 coverage, but they are doing it to the BTCC as well! Personaly, I would rather that the Beeb had the contract and we could see what we want to see even if its a week later!

Race three coverage started after 7 laps, missing the big smash.

What if the title was not yet decided and important developments were occuring!

[William E]

couldnt get to see motors today but when ITV showed race 3 the 1st 7 laps had been run

[SBF]

Not only was ITV's coverage Cr@p, but by joining the race coverage when they did, they forced Ben and Tim to keep quiet in the moments after the restart as the cars approached Druids while they were Cue'd back in from Vicki's piece to camera.

This just doesn't work for someone watcing on MotorsTV, I wondered why they had gone quiet when the race was getting going again.

MotorsTV should be extremely pi$$ed off. It should be ITV fitting in around MotorsTV's continuous coverage not MotorsTV viewers having to put up with the vagaries of ITV.

[psq43]

Its becoming quiet obvious that ITV are not interested in the viewers but more in the cash they can get from the lucrative advertising deals done on the strength of the popularity of the championship!


F1 at Imola all over again!

[maximus]

Didn't they have an advert break, then come back, show 1 minute of Matt Neals podium ceremony (poorly done) then finish the program!!?? Shoddily done.

[RupturedDuck]

As usual, ITV make a complete mess of what should have been one of the best weekends BTCC coverage....

Lets what drivel they reply to this with....



Dear ITV.

I fully expect the usual pre-formatted answer that is always dished out for these sort of emails, but I feel compelled to write anyway so you are once again aware of my feelings.

Can you imagine this scenario....

"Welcome back to Old Trafford, and there was a goal and a sustitution, and here is footage of that, and now, to the live feed 20 minutes in"

It would never happen to football or any other sport, so why do motor racing fans always get the raw end of the deal? In my opinion ITV only sees motorsport as a way of selling advertising space and drawing in viewers in an attempt to further your business. Granted you are a business, but please bear in mind your REAL customer - the viewer, NOT the sponsors. Those of us without Sky Digital are left with your substandard coverage, and this is disappointing.

Matt is a worthy champion, and I am very pleased to see him get the title he deserves, but surely the segment on him could have waited until after the live race?

Please have more concideration for your viewers. Treat motorsport fans with the same respect you treat any other sports fan, and I wonder if you have read this far. Please comment in your reply if you did. ITV have a chance to gain a good reputation for delivering quality motorsport coverage from having BTCC, WRC and F1 rights and this opportunity is slipping away fast.

Your comments are awaited.

[psq43]

You actually sent that???

[SBF]

As usual, ITV make a complete mess of what should have been one of the best weekends BTCC coverage....

Lets what drivel they reply to this with....

Please post any reply you get to that email.

[SBF]

Just another thought....If there hadn't been that accident and safety car period, just how few Live laps would ITV have got - if any?

[RupturedDuck]

Please post any reply you get to that email.

Will do, but I am sure it will be the same as the reply Sugarmouse gets.

PSQ - Yep. If you dont tell them, then they dont know

[LEE.TCC]

i watched my video of it last night and was absulutly dissapointed there was nothing about rob collards win! no interveiw or nothing! went straight to the adverts after he took the flag then when they came back it was just matt neals presentaion of the championchip! and i wanted to here what rob had to say aswell! :mad:

[Sugarmouse]

I'll post my reply, if I get one, but yes, am sure it will be the same.

I liked your letter better than mine, but am wondering... What is Football??? :)

Nathan.

[thegodplato]

Absolutley disgraceful. ITV are complete w*****s. Just wish my wife would let me get Sky so at least I could see the races properly ( although I don't want to get divorced over it!! ). Race 1 was shown all of about 3 complete laps - why? They had an hour and a half was plenty of time to show all 3 races more or less so why didn't they. Very, very frustrating. Nice one Ruptured Duck - ITV would never do this to any other sport.

[ted]

for the first time since 1999, i missed the races :( the vcr didnt tape it, looks like the hammer is coming out once again.....

what happen to muller,plato, crash in race 3?

[Neil Adams]

hughes braked a lot earlier than the others where expecting (big group of cars close together) muller tagged the rapidly braking eaves (who was behind hughes) eaves was pushed into the barriers on the left (same place as plato in 04) he then bounced back across the track connecting with muller again and plato who had now where to go, mullers car went quite high in the air, one of the biggest crashes in ages, glad they're okay.

you can still catch the early hours repeat i believe

the show should have been 2 hours long not 1 hour, they had to try and fit in all in and failed to show any of it in enough detail, didnt show turkingtons incident in race 3 or hines locking up and going off under pressure from kaye at druids on the last lap either

[RupturedDuck]

Received this afternoon


Thank you for your email. I can confirm you comments have been
registered here at ITV and viewed by senior management and forwarded
onto the production team.

DUTY OFFICER (PEL)

[psq43]

Pah!!!!! waffle waffle

[Les]

don't know about the ITV coverage - what really really upset me is to see the Motors cameraman turn off his gear just as the Seat boys were getting their cheques. PATHETIC!

[timbo5524]

I'm sorry some of you were dissapointed with the ITV coverage on Sunday but let me shed a little light on the matter. Obviously there was a set time limit for the programme which would normally show highlights of the first 2 races with the third one live and complete. However it was impossible to know in which race the championship would be decided , although we correctly guessed it would most likely be the second. It would have been rediculous to show a quick 7 minute highlight of such an important race so it was decided to show the whole of the deciding race and rejoin the final race asap. With the safety car period it was only just possible to see the end of the race and there was absolutely no time to see podiums and interviews (sorry Rob)!
Pease try to appreciate how difficult it is to please everyone, and that while you are sitting in the comfort of your living room we are trying to produce all the races live on Motors plus edit and transmit the highlights and live portion of the ITV programme! Trust me it 'aint easy and I for one reckon you get fantastic coverage. If you prefer we could always go back to a slick highlights programme 1 or 2 weeks later...

See you next year, Tim Harvey.

[Freddie]

Simple answer Tim. Give us 2 hours of your dulset tones and then you can fit more in.
Hopefully I will soon be able to watch on Motors now I have persuaded "She who must be obeyed" to upgrade to a Sky package. How I wept when they went over to the dark side away from freeview. :rolleyes:

[William E]

Explain to the wife that you can get all the home improvement shows non-stop on Sky and that should keep her sweet

[Les]

I can understand what is being shown 'live' can be difficult to get right but to see a camera switched off just before one of the championship podiums is very annoying. That means that that podium will never ever be on a dvd or highlights show. Shortsighted in my mind.

[ATF]

The best coverage this year was the 2-hour live programme ITV did at Mondello. They had enough time to do proper-length highlights of races 1 and 2 and the whole of race 3 live. For an extra half an hour, is it such a problem for itv to delay The Planet's Funniest Animals?!

[Peter]

In my opinion, the coverage has been a bit of a let down this year.

First of all, lets get one thing abundantly clear - I am very pleased that ITV are showing the majority of races live. I would hate to go back to the days of meetings being shown a week or two late. That said, there is quite a bit of room for improvement.

For me, ITV's coverage of the live meetings this year has been a bit disappointing. Those very brief highlights of races 1 and 2 are not comprehensible. The coverage was actually better in 2004 when the BTCC was often given two programmes on a Sunday. This meant that they showed extended highlights of race 1 and race 2 was done live and then race 3 was done live in the second programme. That was, without doubt, the best way to go and I struggle to understand why they have tried to cram everything into one programme this year. It is a step back, as far as I am concerned.

[SBF]

I can understand what is being shown 'live' can be difficult to get right but to see a camera switched off just before one of the championship podiums is very annoying. That means that that podium will never ever be on a dvd or highlights show. Shortsighted in my mind.

Might that camera have been one of the ITV only cameras, with the events on the podium being recorded by cameras that were being used for the MotorsTV feed, such as one of those used for the group shot of the podium where the camera is actually one of the "Circuit coverage" cameras on the outside of the circuit

[RupturedDuck]

Thanks for your email re our recent British Touring Cars broadcast.
Please be assured we always try to put the viewers' interest first, in
fact it is as a hypothetical viewer that everyone in our production team
tries to do the job to the best of their ability: ie. What would I like
to see given what is possible? However, every programme has to fit in
to what is possible, ie. length of slot/available airtime, etc, etc. In
the 90 minute Touring Cars programme we can only show Race 3 live, but
we made a decision to show the whole of whichever race became the
Championship decider. This turned out to be Race 2, but it meant we had
to JOIN race 3, rather than show it all live. I hope this makes it
easier for you to understand why the programme turned out the way it
did.

Thank you for your interest.

Yours sincerely,
Rick Waumsley
Controller, Granada Sport


I can see why their decision was made, but it still was a poor one. I would agree that ITV have indeed offered an improved service over what we had in previous years, but there is still some work to do. The commentary team is good - Ben Edwards is by far the best motorsport commentator, and your informed punditry (is that a word??) is very welcome Tim, and Vikki's flirting with every driver in sight is always amusing. Camera angles are good, and in highlights packages, nothing is missed.

It must be that as the bar has been raised in all the other areas and quality is so good, that when we get let down in another area, we do feel more disappointed. That said though, motorsport does seem to get differant treatment to other sports on ITV.

My reply was...


Thank you for your reply.

In this instance, and in many occasions, ITV made a bad judgement call.
The decision to show race 2 in its entirity meant that there was a lot
of actual "racing" cut from the other races. Surely a better highlight
package than a badly rushed live feed would have been far preferential?

It is a very difficult job, and tough decisions must be made, but you
are supposed to be the proffesionals and mistakes are made. Far more
than should be.

Better timed ad breaks, and better assessment of footage on offer would
be a better solution. The pointless race summaries after each ad break
only seem to be filler, and I am yet to meet someone who likes them.

You still have not addressed my comment as to why motorsport fans get
this treatment when other sports go untouched?

[Peter]

That is all very well, but a 90-minute slot simply is not long enough to show three races if you aim to show one of them in its entirety and you don't want the coverage of the other 2 races to be compromised.

Like I said earlier, if two thirds of races are only shown as brief highlights, it is simply not good enough.

[ted]

one of the things i would like to see is behind the scenes(what happened to speed sunday?) feature or more features in fact.

[dannybo]

You keep banging on about how this doesnt happen to other sports, in reality, how many other sports do you see on terestrial?
The BTCC gets excellent coverage on MotorsTV, just the same as Football of all professional levels gets excellent coverage on Sky.
Being a football fan, if I were to rely on terestrial for coverage, I would be mightily disappointed.
Its been a point of discussion for some time now, whether its a good thing or not, but the fact remains, if you want better coverage of most sports, you have to pay more!

You can see all three races in their entirety, repeated numerous times aswell as live, the only question is, how bad do you want it?

When I first joined these boards, I posed the question, how good is the TV coverage? I didnt get one negative response, & now some of those people are slating the coverage?
In my mind its never been better, but then, im lucky enough to have a Mrs that appreciates the benefits of Sky & the BTCC as much as me.

[RupturedDuck]

You can see all three races in their entirety, repeated numerous times aswell as live, the only question is, how bad do you want it?
Thats it - I need Sky :D

[BTCC2]

When are Motors TV going to be on NTL ???

[kevin ritson]

It seems it's not just the BTCC that suffers. This weekend, coverage of Japanese GP qualifying is on Saturday night at half-past eleven , with the race being shown barely 4 hours later. What would they like me to do, sleep all day tomorrow? Wake up for 2 hours and hope the race isn't dull enough to fall asleep to?

No, I'll be out enjoying Saturday night, I'll miss qualifying (that's right, miss the entire show) and record the race to watch around 9 Sunday morning. That way I'll be able to fast forward all the ad breaks.

So, in summary I'll miss all the ad-breaks that ITV's sponsors have paid good money for.

[psq43]

Shame on you!!! Those poor advertising companies! After all the money they pay ITV to balls up the programme in order for you to see their partners fine domestic products!! You never know, you may miss an advert for that new mop you've always wanted, or learn that daz is going down by 5p at asda!!!

[Freddie]

Watched the repeat of the Japanese GP last night. Why is it sooooooo looong? It was actually a fairly interesting race but did they really have to interview everybody in the paddock?
Contrast that with the coverage of the BTCC's last meeting where the title was won and you notice where the bias is. F1 gets the whole race live, interviews, analysis, and the podium ad nausium. It is then repeated 2 hours later in its entireity. Then again that night and again later in the week. BTCC gets 2hours, approx, of racing action compressed into 1 hour. (1 1/2 hours if we are lucky.) Out of that we lose the ad breaks, race summeries, explanations of the rules, behind the scenes interest stories. That is why we lose the post race interviews, podiums, etc. The last point is most erksome when Vickie has bumped Alan Hyde for an interview and then we don't get to hear it as it ends on the cutting room floor.

Even with the above I am still grateful for ITV's coverage as it raises the profile of BTCC and so should encourage more sponsorship. More sponsorship means more "top"cars. More "top" cars = better racing. Just please, please, please, ITV, go one step further and make it longer or have a programme every week with the bits you had to leave out of the "live" show.