Coronation Street is a advert show

Phew, quite a backlash.  Let me make a few points,

1.  Back in 1996, there was no American Grand Prix in the calendar, which cuts directly into prime-time ITV.  

2.  Two-tier viewership is a reality, look at the Live Premiership coverage which is exclusive to those with Sky !  You have to pay for it and football has a much higher viewership than F1. Two tier viewership is also rife on other channels where you get extra or exclusive programming if you have digital TV. Look at channels like E4, they buy up programmes like ER & Friends and show them first on the digital channel.  

3.  ITV not only has a comitment to it's viewers but also it's advertisers.  They tried to please 13m Coronation Street viewers, and a significant lower number of F1 viewers, attempting not to alienate either.  

4.  If anything last years USA Grand Prix got even more coverage than any other race, it was covered live on ITV2, delayed in full on ITV, highlights of the race and a late-night re-run, comprehensive coverage.  

5.  ITV have listened to the complaints and will be showing the US Grand Prix live on prime-time ITV1 on Sunday night, even though the result of the race has no bearing on the championship.

6.  Football analysis on ITV1 doesn't get any more coverage than F1, on F1 you get the presentations, press interview with top 3 drivers, chat with Tony Jardine and interviews with the drivers.  You also get interviews with the drivers during the race itself.  Football analysis is often curtailed at 9:45pm, again for Coronation Street.  

7.  I find a lot of your criticism of the coverage bemusing, when you consider how the BBC used to cover the sport.  You're criticisms are mostly about the inovation that ITV has brought to the coverage :

BBC did not show live qualifying (only the British grand prix)
BBC did not do the grid walk interviews
BBC did not provide the insight into the teams, drivers and personalities
BBC did not have a presenter devoted to the coverage a guest or a studio at each race track
BBC did not offer post race analysis

Formula 1 on BBC was a low key Grandstand sport, ITV1 has turned F1 into event TV, created a website, a magazine and numerous other theme nights and programmes to the sport.  The only thing that let's it down is the ads, but that is a consequence of commercial TV.  I feel you do ITV a disservice for their coverage of F1.  

Oh, and as for the bias towards British drivers, I have never heard a driver more highly acclaimed by Murray Walker than Michael Schumacher.  

i have to agree with the previous post - i enjoy F1, though im not an avid 'must get back home quick' dedicated fan, and i think itv have to strike a balance - which i think theyve done quite succesfully.

F1 has a reaonable viewership - and is therefore comercially viable BUT programmes like coranation street have a considerably larger viership, and bring in much needed cash.

i think bernie is not likely to accept any offer the bbc could afford for any future tv rights - but i think if your after wall-to-wall uninterupted, and extensive pre-race and post race analysis, you should be wishing for the rights to pass to sky.

but i think rosenthal ought to go

I think ITV should stop putting ads on during Sport and Movies. Sky Movies doesn't show adverts during films, only between them. And rightly so. As for sport, I think ads should only be on during breaks. Football gets them just before kickoff, at half time, and just after full time. F1 should only get them between preview and race, and between race and analysis.

Adverts are ITV's bread and butter. They wouldn't be able to show the films or sport without them. Sky Movies and Sport are subscription channels !

ITV has it's own digital service too - ITV Digital. Or have you forgotten that?

What ? Your logic baffles me, you say ITV should show F1 and movies without adverts like Sky do. Well, ITV movies and F1 is on mainstream, free to air ITV1. Sky Movies & Sky Sports are subscription channels that also carry advertising. You are not comparing like for like. You don't have to pay to watch ITV1 !

You dopn't have to give your money to Sky to get their subscription channels, you can use Cable, or indeed ITV Digital. So the adverts are needed just as much on Sky as on ITV. So there.

So when you subscribe to Sky Premier via cable or ITV Digital, who gets the subscription fee then ?

the operator i.e. NTL or ITV get most of it. Sky don't get as much as they would on Sky Digital.

I don't know about Cable, but most money paid to ITV digital goes to Sky.

Put it this way - ITV digital LOSE money if you take 1 sky premium. because of Sky's charging structure, they don't make any money from premium channels unless you subscribe to them ALL (i.e, SSP1, SSP2, Moviemax AND Premier)

Then why do they carry them!?! Sky is breaking the law, I'm sure of that. (Competition laws - unfair pricing)

Something to do with the fact that any platform that didn't carry the channels would be dead in the water from day 1