OK, some may say that ITV's F1 coverage is a cockup in itself, but did anyone catch the ident into last nights showing of the Qualifying session for today's GP?
How the heck did they manage to play out two slightly different announcements at the same time?
I thought the ITV F1 coverage was absolutely fantastic given the circumstances. The tone was absolutely spot on in reflecting the grave disappointment of the fans, the anger at all the parties involved for allowing the situation to escalate to such a degree, and the utterly bizarre farce that was the "race". And rather than try to make out that there was a worthy race on, and sticking with terminally dull coverage of the same six cars doing nothing interesting, a great deal of time was spent interviewing the various interested parties - the team managers, the drivers, industry figureheads and of course, the fans.
On an ordinary race day, I'll admit that ITV coverage is annoying with its ill-placed ad-breaks, but frankly that doesn't eclipse the fact that ITV has done a huge amount of good for F1 coverage in the UK, providing far better coverage than the BBC ever did. With the BBC, it was literally the race and nothing more. ITV have done a great deal to build up the spectacle, the anticipation and the analysis of the sport, which is particularly critical at a time when interest in the sport isn't exactly spectacular. Granted, a disastrous situation like that of the US Grand Prix does little to help the popularity of the sport, but I was truly impressed that ITV didn't attempt to "make the best of" the race, and try to make out that the race was worth watching etc, but instead they were extremely critical and analytical of the situation and the players within it.
A shameful day for Formula 1, but a proud day for ITV.
Agreed ITV's coverage was good considering the circumstances, I liked Jim Roesenthal's comments at the end, "Next is Coronation Street, a soap opera worth watching"
It was always going to be interesting to see just what ITV were going to put in the late night highlights programme. I could imagine the cries of "60min highlight programme? What the hell are we going to fill it up with?"
As it turned out, about two and a half laps featured and the programme lasted less than 30 minutes and was followed by "ITV Sport Classics", which was far more interesting to boot.
On an ordinary race day, I'll admit that ITV coverage is annoying with its ill-placed ad-breaks, but frankly that doesn't eclipse the fact that ITV has done a huge amount of good for F1 coverage in the UK, providing far better coverage than the BBC ever did. With the BBC, it was literally the race and nothing more. ITV have done a great deal to build up the spectacle, the anticipation and the analysis of the sport, which is particularly critical at a time when interest in the sport isn't exactly spectacular.
Yes, ITV have made much more of the build up to Grands Prix and have improved coverage in that sense - much like Channel 4 have done with the cricket. But surely a full hour-long build up to a race is a bit OTT, especially when qualifying is now on the Saturday? Also remember that actual race coverage is out of ITV's hands, being either host country broadcaster or FOA - largely the same as back in the BBC days. In fact, I think it's right to say that much of the BBC team and crew that used to work on the British Grand Prix still do for ITV.
Well regardless of what happens on ITV F1, they will show the allotted adverts during the coverage. One time, they had to put in 3 minutes of adverts without about 2 laps to go and it ended up with the end result being missed!
Doesn't the full race get repeated mid week on ITV Night Time? If so, I wonder what they will show instead?