Overseas stations using British coverage of events

I'm sure some of you know that in some countries, for example Canada, on some events that are being carried by British TV, they usually show the British coverage with British people commentating on it... For example TSN uses ITV1's commentary for Formula 1... What I want to know is the following:

How do they get the British coverage as I doubt very much that it's on Astra as I don't think Astra's footprint reaches that far!

What happens when the commentators mention the TV company they work for and they don't mention the other broadcaster(s) who are using their coverage? I presume that goes out on the other network's feed as well, which hardly seems fair - let alone confuses the viewers watching overseas.

What happens in the case of ITV/TSN's F1 coverage when ITV go for a commercial break - do TSN go at the same time?

And finally, on a slightly similar note to the last question:

What happens if the British TV company looses their feed of the coverage - does the other broadcaster using their feed loose the coverage as well?

Sorry if this all seemed a bit long winded but I was just interested as to how it was all handled and I couldn't think of a shorter way to write the questions! It's late! <yawn!>

I understood that the ITV commentators continue commentating throughout the commercial break.

James,

I live in Canada and receive TSN. I beleive TSN goes to break the same time ITV does, but I'm not sure because I don't always watch F1.

As to how the feed actually gets here, I beleive ITV will uplink to a trans-atlantic satellite like PAS 9. I remember that C-SPAN (from the US) was simulcasting a BBC Newsnight special once, and I remember seeing the end of a BBC trailer and then a BBC2 Ident before it started. I'm pretty sure that the UK broadcaster only provides the feed during the time the programme is on, and stops it soon after the programme concludes.

Yeah, I believe RAI Television (Italy) do a similar thing as I remember a year or two ago when watching the Pope's Easter speech from the Vatican, just as the BBC's coverage was coming to an end I think a RAI Television clock popped up on screen!

I think these days it's a mixture of satellites and fibre-optics links these days, that's how they send the Premier League stuff out to foreign broadcasters I think.

TSN goes on a commercial break at the same time ITV does if they're sharing coverage. Saying that however, since Canada has a little bit more commercial breaks per hour (12 minutes per hour max.) they MAY opt out of the race to show some commercials. Not sure if they actually did it on this particular day.

Also, sometimes TSN's commercial breaks are longer than the breaks ITV allots (ie. a LIVE TSN Sportscentre update or something), which means TSN crashes into the ITV F1 coverage. That's the case sometimes if a TV channel takes sports coverage from another channel.

It's suprising sometimes when you see this.. once got a nice shock hearing Martin Tyler on Star Sports (or maybe ESPN Asia, bizzarly sister channels) instead of the Cantonese commentators they often have for the Premier League.

Even weirder, it was a Saturday afternoon game not shown live on Sky Sports, but he was there doing the highlights commentary.

Martin Tyler also works for TWI for Saturday afternoon games and Monday Night games, providing commentary for foreign TV coverage.