I must say that the BBC's coverage of F1 this year has been excellent, although the driver's conferences should also be aired instead of going to repeats of Murder, She Wrote or Eastenders.

But while it has improved since the beginning of the season, one thing strikes me as very similar to ITV's version of their coverage of the top motorsport in the world.

Before 1997, the BBC's coverage was abysmal - Grandstand or not.  We rarely were allowed to see the qualifying, and we all remember how the BBC treated the actual race, cutting away to see the horse trials, showjumping or a horse race from Kempton or an update of football, then 'back to the action'.

When ITV took over - well I know that the adverts were annoying and we missed some great racing, but the coverage was much better than what had came before.  We had in depth features on the teams, circuits, interviews that were deviod of such on the BBC.  With the exception of Murray Walker, the coverage was great, and the behind the scenes and extensive coverage an hour before qualifying or the race was second to none.

But ITV's bubble was about to burst, and when the boring Schumacher dominated the event coverage went downhill, and James Allen then appeared (enough said), and by the end, The Lewis Hamilton Show had been created, with ITV obsessed with the rookie where in depth features and behind the scenes info had been replaced with endless interviews and features of Lewis.  (Even qualifying was once put on digital so they could show a programme about Hamilton - sad or what?).  Listening to James Allen screaming Hamilton's name at the top of his voice repeatedly for two hours every fortnight wasn't my idea of good coverage.

But now, in 2009, I was pleased that from the very first race, the coverage wasn't Hamilton obsessed, and that the BBC seemingly copied the same familiar format that ITV introduced many years ago.  It's often like watching the ITV F1 coverage of old.  The features and interesting stuff had returned and that the coverage was quite good.  Steve 'I love Lewis' Rider was gone and replaced by the pleasant Jake Humphrey was has done a sterling job and I hope coverage like this continues next year.

What do you think?

Great show on ITV now a great show on BBC just that hour and a half bit between the flags gets a bit boring.

It's a shame F1 itself has become so boring... the coverage cannot make up for the lack of real racing..

Boring tracks, lame WDCs... it's all very hollow...

Apart from the Hamilton bias in its last two years, ITV did as good a job as possible with the adverts, although cutting to an ad break with three laps remaining of Imola 06 (I think) was very poor. I think that the BBC have improved the show drastically, mainly due to the red button feature and objective reporting. F1 is back on its spiritual channel, and it's a welcome return,

Cheers, everybody,

SmashTV

buran:

I must say that the BBC's coverage of F1 this year has been excellent, although the driver's conferences should also be aired instead of going to repeats of Murder, She Wrote or Eastenders.

But while it has improved since the beginning of the season, one thing strikes me as very similar to ITV's version of their coverage of the top motorsport in the world.

Before 1997, the BBC's coverage was abysmal - Grandstand or not.  We rarely were allowed to see the qualifying, and we all remember how the BBC treated the actual race, cutting away to see the horse trials, showjumping or a horse race from Kempton or an update of football, then 'back to the action'.

When ITV took over - well I know that the adverts were annoying and we missed some great racing, but the coverage was much better than what had came before.  We had in depth features on the teams, circuits, interviews that were deviod of such on the BBC.  With the exception of Murray Walker, the coverage was great, and the behind the scenes and extensive coverage an hour before qualifying or the race was second to none.

But ITV's bubble was about to burst, and when the boring Schumacher dominated the event coverage went downhill, and James Allen then appeared (enough said), and by the end, The Lewis Hamilton Show had been created, with ITV obsessed with the rookie where in depth features and behind the scenes info had been replaced with endless interviews and features of Lewis.  (Even qualifying was once put on digital so they could show a programme about Hamilton - sad or what?).  Listening to James Allen screaming Hamilton's name at the top of his voice repeatedly for two hours every fortnight wasn't my idea of good coverage.

But now, in 2009, I was pleased that from the very first race, the coverage wasn't Hamilton obsessed, and that the BBC seemingly copied the same familiar format that ITV introduced many years ago.  It's often like watching the ITV F1 coverage of old.  The features and interesting stuff had returned and that the coverage was quite good.  Steve 'I love Lewis' Rider was gone and replaced by the pleasant Jake Humphrey was has done a sterling job and I hope coverage like this continues next year.

What do you think?

Interesting post (and thanks for reminding me of Grandstand cutting away to other sporting events - I'd forgotten about that!!!).

Now that I watch the races in the US, the main channel that covers F1 is Speed TV. The coverage is okay, but they never send the commentators to any of the races, so they don't really know what's going on up and down the pit lane. Also, the two English commentators have been out of the sport for a long time (1 driver, David Hobbs, 1 mechanic, Steve Matchett), but they can be funny sometimes when they're not all talking over each other. The adverts are annoying, but you get used to that and the ol' DVR allows me to skip them anyway.

However, for four European races in the middle of the season, the coverage switches channel to Fox. I think this is an attempt to make it available to more mainstream audiences - you have to pay for Speed, you don't for Fox. Anyway, the coverage becomes terrible for these races, and it's very annoying. The channel usually allots 1.45 or 2 hours maximum for the broadcast, meaning that the race is edited to fit within the time. There is no half-hour pre-race segment and the moment the chequers drops at the end of the race, that's it. Game over. No post-race interviews, no podium, nothing. To top it all off, the commentators re-explain the rules of how everything works after (what seems like) every commercial break, which becomes extremely annoying.

So, the four European races are not great to watch over here (although the British GP was fine because I was watching it from the Paddock Club at Silverstone! ), but the coverage on Speed is akin to what I remember ITV being like, but without Martin Brundle, who is sorely missed.

buran:

I must say that the BBC's coverage of F1 this year has been excellent, although the driver's conferences should also be aired instead of going to repeats of Murder, She Wrote or Eastenders.

But while it has improved since the beginning of the season, one thing strikes me as very similar to ITV's version of their coverage of the top motorsport in the world.

Before 1997, the BBC's coverage was abysmal - Grandstand or not.  We rarely were allowed to see the qualifying, and we all remember how the BBC treated the actual race, cutting away to see the horse trials, showjumping or a horse race from Kempton or an update of football, then 'back to the action'.

When ITV took over - well I know that the adverts were annoying and we missed some great racing, but the coverage was much better than what had came before.  We had in depth features on the teams, circuits, interviews that were deviod of such on the BBC.  With the exception of Murray Walker, the coverage was great, and the behind the scenes and extensive coverage an hour before qualifying or the race was second to none.

But ITV's bubble was about to burst, and when the boring Schumacher dominated the event coverage went downhill, and James Allen then appeared (enough said), and by the end, The Lewis Hamilton Show had been created, with ITV obsessed with the rookie where in depth features and behind the scenes info had been replaced with endless interviews and features of Lewis.  (Even qualifying was once put on digital so they could show a programme about Hamilton - sad or what?).  Listening to James Allen screaming Hamilton's name at the top of his voice repeatedly for two hours every fortnight wasn't my idea of good coverage.

But now, in 2009, I was pleased that from the very first race, the coverage wasn't Hamilton obsessed, and that the BBC seemingly copied the same familiar format that ITV introduced many years ago.  It's often like watching the ITV F1 coverage of old.  The features and interesting stuff had returned and that the coverage was quite good.  Steve 'I love Lewis' Rider was gone and replaced by the pleasant Jake Humphrey was has done a sterling job and I hope coverage like this continues next year.

What do you think?

Oh, I meant to add that I'm curious to see how the coverage is over here next year with the inclusion of the USF1 team. I really hope that they don't start obsessing over them to the exclusion of everyone else.

 

 I take it your not a fan of M Schumacher or L Hamilton???

Anyway, there's only a limited number of ways to cover a GP, so there's bound to be some strong similarities between ITV and BBC coverage.

BBC just need to get rid of Eddie Jordan and replace him with someone who can speak concisely instead of prefacing his question with along prelude.

 

 

There's quite a lot of comment on the BBC coverage on the thread called Jonathon Legard.  Most posters are very positive and favourable towards the Beeb coverage.

briscafan:

 

 I take it your not a fan of M Schumacher or L Hamilton???

I was actually a huge Schuey fan and, whilst I don't share some people's undying devotion to Hamilton, I think he's a very talented driver and he's usually great fun to watch.