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[Martin]

What do you folks think of the TV coverage of GPs? Please state your country / region in your reply.
What improvements do you think could be made?
I am in the UK and ITV does the coverage, and it is, overall very good (probably better than the BBC which had it before).
Downsides to ITV coverage :-
1. I find it very frustrating that the ITV commentators are at the mercy of the incumbent director and have to commentate on the same TV pictures that we see. In these days of super technology why cant each TV company from each country have access to all cameras all the time and select the screens which they want to use? Each country will want to show its own drivers for local interest but are currently forced to use the screens provided by the local director. Surely that does not have to be the case does it?. Some director coverage is very poor. The French dont seem to do it too well as I remember.
2. When Martin Brundle does his 'Grid Walk' he spends too much time interviewing nobodys (as far as F1 is concerned) like some pop star tart who has big tits but absolutely no knowledge of F1(or anything else for that matter) and is only there because they are famous.
3. Advertising breaks, a real pain and an area where the BBC is better with no adverts. but I suppose its the norm in the rest of the world and not much we can do about that.

[Denthúl]

I actually like Martin Brundle talking to the random people who show up at races, because some of them come out with things that make me laugh. ITV coverage is good, but I don't like James Allen as a commentator. I'd much prefer it if they brought Murray Walker back, because he's great to listen to. The camera coverage is a bit bad at times because they tend to focus too much on the front runners, who have a ten second lead over the nearest chasing car and around thirty over the rest of the pack. The mid-field battles tend to be much more interesting once you get to lap eight or so.

The advertising breaks, I find, are okay, because if I miss something during the breaks it's because I've got up to make a cup of tea, which I would've done anyway, so I'd have missed it regardless, and there's always a replay.

[8-ball]

we'd all love murray walker to come back (i remember there was an internet petition begging him not to quit) but he has retired. James Allen is good and is always unfairly sniped at imo. Of course he is not as good as murray (but who is!) but I think he is the best we got at the moment

[DOOOMKULTUS]

I absolutely f***ing hate Ads,and in SE aisa region the ads are freaking shown after every 5 laps,i seriously want to beat the holy crap out of those Star Sports network producers.
I like Steve Slater as commentator,but agree with Martin the commentators sometimes just seem to know as much if not less than the viewer.

[Martin]

[quote="DOOOMKULTUS"]I absolutely f***ing hate Ads,and in SE aisa region the ads are freaking shown after every 5 laps,i

Every 5 laps, wow, ITV is not that bad, that would freak me out as well. It seems that the TV companies are more concerned with quantity of advertising space then quality of program.

[al4x]

at least they do try to have the ad breaks at the boring bits, safty car bits

brundle is good, allen, not so good

the grid walks were way better a few years ago

[McLaren Fan]

In terms of ITV, their coverage is alright, but nothing special. Their pre-race build-up is worth watching, however their post-race coverage is inept. Most of the time you don't see the press conference, or only the views of the winner. I think ITV should not be so stingy and get a studio instead of randomly standing about wherever people will let them. The frequency of the advertisements is pretty annoying, as is their three odd minute length. The directors are also pretty rubbish, focusing on the leaders rather than some of the others. That's fine if the battle is close, but sometimes there are often good midfield battles you miss on, or would certainly like to hear more about. James Allen is a clown, generally as biased as hell towards British drivers when British television is meant to be impartial. Martin Brundle is good, but his grid-walk is a waste of time, for he usually speaks to wasters. Who cares about Lord-I've-been-brought-up-with-a-silver-spoon-in my-beak, at the Grand Prix because a sponsor has given him some free tickets. I would rather hear from drivers, engineers, real fans, or even have a better race build-up programme.

[7UpJordan]

The one thing that has bugged me about ITV ever since they took over from the BBC in 1997... ADVERTS! They need getting rid of, adverts have stopped us seeing Hakkinen win his first title in 1998, Hamilton's car mucking about at Interlagos etc etc etc.

Not a fan of James Allen, but I've kind of grown to his commentary a little now as you can be guaranteed he'll make a prat of himself and give the viewers some amusement as he talks about "racing with their forebears" and comparing Hamilton to Ayrton Senna. Brundle is the star of the show though, always down to earth and now gets in arguments with officials during his grid-walk.

I think the coverage of midfield-to-back runners is better than it used to be back in the 80's and 90's where the only time you saw Ligiers/Dallaras and Minardis was when they were about to be lapped.

[racechick]

Like Brundle hate the ads.

PS. Hey 7up-Ayrton's sister compared Lewis to Ayrton as well

[certom]

I think we italians are among the luckiest formula 1 fans, as the RAI (italian national broadcasting) has a full coverage of the race weekends, (which included also, till 2002, the warm-up session), and during the race there are just 3 ads of 10 secs each, then a long ads of about 3 mins after the race finish (that's quite annoying when you would like to see drivers and teams' reaction after passing the finish line), so it's great here! Hope it won't change! I've downloaded some of the GPs transmitted on ITV, i like the commentetors' voice as they speak so clear that I can understand almost all

[Jensonb]

I'm in the UK and seriously guys, ITV-F1 deserves all the criticisms it gets.

Allen is sub-par and annoying, Rider is ill-suited and the pre-race show has been steadily declining since around the time Tony Jardine was poached. Now, Martin, Mark and arguably Ted are all very good, but the overall package leaves a lot to be desired.

Furthermore, they really should rename it Ron Dennis Presents the Lewis Hamilton doing well in a McLaren Show. Anthony Hamilton - a driver's father and manager - got more screen appearances and time than most of the drivers, even some big names like Kovi. I'm not exaggerating either. I counted. Which other drivers' families get this treatment? Umm...None. Jenson's dad appears a couple of times but rarely does a piece to camera. Anthony Hamilton did one at just about every race, usually at least one each in the qualifying and race shows.

I know ITV is just trying to pander to the quasi-patriotic casuals and non-fans to grow their audience numbers, the are a business after all, but that's a gross abuse of their core audience and their monopoly on F1 TV coverage in United Kingdom.

The post-race is also laughable, once I've seen however much of the press conference they show I turn it off. It's invariably now 10 minutes of Lewis Love (Usually including another appearance from Anthony Hamilton) followed by 2 mints on the midfield, 1 minute on the championships and then a 2 minute trailer for a soccer or rugby game.

[racechick]

Its just this last year you've gone off watching ITV then? I wonder whatever they talked abouy before wonderboy? Personally I was sick of all the Schumacher stuff before that so it was a welcome relief. Anthony is Lewis' manager as well as his father. First successful black driver. Champion beating rookie. It may be annoying to folk who dont like him buy you can see why he gets all the attention.

[woody2goody]

I'm in the UK and I think the ITV coverage is excellent. Martin Brundle is excellent all round and his grid walk brings us great moments such as Kimi: 'I was having a s**t'.

James Allen is infuriating because he knows so much about F1 but makes the stupidest mistakes that are obvious to everyone else. Like saying Massa instead of Kimi when the helmets are much different etc.

They should really cut down on the Hamilton stuff pre- and post race. Even though he's brilliant I don't want everyone to just talk about him all the time. It gives the impression that he's the only British driver when in equal cars Jenson would take it to him and probably DC and Davo as well.

Stand outside someone else's garage for a change please Steve. Steve Rider is excellent at everything he does, but Mark Blundell needs to talk about other topics other than Lewis too.

I love the F1 insights and they should be 5 minutes longer instead of 5 more minutes of the Hamilton Show. I understand why Lewis gets all the attention but even if it focused on all 4 brits I would be happy.

The Ads annoy me slightly, but do allow me the odd toilet break
It would be good to have maybe ONE advert break instead of 3 i think it is.

I heard Murray Walker a bit on the radio during the 07 European GP and he was still as good as he was 5 years ago.

[racechick]

Yes I miss Murray, be good to have him back. His mistakes were great!!
(Jens and Ant are good but not a match for Lewis. DC-think pit wall - spin on warm up lap, also think usually loads slower than Webber)

[7UpJordan]

DC-think pit wall - spin on warm up lap, also think usually loads slower than Webber)

And don't forget chat up Louise Goodman.