- 15 Jun 07, 21:33#9462
...as if!
Reading between the lines, the guy who pretends to be incharge of that shoddy outfit has basically said 'like it or lump it, we hold the reigns'.
When will they listen to their viewers, understand that we would rather hear a V8 at full tilt for the duration of a race than listen to James Allen and view a race castrated by adverts.
Reading between the lines, the guy who pretends to be incharge of that shoddy outfit has basically said 'like it or lump it, we hold the reigns'.
Our forums have received a number of queries and comments regarding last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix coverage on ITV1. Here, ITV’s Director of News and Sport, Mark Sharman, responds to some of the points raised:
Thank you to everyone who has sent messages and comments about our coverage of F1 and in particular the Canadian Grand Prix last Sunday.
These are thrilling times for us all, unprecedented in the history of the sport, so everyone involved at ITV Sport wants the coverage to be as good as it can be. We do, therefore, listen to your comments and make changes wherever possible.
The main complaint about Sunday was the fact that we missed the press conference and/or any interviews with Lewis Hamilton after his ground-breaking win. This wasn’t ideal, but ITV is a general entertainment channel and we have to satisfy different sections of the audience.
With the Safety Car running four times, the Canadian race was well behind time, so I had to negotiate a lengthy over-run which delayed Coronation Street by several minutes.
This enabled us to wrap up the race properly, reflect the emotion and see Lewis onto the podium. The programme ended on a high, with the National Anthem and the spraying of champagne.
I’m sure the vast majority of our audience (almost 8 million people watched Lewis cross the line) saw this as a fitting climax to a great event – and were able to move smoothly to the rest of the evening’s viewing.
Several of you made the point that we could have used a red button service or switched to ITV4.
The reality is that we don’t have the capacity at present to offer a full red button alternative – and our broadcast systems don’t allow us to make an unplanned programme switch.
However, it is fair to say we were caught out by the length of the over-run, so I’m pleased to say that for this week’s Grand Prix we have made the necessary arrangements. If the race overruns and we aren’t able to screen interviews on ITV1, we will continue the show on ITV4.
I would like to point out that when I came into this job in 2005, there were occasions when we were not screening Saturday qualifying live, particularly from the Far East and North America.
Because of your requests this was quickly rectified and has paid off with good ratings on ITV4. Let me reassure everyone that ITV is fully behind F1 and we will continue to push the boundaries of schedules.
Commercial breaks are, of course, an issue, but advertising is our main source of income and we would not be able to bring top quality sport, free to major audiences, without commercials.
Our producers try hard to include them at the least intrusive moments and – by and large – achieve this.
In general I am very proud of our production team’s achievements.
They have won many industry awards for their innovative coverage, including the BAFTA for sport and two Royal Television Society trophies this year alone, for innovation (Martin Brundle’s Insight features) and for top pundit (Brundle again).
Our access around the paddock and garages, our editorial features and race coverage constantly set the highest standards of sports broadcasting.
The team lives F1, they are huge fans themselves and will continue to try and improve the service, which is why we all welcome your comments and ideas.
One final point… a couple of you have sketchy memories of the BBC’s coverage. As I recall, they rarely showed qualifying and didn’t give the races the extensive coverage that we are used to now.
However, I am not concerned with the past, only the wonderful season of racing ahead. Rest assured we will do all we can to bring you the best possible programmes.
Mark Sharman
Director of ITV News and Sport
When will they listen to their viewers, understand that we would rather hear a V8 at full tilt for the duration of a race than listen to James Allen and view a race castrated by adverts.
- nope it's not around, i think