f1 on itv

[Mattk]

at the beginning of todays shows jim rosenthal apologised for coverage of the last race and that they had listened to all the complaints.

ive obviously missed something here - what was he apologising for ?

[KebabMeister]

I think it was to do with the commercial break scheduling.  Many viewers, including motor journalists, complained that they had a commercial break 3 minutes before the finish and during the exciting period of M. Schumacher trying to catch/overtake Alonso.

[magicdice]

yes, it was their crappy ad-break timing at the end. i was shocked and appalled.

he didn't actually apologise though, he said that ITV had noted our complaints and that they'd try not to do it again.

[rooftrouser]

It wasn't Jim R's fault and I really think we deserve a more sincere apology from the actual mental midgets who thought it made sense to cut away for several minutes from one of the most dramatic duels in recent GP history only to return part way through the final lap. The moment the race ended they then cut to a commercial break *again*. They plead commercial necessity and we understand the role of advertising but this was crass bad timing and demonstrated the widespread reverence for the sponsor and contempt for the viewer which is now prevalent. I saw a quote in (I think) Autosport saying ITV were going to reply to all the complainers individually. I'm still waiting...

[Mattk]

i often wonder for live events such as this why they dont run the adverts with the live f1 pictures in the corner.will ensure people stay watching too !

[twiglet4frog]

itv had to show 5 advert breaks during the race itself, they had managed 4 and were waiting to do the fifth and final advert when they noted schumacher gaining on alonso at a huge rate of knots.

They decided that at the speed schumacher was going compared to alonso, and the way he took second place so easily from button that he would catch and pass alonso really quickly thus held of on the advert break, however schumacher once he caught alonso struggled to get past and as the laps ticked away the advert break still hadnt been fulfilled for the sponsers, itv quickly worked out that to allow the last lap of the race to be shown they needed to put the advert in with 4 laps remaining hoping this gave schumacher ample time to overtake. He didnt and thus they had to take the break. They then came back with the final lap remaining and then as way of an apology (laughs) decided to show the climatic battle from the last 4 laps after the race finished, but as any true fan will know, it isnt worth a lot if we know the result!!!

ITV apologising and saying it is reavaluating the situation basically means they will try harder to cram the adverts in earlier on and pray to the gods of motorsport that nothing happens as they do, but as everyone knows, motorsport is random and cant be predicted easily! They are to contractually bound by sponsers to not have the adverts that pay them the huge revenes needed to keep itv a free to watch station and buy the rights to a huge sporting event, also, spnosers dont want there adverts placed with the race ongoing in a corner of the screen as this takes peoples attention away from the product if they are still watching the race in the corner!

Just one further fact, ITV are governed by a watchdog that states they may not show more than 12 mins of advertising during each 1 hour of broadcasting! no matter how many or long the adverts seem, they never break over 12 mins an hour

[Zen]

Seems to me ITV sport as a whole is pretty poor,look at their coverage of the controversial Liverpool goal against Chelsea, Sky would have had all the angles covered.