On Which TV Broadcaster Do You Watch The F1?

[cynisca]

I watch the Formula One on RTL (free-TV). I ing hate the commercial breaks. :p

And you? :)

[Tazio]

Buccaneer Broadcasting!! (Stolen TV) :)

[DazzlaF1]

BBC

No ad breaks and THE CHAIN!!!!!!!!

[Mifune]

whatever i can find on TVU or sopcast because the Japanese coverage is just that bad!

[Easy Drifter]

As of today's stupid rule changes I will not watch F1.

[jso1985]

Fox Sports.

If you think having to pay for it keeps you free from commercial breaks, you're wrong!

[Shifter]

I watch (used to?) on Speed TV, with David Hobbes, Steve Matchett, Bob Varsha, and Peter Windsor (?) in the pits.

[Donney]

Telecinco up to last year and from this season onwards La Sexta has the rights. Both public broadcasters and not really bad, but far from great.

[Valve Bounce]

If you have any difficulty, please join pino's chat room and ask somebody there just before the race or even during the race. There is every likelihood that you will get a link to a website where you can watch the GP.

[Mark]

Before 1997 - BBC
1997 - 2008 - ITV
2009 onwards - BBC
+ 2005 San Marino GP on Eurosport :p (I was in France!)

[millencolin]

One Hd...

[pino]

Sky Sport Italy HD :D

[Dave B]

You do know that the HD channels are just showing upscaled SD, don't you? (With the exception of Fuji TV when they are the host broadcasters of the Japanese GP).

BBC for me this year. Plenty of stuff to be excited about but mainly the absence of adverts.

[Mark]

You do know that the HD channels are just showing upscaled SD, don't you? (With the exception of Fuji TV when they are the host broadcasters of the Japanese GP).

BBC for me this year. Plenty of stuff to be excited about but mainly the absence of adverts.

Yes it became clear when the BBC were talking about if they were going to use HD that High Definition feeds of F1 just aren't available, to anyone. The BBC had wanted to take it in HD as they have the capability to broadcast it, however they were told that it would require demand from other broadcasters in order to justify installing the HD equipment.

Now I'm not certain but I believe that some of the F1 TV coverage may well be shot in HD, but the cameras are only a small part of the story, then entire distribution network needs to be changed to cope with HD. Unlike widescreen where only certain bits need swapping out.

[Storm]

Star Sports Asia. Part of Murdoch's Star TV....pathetic commentary

I have also watched a few races on DoorDarshan Metro (national tv - free to air with F1 from ITV feed/commentary :) ..this channel/coverage no longer exists though.

[millencolin]

Star Sports Asia. Part of Murdoch's Star TV....pathetic commentary



I experienced Star Sports Asia when i was in Thailand recently... I didn't see any f1 coverage... but what i saw from their soccer coverage was... well... pathetic.... maybe its better in thai than in english

[Valve Bounce]

Star Sports Asia. Part of Murdoch's Star TV....pathetic commentary

I have also watched a few races on DoorDarshan Metro (national tv - free to air with F1 from ITV feed/commentary :) ..this channel/coverage no longer exists though.

There are many ways to overcome difficulties, Glasshopper!! Go to pino's chat room just before each race - there you will find the answer.

[gm99]

Most of the time I watch it on ORF (Austrian national TV) and switch over to (German) RTL for the post-race analysis with Niki Lauda. Heinz Prüller, who commentated on every Grand Prix on Austrian television bar one since the 1970s, has been retired for this season, so it'll be a bit odd watching F1 without his comments.

When I was little and visiting my grandparents on race day, I would be forced to watch F1 on Italian TV (I think it was RAI Uno), because my granddad, who grew up in Italy, didn't like Prüller much. That's why I have quite a good vocabulary of racing terms in Italian, even though I don't really speak the language ;)

[PSfan]

Well, I like many fortunate Canucks get both the Speedtv feed, and TSN (was ITV, will probably be BBC's this year and probably without the chain which is fine by me because Heroes just utilized it on there tv show, and I'm afraid the BBC will fail to do the song justice... they should have used "Saliva's 'ladies and gentlemen' song instead, now that would get anyone up and ready for a race!)

Anyway, I prefer to watch Speedtv's coverage because no matter how moronic Hobbs comes off, Brundel - Blundel... we'll just call him mr. pikeys for now (I always get his name confused...) comes off even more idiotic and annoying... And contrary to what has been posted recently in other threads, I get the race live (not 10 min delayed) on speedtv, its qualifying that they are behind because they insist on a recap of the weekends practice sessions, and have a little pre-qualy show.

I'm sure some Canadians probably have a 3rd option... RDS which would be in french, but I don't have that on my dish... :p :

[AJP]

One Hd...

This is the new sports channel that will be showing F1 live right??

But you have to have HD box??

[Valve Bounce]

This is the new sports channel that will be showing F1 live right??

But you have to have HD box??

I think if you don't have HD, just get a new TV with your KRudd Stimulus. :rolleyes:

[Ranger]

This is the new sports channel that will be showing F1 live right??

But you have to have HD box??
A set-top box costs $30. I only use it for F1, but well worth it. :up:

[555-04Q2]

DSTV which provides uninterupted coverage of every race, practice and qualifying session :up:

[Dr. Krogshöj]

The Hungarian commentators are so horrible that I watch RTL even though I don't speak German. I switch to the Hungarian network ("RTL Klub") whenever there is a commercial break.

[555-04Q2]

Whats the problem with European TV networks and advert breaks :?: It seems crazy to me as we are in AFRICA and get uninterupted coverage :crazy:

[Dave B]

Whats the problem with European TV networks and advert breaks :?: It seems crazy to me as we are in AFRICA and get uninterupted coverage :crazy:
We in the UK do now, after a decade or so of ITV's coverage. I've got no basic problem with adverts, after all commercial TV has to make money somehow and lord knows they're struggling enough at the moment, but ITV had a particularly unlucky streak of missing crucial action in the breaks and not recapping adequately.

[donKey jote]

last year RTL, premiere, ITV, telecinco and pino's chat... all live :bandit:

this year I'm not sure if they'll all still work :erm: :p :

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_3_166.gif

[Josti]

Whats the problem with European TV networks and advert breaks :?: It seems crazy to me as we are in AFRICA and get uninterupted coverage :crazy:

Not really unlogical, especially when it's broadcasted on a commercial network, like here. Luckily the Dutch RTL made a solution by maintaining the action on a small screen while adverts are playing at the same time. In combination with the good commentary we got, I don't see a reason to complain much.

[Northern Monkey]

Are the BBC doing any kind of preview show before the season?

[Jag_Warrior]

whatever i can find on TVU or sopcast because the Japanese coverage is just that bad!

That surpirses me. I would have thought the Japanese coverage would be among the best.

Me, I watch on SpeedTV, and a couple of races per season on Fox. Compared to the ESPN coverage from years ago, SpeedTV is pretty good.

[Valve Bounce]

Not really unlogical, especially when it's broadcasted on a commercial network, like here. Luckily the Dutch RTL made a solution by maintaining the action on a small screen while adverts are playing at the same time. In combination with the good commentary we got, I don't see a reason to complain much.

This sounds like a great idea. The F1 will be broadcast by a commercial station here, and I am dreading how they will inject the adverts during the races.

[markabilly]

This sounds like a great idea. The F1 will be broadcast by a commercial station here, and I am dreading how they will inject the adverts during the races.
Yes, you might miss a pass for the lead, when the former leader pits....but the adverts could be for condoms to go with the viagara ads, and therefore very important such that people should not be distracted by on track action, even if the ads do upset the pope

[Easy Drifter]

Now that Mad Max and the Demented Midgets' planned changes have been shot down by their own stupidity I will watch or at least record the races if I am at Mosport.
I will watch mostly Speed as I like the commentators. Hobbs sneaks in some very dry humour at times and Steve Matchett understands the cars. Being a former wrench I enjoy him even if it is dumbed down.
At commercial breaks I can switch to TSN (the BBC feed I expect) although they tend to break at the same time.
I can get RDS but despite 4 years of French in high school about all I remember is what I learned from Gilles Villeneuve and they do not use those words on TV. :D

[PolePosition_1]

ITV had a particularly unlucky streak of missing crucial action in the breaks and not recapping adequately.

Brundle commented on this recently in a Radio 5 interview, and he put it into perspective.

Out of the 170 odd races they covered, you can probably only name a handful of important incidents they missed, which is to be fair to ITV a pretty good ratio.

Whilst it was annoying they had ads, I do feel that they were responsible in how they implemeneted them in the races.

[PolePosition_1]

That surpirses me. I would have thought the Japanese coverage would be among the best.

Me, I watch on SpeedTV, and a couple of races per season on Fox. Compared to the ESPN coverage from years ago, SpeedTV is pretty good.


I was suprised too, I was out in Japan last year, and ended up having to go to an Irish pub run by an Irishman to see it! And everywhere I asked beforehand, many didn't even know what F1 was.

[Mark]

Brundle commented on this recently in a Radio 5 interview, and he put it into perspective.

Out of the 170 odd races they covered, you can probably only name a handful of important incidents they missed, which is to be fair to ITV a pretty good ratio.

Whilst it was annoying they had ads, I do feel that they were responsible in how they implemeneted them in the races.

Of course now I will be implementing my own breaks by using the Sky+ pause button, then fast forwarding to catch up!

[Dave B]

Brundle commented on this recently in a Radio 5 interview, and he put it into perspective.

Out of the 170 odd races they covered, you can probably only name a handful of important incidents they missed, which is to be fair to ITV a pretty good ratio.

Whilst it was annoying they had ads, I do feel that they were responsible in how they implemeneted them in the races.

Fair enough, but the other way of looking at it is 12 seasons of on average 17 races each of which was interruped by 5 breaks of 3 minutes each.

That's 51 hours of action missed - the equivalent of about 30 races.

[Mark]

Fair enough, but the other way of looking at it is 12 seasons of on average 17 races each of which was interruped by 5 breaks of 3 minutes each.

That's 51 hours of action missed - the equivalent of about 30 races.

Going off 5 breaks of 3 minutes = 15 minutes per race. In a 17 race season that's 255 minutes, Average race length of 100 minutes, gives 2.55. So we've had two and a half race lengths worth of adverts, per season.

[PolePosition_1]

Going off 5 breaks of 3 minutes = 15 minutes per race. In a 17 race season that's 255 minutes, Average race length of 100 minutes, gives 2.55. So we've had two and a half race lengths worth of adverts, per season.


Again, I stress they were annoying, and I'm happy to see the back of them.

But ITV always said ads would be part of the deal, its how they make their revenue.

Considering it was a necessity, they made a good job of an impossible situation. And much of the criticism regarding missing the important action all the time is unwarranted.

[ozrevhead]

One Hd...
Hopefully One HD will not have the stupid timezone delays - couldnt go in chat at the same time and id hate to be living in Perth 2 1/2h behind the rest of Oz

[Big Ben]

TVR1. It has the best commentator. He's so lost all the time... He has problems identifying the cars, the drivers... he needs a few minutes to realize he's watching a replay.. he's a good friend of every driver, team principal, mechanic.. whoever gets on the screen at a certain moment

[schmenke]

Up until last year I watched either Speed TV, TSN or RDS (not bad commentary, really).

This year, I'll probably just stay in bed :dozey:

[Easy Drifter]

Schmenke: I trust not alone! :D

[PSfan]

Well, I just may have to follow schmenke's lead on this too. Not anything to do with the new cars, how Bernie and Max are spoiling the sport, but yet another tug of war over exclusive rights to broadcast!!!

Just like when TSN had CART/champcar races, instead of some live racing event I should be watching on speedtv, I have a blacked out screen, and retards playing poker on TSN!!! I can almost understand TSN enforcing their canadian exclusiveness considering that its probably costing them alot more for the broadcast this year, but when they aren't showing practices?!?

[45 Below]

For those of you watching the BBC I'd be interested in hearing what you think of the new computer graphics package they are using this year. It may go under the name Virtual Spectator. It's been put together by a company where I live.

As for coverage here ... I usually try and find an Internet feed. Sky carry coverage but I have had a few "philosophical differences" with their telemarketers who keep rining me as I sit down to a meal at night (do they have cameras hidden in my house?). I just can't bring myself to buy their product.

[dj_bytedisaster]

I'll be watching the BBC live feeds. In Germany there's only the option of pay tv (Premiere) which is rubbish, or you go for RTL, which is nothing but a 2 hour ad break occasionally interrupted by 2 laps of racing and that's not even counting the commentators, who make Beavis and Butthead look like royalty.

Watched the BBC live feed this morning and I nearly wet myself halfway into the broadcast. One commentator was prattling on about the KERS system, while the second one burped full tilt into the mic.

[grantb4]

Well, I like many fortunate Canucks get both the Speedtv feed, and TSN {snip}

I'm sure some Canadians probably have a 3rd option... RDS which would be in french, but I don't have that on my dish... :p :

Same here on all of the above, even though I'm in So Cal, USA.

Did anyone else have a problem with StarChoice last night!!!??? I recorded the Pre-race and Practice 1 only to find that StarChoice shut off my coverage after the pre-race: "You do not have a subscription... blah blah." I DO TOO AND YOU SCREWED ME OUT OF PRAC 1.!!!!! %#$@%#$#^%$ Harumpf.

[Easy Drifter]

After 50 odd years I have lost a lot of my interest in F1 with all the c---. Iwas up late last night so thought I would look at practice. Speed was blacked out and TSN showing Poker on one channel and some sort of sports news on TSN2.
Guess what TSN. I won't watch F1 this year.
I also have been watching some NASCAR on TSN. Not any more. I will switch to Fox or whoever in the US. Nor will I watch any other sports that I periodically watch on TSN.
You have just lost one Cdn. viewer completely. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[PSfan]

Well, looks like TSN has taken credit for me having to wait an extra day (maybe longer) before seeing the new cars in action... taken from another msg board:



Dear Darren,

Thank you very much for your letter and your concern regarding the F-1 programming on SPEED in Canada. This year for the first time TSN has decided to invoke their exclusiveright to all F-1 programming in Canada and that has forced SPEED to be blacked out. That said we are still negotiating with the FIA to acquirethe rights to the Friday practice session and we hope to have that situation resolved before next weekend's race,

Regards,

I could almost respect TSN for doing whats within their rights. However, the way they handled CART... enforcing exclusive on races they had no intention of showing live...

Now, I could almost overlook missing FP2 if TSN gets a clue, and amends their exclusive rights to "exclusive live rights" and allow speedtv to run their re-broadcast. It will save TSN from looking foolish when FOX carries their 4 races ( I've never seen a network broadcast blackedout yet...)

Also read/heard a rumor that TSN will get their pre-race show from the BBC instead of in house (Vic and Gerald) so we might get the chain after all :p

[grantb4]

Also read/heard a rumor that TSN will get their pre-race show from the BBC instead of in house (Vic and Gerald) so we might get the chain after all :p

Arghh on first practice, but I'd be happy to get the BBC quali and pre-race.

[DonnieDarco]

Five minutes in and it's clear that we are going to have to put up with far more DC commentary than I'm able to cope with. I knew this was going to happen, but it doesn't make it any less depressing. :(

[Dave B]

Damn you, BBC, I need a poo and you don't have commercial breaks! :p

[DonnieDarco]

Just go when the obligatory isn't Lewis Hamilton just wonderful interview starts :D

Although after today he will be dropped like a ton of bricks and we'll be back to the isn't Jenson Button just fantastic interviews again :D

[Mifune]

That surpirses me. I would have thought the Japanese coverage would be among the best.

Me, I watch on SpeedTV, and a couple of races per season on Fox. Compared to the ESPN coverage from years ago, SpeedTV is pretty good.

Yeah you would think with national interest and broadcast technology it’s a no brainer, but Japanese TV in general is a travesty compared to the “inform, educate and entertain” ethic of broadcasters such as the BBC and their F1 coverage is enough to make a grown man weep real tears. Over the last few years 2 Japanese teams, a couple of drivers, a tyre supplier and a home grand prix haven’t been enough to encourage Fuji TV to show races live and unedited. Usually they are on long after midnight edited severely and have so many add breaks it gives you a nosebleed, I’m not joking if you go to the bathroom during a break when you come back that break has finished and another has just started! In the last 10 laps of the race you will see abt 3 laps of actual racing because they ramp up the adverts even more in the closing laps. So for the last year and a half I’ve been watching a pixely little speedtv stream on my computer which is FAR preferable.

[djparky]

watch it on BBC- and although there were a few rough edges this morning- it was great to watch practice yesterday during breakfast and joy of joys it's not the Lewis Hamilton Show- which is effectively what ITV's coverage became over the last 2 years.

was a bit odd without the ad-breaks but welcome back to BBC for F1 and if this first qualifying is indicative of the rest of the year then it will be compulsive viewing again

[PSfan]

Well, just thought I'd bump this up and let those Canadian F1 watcers that get Speedtv, I noticed that the afternoon re-broadcast wasn't blacked-out for me. So hurray for that...

I also know that there has been alot of love for the BBC broadcast, for that I'd like to ask, what?!?! From the MB partner that I dislike even more then MB, to the uncanny happenstance where everytime the pit lane reporter would interview someone, a driver/pit tranmission would start up, but no-one had the heart to tell the pit lane reporter to SHUT UP... so we rarely heard the transmission. The "No commercials for the BBC audience" meant when TSN took thei commercials was ussually mid sentence.. . (which is fitting because thats how the broadcasts started anyways... And the icing on the cake, last minute pit reporter interview with Hamilton that resulted in the post race interviews audio being so badly out of sync, that it was Buttons voice being heard while Rubens was being shown talking! I'd rate what we Canadians got for BBC coverage as twice as bad as what ITV gave us last year... But that should improve...

[Mark]

Well, just thought I'd bump this up and let those Canadian F1 watcers that get Speedtv, I noticed that the afternoon re-broadcast wasn't blacked-out for me. So hurray for that...

I also know that there has been alot of love for the BBC broadcast, for that I'd like to ask, what?!?! From the MB partner that I dislike even more then MB, to the uncanny happenstance where everytime the pit lane reporter would interview someone, a driver/pit tranmission would start up, but no-one had the heart to tell the pit lane reporter to SHUT UP... so we rarely heard the transmission. The "No commercials for the BBC audience" meant when TSN took thei commercials was ussually mid sentence.. . (which is fitting because thats how the broadcasts started anyways... And the icing on the cake, last minute pit reporter interview with Hamilton that resulted in the post race interviews audio being so badly out of sync, that it was Buttons voice being heard while Rubens was being shown talking! I'd rate what we Canadians got for BBC coverage as twice as bad as what ITV gave us last year... But that should improve...

Some are never happy :p

[PSfan]

Some are never happy :p

And actually there was an article in I think it was the Toronto Sun that was equally has harsh as my post... Take away the commercial free, the red button and the other novelties that BBC offers, and your left with something that in its current form, with the teething pains, is alot worse then what ITV had provided. This isn't to say that it won't get better... though I'm affraid it might take years to iron out the wrinkles...

Though, I just wanted to post that it looks like Canadian's might get FP2 on speedtv without the blackout tonight... So I'm sometimes happy :cheese:


edit: it was a The Star Article I read BTW:


http://www.thestar.com/Sports/AutoRacing/article/610410

• As I reported on thestar.com last Friday, TSN asked Speed to black out its F1 telecasts north of the border. So Canadians were stuck with the BBC and I, for one, was not impressed.

• Play-by-play broadcaster Jonathan Legard reminded me of Murray Walker. On more than one occasion he mixed up the drivers (he said Barrichello ran into Vettel, for instance, when he'd run into Webber) and colour commentator Martin Brundle didn't sound like he had his heart in it at all.

• For long periods I had no idea who was where in the race. ITV used to visually update the race standings almost constantly. Yesterday, there was sometimes a crawl along the bottom of the screen that I found hard to read and the ITV-like updates were sporadic. They've got to do better than that. Much better.

• Voices frequently piled on top of voices. For instance, pit reporter Lee McKenzie was interviewing Kaz Nakajima after his crash and the Beeb was broadcasting a transmission between Glock and his race engineer at the same time.

• At the conclusion of the race, the audio had McKenzie interviewing Hamilton in pit lane and the video had Button answering questions at the post-race news conference. It was all terribly confusing and very amateurish.