U.S. GP - FOX televison coverage

[schmenke]

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Speed T.V. gang (Varsha, Hobbs & Matchett) were providing commentary although that Derrick Daily fellow should keep his mouth shut to avoid further embarassement :s .
I was also disappointed at the number of commercials :down:

What did everyone else in NA think about the television coverage?

[JasonD]

It wasnt to bad, once I found it that is. I didnt expect FOX to be broadcasting it so I kept skipping that channel in the program guide.

Daily is a cast off from ChampCar, he isnt to bad generally and I did like him though I dont think he added much value to the broadcast. At one point he was going on about Hamilton swerving and blocking Alonso, the rest of the crew kinda went "huh?". I dont think he'll be back.

[tacksharp]

Or rather, the local Fox affiliate sucks big time.

In the SF Bay Area the race was on TAPE DELAY, those bast@rds.

The main Fox affiliate Channel 2 wanted to show the Giants game because of what's his name's chase for some record, so initially the race was going to be shown live on another local Fox affiliate, Channel 36.

Then a day or two before the race the online guides showed that the race was back on Channel 2 at 2:00 pm local time, FOUR HOURS after the race really started.

Amazing that the USGP is the only F1 race I can't watch live on TV.

[schmenke]

It wasnt to bad, once I found it that is. I didnt expect FOX to be broadcasting it so I kept skipping that channel in the program guide....

I was caught off guard too. The t.v. guide in my local newspaper indicated that Speed T.V. was airing the race live but when I turned the telly on they were showing a repeat of some NASCAR race :mark: . I then flipped to our local sports channel, TSN, which usually carries the ITV feed but they were airing coverage of the US Open (nothing really wrong with that mind you :) ). So I missed the first few laps of the race by the time I realised that FOX was airing it :mark:

[Duralumin]

Was I the only one that LOVED the fact that this is the first time in 12 years I've seen an F1 race in widescreen? Not true HD, but it was FAR FAR better than the usual 4:3 on Speed. THANK YOU FOX!!!

[Easy Drifter]

Not sure if Fox was carrying it so taped hrs. of junk on TSN. Got TV guide in Sun. paper. Oh good, TSN are showing it at 12 30 am. Tune in at 12 20. TSN started coverage at 12 am. mutter mutter.
Watched it. At least Speed are doing a replay on Wed. and I will tape that. I do not like the TSN coverage with James Allen and Brundle. Yeah, owning your own business and working 7 days a week is great fun.

[luvracin]

In Detroit, for the second race in a row the race was officially delayed until 4:30 pm due to the Tigers baseball game. But even then it didn't actually start until 45 minutes AFTER that because the game ran long. So even though the commentary team talked about the LIVE telecast, it was actually 5 hours delayed.

As this same thing happened to the Canadian GP telecast I'm a little frustrated.

Coverage itself was good seeing as it was the Speed Channel guys, Derek Daly is a waste of space - Blocking??? WTF??.

As someone else said, it's the local affiliates messing it up.

[tinchote]

It wasnt to bad, once I found it that is. I didnt expect FOX to be broadcasting it so I kept skipping that channel in the program guide.

Daily is a cast off from ChampCar, he isnt to bad generally and I did like him though I dont think he added much value to the broadcast. At one point he was going on about Hamilton swerving and blocking Alonso, the rest of the crew kinda went "huh?". I dont think he'll be back.


This is the same guy who admires Senna, and who flew over most of the pack at St. Devote in 1980. You would have expected him to be more knowledgeable.

[trumperZ06]

:p : Fox Sucked... way too many commercials, and that idiot Derrick Daly's interviews with the drivers his and comments added nothing to the broadcast. Didn't like him at ABC or CBS... now I remember why !!!

:D Thankfully, we had the Speed TV commentators covering the actual race.

[Wilderness]

I did enjoy the post race conference, something we did not get for Canada.

I loved it when Varsha, Hobbs and Matchett shut blabber mouth Derek Daly up after he commented about Lewis' 'blatant' blocking of Alonso. Priceless.

Didn't get to see any of the commercials as I got to watch it later in the day. Did I get this right, did Speed offer the "Onboard Pass" free of charge half way through the race? It sure sounded that way (not that it would work for me, my satellite reception is like 5 plus seconds delayed).

[pits4me]

Was I the only one that LOVED the fact that this is the first time in 12 years I've seen an F1 race in widescreen? Not true HD, but it was FAR FAR better than the usual 4:3 on Speed. THANK YOU FOX!!!

Finally an F1 race shown on US soil at a reasonable viewing time. Bernie can cry all he wants about US TV numbers but his schedule fits the European market, not ours.

"Breakfast at the Races" :D would be more appropriate for most American (North & South) audiences.

[truefan72]

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Speed T.V. gang (Varsha, Hobbs & Matchett) were providing commentary although that Derrick Daily fellow should keep his mouth shut to avoid further embarassement :s .
I was also disappointed at the number of commercials :down:

What did everyone else in NA think about the television coverage?

Yes D.Daly was an embarrasment all weekend. Posey reallt didn;t add anything except for a few attempts to wax poetics about F1

[truefan72]

Was I the only one that LOVED the fact that this is the first time in 12 years I've seen an F1 race in widescreen? Not true HD, but it was FAR FAR better than the usual 4:3 on Speed. THANK YOU FOX!!!

yes I like it too. The Canda GP was broadcast on 4:3 but the US gP was a joy to watch in that apsect ration. Like you I noticed that it wasn't really in Hi-def but it looked tremendous on my 61" hi def sony tv ( I got it for last year's world cup :) )

[truefan72]

The problems had more to do with the affiliates than the Network. I got both races live.

I only wish that they would show the British and French races live too. And the nrebroadcast it at 1pm. Those 7am/ 8am start times only interfere with stuoid informercials that they run at that time. That was my biggest gripe with CBS last year. Along with their atrocious commentary. Many commercials, poor editing and zero post race coverage.

If they can show tennis live in the morning from Europe then give us F1 too. They might be surprised and actually pick up some extra fans along the way.

[call_me_andrew]

I don't see what the attraction to widescreen is. Last time I checked, the human eye sees 160° by 130° which is closer to 4:3.

[truefan72]

I don't see what the attraction to widescreen is. Last time I checked, the human eye sees 160° by 130° which is closer to 4:3.

get a hi def flat screen of at least 42" and you will know. There is a huge difference in the quality and experience.

Quakertown Heh, used to live in Philly and West Chester, been to that pottstown, quakertown, boyertown area a couple of times...ah the memories

[call_me_andrew]

I've seen big hi def TV's before and didn't really see a difference.

[weeflyonthewall]

I've seen big hi def TV's before and didn't really see a difference.

See an optometrist then. From 10 feet away a 60" HD shows well defined marbles off the racing line. In normal analog its just a blurr.

[mstillhere]

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Speed T.V. gang (Varsha, Hobbs & Matchett) were providing commentary although that Derrick Daily fellow should keep his mouth shut to avoid further embarassement :s .
I was also disappointed at the number of commercials :down:

What did everyone else in NA think about the television coverage?

It's no mistery that I hate the whole gang. They were supposed to be fired.....yesterday. ENOUGH WITH LEWIS AND MCLAREN ALREADY!!!! We need to respect the viewers who don't give a ....... about them. On a positive note, I loved the coverage given to almost everybody on the track, showing not only what the SUPERSTARS oooops!!! I meant to say the superstar.... was doing but the other pilots as well. I think that in the future \I' ll be watching the races on mute. I am too tired to listen to those repeating the same s..... over, and over, and over again.
PS I think I suffer of the syndrome affecting Alonso :)

[LTalbot]

Agreed on the Widescreen. I was pleasantly surprised. Also Bob Varsha, Steve Machett, David Hobbs and Peter Windsor are the Gold Standard when it comes to racing announcers. I think Derrick Daily is only employed because he lives in Indianapolis. He is an idiot and also did color for the USGP when CBS had the broadcast. Some of his questions to the drivers over the three days were just plain rude. He brings nothing to the table. Lets hope the A team is used for the next two races on FOX as well, though I doubt either will be broadcast live. Also give SPEED credit, they broadcast every bit of Friday and Saturday practice and qualifying there was to show. I wish we had that kind of acess for all the races.

FOX who owns SPEED at least for the most part covered the RACE like SPEED would have. Although they didn't broadcast the 30 minutes on the grid prior to the start. Still, much better than recent years. And am I the only one who thinks Sam Posey looks more like Andy Hardy every day. Get that man a dentist and an eyebrow trim.

[Duralumin]

I've seen big hi def TV's before and didn't really see a difference.

The difference isn't just the TV because in many bars/retailers they just stretch a non-HD sports program to fill the screen, so it's widescreen but looks like crap. It's like listening to a distant am station on your fancy Dolby 7.1 system - it can't sound much better than the signal. Now go find a nice HDTV that's receiving a true HD signal and THAT will surely impress you. If not I hear lasik is getting cheaper every day. Cheers.