Live Malaysian Qualifing.

[pole2pole]

Just checked out the coverage for next weeks GP and there is NO live quals at all on ITV. Could this be the end of live qualifying on TV

[bigjon]

no, it shouldn't be the end of live quali. ITV rarely/never carried live quali for races like malaysia, brazil, usa, canada etc as they clash with prime time morning/evening schedules.

expect live sat quali for the european races. it does seem daft itv are showing quali 1 on tape delay - i'd rather see quali 2 (after all it decides the grid) even on tape delay at say 5am on sunday morning.

somehow it seems like we're not seeing the grand prix weekend in the same way any longer.

[D_Marshall]

I don't see why ITV can't show qualifying live on ITV 2 or 3 at the very least. Surely they could show any saturday qually that clashes with prime time tv on one of them and always show sunday qually on them. They cant think a **** episode of Trisha is going to get more viewers!

[touringlegend]

Malaysian qualifying is at that time of the morning, clashes with GMTV and, to me, is hardly worth showing twice in the space of 9 hours.

[Formula Juan]

Why are people so surprised about the lack of ITV coverage? On every mb people say the same things all the time like ''why not show it on ITV2'' Well I don't know the answer, but I think by now people should come to accept that it's not likely to change and that the only way around it is to get satellite. If you hope for ITV coverage then you will almost always be disappointed!

[Kicking-back]

Qualifying will be live at all the European races, as it always is.

For races like Malaysia, it must be remembered that the airtime between 0600 and 0925 is owned by GMTV, rather than the ITV network.

A deal is done for the race in those circumstances, but the cost/return does not work out positively for qualifying.

These sessions won't be moved onto ITV2/ITV3 because those channels operate on relatively small budgets and couldn't afford to show F1.


And remember - most viewers only watch the race, in any case.

[Knowlesy]

Of course, the casual viewers. They are the real fans.

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

These sessions won't be moved onto ITV2/ITV3 because those channels operate on relatively small budgets and couldn't afford to show F1.

They broadcast the 2000 US GP live on ITV 2...

[Kicking-back]

They did, yes, but that was for a variety of political reasons.

In normal circumstances, the programme budget of ITV 2 and ITV 3 does not extend to being able to show F1.

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

Originally Posted by knowlesy

Of course, the casual viewers. They are the real fans.

It's the casual fans that keep F1 on the free-to-air networks and make broadcasting viable for companies like ITV.

[BootsOntheSide]

How many other sports have had 2 largely snooze-inducing seasons in the last 3 and still any casual fans to aim TV coverage at? We should be grateful for what we get, which will include 10-12 live qualifying sessions as well as all the races. KB's reasons are exactly right on this point, remember that he's got inside information on how the industry works.

[pole2pole]

I am not to sure about live quals for european races. Where I am coming from is I dont really see the point in broadcasting the first half of qualifying live.

[Kicking-back]

Better it is broadcast than not at all!

ITV's Saturday programme is continuing as normal - it's not their fault the teams voted in a ludicrous qualifying system.

[Lucylu]

well with this new qualifying on a sunday morning too, it doesnt matter so much if u dont see saturdays live as at the end of it you dont know who is in pole

[pole2pole]

Originally Posted by Lucylu

well with this new qualifying on a sunday morning too, it doesnt matter so much if u dont see saturdays live as at the end of it you dont know who is in pole

Thats it. Somewhere along the line someone at ITV will see this and ask what is the point in broadcasting the first half of qualifying live. Its not a final result for the grid positions. Surely it makes more since to broadcast the second and final half of qualifying live and highlights from the first session. Its great for the thousands at the track but what about the millions of tv viewers around the world

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

How many other sports have had 2 largely snooze-inducing seasons in the last 3 and still any casual fans to aim TV coverage at? We should be grateful for what we get, which will include 10-12 live qualifying sessions as well as all the races. KB's reasons are exactly right on this point, remember that he's got inside information on how the industry works.

As I have said in the past, it wasn't long ago here in Canada, that the only F1 race coverage was on CBC at midniight Sunday. Some 17 hours after the live event and even then it was hit and miss. Forget practice and qualy, so yes we should be grateful. We should also, imo, cheer for good ideas to make F1 more appealing to the "casual fan" because it is teetering.

[markysjag]

We get nothing in Australia but the race late Sunday nights and thats about it.

[Speedworx]

The qual system sucks and isn't worth watching.

[Crashfishy]

In an ideal world it would be fantastic if both sessions were shown live, but unfortunatly, ITV isnt willing to take the risk that it wont be cost effective, as to them , it is a big gamble.

They are showing european sessions, which i suppose we should be greatfull for!

[Sato san]

ITV really are pants arnt they !.....

infact , if im going to compare them in that way , they are more like a big pair of huge white boring Y-fronts..

some old stuff , same old poor excuses , zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..

they really dont deserve F1 IMO , all this excuse of Budgets for ITV 2 and 3 is just pathetic ...ITV Own the rights to it for heavens sake , back in 1999 ?( i think ) ...Jim Rosential made a big thing of saying that next year we will be showing the Warm up live on ITV 2 every sunday morning for you race fans ....of course it didn t happen , apparentley they run out of 50ps for the meter ! ...Just give it to Motors TV or Eurosport ....put it back on PPV on sky , yep , i cant afford it either , but hell , looks like will have to sell all of Sato san Jr's toys aout of his toy box !..


I Just want to see some decent coverage of a sport i like , to say they cant show a saturday morning qualifying session when they have 3 bloody channels to use is a total disgrace .

( im not interested in so called budgets , its just a totally poor reason to be honest from a multi million pound tv company to disgiuse the total lack of commitiment they show to our sport .)

[pitcrew]

its a lack of tv coverage for motorsport in general!! tonnes of crappy sports with decient tv coverage but motorsport apart from F1 and WRC has no massive place its discracefull and to keep the interest in motorsport alive somthing needs to be done about this!!

[Kicking-back]

F1 gets every race shown live on terrestrial television in the UK.

That is a good deal.

Yes - us diehards want to see more, but for a free service it's doing the job.

ITV is a profit-making company - which means driving revenue while keeping costs down. For money to be spent on showing more F1 sessions, there has to be a clear return on investment.

[Gore]

I’m not convinced by the argument that the ITV group would not choose to show qualifying on ITV2 or ITV3 because the cost would be prohibitive relative to these channels’ budgets.

My understanding is that ITV1 pays a lump sum to FOA that entitles it show any F1 sessions it chooses to, with no incremental “per session” charge. That being so, any sessions it chooses not to broadcast are of no value to it, so could be sold to any third party at nominal cost: ITV1’s profit are larger if it sells rights to qualifying two for 10 pence, than if they leave those rights unused.

In reality, of course, there are likely to be contractual constraints on, for instance ITV selling on F1 rights to, say, Bob’s Bacon Butties at the side of the A1; and also, ITV would have an incentive not to sell the rights outside of the group so that it can retain exclusivity of UK coverage from a PR point of view. But neither of these arguments would apply to another channel in the ITV group.

Or maybe I just think too much about these things.

[Kicking-back]

ITV is not allowed to sell on its F1 rights to a third party.

The cost issue for ITV2/3 showing qualifying is nothing to do with rights - it is that if those channels wished to show qualifying, the production costs for the programme would have to come from their budgets - and they simply would not get value from that.

The cost of repeating an old episode of Judge Judy (probably for similar audience figures) would be much cheaper for them.

[Super Tourer]

Whilst I appreciate ITV's dilemma over F1 coverage of the 'fly away races', It is ironic that in the multi channel world we now live in, F1 isn't covered as fully as it could be.

Is the solution to split the coverage between two different providers (by region)? For example ITV only buy/hold the rights to show the race live and 1 hour worth of highlights, whilst Motors TV (for example) buy/hold the rights to show all the practice and qualifying session and the race in full, but delayed.

I just find it hard to understand that we are not seeing two thirds of the race weekend - some of which we are not seeing LIVE, some not at all.