The BBC F1 coverage thread (Legard out. Brundle and DC in.)

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Blake
Exactly. There is always driver bias from the commentators on any broadcast.
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you can have some bias, but i think it needs to be toned down a tad in ITV's case...
 
Dudes, be glad you don't have TeleAlonso (Telecinco) broadcast. At least you would be complaining for a reason. How about the pre-race intro is an animated video of Alonso's helmet? I keep telling my friends they aren't watching F1... They're watching Alonso. Alonso this, Alonso that, and if they look harder, they might catch some glimpses of F1 on the background.

Curiously, we seem to be the only country that has /two/ TVs broadcasing F1, at least in Barcelona - Telecinco, and Television of Catalonia, which has always rooted for the Catalan De la Rosa and Gené. But since they've never done anything of real relevance, they focus on the rest of the grid - While having them tell the spectators little secrets from McLaren and Ferrari (previously Williams BMW).
 
Blake
Exactly. There is always driver bias from the commentators on any broadcast.
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I dunno, RTL is kind enough to mention 6 drivers on the grid. Plus the German-engined, German-built and German-engineered cars. And German-sponsored. And teams with a German janitor.

But yes, lots of bias.


And our local coverage, which exists partially (only races, and only when there isn't a single soccer-game to broadcast instead, even if it's a re-run of a month-old highschool league game), is complete rubbish. Not only is the video-feed obviously borrowed off another channel (French text, quality of a copied videocassette), but the commentators are complete idiots. "Oh look, a Renault... No wait, that was a BMW, sorry. Looks like it's Heifde..Heitlef...Heitfelt, yes. On Hard tyres, you can see the white line."
 
will this be on BBC America? the speed broadcasts are also better than the ITV ones but i get BBCA through cable and speed through satellite. it'll be nice to have both broadcasts for whenever the dish is rendered useless for whatever reason(weather,technical issues,ext)
 
darkfinal
Dudes, be glad you don't have TeleAlonso (Telecinco) broadcast. At least you would be complaining for a reason. How about the pre-race intro is an animated video of Alonso's helmet? I keep telling my friends they aren't watching F1... They're watching Alonso. Alonso this, Alonso that, and if they look harder, they might catch some glimpses of F1 on the background.

Curiously, we seem to be the only country that has /two/ TVs broadcasing F1, at least in Barcelona - Telecinco, and Television of Catalonia, which has always rooted for the Catalan De la Rosa and Gené. But since they've never done anything of real relevance, they focus on the rest of the grid - While having them tell the spectators little secrets from McLaren and Ferrari (previously Williams BMW).
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You think that's bad? Last year, the ITV F1 coverage could have been renamed "The Lewis Hamilton Show" and no-one would have known any different. Although because he's had a rough start to the season, not counting Australia, they seem to have quietened down about him, focusing a bit more on Jenson.

In regards to the two-channel F1 coverage, BBC and Eurosport used to share the coverage, if I remember rightly.
 
Apparently, the BBC F1 commentary team has been revealed:
http://www.crash.net/motorsport/f1/news/169670-0/bbc_2009_f1_commentary_team_revealed.html

crash.net
The BBC has finalised its team of presenters for its coverage of Formula 1 from next year, it has been claimed, with Martin Brundle and David Coulthard on the bill – but no James Allen, Steve Rider or Mark Blundell.

With the Beeb set to reclaim the rights to broadcast the world's most expensive sport from ITV in 2009 – on a five-year contract – it has been revealed by Pitpass that the presenting team will be composed of ITV-F1 favourite Brundle alongside BBC Radio Five Live stalwart Jonathan Legard in the commentary booth, soon-to-retire Red Bull Racing ace Coulthard and Jake Humphrey fronting the programme in the studio and Lee McKenzie reprising the roles of Louise Goodman and Ted Kravitz as pit-lane reporter.
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So...Martin, Ted, and Louise all set to return? YESSSSSS!!!!!! OH GOOD GOD YES!!

Now that I've got that out of the way, if this is true the commentating is going to be much better. I honestly like James Allen, I think he's a lively and energetic commentator, but for him it's always the Lewis Hamilton show, and whenever Lewis passes someone it's always "that was a BRILLIANT move by Lewis Hamilton, real racing talent coming through" but when someone passes Lewis he's like "yeah...oh look, Heidfeld goes into the pits."

David Coulthard should compliment Martin Brundle extremely well, though I wouldn't have minded if Anthony Davidson had gone into F1 commentary full-time. Maybe he'll replace Mark Blundell?:dopey:
 
Crash.net is notoriously unreliable, but I hope with all my will that the idiotic James Allen and the illiterate Mark Blundell get consigned to the bin. Allen is completely unsuited to the task, because he's incapable of keeping up with the race, or of looking at the available data and making his own mind up, so he reacts to what's happened in the last ten seconds, and talks about that. Plus, his continual "recapping" of the race is irksome in the extreme. It's just an excuse for him to fill time because he's got nothing worthwhile to say.

Mark Blundell is a waste of screen time, because he's only capable of stating the blindingly obvious. I think that it's time that the British commentary team (build-up, race, pitlane etc) realise that the audience isn't stupid, and that if you treat the audience like idiots, you disenfranchise those who know about the sport, and provide no intrigue for those who are coming into the sport. It's time that there was an acceptance that the beauty of F1 lies in its detail, in its intrigue, in its politicking, rather than pretending that it's a crash-bang fest like any tin-top series you choose to mention.

Also (and this explains why I was so very hard on all the "TV coverage" questions in the ING survey), it's time F1 (as in Bernie's crowd) realised that the TV feed is garbage. It lags behind pretty much every other series I watch, including NASCAR, ALMS, BTCC and V8 Supercar. There's not enough information on-screen, and it's not as if (with all the wide-panning shots that the modern cookie-cutter circuits produce) there isn't screen area to spare. I mean, the odd rankings list with the number of stops a car has made (BTW: a drive-through penalty DOES NOT constitute a stop, director) is frankly not worth bothering with. Take a look at NASCAR, with the constant order strip, together with time delays updating every three seconds. We know that the cars are all fitted with GPS, because we can see it on the prat perch screens: why not on the TV too?
 
GilesGuthrie
Also (and this explains why I was so very hard on all the "TV coverage" questions in the ING survey), it's time F1 (as in Bernie's crowd) realised that the TV feed is garbage. It lags behind pretty much every other series I watch, including NASCAR, ALMS, BTCC and V8 Supercar. There's not enough information on-screen, and it's not as if (with all the wide-panning shots that the modern cookie-cutter circuits produce) there isn't screen area to spare. I mean, the odd rankings list with the number of stops a car has made (BTW: a drive-through penalty DOES NOT constitute a stop, director) is frankly not worth bothering with. Take a look at NASCAR, with the constant order strip, together with time delays updating every three seconds. We know that the cars are all fitted with GPS, because we can see it on the prat perch screens: why not on the TV too?
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Got to disagree with you there Giles. I really dislike the constant ticker-tape style graphic for giving out the race order and other details. I find it distracting and difficult to follow. You end up spending so much more time watching it for the bit of info you are looking for and often end up missing some of the action. The only thing i want to see constantly moving on the screen is the cars.

A 'press the red button' feature for bringing up a static, overlaid positions etc graphic would be a more suitable answer in my opinion.
 
TheCracker
Got to disagree with you there Giles. I really dislike the constant ticker-tape style graphic for giving out the race order and other details. I find it distracting and difficult to follow. You end up spending so much more time watching it for the bit of info you are looking for and often end up missing some of the action. The only thing i want to see constantly moving on the screen is the cars.

A 'press the red button' feature for bringing up a static, overlaid positions etc graphic would be a more suitable answer in my opinion.
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Absolutely agree with the "red button" idea... it would be great to have a much more interactive approach, and have access to live data - but anyone who has ever watched Gillette Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports will know just how irritating the ticker can be - not least because you find yourself constantly drawn to it, but also because it is usually about 5-10 minutes behind the action...

I hate tickers generally, and I suspect that news channels use them merely to add a bit of extra suspense. "BREAKING NEWS: Paul.... Gascoyne,... the.... former.... England.... international.... footballer.... has.... been.... " (and you find yourself immediately guessing..."what, killed? found dead? seriously injured in a car crash?" :crazy:) "... arrested... in.... Newcastle..." :rolleyes:
 
Disagrees with Giles, and agrees with TheCracker

I hate the constant moving strip on the screen. I was watching some racing series on TV that had a strip across the top, and I found that using the "zoom" setting on my TV made the strips disappear off the top and bottom of the screen and my viewing was enhanced as a result.

I much prefer watching TV, with my laptop at my side displaying live timing. That way, I can chose when I look at the timing data, usually during an ad break. (No more ad breaks on BBC, woohoo!)
 
So nobody's disagreeing with my sentiments that James Allen and Mark Blundell should be taken outside and shot reassigned to other duties? Good.
 
Mark Blundell personifies all what is wrong wif F1 on ITV.

And James Allen is a male chicken.
 
I can't stand the NASCAR-style tickers, too. What I would like, however, is some extra info during the first lap - I don't want to wait two minutes before the race-order shows up... with the number of stops each driver made. Just a semi-transparent order of cars that updates in realtime for the first couple of corners...
 
GilesGuthrie
So nobody's disagreeing with my sentiments that James Allen and Mark Blundell should be taken outside and shot reassigned to other duties? Good.
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Don't mind Mark Blundell so much, having said that i doubt i'd miss him much either. As for James Allen, i think he should be relegated (promoted?) to commentating duties for the SPL.
 
I wish Steve Rider could stay, but I'm glad James Allen's going. Whose gonna be the new main presenter?
 
I can't even remember why they do it but the coolest graphic I've seen on NASCAR is when the info is 'tagged' to the car and sticks with the car. To any newby to F1 this would make watching a replay of 2 cars overtaking far far easier or even when the camera is following a pack of cars as even the seasoned pro's will struggle to remember which driver is which by just their helmets and top camera colour.
 
PeterJB
I wish Steve Rider could stay, but I'm glad James Allen's going. Whose gonna be the new main presenter?
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According to the link above.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/cbbc/jakehumphrey.shtml
 
ExigeEvan
I can't even remember why they do it but the coolest graphic I've seen on NASCAR is when the info is 'tagged' to the car and sticks with the car. To any newby to F1 this would make watching a replay of 2 cars overtaking far far easier or even when the camera is following a pack of cars as even the seasoned pro's will struggle to remember which driver is which by just their helmets and top camera colour.
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Don't they only ever do that on ovals when one camera can follow the cars for a whole lap? It'd just be irritating if the tags lagged behind the cars as the camera changed.
 
They do that on ovals, where it's also quite easy to predict a car's path, especially using their high cameras..
 
Tobias123
So...Martin, Ted, and Louise all set to return? YESSSSSS!!!!!! OH GOOD GOD YES!!

Now that I've got that out of the way, if this is true the commentating is going to be much better. I honestly like James Allen, I think he's a lively and energetic commentator, but for him it's always the Lewis Hamilton show, and whenever Lewis passes someone it's always "that was a BRILLIANT move by Lewis Hamilton, real racing talent coming through" but when someone passes Lewis he's like "yeah...oh look, Heidfeld goes into the pits."

David Coulthard should compliment Martin Brundle extremely well, though I wouldn't have minded if Anthony Davidson had gone into F1 commentary full-time. Maybe he'll replace Mark Blundell?:dopey:
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No, I think you've got the wrong end of the stick, what they're saying is:
Martin Brundle (ex-driver commentator) - same
James Allen (commentator) > Jonathan Legard
Mark Blundell (ex-driver input on current events) > David Coulthard
Steve Rider (front-end for the programme) > Jake Humphrey
Louise Goodman & Ted Kravitz (pit lane reporters) > Lee McKenzie

I'm happy to see Allen disappear, though it would be a shame to lose the rest, except maybe Blundell....he has some interesting input from time to time..but as we all know his grasp of english grammar is on the infuriatingly bad side.
I wish Jonathan Palmer could come back....he was great, but I suppose a newer ex-driver is good enough, Coulthard is better to listen to than Blundell at least.
 
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Ardius
No, I think you've got the wrong end of the stick, what they're saying is:
Martin Brundle (ex-driver commentator) - same
James Allen (commentator) > Jonathan Legard
Mark Blundell (ex-driver input on current events) > David Coulthard
Steve Rider (front-end for the programme) > Jake Humphrey
Louise Goodman & Ted Kravitz (pit lane reporters) > Lee McKenzie

I'm happy to see Allen disappear, though it would be a shame to lose the rest, except maybe Blundell....he has some interesting input from time to time..but as we all know his grasp of english grammar is on the infuriatingly bad side.
I wish Jonathan Palmer could come back....he was great, but I suppose a newer ex-driver is good enough, Coulthard is better to listen to than Blundell at least.
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...Oh. Sorry about that. This sucks, I honestly like Ted Kravitz.:nervous: I also like Mark Blundell somewhat, though his grammar is quite difficult to listen to. To be honest though, as long as they keep Brundle I'll still watch the BBC feed in a heartbeat over SPEED(the only other option where I live.)
 

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