setanta and f1

digi2000

setanta and f1

just a reminder to all those diehard f1 fans robbed of their favorite sport and forced to subscribe to setanta on sky last year...renewal is close at hand!
i would assume that many of you guys will be cancelling
now with utv showing f1 in the clear (see icdg forum for tuning details)
and hopefully many of you will!

While i,m not a diehard fan myself i kinda missed my fortnightly
fix of f1 on rte last year like many of you.

triple h

all i watched on setanta was the formula1. i never watch anything else on setanta. i do have itv/ utv stored on other channels, but itv show a lot of breaks and last year (in some races) they took ad breaks with 5 laps to go ( i read this in autosport). last year in any given race you would only miss 5 laps of the total race on setanta due to ad breaks, not bad, but then on the other hand the yearly sub is bad. what should one do, still wondering.

Ay Cee

Not only did ITV take a break just at the end of the race it was THE race. With Shumacher whittling down Alonso's lead at San Marino!

There was war! The ITV site crashed because of the traffic from people complaining. They had to put out an apology and said it will NEVER happen again.

oneofakind32

Ay Cee wrote:

Not only did ITV take a break just at the end of the race it was THE race. With Shumacher whittling down Alonso's lead at San Marino!

There was war! The ITV site crashed because of the traffic from people complaining. They had to put out an apology and said it will NEVER happen again.

Ha retards!

Firewalkwithme

I read a rumour that ITV may be showing the ad's in split screen format this year but I wouldn't bet on it.

v10

Despatch wrote:

I read a rumour that ITV may be showing the ad's in split screen format this year but I wouldn't bet on it.

Now thats a good idea !
The only reason I got setanta last year was because of the ITV ad breaks (I had ITV last year through a UK Box/Card) and this year will probably keep it for the same reason.

€99 per year for setanta is expensive considering the only time I watch it is during the F1 ad breaks on ITV !!

Have contacted ITV to ask if this is true. Will let you know if I get a reply.

AdMMM

OR you could just get it for free (as part of the basic package) on NTL.

dwaned

Just to let you know, I got setanta last year too for the F1, cost me €99... They took €150 of my credit card yesterday for this years!!!! Never even asked me if I want it or not, don't know whether to just let it go or get on to them and cancel it..... The thoughts of all those breaks on UTV and how wonderful Jenson is and how Button is so brilliant for the whole season is pretty disturbing......

MrPudding

I would love for BBC to get the rights back. No ads and they really go to town on interactive content.

MrP

dwaned

MrPudding wrote:

I would love for BBC to get the rights back. No ads and they really go to town on interactive content.

MrP

Yeah BBC had great coverage. Sky had it, I think only for one year but they had great coverage and all interactive. You could even change whether to listen to the comentaters or teams etc..

aidan_dunne

dwaned wrote:

Yeah BBC had great coverage. Sky had it, I think only for one year but they had great coverage and all interactive. You could even change whether to listen to the comentaters or teams etc..

Well, I think if we put it in perspective, in actuality the BBC's coverage back in the day wasn't that good, to be honest. Yes, there were no ads during the race (big plus there), we had the fantastic partnership of Murray Walker and James Hunt commentating (up untill 1993 when Hunt sadly passed away) and, in the later years, we had Steve Rider at quite a few of the races presenting (great to see he'll be back at the helm of F1 coverage this year on ITV). But, apart from that, overall the BBC's coverage of F1 wasn't brilliant.

It wasn't really until near the end of the BBC's contract that they started to give F1 coverage the proper treatment it deserved, from about 1993 or 1994 onwards. Prior to about 1993 or so, qualifying was sometimes shown on 'Grandstand' but it was often hit and miss if it was. Usually the final Saturday qualifying sessions of the European races were shown but, even then, it was maybe only the last 30 minutes or so of the session. It wasn't until late 1994, I think, that they started showing the entire final hour of qualifying on Saturdays.

The race coverage prior to 1992 or 1993 or so was also very hit and miss at times. Apart from the British Grand Prix which would, naturally enough, get extensive coverage, the rest of the races usually consisted of the presenter (either at the track or from the London studio) simply handing over to the commentary team just before the race, the race would be covered and then, just after the podium celebrations (or, if you were lucky, the post-race press conference for the podium drivers), the commentary team would hand back to studio and that would be it. And that was if the race was even shown live to begin with. It often wasn't (particularly some of the long-haul "fly-away" races) and you'd have to wait until the 'Grand Prix' highlights show to see a recording of the race. And, even if it was shown live, it was often interrupted by coverage of other sports, mainly things like horse racing, where they'd leave the race to show something like the 2.10 at Doncaster before returning for the finale of the race. Thankfully by the early '90's the BBC had copped on to the increasing popularity of F1 and began showing all the races live and uninterrupted but, apart from the British GP, there was usually little or no pre- or post-race stuff.

Say what you like about ITV, and I'm no huge fan of their coverage either, but I will give credit where credit is due and say that pretty much right from the get-go when they got the contract they put on a better "show", so to speak, with their coverage and covered F1 more extensively than the BBC ever did. In particular, I think their first couple of seasons, 1997 and 1998, were probably their best. Yes, there was the annoyance of ad-breaks during a race which we had to contend with and where they sometimes missed stuff (Damon Hill's pass on Michael Schumacher for the lead in Hungary in '97, for example) as a result, but at least they always showed a reply right after the break of anything significant that happened during the break. And Jim Rosenthal didn't know his arse from his elbow to begin with and usually couldn't wait to get a plug in for some upcoming football or boxing match! But, to give him credit, he did learn and, by the end of his tenure as F1 frontman last year, he had improved a lot.

ITV also gave us something the BBC never did; extensive coverage of qualifying, extensive pre- and post-race analysis, a 1 hour highlights programme at a fairly regular time (I can often remember BBC's 'Grand Prix' highlights show being thrown all around the schedule at times and sometimes even dropped entirely because programmes were running late or something), extensive behind-the-scenes featurettes, season preview and review shows and, of course, for the first couple of years of a Saturday evening, 'Murray & Martin's F1 Special' show. We never saw that much coverage of F1 on the BBC.

It's just a pity ITV didn't keep up all that momentum and their coverage has slipped a lot in the past couple of years, in my opinion (James Allen as lead commentator, in particular, has a lot to answer for I think! :mad: I've said it before and I'll say it again, Ben Edwards always, ALWAYS, should have gotten that gig after Murray retired). Maybe with the introduction of Steve Rider (a real motorsports fan, unlike Jim "The Count" Rosenthal! ) to the ITV F1 squad, we might see a revitilisation of ITV's coverage. Rider played a big part behind the scenes in increasing the BBC's coverage of, not just F1, but also motorsport in general over the years so hopefully he'll bring a lot of new ideas to the table and ITV will listen to him. I've read that already Tony Jardine has been dropped from ITV's lineup. Pity it wasn't James Allen instead because, from the sounds of things the past few years, even his co-commentator Martin Brundle seems pretty pissed off with him and some of his inane questions. :rolleyes:

patsyh

whats setanta like for ads, utv are brutal. Dont want to subscribe for yet another add on to my already expensive sky package

crosstownk

Is Setanta not free on Sky Digital?

BBC coverage was good and Sky's was a bit better. No ad breaks either - I hate ad breaks that interrupt any sporting event. I'll tolerate ads at half time or other similar time outs, but 5 laps to go..................Disgraceful behaviour.

douglasman

crosstownk wrote:

Is Setanta not free on Sky Digital?

BBC coverage was good and Sky's was a bit better. No ad breaks either - I hate ad breaks that interrupt any sporting event. I'll tolerate ads at half time or other similar time outs, but 5 laps to go..................Disgraceful behaviour.

Setanta Sports is €150 per year subscription on Sky Digital. For that, you also get Setanta Sports 1, Setanta Sports 2, Celtic TV, Rangers TV and NASN.

I watch the race on ITV1 and flick to Setanta Sports when ITV1 were on a break, worked out well today, saw the race all the way through. Didn't work out that way with the Bahrain race, there was a point when both ITV1 and Setanta Sports were on a break at the same time.

I think Setanta Sports take fewer ad breaks than ITV1, but they last longer.

Running Bing

ITV are dreadful for the ads but thier coverage is on a different par to setanta imo. They just seem to be more professional and dedicated to F1 than setanta. For prerace buildup and interviews there in a completely different league.

crosstownk

I see now - Last year I subscribed to Setanta for F1. I moved house in Sept and got NTL. I've been using NTL for last 6 months and forgot about my Setanta subscription. I got Sky installed last week so my subscription to Setant must be still active! Bummer.