What a sorry excuse...

Ay Cee

ITV Clarifies Controversial Ad Break ITV Sport has apologised to it British viewers for taking an advertising break in the final three laps of today's San Marino Grand Prix but said the disturbance was unavoidable.

ITV, which covers the Formula One races live to more than 11 million viewers in England, drew heavy criticism from fans today after they moved to a three-minute advertising break in the closing laps of a thrilling race, which saw World Champion Michael Schumacher battling with race leader Fernando Alonso for the win.

With just over three laps to go, and the Ferrari nose right at the back of the Renault, the British station cut to advertising and returned amidst the final lap of the race.

But a source at the ITV team told Autosport-Atlas the break was unavoidable, as the station had held out on cutting to commercials for as long as it could.

"We are contractually committed to a number of ad breaks, and when it started to get exciting [on track] we held off, expecting the battle to be settled at any point. But when nothing happened, we just had to take the break, as we're contractually forced to do so."

ITV are committed to fit in five commercial breaks, each about three minutes long.

A spokesman for ITV Sport told Autosport-Atlas: "Obviously we're a commercial channel, and if you would have missed anything, we'd have brought the action [after the break] as a replay. In this case, the lead didn't change hands.

"We're sorry for any frustration it might have caused the viewers."

5 ads?! They go through that nearly an hour

aidan_dunne

Agreed. They show a lot more than 5 ads during a race. I can remember many times where they have shown an ad, come back and shown one or two more laps, and have gone to yet another ad break.

If they need to fit 5 ads in during their coverage, why not do it during their pre-race build up and post-race analysis? Or, say, have 2 ads during the pre-show, 1 during the race halfway through and another 2 during the post-race? Would solve a lot of problems.

ITV need to do some serious sorting out of this ad problem during races. It's been going on for far too long but today's incident took the biscuit! :mad:

As for that lame press release, they can go and shove it up their ar........ exhaust pipe!

Guy:Incognito

aidan_dunne wrote:

If they need to fit 5 ads in during their coverage, why not do it during their pre-race build up and post-race analysis? Or, say, have 2 ads during the pre-show, 1 during the race halfway through and another 2 during the post-race? Would solve a lot of problems

They obviously get a lot more money having the ads during the race as more people will be watching.

Töpher

They show enough ads during the pre/post race stuff anyways, I'd imagine they mean they're contracted to show 5 ad breaks DURING the race itself. Still, the way they seem to approach it is that the middle 30 minutes don't count, and squeeze them all in then. I didn't get to see the race today, and from the sound of that, its a good thing, because I'd no longer have a working TV if that happened while I was watching it!

nanook

as the origional post stated the audience is about 11 million, this could be considered as peak viewing and they are going to maximise from revenue.

But you have to see it from their point, they are a business and even though they are their to provide a service, they also have to make profit.

PAY PER VIEW, guaranteed no ads.

dor83

I agree with nanook, but they could have taken the break at another time or even shown the last 3 laps delayed as soon as they came back, like the way Sky+ works.

viking

I used to be an avid F1 viewer for many years, but lost interest last season and only watched about 2 races (highlights). Decided to make some time today to watch the GP and found myself really enjoying the "racing" (an aspect that has been missing for many years). However, the frequency of ad breaks during the final, most exciting laps has made me wonder whether ITV's ad policy (Irish viewers could always flick to RTE) was actually more damaging to the sport than Schumacher's continual dominance over the last few years.

Viking

steviec

viking wrote:

However, the frequency of ad breaks during the final, most exciting laps has made me wonder whether ITV's ad policy (Irish viewers could always flick to RTE) was actually more damaging to the sport than Schumacher's continual dominance over the last few years.

While that ad break was extremely annoying, and there've been many incidents they missed through ads before, I still think the overall quality of ITV's coverage is better than the BBC ever was. They cover qualifying and give a proper build up and post-race analysis in a way BBC never did, they have a better team overall(though obviously murray is greatly missed) and their coverage is probably the best of any channel I've watched F1 on, with Eurosport back in the day second.

In an ideal world F1 would be back on BBC but with the production quality of ITV, but I definitely don't think ITV can be blamed for the drop in ratings. Maybe, just maybe, losing Murray Walker may have had something to do with it, but 90% of the blame goes to Williams and McLaren for forgetting how to compete, thankfully other teams have arrived to challenge Ferrari and make it interesting again.

Nuttzz

It was a shame Setanta were showing the Rangers - celtic match as I could have flicked over.

Pre race and post race build up might be better on ITV than on BBC but I prefer to watch racing rather than waffle.

Must have been some level of complaints for them to post such an apology, they wont do it again I'm sure

aidan_dunne

steviec wrote:

In an ideal world F1 would be back on BBC but with the production quality of ITV

Agreed. The BBC coverage was pretty sparse compared to the ITV one, but at least you didn't have the ad breaks to contend with. You're right, if we could see the same production levels as the ITV coverage on the BBC, with the added benefit of no ad breaks, it would be near to perfect.

But, it seems, the BBC have started to realise this, that they need to make a better "show" of the sports they cover. In particular, look at their coverage of MotoGP. The have pre and post race analysis and interviews now, whereas a couple of years ago you were lucky to just see the race on it's own. Seems they're starting to realise they need to up the production levels a bit.

Ideal scenario: F1 on the BBC with no ad breaks, minimum of 30 minutes before the race and after the race for analysis, interviews, comments and special features. Full coverage of the race, plus a 1 hour highlights show later that night after the race. Full coverage of the second, vital qualifying session on race morning, either live or delayed and shown just before the race coverage starts, with highlights of the first session shown just beforehand. Commentators - Ben Edwards and Martin Brundle. Show host - Steve Ryder (a motorsports fan who knows his stuff, and was almost tempted to jump ship with a big money offer by ITV in 1997 when they started their coverage. Shame he didn't do it. Damn better than Jim "I'm actually a football man" Rosenthal). Analysts - Tony Jardine and an ex driver, someone like Damon Hill perhaps (not a big fan of Mark Blundell). Pitlane reporters - James Allen (he was better as a pit lane reporter, anyway) and Perry McCarthy (would be good for a laugh! )

What does everybody think of that? I know it's just a dream but, hey, we can all dream, can't we?

Of course, the ideal ideal coverage would be to have it on Eurosport where they show every session live and with few or no ads breaks. But that's a real dream right there!