ITV's BTCC coverage is pretty awful. But, yes, it is there. But where are the bikes?



I don't dispute that. I think that having more in-depth coverage if you want is a great thing... but I think it's bad that the terrestrial viewers are now getting a poorer quality "product" when it comes to sport than they did 20 years ago. That is wrong.

I'm all for "in depth", but sport should not become a niche market.



Absolutely. Digital offers a great opportunity, but I don't think they care.



I was seeing that on Eurosport in 1993/1994 when the BBC still had the terrestrial rights - every practice session, including Sunday warm-up (existed then, sadly missed)... what happened? Minute ITV took over, no Eurosport

Sean

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Supporting McLaren and Force India in F1 and Ralf Schumacher in DTM

You make some valid points there Sean.

I think times have perhaps changed, now that Eurosport is available to many more people than 1994. Because so many peole have access to digital, I think it would be a worth a go.

In Germany a channel called Premiere shows every session, and in deph channel (a friend of my dad was telling me). You have to pay, but apprently many do.

However, the qualifying and races are shown on RTL which is free.

Sentanta make you pay too, ITV could if they really wanted to, providing the content was good enough people would pay...

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The official lubricant for all Mercedes-Benz Motorsport engines

You don't draw people into watching a sport by pricing them out of it.

That's the point.

"Next weekend - special offer - free coverage of every F1 qualifying session and exclusive coverage of the pitlane gossip" would draw people in, perhaps

Then maybe £5 per race weekend, at most. Last time Bernie tried it, with the Sky PPV thing, it was about £12... that's a lot. You could go and see many motorsport series in the flesh for that...

But ultimately it's seeing the whole weekend develop, as Eurosport enabled me to in the early 90s, which really captivated me. But I never paid for that explicitly... it was on Astra and part of the package.

The BBC's coverage was best for the race... no adverts. Best of both worlds !

Sean

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Supporting McLaren and Force India in F1 and Ralf Schumacher in DTM

Yes but the problem about BBC's coverage, they would rarley show the fly way races qualifying sessions. ITV now show all of them on ITV4.

Sure having races without ad's would be nice, but having no live qualifying on the fly away races would suck.

In fact you know what, f**k it all I'll just watch Speed TV. Live practice, qualifying and race no exception, and its free for us!

In fact Speed offers pretty much what I want, in-depth coverage, all the sessions shown and it is free.

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The official lubricant for all Mercedes-Benz Motorsport engines

You have reminded me of the 70's when I was in hospital getting over a burst appendix. The hospital was run by nuns and one Saturday afternoon one of the nuns came into my room and asked what I was going to watch on the TV. I wasn't sure and she said "No, I can't make up my mind either. It's a toss up between the horse racing or the wrestling "

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Speed is life

What a great selection.

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The official lubricant for all Mercedes-Benz Motorsport engines

Motor sport coverage nowadays is much ! much !! better than years ago !!!! I remember the days when not all Grand Prix racers were shown on TV !! let alone any other form of motor sport

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My dad said that too, only some GP's were sown on TV.

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The official lubricant for all Mercedes-Benz Motorsport engines