Formula One coverage on ITV
| Formula One coverage on ITV | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | Jim Rosenthal (1997-2005) Steve Rider (2006-2008) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Production location | Worldwide |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 8 March 1997 – 2 November 2008 |
ITV-F1 was a British television programme dedicated to Formula One coverage that was supplied by the British broadcaster ITV between 1997-2008. The coverage was initally presented by Jim Rosenthal for the first eight years before Steve Rider became the presenter for the last three years of the Programme.
History
ITV's first broadcast was at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix featuring Jim Rosenthal along with Simon Taylor and Tony Jardine as expert analysts along with Murray Walker and Martin Brundle as the commentators. The pitlane reporters James Allen and Louise Goodman stayed on for the whole of ITV's coverage over 11 years. ITV had set about focusing their efforts into more in-depth pre and post-race analysis, better camera angles and conducting more interviews.[1] Brundle had elected not to commentate the Canadian Grand Prix in 1997 to race at Le Mans.[2]
In a one-off move for the return of the United States Grand Prix in 2000, ITV moved the coverage over to ITV 2 as the schedule of the national channel could not occupy the coverage of the race.[3] In March 2008, ITV lost the coverage to the BBC from the 2009 season.[4]
Sponsorship
Between 1997 and 2001, ITV's coverage was sponsored by Texaco. In September 2001, Toyota signed a four-year deal worth £25 million seeing off competition from Foster's Lager which previously sponsored the ITV-F1 website.[5][6] The car manufacturer pulled out at the end of 2003 to focus on brand advertising.[7] The Daily Telegraph signed a one-year £4.5 million deal to take over the sponsorship in 2004.[8] For 2007, Honda took over as the main sponsor which also inculded Honda's logo being placed onto the ITV-F1 website and aimed to attract younger viewers.[9]
Critism
Showing of advertisments
A major critism of ITV's coverage was they were permitted to show advertisments during the coverage which promoted a huge number of complaints from fans. This was the case at the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix when the broadcaster cut to a commerical break during the closing moments of the race which garnered 126 complaints from viewers. Ofcom ruled that ITV breached section 6.7 of the Rules on the Amount and Scheduling of Advertising.[10]
References
- ^ "F1's return to the BBC - what did you think?". crash.net. 2009-03-30.
- ^ Fox, Norman (1997-06-15). "Pescarolo rolls back the years". The Independent.
- ^ "British F1 fans get raw USGP deal". crash.net. 2000-09-14.
- ^ "Formula One to return to BBC TV". BBC Sport. 2008-03-20.
- ^ Whitehead, Jennifer (2001-09-10). "Toyota agrees £80 ITV sponsorship deal". Marketing Magazine.
- ^ Billings, Clare (2002-02-20). "Toyota pays £25m for sponsorhip of ITV Formula 1 racing". MediaWeek.
- ^ Kleinman, Mark (2003-10-30). "Toyotal pulls out of £25m ITV tie two years early". BrandRepublic.
- ^ Garside, Kevin (2004-02-24). "Telegraph drive into Formula One". The Telegraph.
- ^ Huff, Phil (2007-03-13). "Honda to sponsor ITV's F1 coverage". f1network.net.
- ^ Welsh, James (2005-07-18). "126 viewers complain over ITV F1 ad break". Digital Spy.
External Links
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