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This is good news for racing and for ITV.
ITV will be able to start with a completely clean sheet both in terms of the style of broadcasting and being able to junk all the existing presenters.Maybe, but presenters seem to jump channels as easily as footballers swap teams. Hopefully Tanya will get the bullet at least.
Looking forward to a decent theme tune and better on screen graphics.
Of course, it could all get worse, we’ll have to wait and see.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
… junk all the existing presenters.
Chance would be a fine thing…
The move to ITV can only be a good thing in the long run, as more people will be exposed to the big days on the main channel and some will, hopefully, start following the smaller days on ITV4. Let’s hope that the new programme isn’t pitched too downmarket, however; hopefully, the powers that be will have looked at racing’s core audience and realised that we don’t want Ant and Dec presenting.
At £30m it seems like they doubled what C4 were currently paying – will be interesting to see the nuts and bolts of the deal (total amount of days being televised, how it affects RUK/ATR and how the new? production team will fit commercial breaks in etc) but the fact that it would appear that racing will now be on a two tier system with the show piece events on ITV1 whilst the remaining days on ITV4 (which has lower ratings than C4) is concerning.
Will they go for the existing presenters (assuming the current ones will also be available once their current contract expires), previous presenters that were cleared out in the last reshuffle or will it be all new presenters, will it also see the return of Big Mac?
Interesting times ahead me thinks
Interesting. Here’s the Beeb article on it.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/horse-racing/35213104
I wonder if Dubai will try and continue their sponsorship with ITV in 2017?
If they have the morning line on ITV my Son will not be happy if Tom and Jerry gets replaced…..
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ITV are really building-up their “sport folio”:
Tour de France, French Open Tennis, Formula E and more – the list is building with their big plans.
The proof will be in the pudding and fine detail but on the surface it could be a good deal. It makes sense to have the big days on ITV1 and the lesser ones on ITV4.
If the BBC had the contract would lesser ones get shown at all on terrestrial? At least they will be all free to air but a key point will be how it all works out with ATR/RUK. Could be an ideal time to compliment the ITV coverage with 1 free to air racing channel for British racing rather than 2 subscription based ones.
Another interesting point will be the personnel, although it’s about 10 years too late surely Tanya has to have the heave-ho. Although I’ve never been a fan of Balding, will she be tempted by more money and just doing the big days on ITV1? Mike Cattermole on ATR this morning seemed to be quite hopeful he might get the call up.
Perhaps Francome can get himself a job on ITV. I remember how bitterly people used to complain about the old team on C4, latterly people have been complaining bitterly about the new team, now people are complaining about another broadcaster taking over. ITV and ITV4 is better than nothing, no sport has a God given right to be televised.
As for Holly Willoughby conducting the interviews she couldn’t be any more fawning and craven than the current lot so what’s the problem?
I wonder if ITV will take a gamble and try to follow the Irish example by getting The Derby and some other big races moved to an evening slot so it gets peak viewing – it will be interesting. Although there is no way Royal Ascot would move to a later slot.
As for presenters it has to be odds-on that Chapman gets a key presentation role, after all ITV tends to go for the most downmarket option every time and, let’s face it, ITV is the broadcasting equivalent of the The Sun and Daily Star.
I wonder if ITV will take a gamble and try to follow the Irish example by getting The Derby and some other big races moved to an evening slot so it gets peak viewing – it will be interesting. Although there is no way Royal Ascot would move to a later slot.
As for presenters it has to be odds-on that Chapman gets a key presentation role, after all ITV tends to go for the most downmarket option every time and, let’s face it, ITV is the broadcasting equivalent of the The Sun and Daily Star.
Not if BGT or xfactor or in the jungle or Coronation Street is on
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My reservation is that ITV4 is not available on most packages as HD so the quality of the images will be poorer to start with. I too agree that the ITV coverage will be more down market with more celebrities and filler than now.
It would be good if they surveyed people on the various horse racing forums for their opinions.As others have mentioned, ITV broadcast racing for years and years prior to it (and the incumbent presenters) moving to C4. Brough Scott, John Rickman, John Oaksey, Raleigh Gilbert, Ken Grainger could hardly have been described as ‘dumbed-down’ though, admittedly, the standard of TV in general has deteriorated amid a growing obsession with ‘who’ rather than ‘what’
Think I’m right in saying that ITV afternoons don’t have ‘immoveable feasts’ like Countdown to fit racing around so the racing prog schedules should be usefully flexible
I’m rather taken with the idea of ITV4 showing racing. We’re told that Unique Selling Points are important so perhaps, given time for the inherent resistance most have to change of any sort to dissipate, we may march boldly onwards into an era in which all know ITV4 = Horse Racing and vice versa
This would appear to be a great opportunity for a very large new broom. Unfortunately, I suspect there will be not much more than a little tinkering. Channel 4 tried to bring a little bit of RUK ‘style’ to mainstream and it has failed. It did put bums on seats but not the sort they were looking for.
Personally, I would recruit Chapman and Stanley and forget about the rest. Nothing much wrong with Gary O’Brien either but this isn’t about Irish racing. It is a year to kick-off so you would think that really should be long enough to unearth some new ‘talent’. That process has long been overdue.
That’s what I would like (it seems that just about everyone has a different opinion) but in reality I think that there is a pretty good chance we will just end up with the likes of Luck and his pal Kyle.
Not sure what the fallout for RUK is going to be, if any. It would be quite nice to see some of that smugness eroded together with the subscription fee.
As for presenters it has to be odds-on that Chapman gets a key presentation role, after all ITV tends to go for the most downmarket option every time and, let’s face it, ITV is the broadcasting equivalent of the The Sun and Daily Star.
Downmarket as I am, I will not be available Paul.
…Oh that “Chapman”.
Value Is EverythingITV will definitely take this downmarket. Expect lots of celebrities with little knowledge of the sport, plenty of comps with 50p a minute phone lines and there’s bound to be some sort of reality tie in as well. Trainers in tears begging viewers to allow their horse in the Derby as we have vote one out of the field each week?
Still, many of you will be happy as long as it’s not on Channel 4.
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