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I’ve taken to watching ITV Racing on mute over the last few days. All the claptrap between races- yes, I appreciate they have to make the “product” more “accessible” to the masses- is woeful; the musical montages get on my tits and the features and interviews are so shallow and predictable that they’re barely worthwhile. Even during the races themselves I keep the sound off- Hoiles has to be the most overrated commentator out there.
ITV pictures and music on Radio 3 is definitely the way forward.
All in all I think they did a decent enough job. Deaths of Sir Erec and Invitation Only were handled sensitively and sensibly. I liked the paddock bit with Francesca and Alice explaining a bit about each horse – OK it was a bit simple and didn’t tell racing fans anything new but fair enough to target new viewers and this is the way to do it- showcase the horses themselves.
Still a bit too much fluff for my liking but if they have to have the social stable at least Matt Chapman makes a decent fist of it and it does its job.
So many people missing the point completely here. I take aim in particular at Patriot over the last couple of pages – if you were a racing newbie who had no idea about the game, where would your views peak any interest whatsoever?
ITV has a responsibility to reach out to everyone here – the core racing fans as well as trying to entice new people to our sport. Pandering to our needs and requirements simply won’t do anything positive. Racing, for all we wish it was, is not a popular sport full of household names. People don’t have a great interest, nor knowledge. It’s imperative that, as well as satisfying the demands of the core fans, they also need to reach out and dumb it down. They need to entertain. They need the so-called ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ edge that puts it into the the every-man’s eyes and hearts.
There were mistakes last week, sure. For what it’s worth as well I completely agree regarding the decision to have Francesca Cumani fronting jumps racing’s showpiece week being the wrong one. As for the rest of it, on the whole I think they have it just right. I have one close friend that’s interested in racing, just one. I did, however, have a busy Whatsapp group open last week full of six or seven friends, all new to it but all gripped by what they were watching.
All in all, ITV, job well done
I’m amazed and disappointed that Saturdays racing either on the Opening Show or the main show there was no time given to showing proper replays of the Festival action….I don’t mean reverse angle ,arty farty brief shots of the very ends of races set to music but proper replays of the main races with a bit of summary voice over to set them up followed by the actual original commentary ,so that if you were working last week and had missed the races you could catch up properly.
A ten minute package summarising the stories of the festival with proper length replays with proper commentaries would be a great way of getting viewers interested in racing instead of the gimmicky stuff that they always tend towards which are totally uninformative to viewers who are trying to catch up on what went on and do nothing to promote interest.
Are the general public as thick as ITV think they are??
I can’t remember needing this dumbed down nonsense when I first got into racing in the early 80s.The trouble with the “Britain’s got Talent” human angle is that it’s not a unique selling point for racing. People can get their fill of contestants with more heartbreaking/heartwarming back stories any day of the week on all those talent shows. I think the filler stories should be 90% about the horses and 10% about the humans and the latter mostly showing the graft but also the beauty. OK that is just ripping off the current fashion for farming life programmes but racing can tap into that better, and its closer to racing’s true nature, than the Ant and Dec stuff. You could get some great Countryfile-esque drone footage of horses on the gallops on a misty morning and closeups of concerned faces scrutinising tendons and stuff to rack up a bit of will-he-make-the-big-day tension. Some short stories like they had on the Jump Girls documentary showing Katie O’Farrell breaking her leg, hobbling about on crutches, then going to look at her most recent Xrays and being cleared to ride (think Team America’s “We Need A Montage” song). Heartwarming, but in a way that X factor cannot do. That would show racing life better than all the…..gushing.
If you put yourself in the shoes of a newcomer, what would you think of RTV’s programme?
I read somewhere recently that bowls on tv gets about the same or slightly more than viwers than racing.
Not being a viewer of the bowls does anybody know if they cater for the non bowls enthusiast and try to attract new viewers?
“Not being a viewer of the bowls does anybody know if they cater for the non bowls enthusiast and try to attract new viewers?”
I’ve never watched the bowls either but I should imagine that it’s impossible to make a slow(er) motion montage of the day’s “action”.
I thought matt did a great job in the social stable and had huge crowds around him. His banter with Kevin was great as well. Still missing the horses crossing the line from third down which is very annoying. Split screen would sort it.
<I thought matt did a great job in the social stable and had huge crowds around him. His banter with Kevin was great as well. Still missing the horses crossing the line from third down which is very annoying. Split screen would sort it.>
Would agree there as lots of bookies were paying extra places at Cheltenham.
I have never worked out how to quote a post on here, why is it so difficult?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways“I have never worked out how to quote a post on here, why is it so difficult?”
Just copy/paste it into your post, Purwell, adding quotation marks!
“Just copy/paste it into your post, Purwell, adding quotation marks!”
Like this?
Still seems a pain to me.I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways“Just copy/paste it into your post, Purwell, adding quotation marks!”
Like this?
Still seems a pain to me.Wonder if this will work?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysPurwell, the quote function was disabled, because it was getting out of hand.
Threads were getting ruined by long, sometimes very long quotes, which featured well over 100 lines of text, all for a one line reply.
There were numerous occasions where a thread was started, and the second post replying to the opening post, had the full opening post “quoted”, absolutely crazy. Why the actual f’ck would anyone go to to the trouble of doing that. Just Mental. What else are they replying to?
It was also clear that people weren’t “quoting”, rather just “repeating every word” of a previous post, just for the sake of it.
The practice of quoting the preceding post was getting way getting way out of hand, and the site was a bloody mess.
My thoughts on ITV’s coverage:
Francesca Cumani: looks so out of place and uncomfortable, should just keep her for flat racing
Bryony Frost: She may be a good jockey but boy is she dull with a very boring voice
Tony McCoy: He’s never going to be a natural in front of the camera, looks like he would rather be anywhere else
Richard Hoiles: overused commentator, almost every other day I hear him calling at courses up and down the country. Much prefer the commentators on track Alan Howes and Stewart Machin. Would be happier if ITV employed Gareth Topham.
Camera work: I’m getting a headache from the number of times they change camera angles, I wish they would just keep it simple.
Chris someone: haven’t a clue who he is or what he’s doing, is he just eye candy for the viewers?
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