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I have a few irks with ITV and I appreciate the effort they put in but it could do with some fresh presenters, some are fine but others are just repetitive and tiresome. Whether it was her fault or not Sam Quek’s inclusion was pointless.
The more I know the less I understand.
It sounded like ITV’s reason for hiring her was “because she was born in Liverpool”. Which wasn’t a particularly good reason. And then they gave her nothing worthwhile to do, by the sounds of it.
Racing is a unique sport in that unlike footbal (that has two halfs of 45 mins+ of continuous play) it has just 5-6 mins of racing action every 30-35 mins so it is not really a fair comparison as there is a lot of time inbetween races that have to be filled by other things, could those other things be more racing focussed than entertainment focussed…….possibly.
But as ITV is an entertainment channel first and foremost that just happens to show multiple sports on a regular basis it has to also push the entertainment side, so for the racing purists it is not (nor ever likely to) going to suit their tastes but given that it is continually pulling in decent ratings it clearly is working for a big majority of the audience.
If it fully catered for the racing purists only then you can pretty much guarantee that viewing numbers would dropped significantly below what they currently are and possibly to the extent where ITV might have to seriously consider not renewing the racing contract.
Personally, there are a lot of sections of the show where I also reach for the mute button but if I am being totally honest it is probably around the same amount of times that I use the mute button for RTV and SSR too (and also back in the day with BBC Racing and Channel 4 Racing).
I believe they do as good a job as they can to tick as many of the racing/entertainment boxes for the widest possible audience…..which was the whole point of having racing on terrestial tv and to boot we are also getting more racing days (at more courses) on tv than ever before, which is the best possible outcome for getting more eyeballs on the sport.
“Griff, maybe people cannot afford to pay for Sky and/or RTV, or don’t want them for other reasons.”
I can understand that Glad, but Sky and/or RTV is where the more focused and dedicated to racing information is.
ITV is not aiming at that market or the people who are looking for the information provided there.
As I mentioned, it’s ‘entertainment’ and tries to encompass all aspects, to all viewers, but none in serious depth.“Griff when ITV do the football they concentrate on the football , it’s analysed at half/full time , CH4 did this with racing and ITV could look at doing similar approach …”
The objectives of two shows are very different HDLG.
Football is not under pressure and doesn’t require any player welfare explanations, betting analysis or to encourage people to experience a football match.After football there is perhaps 15 minutes or so of analysis and replay of the goals with the talking heads, whereas the ITV Racing broadcasts for an afternoon.
Going racing is more of a social occasion than football and the ITV coverage shows that to those viewers who have had no interaction with the sport. People watching who have never been racing would probably view racing as solely going to watch horses on a racecourse and not realize everything else that goes on in the form of entertainment during a days racing.
Personally for me it’s always been the horses and racing, but to many it’s a day out, a few drinks, a bet or two and just having fun.Griff I think the Newcastle United league cup win is a prime example of football being a social event …
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Viewing figures for Saturday:5.2m,ITV have now lost almost half the last CH4 audience for The National
griff11,
Do you think the people ITV are aiming at are interested in IQ Data and sectional times during the race? I’m not and I’m not a floating viewer.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the camera coverage last week, thought it was poor. Far too much from high in the sky, they seemed more interested in showing the crowds in the stands than the horses. While the pictures are okay when analysing the race after it, not a fan of them during it.
While it’s good that ITV cover so much racing, it could be so much better.
I could understand a more varied show for say the National with once a year viewers , a mid Feb Saturday programme from say Kelso and Wincanton is only going to attract a racing fan … give that fan a programme on racing
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
I was bored stiff with Ch4 racing towards the end of its tenure. Couldn’t stand listening to Graham Cunningham. People who complain about ex jockeys never criticising jockeys, well, I think Francome was the worst when it came to that.It’s great that they go to racecourses that never got a look in in the past and non racing people realise how friendly racecourses are.Imo they get the balance just right but I suppose I’m just a bit of a lightweight racing wise.
In fact, when I go to Kelso in a week or so I’ll ask them if ITV racing brings in more people.
“Viewing figures for Saturday:5.2m,ITV have now lost almost half the last CH4 audience for The National”
Two factors:
Firstly the Grand National in 2016 was held at 5.15pm, so likely to have ‘caught’ footie and other sport fans who’d been at a match that afters.
Secondly, and imho, a much more important factor is that horse racing is increasingly seen by the general public as not great, in terms of animal welfare.
The number of people i know, who are not racing enthusiasts, but who went to a few meets, say, 10 years ago for a day out, dont bother now, as their views are more hostile to the sport these days.Would watching via a firestick count towards a viewing figure?
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
ITV has never been lucky enough to cover the race where the winner was trained in England. (Two Scottish winners of course). C4 had a Mouse Morris trained winner in their final year but had a run of home trained winners from 2008. From memory they were from Somerset, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Cheshire, Somerset, West Yorkshire, Worcestershire and Berkshire.
Not sure if it’s so pertinent to the TV viewing figures but if you’ve not seen the leading fancies racing on the mainland I think it is bound to be a negative.
I was out in the garden at post time yesterday. Recorded it for later. A combination of pleasant weather and caring less about the race than once did being bigger factors than how it was being covered on ITV.
The general public generally know nothing about the horses or where they are trained nine times out of ten a horse will be picked for a random reason. I suspect the winner having Nick in the name was quite popular. We have no way of knowing if the viewing figures would be similar if C4 were still broadcasting it, could just be a sign of the times.
The more I know the less I understand.
I had to do a lot of homework regarding the runners as I didn’t have a mental picture of most of them and I do like to know the background of horses running in big handicaps. I always used to put my first bets on on weights day but this year it was like reading it in a foreign language. From being my favourite day in the whole year it occurred to me that I might actually go somewhere else on the day in future if something cropped up. A bit like a favourite series of mine; a guilty pleasure that I’ve watched for years, that I now no longer bother if I miss an episode. Maybe it’s just me getting old or the fact that it’s no longer something that I can discuss with non racing people. If I was still working now I doubt if it would be discussed at work other than in a critical way. I am, of course, pleased that it is so much safer but it has lost the magic that it used to have.
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