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Last word on this
When they actually had to share with a decent sport, neither side was happy
Leaving a test match (imagine it today) to see an embarrassed Claire balding rush through the field for a pointless 5f handicap sprint
Neither side happy. In fact I reckon it doomed bbc racing
Shared coverage is dead. That’s it
I don’t watch ITV on the weekends because I’m not interested in British racing that much, and I have RTV for the Irish racing. However I do watch ITV for Cheltenham and the like. Partly because it’s a satellite feed, and so just that bit faster and better quality than my RTV stream. But also because they try to give an impression of the buzz of the festival.
I’m fine watching a dedicated Irish feed on RTV most of the time. During any downtime I occupy myself with the computer, so it’s not a case me needing added buzz for 90% of what I watch, but Cheltenham is huge. I’ve never been but I imagine if I was there I’d be taking in everything between races. ITV can’t do this, but they do try and get across some of the atmosphere and add colour.
I don’t care about Saturday or Sunday racing on ITV, like I said, but for big events I want things to feel like a big event. I’ve already made my mind up about who I’m picking in the race, I don’t need anything extra there (I don’t watch previews or anything.) So if someone wants to feel like they’re at an event on a Saturday or Sunday, that’s what ITV is going to provide most of the time.
“Shared coverage is dead.”
I agree, but it doesn’t have to be shared coverage.
The old-style ITV7 I talked about could be a stand alone broadcast, taking an hour less, with half the staff, and leave an extra hour for ITV to put on those game shows their Ant & Dec mentality viewers seem to like so much, or maybe help facilitate the channel’s 2,374th screening of the 1960s series of Bond movies.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"An hour or less? Not at royal ascot surely?
But even days like tingle creek which is a decent card throughout . And so on
I would rather see that than some squeezed in stuff from catterick
Good post fiftyp.
Royal Ascot was still on the BBC in the era I was referring to and tbh the BBC even back then bowed to the concept of Royal Ascot being as much about the fashion as the racing as is the case now.
That meeting is the one aspect where there hasn’t been much change.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"This is where we are different Ian. I love racing as a sport, especially the jumps. I have a bet occasionally(Cheltenham, Aintree, Boxing Day, my trips to the races). But for me just as with other sports I will pick competitors I want to win and cheer them on without having had a financial interest. Do you watch other sports Ian and if so do you need to have a bet to enjoy them?
ITV should be selling racing as a sport. They should be building up the tension and excitement to the big races and conveying the drama of what is happening just as broadcasters do with football, tennis , cricket etc.
I have no problem with people debating the tv coverage of racing in this forum. It’s the sheer unrelenting negativity that gets me down. By all accounts the Sunday series has boosted field sizes and betting turnover but it doesn’t get a mention on here. Instead it’s complaints every weekend. How about a bit of balance? Not everything ITV, RTV or SSR does is terrible.
Well said Patriot. I’ve defended ITV Racing on here plenty in the past. Yes, there are plenty of ways it could be improved, but they also get a lot of things right. Horse racing is so much more than just a betting medium, and if we reduce it to just that it will fade away to nothing, especially with all the alternative betting options available now.
It’s interesting some people see the arrival of Clare Balding as the start of the downfall of racing broadcasting. I thought the complete opposite. She is an excellent presenter and was a real breath of fresh air after the staid Julian Wilson. The halcyon days of racing coverage that people hark back to never existed, and we are incredibly lucky with the coverage the sport gets at present.
I suspect one of the ways in which we are different, patriot1, is that I am perhaps more comfortable than yourself about reading views which do not coincide with my own.
I’ve just read two such posts from yourself and Marlingford and that’s absolutely no problem – TRF would be very dull if we all agreed on everything.
I just don’t see racing ever being embraced as a sport the way other sports are and anyway myths perpetuate about other sports too.
Most football fans aren’t remotely interested in the aesthetics of “the beautiful game.”
Not all of them bet on football, but there is a big primal driver in the shape of fanatical support of a Club which is often handed down in families from generation to generation.
They watch a match in the hope of seeing a favourable outcome for their Club – it’s all about the result.
Racing is as much an industry/business as it is a sport and having had a bet ok it is, I firmly believe, the primary reason why any individual would watch a horse race.
The Grand National is a case in point.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Not sure I agree re the point on football Ian. So many football fans can discuss the sport for hours on end in excruciating detail. It’s not just the result; it’s also the journey and the highs and lows along the way. Many fans will happily conduct hugely detailed analysis of the past and speculate endlessly about the future.
I do agree that betting, and particularly the Grand National, is the primary feeder for an interest in horse racing. It isn’t the be all and end all though. I do bet, but the more I’ve learned about racing the more interesting it has become in general, regardless of whether I have a financial interest in a given race.
I don’t envisage a day that racing will ever be as popular as the likes of football or cricket, and would not suggest this would be a sensible aim for those running or broadcasting the sport. But racing does need an ongoing stream of new people to become interested in it to avoid decline, and it has plenty going for it to draw people in besides betting.
Fair comment, Marlingford – can’t really argue with any of that.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I believe terrestrial racing coverage was done best by the classic Channel 4 team of the 1980s/early 90s. They got the balance right between analysis and making the sport fun. They also assumed their audience were intelligent adults.
From what I have seen of ITV’s coverage, it seems to be pitched at people they assume know nothing about racing. This alienates the racing enthusiast in a way the old C4 coverage did not.
Maybe it does not matter that much in an era when there are alternative ways to watch the racing. There is not much point in me getting upset by ITV’s coverage when I seldom watch it anyway!
The latest posts have just highlighted the last 42 pages, each to their own.
If everyone on here analysed the whole programme, every analysis would be different. I expect no two views to be exactly the same. I cannot even stand the opening music for god’s sake, or Hoiles not taking a breath during commentary.
One proof of the pudding that might provide an answer are reliable viewing figures since ITV launched their programme if anyone has these. How have these performed?
For most it’s just good to see racing on terrestrial TV and accessible to the majority. Three hours of it, ‘we should be grateful’ but in ITV’s pursuit for presenting perfection, a number of us feel there are certain areas this can be improved, nothing more.
Opinions, rightly or wrongly that’s all these are!
Sorry, just stating the ‘bleeding obvious’.
Have to agree with cork channel 4 coverage was the best with great insight into all aspects of racing. In today’s ratings obsessed times wouldn’t stand a chance. I know there is a lot of moaning regards ITV but you can see why racing purists are coming from. A francome figure would be very welcome on it.
Mickeyjp, I would very much consider myself a racing purist 🙂 I still find plenty to enjoy in the ITV coverage though, and am glad they are aiming for a broader appeal.
I too preferred the old Channel 4 coverage to the BBC coverage. Channel 4 were able to focus in more detail on the racing than the BBC often were, and there was much more sense of there being a “presenting team” than on the BBC. I don’t see a lot of difference between what Channel 4 were doing 30 years ago and what ITV are doing now though. It doesn’t seem a huge stretch to see how more frivolous elements from back then such as the Picture Puzzle have evolved into things such as the Social Stable.
Maybe I’m just an old sod but I can’t get with the social stable. Horse racing is about horses. We get a cursory note of the breeding but no discussion. Horses like st Mark’s basilica have a fascinating background and I’m sure if they spent more time on that than the pundits jaundiced opinions it would be more appealing. The enable love in last year was excruciating to see. Snowfall looks so similar in profile but no a positive word about her for the arc. Their lack of knowledge is breathtaking at times. All about opinions of course. At least we still have racing on council telly I suppose.
For all you (some of you) profess to be serious racing fans you really want to be spoon fed things. Racing (along with baseball) is probably the sport with the highest amount of information available to any fan. There’s form (free,) pedigrees (this might cost for real depth,) analysis on things like times, speeds, and previous races (both free and paid for,) there’s a fair amount of people willing to offer their opinion (pro or random punter,) you can watch a huge amount of recent races (I think if you have a funded betting account with one of the big boys this is “free.” Maybe even the RP or RacingTV offer it if you just sign up without paying,) there’s books of which horses to follow, former jockeys, breeders, industry insiders, and trainers all giving opinions, etc. Why exactly do you need ITV to provide you with what’d be at most five minutes of, no matter how hard they try, pretty superficial information.
Sure, they could do better with (I’m guessing) jockey and trainer interviews, but you can find any comments from a significant win or loss online after a day. And sure, the parade ring could be shown better, but I find the parade ring on TV can’t give you the same information you’d get in real life from being able to follow a horse in person. Five minutes, ten horses, maybe twenty, that’s anything from 15 to 30 seconds on a horse, and even then the angles won’t be right, the camera won’t be able to track them, the horse will be in the wrong place, you won’t have the in-person awareness to spot a horse kicking up a fuss. (My personal wish is that each race day you could get a minute’s clip of every horse in their box in the stables, with no tack on, and no-one leading them, them just turning and taking a few steps. That’d tell you a lot more than a few seconds of TV-parade ring-ing. Then the horses going to and at the start will tell all the rest you need, even though you’ve already probably got your bet on.)
It’s ridiculous what you want from a station that’s trying to appeal to a broad range of interests and experience. You lot are supposedly the clued in fans (far more clued in than I claim to be.) Don’t be relying on a commercial TV station when there’s a wealth of information available for you if you spend ten minutes, one day, setting up your bookmarks after a bit of googling.
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