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I don’t think it’s quite so much a case of "attracting new viewers" as "catering to your audience". Most REAL racing fans and/or regular punters are going to subscribe to RUK or watch wall to wall ATR where there’s much more of the more detailed analysis they require. C4 racing caters to the casual Saturday afternoon sports fan who doesn’t just want to know about form, but wants to be entertained, and that’s what they do pretty well IMO.
I don’t think it’s quite so much a case of "attracting new viewers" as "catering to your audience". Most REAL racing fans and/or regular punters are going to subscribe to RUK or watch wall to wall ATR where there’s much more of the more detailed analysis they require. C4 racing caters to the casual Saturday afternoon sports fan who doesn’t just want to know about form, but wants to be entertained, and that’s what they do pretty well IMO.
If it’s so good why is it attracting such poor audiences and so little importance that they feel happy to leave the result of the race they are being paid to cover for an edition of Come Dine With Me?
I take your point about general sports fans but most of them are watching the football coverage on the BBC or Sky. The racing coverage falls between two stools, it seems to me.The richest race in the world,a build up like the Olympics and Channel 4 racing has "Dubai" plastered all over it! Who won the race? We would never know if it was down to the Muppets who control C4 racing!Its a bit like watching the FA Cup final that runs into a Penalty shoot out and switching to Trumpton!
For the first & last time… it’s not the fault of Channel 4 racing that they couldn’t wait for the result in Dubai. Can you imagine the result of an argument between the High Flyer producer in charge of the racing & the bigwigs at Channel 4 head office?
There would only ever be one winner.
anthony seriously.
The conversation might have included, "We have put on a special show to cover the richest race in the world taking place in Dubai, sponsored by Dubai, our presenters accomodated by Dubai but not to worry we’ll hand over to a pre – recorded cookery show."
Other channels delay programmes for sports to complete, they are adaptable. That C4 did not was pathetic and an insult to their sponsors.For the first & last time… it’s not the fault of Channel 4 racing that they couldn’t wait for the result in Dubai. Can you imagine the result of an argument between the High Flyer producer in charge of the racing & the bigwigs at Channel 4 head office?
There would only ever be one winner.
Yeh and it wont be the Big wigs at C4,when Sheikh Mohammed watches the video recording!
For the first & last time… it’s not the fault of Channel 4 racing that they couldn’t wait for the result in Dubai. Can you imagine the result of an argument between the High Flyer producer in charge of the racing & the bigwigs at Channel 4 head office?
There would only ever be one winner.
Yeh and it wont be the Big wigs at C4,when Sheikh Mohammed watches the video recording!
Ooh, that’s a point. Thinking about it, Channels 4 & 5 announced an advertising tie-up earlier this week. What odds that racing ends up ‘moving up a number’ too?
It really is quite unbelievable that you guys can’t understand why the TV programme C4 Racing, Dubai World Cup went off air without giving the result, despite a couple of explanations! TV channels have to adhere to their schedules. TX cannot just agree to give any programme an over-run of a couple of minutes, especially as there was no real time frame as to when the result would be known. The knock-on effect of those couple of minutes can be a nightmare. Where do you find those extra 2 mins? Cutting already packaged VT programmes, losing a few adverts, which the advertisers have to pay for & therefore be entitled to a refund?
I see the quote of "other channels can over-run" – let’s take that apart with some logic shall we?
Sky Sports – a sports broadcaster that can pretty much over-run if need be – but will still have to request the time from transmission control – or move on to another channel.
BBC – Main sports are F1 and Football plus a few other special events, eg Golf, World Darts, Olympics etc as well as horse racing. The BBC pays heavily for the rights to F1 & any live football they show (& other sports), so they are not going to go off air before the event finishes. Besides, they generally run to time & usually have 30 mins analysis at the end, which can take in any over-run. After that, they will have to request permission from TX to over-run & they may not be able to allow the extra time needed. If I remember correctly, a couple of years back BBC had to go off air from their horse racing coverage while a stewards enquiry was going on so that a recorded Rugby League match could be shown. The result of the enquiry had to be crawled along the bottom of the screen.
ITV – Mainly Champions League, FA Cup & England games. Again, a kick-off that will generally go off to time (apart from the odd travel delays, floodlight failure etc) and the match will finish on time with analysis built into the end of the programme. If the rules of the match mean that extra time or penalties are a possibility then that will be accounted for months before when the schedules are drawn up. Therefore, no problem with over-running.
As annoying as it was for the Dubai World Cup programme to go off air without giving the result, there was very little the producers could do. And, as suggested on here, saying to the guy in TX "but Dubai sponsor our coverage" isn’t going to cut any ice!
deep sensation, there was no excuse, racing pays good money to C4 for coverage, which other sports do? What was the rush away for? A REPEAT of Come Dine With Me! No more needs to be said.
Despite what you say football matches frequently kick off late and have extended half time breaks.All the naughty Lambs end up in a Curry! All the good ones are turned into 5 hour Lamb,one of Jamie Olivers better recipes! Leslie Graham is as sincere as her smile and thats a fact!
lamb curry,
wrong forum , betfair’s where your comments are needed
Oh dear,you read that rubbish Barry,comments like those aren"t needed anywhere! Violence against males,no problem! Against women, big problem! Ginge where are you?
It isn’t true that "all real racing fans" subscribe to RUK. I don’t & I know many more people that don’t; of course I am not a serious punter, but there are a lot of people out there that follow racing & don’t have a bet. I am concerned that the growing poor quality of coverage & the costs will remove it from terrestrial TV & I will be forced to subscribe or miss my favourite sport completely. As someone just pointed out the coverage on Saturday will not impress the sponsors. A back handed way for the company to have their sponsorship withdrawn early?
"After all the preperation and hard work in getting everything right,its an incredibly dissapointing end and we came off air feeling flat" Qouted Emma Spencer!
Emma you looked as stunning as ever,all those oufit changes and the journey to top of the world must have taken their toll!
eddie case
29 Mar 2010, 07:13
deep sensation, there was no excuse, racing pays good money to C4 for coverage, which other sports do? What was the rush away for? A REPEAT of Come Dine With Me! No more needs to be said.
Despite what you say football matches frequently kick off late and have extended half time breaks.Eddie, live tv football matches have a floor manager who instructs the referee when to get the players onto the pitch and then when to kick-off! Extended half-time breaks don’t eat much into the analysis built in at the end, so they are not a problem.
As I’ve tried to explain to you, the "rush away" was that the schedules obviously did not allow for an over-run. If the producer had got the extra 2 or 3 minutes, there would have been a knock-on effect for at least the rest of Saturday’s C4 programming, if not onto Sunday. Where do you suggest they found those extra minutes to get the schedule back on track?
The way most TV stations work these days, over-runs aren’t as easy as they used to be. It can be a case of "the computer says no" and trying to sort out unscheduled over-runs can be a major headache, which is why the terrestrial stations are loathed to do it.
So is your gripe with C4 as a TV Station or with the production team, Highflyer, for not being able to give the result?
Also, in a world of quick information, the result would’ve been freely available to anyone with a pc, i-phone or even tele-text. Not very convenient and very frustrating for the World Cup production team but it’s hardly the end of the world, is it?
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