uk f1 tv coverage - sky, bbc and ch4

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Plato

Just need to get rid of shouty croft and we might be on our way to decent coverage

So given we in the US are now seeing the Sky broadcast, this season was my first experience with Croft. I will be watching a race and my wife (doing her own thing and only halfway paying attention) will ask... "What is he shouting about?" My answer is generally "I don't know, I think he drank too much coffee."

It doesn't seem to matter what is going on, but he is shouting away like its the last corner of the last race and the championship hangs in the balance. I am not usually down on broadcast teams, but he is sadly wearing thin on me.

Richard

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Plato

In all seriousness, it can't get any worse then him,
I've had to watch with Radio five commentary on instead of sky sound, cause its that painful to have to listen to that idiot, its almost like he does it on purpose and his bad habbits are rubbing off on Martin,


They should make Brundle Lead commentator with Chandock/PDR in the ex driver role, seeing as they have more recent experience of driving/working for F1 Teams, are both good on the mic, Damon isn't that great,little Johnny doesn't really seem to take it all so seriously and Tossberg christ don't get me started,

I don't really mind whose commentary I follow during the race, as I tend to use it if I have to leave the room, so I can still hear what's going. However if I have a preference, it is Channel 4, as I think their team is overall better but now Sky have got Chandock, I like your suggestion of making Brundle the anchor.

[chillibowl]

i suppose he was a radio guy so now tends to broadcasts races on TV as if the audience cant actually see whats happening themselves?

anyways for my part he really doesn't bother me.

Karun in the commentators booth, an extra voice to heard, could help both Crofty and Martin to calm down a bit.

anyways by my count its now Croft and Brundle in the booth. Brundle also out of the booth with Lazenby, Hill, Herbert, Di Resta, Davidson, Kravitz, Pinkham, Rosberg occasionally, and now Button and KC.... and no doubt a few more i am missing out on.

and thats just on the English side of things!!!

in order to justify this many people, there really must be a lot more going on during a race weekend than i am currently aware of.

[Plato]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

So given we in the US are now seeing the Sky broadcast, this season was my first experience with Croft. I will be watching a race and my wife (doing her own thing and only halfway paying attention) will ask... "What is he shouting about?" My answer is generally "I don't know, I think he drank too much coffee."

It doesn't seem to matter what is going on, but he is shouting away like its the last corner of the last race and the championship hangs in the balance. I am not usually down on broadcast teams, but he is sadly wearing thin on me.

Richard

He wasn't as bad when he was on the radio is the weird thing,
but yeah I was watching races we didn't get live on whatever channel in america had the coverage till this year when I realised you get sky as well unfortunately.

Any other english speaking nations with a deal for f1 that doesn't have the sky hook up let us know.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by Plato

They should make Brundle Lead commentator with Chandock/PDR in the ex driver role, seeing as they have more recent experience of driving/working for F1 Teams, are both good on the mic.....

Brundle had a chance at lead commentator with DC alongside in 2011 for the BBC...he was awful. He was trying to co comm instead of lead comm.

The BBC ended their deal and Brundle signed up to Sky as Lead Pundit and race co-comms, if he had wanted the lead comms role he could have had it. If reports at the time were to be believed he didn't enjoy the Lead comms as much as he thought he would.

[steve_r]

Apologies if I have missed this, but will the Channel 4 highlights use the Sky commentators? Or will they keep their own team?

I assume the former - much like Channel 5 do with the MotoGP highlights?

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

This article has information on the highlights and production.

https://f1broadcasting.co/2018/09/21...la-1-coverage/

Originally Posted by steve_r

Apologies if I have missed this, but will the Channel 4 highlights use the Sky commentators? Or will they keep their own team?

I assume the former - much like Channel 5 do with the MotoGP highlights?

As you can see from the above bjs provided a link earlier in the thread when I asked a similar question. No mention of the presentation team but it is still going to be a Whisper production. I'd guess that they will still be using their own team, but maybe cut down in numbers slightly, we already know Karun Chandhok is moving back to Sky.

[S griffin]

Will miss Karunpedia, he really added a lot to the C4 coverage

[P38 in workshop]

I'm sure I'm not the only one to read the reports this week about the team's sponsorship income dropping during the last few years.At the same time that the exposure of the brands has been reduced by the move to pay TV.Not sure which is the chicken and which is the egg,but the golden goose is none too healthy.

[S griffin]

Well moving away from FTA, it was bound to have an affect on the sponsorship

[Plato]

Thought about it earlier worked out perfect if money / alliances were no issue coms set up
Ben Edwards, Brundle and chandock

but thats just a fantasy

[MagicBoy]

Originally Posted by Plato

In all seriousness, it can't get any worse then him,
I've had to watch with Radio five commentary on instead of sky sound, cause its that painful to have to listen to that idiot, its almost like he does it on purpose and his bad habbits are rubbing off on Martin,

Yes it can. That's pretty much exactly the same comments as the late BBC days. People were claiming to mute Legard and were listening to Radio 5 with TV pictures. With Crofty. They were cock a hoop when Legard didn't get picked up by Sky, now they're slagging Crofty off as "worst ever".

Crofty isn't bad, just not to some people's taste.

[Plato]

Originally Posted by MagicBoy

Yes it can. That's pretty much exactly the same comments as the late BBC days. People were claiming to mute Legard and were listening to Radio 5 with TV pictures. With Crofty. They were cock a hoop when Legard didn't get picked up by Sky, now they're slagging Crofty off as "worst ever".

Crofty isn't bad, just not to some people's taste.

Croft is worse then Legard

[bella]

used to love both croft and legard on radio, but for some reason that i don’t entirely understand, neither suit tv broadcasting. i’d say that radio f1 coverage is the tabloid newspaper of commentary - say what you see. what people see what you see, the style seems to demand more noise and flapping to tell people how to react.

[MagicBoy]

Originally Posted by Plato

Croft is worse then Legard

Nice full, well though out explanation there.

I disagree. I'd take Crofty over James Allen over Legard.

Everyone has an ideal person that they compare F1 commentators to, usually Murray Walker. That's a lofty goal.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by MagicBoy

That's a lofty goal.

a very 'crofty' goal indeed!

[Greem]

Originally Posted by MagicBoy

Nice full, well though out explanation there.

I disagree. I'd take Crofty over James Allen over Legard.

Everyone has an ideal person that they compare F1 commentators to, usually Murray Walker. That's a lofty goal.

Way back in the mists of time I posted on here about the misty-eyed way some people look back at the period they first got into F1. I'd surmise that there are people who will look back in 30 years and wish Crofty and Brundle were still part of the commentary, in the same way others do about Murray/Hunt and Murray/Brundle.

The past is always better than the present, apparently.

[Adam43]

If only someone could get near to Raymond Baxter‘s style.

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Adam43

If only someone could get near to Raymond Baxter‘s style.

You're older than you look.

[Akrapovic]

Croft isn't spectacular, but I think some people may have forgotten just how horrendous James Allen was as a commentator. Great in the pit lane, but absolutely insufferable as a commentator. He was more interested in talking about how great he was, how he knew so much and how much he loved Lewis Hamilton. Lewis was just like Senna because he had a yellow helmet, and Kimi should've stopped his car at the Nurburgring rather than have the puncture because James predicted it would happen. His self-centeredness as a commentator is only matched by Ant Davidson, who was busy trying to make Buttons first victory all about him.

I'm sure Allen is a nice guy, but to be blunt, he came across as a blowhard, childish, insufferable fanboy who just wanted to scream about Lewis Hamilton. I'm also 100% sure he's not actually like that, but this fake act he had to put on as a commentator ended up making him look like that. I feel bad typing that out, because he's obviously not like that, but it's certainly what it felt like. As a pit lane reporter, he was excellent, and as a journalist he's a great writer. But as a TV commentator, he was awful.

Legard just couldn't do TV. He has the opposite effect of being incapable of being excited about anything. His job on radio is to describe what he sees, and he's very good at building that picture for the listener. As a TV commentator, he didn't have the ability to add to the pictures, and that's where he fell down.

TV commentator, pit lane reporter, journalist and radio commentator are all different skillsets that don't necessarily transfer very well.

Croft isn't the greatest commentator in history, but he's competent, which you argue Legard and Allen were certainly not.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Adam43

If only someone could get near to Raymond Baxter‘s style.

British GP, 1973.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo9ynIrUakg

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Greem

You're older than you look.

I don’t really have any experience, but what I do like is the refined and considered commentary. I’m not a big one for just shouting or having to fill all the airtime for telly.

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

British GP, 1973.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo9ynIrUakg

So, while
I was obviously just being silly there was a point I was making.

[Plato]

Anyone who longs for the days of Croft in the future needs their head seeing too,

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Adam43

If only someone could get near to Raymond Baxter‘s style.

Was there anyone before RB, or did he arrive with the start of TV coverage? Style like that just doesn’t exist nowadays!

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

Was there anyone before RB, or did he arrive with the start of TV coverage? Style like that just doesn’t exist nowadays!

Murray commentated on the 1953 British GP....

https://f1broadcasting.co/history/

Baxter FWIW did appear (uncredited) in the sixties Frankenheimer movie, 'Grand Prix', playing the part of a BBC reporter.

RB certainly was a very accomplished presenter....I recall in about 1977 when I was working for a large toy company... we launched a range of remote control and latest tech toys, and at our pre-Toy Fair launch Sales Conference, which we themed as Toymorrow's World, we had RB speaking to our Sales Force and guests.