ITV held the broadcasting rights for the Formula One coverage in the United Kingdom between 8 March 1997 and 2 November 2008. ITV gained the rights for Formula One coverage for 1997 in late 1995 from the BBC and focused on more in-depth coverage, conducting more interviews and gaining access to better camera angles. The coverage was initially presented by Jim Rosenthal with veteran commentator Murray Walker and former racing driver Martin Brundle being the initial commentators before Walker's retirement after the 2001 United States Grand Prix and was succeeded by pit-lane reporter James Allen. Rosenthal left in 2005 and was succeeded by Steve Rider who presented the coverage until ITV ceased to broadcast Formula One after 2008. Formula One coverage returned to the BBC in 2009 for ITV to focus on more extensive coverage of UEFA Champions League football matches.
The programme was successful in collecting three consecutive BAFTA awards for sporting coverage but also garnered criticism for showing advertisements during their coverage along with their handling of competitions held by the broadcaster. In December 2015, ITV was rumoured to take over the broadcasting rights from BBC from 2016 onwards, after BBC had terminated its broadcasting contract three years early. However, on 21 December 2015 it was announced that Channel 4 would broadcast F1 alongside Sky.
History
1997–2008
When the BBC lost their rights to broadcast Formula One in late 1995, ITV gained the coverage for 1997. The deal worth £60million was negotiated by FOM president Bernie Ecclestone. ITV chose to bid for the rights due to constantly being beaten at weekends while the Grand Prix coverage was on.[1]
ITV's first broadcast was at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix and was hosted by Jim Rosenthal along with Simon Taylor and Tony Jardine as expert analysts and Murray Walker and Martin Brundle as the commentators. The pitlane reporters James Allen and Louise Goodman stayed on for the whole of ITV's coverage over 11 years. ITV had set about focusing their efforts into more in-depth pre- and post-race analysis, better camera angles and conducting more interviews.[2] Rosenthal, Taylor and Jardine all presented from a studio with a view of the paddock and the studio was transported to all the races. One feature for 1997 was known as 'Inside F1' where a driver would demonstrate a certain piece of equipment on a Formula One car and would summarise what operations the equipment performed along with its effects. There was also a track guide using a computer simulation provided by Psygnosis also for 1997. The post-race qualifying and race coverage was mainly a discussion between the presenter and the experts going over the key facts of what occurred.[3] In the same year, Simon Taylor was left unable to broadcast live after feeling seasick during the Monaco Grand Prix when the team were presenting on a yacht that kept moving around.[4] Sometimes the presenters hosted from the ITV studios for the Asian races due to costs of travelling.
In the early years, ITV also showed Murray & Martin's F1 Special, which usually aired on Saturday teatimes at each Grand Prix weekend. Introduced by Murray Walker and Martin Brundle, the programmes featured detailed reports on the day's qualifying session, along with interviews and features with the drivers and team personnel. The programme was slowly phased out in 1999, with fewer specials airing, before being dropped altogether at the end of 2000.
ITV also introduced Martin Brundle's hugely popular gridwalk at the 1997 British Grand Prix, where roughly 10–15 minutes before the start of the race Brundle would walk around the grid interviewing drivers, team personnel, celebrities and whoever else he could find.[1] Brundle had elected not to commentate from some races such as the Canadian Grand Prix in 1997 where he raced at Le Mans and missed the race in 1998.[5] He also elected not to attend the Hungarian Grand Prix on several occasions. When Brundle was absent, different people would stand in the commentary booth, including Derek Warwick, Jody Scheckter, Anthony Davidson and 1996 champion Damon Hill.
Steve Rider took over presenting duties in 2006
ITV were not able to show the qualifying for the 1999 French Grand Prix due to a dispute with Formula One Management. FOM President Bernie Ecclestone asked ITV if they wanted live coverage with the broadcaster refusing stating they would show coverage at a later time. Ecclestone apologised in the Sunday Express and the race coverage was unaffected.[6]
In a one-off move for the return of the United States Grand Prix in 2000, ITV moved the coverage over to ITV2 as the schedule of the main channel could not occupy the coverage of the race.[7] The 2001 United States Grand Prix was Murray Walker's last in the ITV commentary booth, having missed four other races that season.[8] James Allen moved up from his former role as pitlane reporter to replace Walker in the commentary box with Brundle still commentating as usual and Ted Kravitz inheriting Allen's old role.
In October 2002, the BBC had prepared pay £175million to gain the rights off ITV when their contract was to expire at the end of 2004.[9] In April 2004, ITV signed a six-year extension to their contract worth £150million.[10] In that same year, the coverage dropped its trackside studio and the presenters and analysts provided the coverage directly from within the paddock, allowing them to be at every race location for the first time– in previous years, for certain races, particularly for those held in Asia, the trackside studio was based in London, using satellite link-up to broadcast the race. With the advent of new anti-tobacco advertising laws in the United Kingdom that were placed in force on 31 July 2005, it was feared that Formula One coverage would be blacked out because with the showing of tobacco company logos on television, the broadcaster would face extra charges even in a country where tobacco sponsorship was permitted.[11] ITV was the UK's live television broadcaster at the time of one of F1's most controversial races in the form of the farcical 2005 United States Grand Prix at which 7 of the 10 planned team entrants on Michelin tyres withdrew on the formation lap due to tyre safety concerns leaving just 3 teams using Bridgestone tyres (Minardi, Jordan and Ferrari (6 cars) to compete in the race. In September 2005, it was reported that ITV had secured Steve Rider's services and would replace Rosenthal from 2006 onwards to present coverage of Formula One. Rider made his debut broadcast covering ITV F1 coverage at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix.[12]
ITV extended their contract with North One Television for a further five years in an agreement that started at the first round of the 2006 season and would produce over 100 hours of content which also included qualifying and the highlight shows. ITV were the host broadcasters for the British Grand Prix.[13]
In March 2008, ITV announced the coverage would be transferred to the BBC from the 2009 season so that the broadcaster could focus more on coverage on the UEFA Champions League.[14] The contract to show the sport at the time of announcement was worth £25million.[15] ITV later announced that they had enacted a clause within their contract enabling them to leave F1 coverage after the 2008 season.
Ironically, ITV F1's highest ever broadcast rating came in its final race, the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, which attracted 8.8million viewers, peaking at 12.5million viewers and saw Lewis Hamilton win his first Formula One Drivers' World Championship title.[16] On 17 November 2008, BBC announced that Martin Brundle would continue his commentary role alongside Jonathan Legard during the 2009 season, while Ted Kravitz would continue his pit-lane reporter role alongside Lee McKenzie.[17]
Features
Theme music
ITV's F1 coverage used five different themes throughout its lifespan. The first theme was a special, untitled, track performed by Jamiroquai which lasted from 1997 to 1999. This theme was commissioned in February 1997 and cost £100,000 to compose. Neil Duncanson, who worked for Chrysalis Sport and was ITV-F1's producer, was a friend of frontman Jay Kay, who is a fan of Formula One.[18]
In 2000, Jamiroquai's theme was replaced by "Blackbeat" by Apollo 440 which lasted until 2002, replaced the following year by a remixed version by Arnon Woolfson of "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Throughout 2004, ITV incorporated the song "Catch Me If You Can" which was written specifically for the programme by Woolfson and performed by singer-songwriter Louise Griffiths, who at the time was engaged to BAR driver Jenson Button.[19] The final theme was "Lift Me Up" by Moby which ran from 2006 until 2008.
Website
The ITV-F1 website was launched in March 1998 as a joint venture between ITV, F1 Racing and Business Net at a cost of £700,000 for the year. Initial content was provided by F1 Racing with news updates from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle.[20] The site was revamped in July 1999 with the addition of a superstore selling Formula One merchandise along with a multimedia content area and a loyalty club.[21] The website was closed in January 2012 citing the joint televised deal between the BBC and Sky as the reason.[22]
Sponsorship
Between 1997 and 2001, ITV's coverage was sponsored by Texaco, who outbid RAC in December 1996.[23] For the first year, the sponsorship promotion was created by Steve Pickard and directed by David Harris who were both from IMP. The sponsorship credits were based upon the speed and excitement of a Formula One team refuelling one of their racing cars with a circular theme involving the Texaco logo.[24] Texaco placed £12million in the first three years of their contract with ITV. The credits were directed by Darryl Goodrich and produced by Nicolas Unsworth.[25]
In September 2001, Toyota signed a four-year deal worth £25million seeing off competition from Fosters, who previously sponsored the ITV-F1 website.[26][27] The car manufacturer pulled out at the end of 2003 to focus on brand advertising.[28]The Daily Telegraph signed a one-year £4.5million deal to take over the sponsorship in 2004.[29] In 2005, LG took over the sponsorship with a £3.5million contract for a year. Their sponsorship included the promotion of the LG Mobile brand among the aim for younger viewers to watch the programming.[30]
For a period in 2006, Swiftcover.com sponsored the coverage from that year's San Marino Grand Prix. The screening of their sponsorship included Formula One drivers who were frustrated whilst speaking over the team radio to chickens in the pit lane.[31] For 2007, Honda took over as the main sponsor which also included Honda's logo being placed onto the ITV-F1 website with the aim to attract younger viewers.[32] The idents for Honda's sponsorship were produced by Honda's creative agency Wieden and Kennedy which built upon the car manufacturers indisputable passion for motor racing.[33]
For 2008, Sony signed a deal that was negotiated by OMD UK as the final sponsor of the network's coverage. The amount of sponsorship money was unpublished but was thought to be around £5million. The idents were developed by fallon with digital and mobile assets developed by Dare.[34]
Scheduling
All races were broadcast live with occasional reruns in races where the start time was considered early for fans who had elected not to watch at an earlier time.[35] Originally, qualifying sessions for races held in North America were not shown live and were instead screened as delayed coverage, usually beginning at 11:00pm. From 2005, these sessions were shown live, but on ITV2 and ITV3 and in 2006 and 2007 the sessions were screened live on ITV3 and ITV4, with it being repeated on ITV later that night. In 2008, all qualifying sessions were screened live on the ITV network.
When qualifying was split into two sessions from 2003, ITV broadcast the Friday session as delayed coverage in a late night slot, usually at around midnight, except for the British Grand Prix, in which the Friday session was shown live. The Saturday session was broadcast live as normal. In 2004, when both qualifying sessions were held on Saturday, only the second session was shown live, with only brief highlights from the first session shown in the build-up. When qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix that year was postponed to Sunday owing to a typhoon alert, neither session was shown live. For 2005, when qualifying was split into a Saturday–Sunday format, only the Saturday session was shown live, with brief highlights of the Sunday session shown in the race build-up. This format proved unpopular with fans and was scrapped following the first six races that year, with qualifying for the rest of that year reverting to just a single one-lap session on Saturday.
The highlights programme lasted for one hour and would normally have started at around 11:35pm depending on the schedule.[36]
Production
ITV's coverage was originally produced by Mach 1 Productions from 1997 to 1999. In 2000, production was taken over by Chrysalis Sport in association with United Productions. Prior to the start of the 2002 season, United Productions was taken over by Granada Media, making the coverage a Chrysalis/Granada co-production. Chrysalis became North One Television in 2004, which continued to co-produce the coverage with Granada until the end of 2005, before becoming the sole production company from 2006.
A major criticism of ITV's coverage was they were permitted to show advertisements during the coverage which promoted a number of complaints from viewers. Many key events in races were not shown as live as a result over the years of the coverage, some of these included: Damon Hill overtaking Michael Schumacher for the race lead at the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix (where he eventually finished second due to a hydraulic failure), Schumacher's retirement at the 1998 Japanese Grand Prix which handed the drivers' championship to Mika Häkkinen,[38] Schumacher's crash at the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix, Schumacher's engine failures at the 2000 French Grand Prix and 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso's engine failure at the 2006 Italian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton's gearbox troubles at the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix which cost him the championship to Kimi Räikkönen, and Räikkönen's engine failure at the 2008 European Grand Prix.
2005 San Marino Grand Prix coverage controversy
The most egregious incident however occurred at the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix when the broadcaster cut to a commercial break during the closing moments of the race whilst Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso were engaged in a close on track duel for the race victory. This decision garnered 126 complaints from viewers. Ofcom ruled that ITV breached section 6.7 of the Rules on the Amount and Scheduling of Advertising.[39] The broadcasters also had not shown the post-race press conference segment featuring Jenson Button's comments about the race.[40] ITV repeated the last three laps after the race and as a result of these complaints, the server on their website crashed. An on-air apology was made by Jim Rosenthal before the start of the next race in Spain two weeks later.[41]
In a 2022 interview on The Race's Bring Back V10s podcast looking back retrospectively at this particular race Ted Kravitz (who was ITV's pitlane reporter at the event) stated ITV held off going to the final commercial break because Jenson Button had been leading the race at certain points and the assumption that Schumacher would pass Alonso relatively quickly as the reason for the channel delaying an advert break until the closing laps and also criticised Ofcom for their response to complaints.[42]
Coverage
Many fans of the sport criticised the coverage of the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix when the programme had ended just after the race concluded. ITV made arrangements for the next race that if coverage overran, the show would continue to be shown on ITV4.[43]
Competition
In 2009, Ofcom ruled that ITV's handling of the competition for their last race broadcast had broken competition rules when 139,000 viewers rang a premium phone line charging £1 for a chance of winning the prize. The competition organiser Eckoh was not overseen by the broadcaster. In July 2009, ITV awarded the winner of the competition the prize that was not awarded because the winner's name was not published at the required time.[44]
Legacy
ITV's F1 coverage helped to pave the way on how motor sport would be broadcast in the modern era. Many of the features such as Martin Brundle's gridwalk and the pre- and post-race analysis were all transferred when the coverage returned to the BBC.[45]
See also
Grand Prix – The BBC's Formula One programme from 1978 to 1996 and from 2009 to 2015
Sky Sports F1 – Sky's television channel created for coverage of Formula One since 2012
Channel 4 F1 – Channel 4's coverage of Formula One since 2016
Damon Graham Devereux Hill, is a British former professional racing driver from England and the 1996 Formula One World Champion. He is the son of Graham Hill, and, along with Nico Rosberg, one of two sons of a Formula One World Champion to also win the title. He started racing on motorbikes in 1981, and after minor success moved on to single-seater racing cars.
Martin John Brundle is a British former racing driver, best known as a Formula One driver and as a commentator for ITV Sport from 1997 to 2008, the BBC from 2009 to 2011, and Sky Sports since 2012.
Graeme Murray Walker was an English motorsport commentator and journalist. He provided television commentary of live Formula One coverage for the BBC between 1976 and 1996, and for ITV between 1997 and 2001.
The 1993 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on 13 June 1993. It was the seventh race of the 1993 Formula One World Championship. The 69-lap race was won from pole position by Alain Prost, driving a Williams-Renault, with Michael Schumacher second in a Benetton-Ford and Prost's teammate Damon Hill third. This was the last Formula One race to feature BBC commentary from James Hunt before his death aged 45. He was replaced by Jonathan Palmer partnering Murray Walker.
The 1993 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 11 July 1993. It was the ninth race of the 1993 Formula One World Championship.
The 1994 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 13 November 1994 at the Adelaide Street Circuit. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship. The 81-lap race was won by Nigel Mansell driving for the Williams team after starting from pole position. As of 2024, this is the last time a Formula One driver won a race over the age of 40. Gerhard Berger finished second in a Ferrari car with Martin Brundle third for the McLaren team.
The 1996 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka on 13 October 1996. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1996 Formula One World Championship.
The 1997 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne on 9 March 1997. It was the first race of the 1997 Formula One World Championship, and the second Australian Grand Prix to be held in Melbourne.
The 1998 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Interlagos on 29 March 1998. It was the second race of the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship. Mika Häkkinen, driving a McLaren-Mercedes, took pole position, set the fastest lap and led every lap on his way to victory in the 72-lap race. Teammate David Coulthard finished second, with Michael Schumacher third in a Ferrari.
Mark Blundell is a British racing driver who competed in Formula One for four seasons, sports cars, and CART. He won the 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans. He was a Formula One presenter for the British broadcaster ITV until the end of the 2008 season when the TV broadcasting rights switched to the BBC. Blundell returned to the track in 2019, driving in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for the Trade Price Cars team. Blundell has returned to the series in a new role for 2020 helping to form the latest name to line the grid - MB Motorsport as Sporting Director working with Laser Tools Racing. He is CEO of Europe wide sports management group, MB Partners.
James Allen is a British former TV commentator and journalist who is the president, Motorsport Business, and F1 Liaison of Motorsport Network. He worked as Formula One commentator for ITV from 2000 to 2008, and subsequently as BBC Radio 5 Live's Formula One commentator, Formula One correspondent for the BBC and the Financial Times, and presenter for Ten Sport in Australia. He presents the podcast James Allen on F1 on the Autosport podcast network. Allen has been a trustee of the Grand Prix Trust, F1's benevolent fund, for over 25 years.
Ted Kravitz is a British Formula One pit-lane reporter who works for Sky Sports F1.
The Jordan 196 was the car with which the Jordan team competed in the 1996 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, who was in his fourth and final season with the team, and veteran Briton Martin Brundle, who moved from Ligier for what was to be his last season in F1.
David Marshall Coulthard is a British retired racing driver from Scotland, later turned presenter, commentator and journalist. Nicknamed "DC", he competed in 15 seasons of Formula One between 1994 and 2008, taking 13 Grand Prix victories and 62 podium finishes. He was runner-up in the 2001 championship, driving for McLaren.
The Benetton B192 is a Formula One racing car designed by Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and Willem Toet and raced by the Benetton team in the 1992 Formula One season.
The 2011 European Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 26 June 2011 at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. The race, which was the eighth round of the 2011 Formula One season, was won by defending world drivers' champion and championship leader Sebastian Vettel, who was driving a Red Bull Racing car. Vettel, who started from pole position, also recorded the fastest lap of the race on lap 53, giving him a hat-trick. After a race-long battle, Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso and Vettel's teammate Mark Webber finished the race in second and third respectively. The race was notable for having the fewest retirements and the most finishers ever in a Formula One Grand Prix with all 24 cars starting the race also finishing the race with no retirements.
Sky Sports F1 is a television channel created exclusively for Sky's UK and Ireland coverage of Formula One, with Sky having a package of rights from the 2012 season to the 2029 season. From 2012 to 2029, Sky Sports F1 has the exclusive rights to broadcast Formula 1 live in the UK and Ireland, and will sub-licence highlights of all races and qualifying sessions plus the British Grand Prix live to Channel 4. Since 2017, Sky Sports F1 has broadcast Formula 1 in 4K UHD.
Grand Prix, a British television programme based on the Formula One World Championship, had three main presenters during its history: Murray Walker from 1978 to 1996, Jake Humphrey from 2009 to 2012 and Suzi Perry from 2013 to 2015. Among the more occasional hosts were Steve Rider, Des Lynam, Sue Barker and Lee McKenzie.
This is a timeline of the history of motorsport on television in the UK.
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