CBS broadcast of F1

The last race I truly remember at Imola was in like 1985-86 when Johannson inherited the lead in his Ferrari only to run out of fuel a half-lap later.....

 

The biggest issue I have with Daly and Shahee is their seeming lack of understanding around the nuances of F 1. They spent the early laps telling the audience that Michael Schumaker was on a 3-stop strategy and needed to run away from the field to have any chance to win. Needless to say, that didn't materialize. However, the fact that Felipe Massa was keeping pace with Schumaker with Alonso in tow clearly indicated that Ferrari wasn't running a light load.

It was their total lack of insight that didn't do it for me. They had nothing to say about Renault basically blowing the race by coming in earlier than Ferrari, in spite of the fact that CBS indicated Renault had enough fuel to reach lap 47. Other than that, I found the race very compelling and was happy to watch it in HD.

 

To give Daly a break here, he was actually talking about the information feeds, the shifters and the various knobs that control mixture, brake balance, etc.

 

Anybody bother to count? I think DD said "brutal" about 30 times during the CBS coverage today.

And, what school of broadcasting did "Shouting Sheehan" go to?

 

One of the worst parts I though were the times when MS and FA were exiting the pits, and the whole race hinged on them MS getting in front... and the announcers were completely confused. "Where is Alonso? He must have gone by already, did he?"

However, in their defense. One of them made the comment that they were just going off of a feed from Italian TV.

So my analysis is this: CBS buys the tape from Italian TV, these two goofy guys convince the execs that know about F1 racing and get hired to basically sit in a studio here in the States, watch the Tape from the Italians, and comment on the race in English as if they were actually there.

If there was a bigger interest of F1 here in the States, CBS, or another network might put more money into their broadcast of it.

All the CBS broadcasts suck, because they probably have a fraction of the budget they need to produce it. Going in and out of commercials, it seemed like it was their NASCAR team of guys that were picking the music.

My $.02

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but....

There is no such thing as an Italian TV feed of an F1 race. EVERYTHING is actually a single FIA contracted feed.. It might be staffed by locals (Italians in Italy, Aussies in Melbourne, etc), but it's an FIA feed. SpeedTV commentators also watch the FIA feed and call the race from Charlotte, NC (I'm pretty sure) whenever Speed cannot afford to send all three to a circuit. During the first three races, I think only Peter Windsor was physically on-site. The video coverage is exactly the same worldwide. The difference is what each local/national production crew decides in air from their trailers/booths. A SpeedTV director for example, cannot ask "Camera 16 to zoom on Kimi's weak suspension". Watch the pit-wall monitors carefully. The teams (and garage crews) are watching the same pictures we're watching.

CBS simply cannot use "Italian TV" as an excuse.


Hey, here's a novel idea.... CBS should contract the SpeedTV crew and let them call the race. CBS would get qualified announcers (who can "dumb it down" with dignity), the the real fans would still enjoy a proper race. The over abundance of commercials is just a fact of network TV. The U.S. is such a cesspool of consumer driven culture, I suppose we just have to accept it.


-d

 

I SAW THAT FERRARI AND SCHUMI WON @ HOME VIVA FERRARI - Its juts like watching the Tour de France on CBS or what ever network it's on.... It's really bad.

 

Anybody switching to Geiko now?

 

LOL!!

This is a very salient point. When you dumb down the commentary to appeal to the unknowledgeable fan, you do a disservice to both them and knowledgeable. If I knew nothing about the sport, I'd rather hear in depth commentary and play catch up then to not be exposed to it at all.

I groaned when I heard Shaheen’s voice, that moron babbled over 2 years worth of WRC coverage on SPEED. You think his F1 was bad? Try an even more specialized event like the WRC, at least there were no comparisons to NASCAR yesterday.

And DD is just awful. Unforgivable they way he botched the call as MS came out of his second pit stop... "Where's Alonso??" (He's clearly coming up the front straight) "He must have gone by...." (He's 5 car lengths behind the Ferrari coming out of the pits).

CBS, please give up on this idea and let SPEED handle the coverage. Was it this bad last year?

 

Yes! It was that bad last year. Last year daly said "there is a camara on the roll bar. the roll bar is there to protect the driver"

If you don't know what a roll bar is I doubt your watching F1.

I dread CBS races. it would almost have been worth waiting a week for Speed channels race coverage this sat. I am going to re-watch the race with Speed to cleanse my F1 senses...

 

I believe we have to deal with CBS for the next 2 or 3 races. Look at the positive side of their broadcast, if the ratings are good, this may be the incentive for SpeedTV to improve their F1 coverage. I know, wishful thinking.

One good thing about the CBS broadcasts is we can have Sunday afternoon GP parties!

 

What do you do about the wanker who walks into the party and yells "Did you see how <insert driver here> clobbered the field and won this thing!"

Tar and feather?

 

This is very true. I only started really watching F1 seriously about 3 years ago and what got me hooked was my eagerness to learn what Matchett, Hobbs, and Varsha were talking about. By the time the 2003 season ended, I was foaming at the mouth for the 2004 season to start. I don't I would have liked it nearly as much as if I listened to a dumbed down broadcast. CBS ruin the race with their lack of knowledge (Shaheen) and their annoying explanations of things (Daily).

Mark

 

lol at all the commentary puns...the lap counter was my fav...however being in canada we get ITV coverage...get digital cable/satelite, because CBS was unwatchable..

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the brutually slow and careful explanation about the complexities of the F1 brake ducts on 3 separate occasions during the race.

 

I got a kick out of them saying that F1 has the technologically most advanced race cars and simply the best drivers in the world. Add to that Scott Speed's confirmation, that F1 is miles above any other racing sport in the world and you start to wonder how well CBS really sold this sport to their traditional US audience of NASCAR, CART and IRL fans?

 

Probably about the amount he said "go like a scalded cat"

 

Thankfully, we had a UK broadcast with Brundle, et al. Much more enjoyable.

 

I don't know, I didn't count all of them. But let me tell you, it was boring and brutal at the same time.... sorry, I had to.

 

Has anyone found a feed we can get in the US?

Two or three more of these this year =
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Here is my opinion with these guys and their commentary -

THEY SUCK ????

We have to put up with these morons 3 more times. What was with them in reference to some drivers saying "in Australia last week"? Absolute stupidity. I noticed them say that at least 5 or 6 times. ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

 

BINGO!

 

This is exactly what I was thinking. How much could it cost CBS to straight out buy the 4 telecasts from SpeedTV--announcers and all. I think newbies would be much more interested by Matchett's inside knowledge of the teams and cars, and the familiar banter between the 3 of them, than by the frosted-over, faux enthusiasm of Daly and Sheehan.

Also, as you mentioned, the telecast is what it is. But at least the regular announcers bother to make mention about it during the telecast. It's common for Hobbs/Varsha/Matchett to make mention about how "The local producers seem to be focusing on the leading efforts of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari, but back in the pack there's a tremendous race for 4th..." Not only did Daly and Sheehan ignore this, but I also don't recall much mention of Scott Speed. I would think the network would have been asked to pimp for the American as much as possible.

 

Some of Sheehan statistics comments were exactly the same I heard the day before when watching Speed's qualifying broadcast. I'm sure Sheehan was listening in and taking notes for what he'd say the next day.

 

i kept turning the sound down so i couldn't hear them. Derek needs work as a tour bus director.