I figured it was bad news when Speed's commentators happily announced that Fox would carry 4 races in the US. After today, I know for sure. Reasons why Fox sucks: - No pre race coverage (grid walk) - No post race coverage (top three interviews) - Tons of old F1 facts repeated to appeal to the general audience - Tons of Baseball graphics overlaying the screen (Speed is already bad at that, but Fox reached a new level sometimes completely covering the race cars) - Some Fox affiliates show the race only tape delayed Is there any advantage of having it on Fox? Nope.
more people were likely able to see the race on fox vs speed, but this is my answer... http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/28732/
Andres you hit the nail on the head. I tuned into the race and was expecting the grid walk with Windsor and it was the formation lap and lights right away. The commercials were insane every four or five laps they would stick some on even if there was action going on during the race. None of it compared to the fact that they cut probably the most exciting post race interview that will happen this season.
Damn! I forgot to watch the races again out on my little boat... argh I am disapointed to hear Fox couldnt do it right, how long will it take before someone does?
When you can get the live feed in your house with out commentary or commercials. Fox is nothing with out Family guy or the Simpson's...all the rest of their shows suck....
Amazingly, when CBS used to broadcast races, Speed carried the pre-race show and then signed off and CBS took over. Now Fox (Speed is their subsidiary station) carries the broadcast and they forget all about doing a pre-race show? Doesn't make any sense.
Yes, there is. Higher viewer numbers, and the possibility of converting viewers to fans. While today's race was a cluster on the track, if a newbie was watching they would have loved the action and close racing. You simply have to put up with the compromises to increase the viewership, and then improve the product. Do you remember early NASCAR "mainstream" broadcasts? They were horrible.
Sorry no, 'cause I don't follow that. But you got me thinking: I'm always amazed at those graphics pointing out the cars/drivers on a NASCAR race. I don't know how they technically do that (can anybody explain it pls?), but I'm sure that might actually help in the Fox broadcast of F1: Since the point is to get new fans hooked, it might help to use that technology to point out who the cars/drivers are. Quite honestly, when it comes to backmarkers, I still don't remember their helmet colors (e.g. I couldn't tell Albers from Sutil apart).
Anyone think today's race made some new F1 fans? This was one of the most exciting races I've seen in a while with the number of things going on (including the safety car losing it a bit, lol). If it was Monaco, people would be changing the channel. I mean seriously, how many times will you see a Super Aguri pass a world champion McLaren driver?
I agree. If there ever was a poster child of a race to "sell F1", then it was this drama rich soap opera. One of the best races in a long time. Only problem is: The newly gained fans will turn in next time and expect the same and be stunned to learn that F1 is mostly a follow the leader exercise.
Yup, got me the first time around as well. It looked even as if the guy was naked. I was watching Borat last night...
There was one funny Garmin commercial during the race. It showed a NASCAR driver and the Garmin kept saying: "Turn left in 200 feet. Go straight. Turn left in 200 feet."
It was so bad I turned it off and went outside. I'll try to find out what happened on Fchat or SpeedTV, later today. I got tired of watching the the cooking school commercials. I couldn't watch it. Ciao...Paolo.
I can live without the "grid walk" segment -- reporters poking around while crews are trying to work is the bad side of the media. But starting coverage halfway through the parade lap is a bit off, too. Especially for coverage like this. Fox could have run a pre-race show just for all the "see spot run" details for all the (hypothetical) "new viewers". Such as explaining that F1 cars turn right, too. But, given that the local channel ran this between a re-run of "stargate" and golf, I wonder just how many non F1 fans they actually got. And when they bothered to interrupt the commercials for a brief message from the race, they covered the screen with "insert" commercials. I'm guessing the Fox home page is unreadable from all the pop-up ads, too. I suspect the "market analysts" at Fox are going to use this fiasco to "prove" that F1 doesn't make money in the US market. (Mess it up to prove it's bad. Uh huh.) We've got to get DirecTV to pick up EuroSports. Fox seems to be trying to convince themselves to drop F1 completely -- from Speed channel, too. After all, it's a lot easier to sell commercials if your viewers are idiots.
I think i figured out why they didn't show more of the post race, it think its mainly because the drivers on do donuts on the in field after. it wouldn't be the language barrier because all of them can speak english, it might not be the best, but i can tell you i have heard worse coming from some NASCAR interviews...
Honestly, all you guys panning Fox's coverage sound like spoiled brats. I watched the broadcast and enjoyed it. I knew that there would be some compromises made for the general audience, so the differences from the usual Speed coverage didn't bother me at all. I expected truncated pre- and post-race coverage (though I agree that it would have been a good idea to do that on Speed) and I expected more commercials than usual. Would the coverage have been better on Speed? Undoubtedly, but the idea was to show this to a larger audience. I have friends who don't get Speed, and while I haven't heard from them yet, I'm sure they enjoyed watching the race. (And the coverage was better than on CBS, for sure.) Obviously, you guys weren't around in the '60s and '70s when there was no TV and, on a few occasions, it took me over three months to find out who even won a Grand Prix (by waiting until the race write-up in "Road & Track"!).
Yes, I remember the days when I had to install a big antenna rotor to get a fourth channel. And I don't have to fight off sabretooth tigers, anymore, either. So you expected it to be bad, and it was. That's a good thing? Do you run Vista on a 512MB computer, too?
