Does anybody know whats happened to the world rally on tv? It used to be on channel four and was very good, now its on ITV and is absolutly rubbish.....some girl commentating who is obviously watching some thing else....maybe eastenders or something!!!! sounds like one of those shows on men and motors thats on at 4am!!! Its also on men and motors in the evening....but equally as junk!!! Whats going on?????

k

Men and motors were advertising it last night - sadly I dont remember when it'll be shown.

yep it was on last night.....it was just as bad as the ITV show!!! theres no passion about it,they go back and forth so you have no idea of the running order,what times a driver needs to beat!! its basically done by people who are sitting in a studio a million miles away and are reading a script!!! It used to be good with yer big tall man and the co driver guy!!!

k

I used to look forward to the CH4 coverage. Robbie Head, the tall bloke and the other bloke were all interested, knew about the sport and seemed to have some sort of a working relationship with the drivers and teams. It's all a bit impersonal now. I wonder what football fans would do if ITV did the same to their coverage of all the big matches? Would they appreciate some random woman reading the script in a deadpan voice, not knowing or caring about the outcome or the implications of the results for the next match?

Sorry, but it winds me up when motor sport gets a bum deal on tv, it is one of the few thngs I watch.

Bugs me that it is so much more watchable than F1 and the gulf between the coverage of them is huge.

Give me cars going up and round mountains,through forests and up gravel tracks anyday

well said skinnyman!!! thats just what i was saying!!!....i just dont get it,its now absolutly rubbish.I thought that the governing body was trying to up the profile of world rallying by having it on alternate weekends to the F1 and having a good show...bit thats absolutly not the case.......At least with robbie head he would go out onto the track and point out the cruical bits,like were to cut and were not to,and show the road surface.I remember him describing a surface of ball bearing and i was thinking aye right!!! but when he went out and picked some up and told you how they behaved....ah right i see now.....bring back the show:(

k

Something a bit more in-depth is what they need, I hate the way they just follow Loeb, Gronholm and Solberg for the whole rally, and having about 30 seconds concentrating on the rest of the field, it just doesn't immerse you in the rally at all, it feels like you are watching very short highlights, like they are pushed for time, I remember watching live coverage of Lombard RAC Rally on BBC about 10 years ago, that was much better, I seem to remember Gwyndaff Evans hitting a tree stump at full pelt, and Tommi Makinen tearing the back wheel off his Evo on a concrete tank stopper, ah those were the days...

true!!! all you hear now is....so and so never finnished because of an incident.....show the dam incident then!!! ah but they cant becuase they never filmed it!!!! wheres the helichopters that they had last year!!!.....its all just very sad:(

k

I don't want to get all misty-eyed on this subject, or I'll go on for ages about Audis, Mk2 Escorts and such, but I do want a bit more of a whinge on this. Not only do they focus on the three top runners most of the time, but they hardly even mention the JWRC. There are a few Brits competing in their little 1600s, thrashing them about all over the world and they don't get a look in. CH4 used to at east acknowlege tht they existed. I bought a Citroen C2 GT and followed its progress every month via CH4, then as soon as ITV got hold of things, they no longer existed. It was a feeble attempt on my part to feel part of the WRC world, but I used to enjoy seeing my little car - or one that looked like it - on telly every now and then. Of course I follow Skoda now, but you get my drift.

Exactly my point, there is very little news of what else is going on around the full rally event ie. JWRC etc., I didn't even find out about the sad death of Jorg Bastuck until Monday morning while on Briskoda, surely it would have been a mark of respect to mention it at the end of the programme, rallying coverage on ITV is cr*p, its as if they got the rights to show it but can't be bothered spending time putting together a decent show.

I think a national petition is in order!!!!! bring back the channel 4 show...pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeese..sob sob!!!

k

Perhaps ITV themselves don't oversee the production, they merely put it out to tender and gave the contract to the cheapest bidder. Maybe we should put in for next year's contract. At least then there will be people involved who enjoy and know something about the subject being covered.

Kit, you seem to be quite upset about this. Have you considered therapy? A rally school day per month perhaps?

men and motors had a whole show on sunday night about the JWRC.....it still wasnt very good!!they concentrating and the top drivers and only showed a wee bit of on stage action!!!:(

k

The WRC rights are with International Sportsworld Communicators Ltd who are owned by a certain Mr David Richards.

The footage shown on ITV is ISC's standard output as shown on Eurosport and other TV channels. The only place I know of where you can get the footage without any commentary at all is on WRC+ at www.wrc.com.

The footage is mainly in car these days as fixed cameras cost more and you need more of them to cover each stage, whereas in car covers all the stages for a small out lay and no camera man.

You also have to face the fact that there is no top running Brit in the WRC so why would ITV go to the expense of sending their own commentary team out to all the events. Someone is going to say 'What about Matt Wilson' but being realistic it will be four or five years before he is competetive on the world stage.

ITV only signed up for this years WRC at the last minute and Eurosports deal expires at the end of the season so there well may be even less options for viewing next season.