Quote:
Originally Posted by thetool
I actually think the BTCC could do with Gow stepping away soon. Times move on and for a few years now the BTCC has been behind the times interaction wise. There's so much more the series could be doing social media wise, particularly on YouTube. 7 hour live broadcasts on ITV4 aren't the way you bring new fans in. The at the track experience is a bit better, excluding the last couple of years obviously, but even there there is so many easy things they could be doing that other series around the world have pioneered. The series just seems rather stuck in it's ways is all, which while it's still successful isn't really a big problem, just disappointing.
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The BTCC's biggest problem is ITV.
- Qualifying coverage is restricted to a poor quality stream which is only available to watch live and not outside the UK. The on-demand race videos contain no pre or post-race coverage, and in the event of a red-flagged race/aborted start the original start is omitted, so there's little context as to what's going on. I can't even see the 2021 races on the ITV site.
- The live TV coverage will often feature the presenters waffling on about something or other when there's a support race on (seriously, who thinks it's a good idea to deliberately NOT show racing?).
- The coverage that the support package gets is disgraceful. You'll never see the Saturday races unless you're at the track, and I bet there's a very small percentage of fans who are able to attend full weekends at each round in order to see them, even in non-covid times. Of course, the exception to this is the final event, where ITV do actually bother to put some effort in. Some of the Sunday races either won't be shown, or will only be shown in the form of very brief highlights.
I personally don't understand why the top class of the MINI Challenge joined the package, because it's getting the worst coverage it's had for years. From 2013-15 it had a highlights package on TV and on Youtube where the videos can still be seen, featuring every race; 2016-18 was highlights on TV only but all of the races were covered; 2019 had full-season live streaming on Youtube and the races can still be watched. Since joining the TOCA package only about 70-ish% of the races have been shown in any form (and that number might be generous).
It's pretty ridiculous, considering the fact that it's possible for me, a person in the UK, to freely and legally watch full events from Italy, Germany, Australia, Japan, etc. as well as full club events in the UK, but I can't watch full events from the highest-profile package in my home country.
In short, ITV is **** and they don't care.
On a more positive note, I'm quite looking forward to seeing how Jack Mitchell gets on. He's quite the handy pedaller.