[BTCC] BTCC 2021

[BTCC frog]

Originally Posted by B0U170NS

100% agree with this. Look at where F1 has gone without Bernie.

The BTCC probably would get more fans and money with some change, but from a selfish point of view, I haven't been too keen on all the extra publicity that F1 has had the last few years, and think that the slightly old-fashioned nature of the BTCC adds to the charm of the sport. So I would prefer for Gow to remain in charge,.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Someone will have to replace Gow eventually, even he stays in charge beyond 2026, anyway roll on Oulton Park and Jack Mitchell's debut.

[pimmy]

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.

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.

[hen henths]

Originally Posted by pimmy

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.

I've noticed the time they take to put race videos on their website is incredibly inconsistent. Occasionally it'll be a few hours but it can also be a day or two, a whole week, or in some cases it seemed like a race video would never appear (maybe they took months, I don't know). For a professional TV channel, it just leaves the impression that maybe someone who's normally occupied with some other more important job has to remember to upload the races. It can't be a very high priority for the channel.

[mj088]

Originally Posted by pimmy

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).

I dont understand the place for the Mini's on the BTCC roster at all, it seems to be a different variation of Mini Challenge every round so as someone not attending the events and not familiar with the classes, its very difficult to get into the series and follow a driver or championship battle as you can with say Ginetta Jnr or Porsche's or even the old Clio's when you have no idea who or what will be racing at each round.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by pimmy

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.

Wow and I thought having to wait a week for a half an hour of highlights in the 90s was bad! Just imagine what that would have been like last year when no one was allowed to attend….

At least this is a motorsport that is live on FTA. What I would do to get every F1 race live on FTA again. In fact I would be happy if it was like a few years ago when half the races were live…

[Sodemo]

Could be worse, it could be on Eurosport.

[hen henths]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Wow and I thought having to wait a week for a half an hour of highlights in the 90s was bad!

Originally Posted by Sodemo

Could be worse, it could be on Eurosport.

Very good points. We should be grateful for what we have!

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by hen henths

Very good points. We should be grateful for what we have!

Every cloud has a silver lining. Anyway, what makes the BTCC great these days is its unpredictability, which is more than can be said for F1 in recent years.

[AnnoyedMoose]

The best thing and the worst thing about the BTCC is the tv coverage. It's great because it gets it in front of so many people who otherwise wouldn't see it. The flip side of that is that the contract prevents it from being shown on services that appeal to the younger generation. There will come a tipping point though if they're not careful.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by pimmy

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.

Qualifying has been available on demand for the last three years at least, so you're wrong to say it is only available live. And the quality is better than the TV broadcast for a lot of people, since the web stream is full HD while around half of ITV4's audience still watches in SD.

You also can't criticise ITV for not making the stream available outside the UK and Ireland, as they don't have the rights outside of those countries.

You want to watch it in a different country? Complain to the broadcaster who has the rights in that country!

I agree that the international distribution of the BTCC on TV is shockingly bad, but that's nothing to do with ITV.

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?).

This only happens at the start of the day, and only at circuits where the first race isn't a BTCC race.

It will be at TOCA's insistence that the first race shown on the TV programme is a BTCC race. They are, after all, the headline event.

- 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.

Again, I'm not sure why you think this is ITV's fault? The support races (like any club racing series) pay for their TV coverage. If they wanted to have the Saturday races covered, they could do. But the incremental benefit to them for doing that is obviously not enough to justify it, as only one of the support races has ever done it, and they stopped after a single season.

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).

ITV delivers massive audiences that are great for attracting sponsors. Having 70% of the races on ITV will give far more exposure than having all the races streamed live on YouTube. Actually having 7% of the races on ITV would give more exposure than 100% on YouTube:

The top result if I search for "Mini Challenge 2019" on YouTube is a race from Brands Hatch which has so far had 8,513 views. That's after more than two years. While at 3.30pm on June 13th, there were more than 120,000 people watching the Mini Challenge from Snetterton on ITV4 or the ITV Hub.

Alan Gow repeatedly says the BTCC's TV deal is the envy of national championships across the world. And he's right.

[S griffin]

I can’t complain about the coverage, it’s easy to find if you know where to look. What more do people want? Have highlights on the BBC like they have done in the past? Maybe that would be a good idea, but it still isn’t better than having it live on ITV4, for which we should be thankful, as it gives us great coverage on a FTA channel that is made for people like us

People need to stop complaining about the coverage, we’ve never had this much of it before. The number of opportunities to watch the premier motorsport series in the UK is way beyond what it was back in the 90s and early 00s. I am so happy that I am able to watch it live, even if it means I can’t do anything else on Sunday! We should be thankful for this and ITV have done well to get a good deal for the series and continue broadcasting to a great standard, even if it could be shown to a more mass audience like the days of Grandstand.

I think the whole team does well to bring it together considering. Every BTCC race live, plus plenty of support action. It’s not quite as good as being there, but it means you have a nice alternative

Plenty of support action is shown that wouldn’t otherwise be. How else would the Mini Challenge and Porsche Cup get exposure. I’m sure F4 would find a way otherwise, but the others need that exposure. Ok, it’s only really petrolheads who will watch, but at least it’s getting enough of an audience, better than nothing, otherwise they would not show it.

Let’s just enjoy this coverage, it might not last forever, but remember, we’ve never had it so good

[VIVA GT]

Sadly I'm old enough to remember when the BTCC was shown on BBC1's Grandstand, often 2 or 3 weeks after the event. Quite often the races would not be shown at the originally published times so when I got home (probably from the next BTCC meeting and turned on my VCR (ask your Grandad if you don't know), I'd often find I had 30 minutes of Horse racing, Curling or some-such, not the Touring Car action I was hoping for!
At least with the latest ITV4 coverage and recording devices, I can record the whole programme and still go about my Sunday chores, deciding to watch whatever and whenever I can (and whenever my schedule/wife allows)!

[Greem]

Overheard at the weekend:

"It would be better if Neal was still racing the Honda, I liked it when Neal and Plato were racing"

"Plato isn't racing either"

"Yes he is... Oh, I see what you mean"

[billy bleach]

We have a lot to thank Steve Rider for, he has been the common point throughout the past 30 years of BTCC coverage -

[antnee]

Anyone who thinks ITV is bad for the series needs to give their head a wobble. Is there any other series in the world who gets the same amount of time on a major FTA TV channel? Then also available on catch-up services?

TOCA could make more money by offering the footage to non-UK viewers via some subscription platform, Im sure if there was enough demand then Lord Gow would have done it by now. He isn't a stupid person, neither are the team bosses.

[bella]

i don’t think itv is bad for the series as such, but the current way the coverage is being managed has some drawbacks and there’s no harm in discussing and being critical of those. the idea that any criticism means someone needs “their heads wobbling” is a bit weird, but then so is thinking the current coverage is terrible because it doesn’t service one persons exact needs.

personally i find a lot of things frustrating - why can’t i see the races online that itv choose not to broadcast. why do i need to see 15 minutes of adverts as a result of scrubbing through the 6 hour broadcast to find the race before the last touring cars. that kind of stuff. but the fact i can sit on the sofa and watch the entire sunday’s racing, give or take is superb for me AND the event. particularly in these weird times.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by bella

i don’t think itv is bad for the series as such, but the current way the coverage is being managed has some drawbacks and there’s no harm in discussing and being critical of those. the idea that any criticism means someone needs “their heads wobbling” is a bit weird, but then so is thinking the current coverage is terrible because it doesn’t service one persons exact needs.

personally i find a lot of things frustrating - why can’t i see the races online that itv choose not to broadcast. why do i need to see 15 minutes of adverts as a result of scrubbing through the 6 hour broadcast to find the race before the last touring cars. that kind of stuff. but the fact i can sit on the sofa and watch the entire sunday’s racing, give or take is superb for me AND the event. particularly in these weird times.

Without 15 mins of adverts how wold the coverage be funded? Also, the fact that advertisers want to be in the coverage shows how strong the viewing figures must be

[AnnoyedMoose]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Without 15 mins of adverts how wold the coverage be funded? Also, the fact that advertisers want to be in the coverage shows how strong the viewing figures must be

From what I've seen of the adverts 90% of them are for charities or from the Government.

[peebee2]

They still pay, although ITV4 ads tend to have been bundled with other things, as viewing figures are not high.

[bella]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Without 15 mins of adverts how wold the coverage be funded? Also, the fact that advertisers want to be in the coverage shows how strong the viewing figures must be

i don’t mind seeing an advert break to view at all, despite how irritating the emotional terrorism is from some of the charities. it’s just when you see a couple of seconds of coverage on the on demand service, realise you’ve got it wrong (oops, scrubbed too far), try again and then have to view another advert break focussed mainly on trying to prey on the vulnerable and extract money from them.

like i say, no issue with watching adverts to maintain a free service but it’s beef with itv being itv.

i’d imagine a lot of the ads on the live tv service are fulfilling a quota for the required number of broadcasts.

[Mike Harte]

The ITV coverage, for which I am grateful as I watch every event, is not beyond criticism though. For example, although I appreciate that racing (or is just engines?) is not permitted at Oulton, I believe, before midday on a Sunday, that would have been an ideal opportunity for ITV to start the show at around the usual time and then show some of the Saturday races, instead of starting the broadcast at 10 minutes to 12.

[thetool]

It's noise that is the problem at Oulton. Sunday mornings are out due to local church. Even then the circuit is still limited to just six Sundays a year. One of the very worst in the country in terms of how restricted their operations are.

[hen henths]

Whilst we're indulging in constructive criticism of coverage, my biggest frustration was they seemed to go almost half a race without displaying the positions of drivers below the top 20. I suppose if I'd been able to watch it live I could have followed on the Tsl Timing website, but still, when so many championship contenders were at the back it's pretty crucial to know where they are in the order.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

The ITV coverage, for which I am grateful as I watch every event, is not beyond criticism though. For example, although I appreciate that racing (or is just engines?) is not permitted at Oulton, I believe, before midday on a Sunday, that would have been an ideal opportunity for ITV to start the show at around the usual time and then show some of the Saturday races, instead of starting the broadcast at 10 minutes to 12.

If the races were being filmed on Saturday they could be shown live. But they aren't. There is considerable extra cost to doing that and, as I mentioned before, the support championships don't want that cost for what would be a small incremental benefit to them.