Is ITV actually run by numbskulls?
18 September 2008 13:03
One new facility that F1 fans have this year is ITV’s new Catchup service which allows you to watch ITV broadcasts of Formula 1 for 30 days after their original transmission. It’s great if you want to watch a race again or if you missed the race for some reason. My brother (who sometimes writes here as Onebrow) has missed the past two races and has relied upon ITV Catchup to, well, catch up.
The problem is that ITV Catchup itself is a dreadful, dreadful service. It is very flaky in Firefox and doesn’t even work all that well in Internet Exploder. You can’t move to different parts of the programme, and it shows the same adverts over and over again.
But all of this pales into insignificance compared to the crime ITV have committed with the Italian Grand Prix. Imagine managing to avoid the result of the race only to be presented with the following image when you sit down to watch it:
Of all the races this could have happened in as well! Is ITV run by actual monkeys or something?
“I was angry,” my brother said. I can well imagine! I think he’s going to write to them to complain about it. I certainly would.
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#1
sidepodcast
18 September 2008 13:10
that is a classic!
complaining’s a waste of time sadly. i bet most people at itv sit around laughing at complaints during their lunch breaks.
much better that he writes a blog post i say
#2
Onebrow
18 September 2008 13:30
Thanks doctorvee. I was genuinely quite upset at this. Surely the name itself (catchup) suggests you have not seen it. ITV just don’t have a clue.
#3
Neil
18 September 2008 14:18
The funny thing is that ITV Catchup is actually thoroughly outclassed by stv’s own VOD service. It’s very odd because stv’s TV output is of extremely low quality, yet they’ve managed to start a service which is updated much more quickly than ITV’s offering and which relies solely on Flash and not shoddy Silverlight.
I don’t think they have F1 on it yet though.
#4
jackdstephen
18 September 2008 22:48
If you email ITV – I did it to complain about their World Cup commentaries (sigh) – you do get a reply.
But that may be automated.
They do seem to be total prats.
#5
Pink Peril
19 September 2008 00:00
Oh. My. God. Talk about rain on someones parade. Seems like James Allen is in good company at ITV then…..
#6
Ponzonha
19 September 2008 08:37
“Sorry, videos are only available if you are in the UK”
I think I’ll miss the joke then…
#7
doctorvee
20 September 2008 12:09
Ponzonha, don’t worry. Everything you need to know is in my post. If you were in the UK, the first thing you would see when you visit ITV Catchup is the image I posted above, showing you the top three drivers standing on the podium.
#8
Alianora La Canta
20 September 2008 15:05
They give the game away every race, as far as I can see, if you go into ITV Catchup via the main ITV site too soon after the race concludes. For some reason, ITV always makes a podium image the first (or second) thing seen entering the site. The only way round it is to bookmark Catchup rather than the main site, unless you want to wait a couple of days to be on the safe side.
Still, using the podium image as the video thumbnail takes the biscuit. What was wrong with the F1 logo in use before?
Incidentally, when I complained to ITV in March about not being able to see their practise programming in the Live Streaming service, I got no reply and had to go to the software supplier (Brightcove) to get the problem acknopwledged (and, happily, resolved).