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Archive: HD

BBC announces plans for 2009 F1 coverage

24 February 2009 13:40

Categories: News, Opinion

Today the BBC has announced further details of its F1 coverage, which will start in just a month’s time. We already knew who would be presenting the BBC’s F1 coverage, but today we have found out more about just what the BBC will be offering the viewers this season.

Television coverage

The BBC have released full details of the television schedule for the whole season. All of the races and qualifying sessions will be broadcast on BBC One, with the exception of Brazilian qualifying which will be broadcast on BBC Two (as it will clash with Final Score). Races at unsociable hours will be repeated in full later in the day, just as ITV did.

Highlights

What is interesting is that the hour long highlights package will be broadcast on BBC Three. But it will be much earlier than ITV’s offering. While ITV begrudgingly broadcast their highlights as late on Sunday night as they could possibly get away with, the BBC promise to broadcast highlights at 1900 on the day of the race, with the exception of Brazil of course when it will be broadcast at 2300.

Practice sessions

In addition, all practice sessions will be covered on BBC Red Button. This is fantastic news. In 2008 ITV provided live coverage of Friday Practice — but not Saturday Practice. Moreover, ITV only showed it on the internet, meaning that it was a poor quality offering. The BBC will now give fans the opportunity to watch practice sessions at television-standard quality for the first time in the UK.

Red Button

There will also be a number of interactive offerings. On race day, viewers will have a choice of three streams:

The FOM World Feed (what we’re used to getting), with the option to choose between BBC One or Radio 5 Live commentary.
Rolling highlights
A split-screen offering, with the FOM World Feed, on-board action and a leaderboard (the FIA timing screens?)

After the race has finished, there will be an hour-long interactive analysis programme with Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan.

Internet

All sessions will be broadcast over the internet on the BBC’s website. Users will have the ability to choose from a number of different streams — everything that you can get on television, and perhaps more? Moreover, at least one feed will be offered in “extra-high quality”, which the BBC say will be “near-televisual quality video”. There will also be live text coverage, and visitors will be offered the opportunity to vote and discuss the big talking points of the race.

All coverage will be available to watch again on the BBC iPlayer. Users will be able to download videos within 7 days of broadcast, though downloads will self-destruct in a plume of smoke after 30 days.

Website

The BBC are promising that a much-needed relaunch of their F1 website will take place before the season begins. We are promised blogs from Jonathan Legard, Andrew Benson and Jake Humphrey as well as one from an “F1 mole” (hmm, that rings a bell…). Murray Walker’s video review of each race has already been well publicised, but we are now also promised videos and text columns from Martin Brundle and Mark Webber.

If the BBC get this right, it could turn out to be one of the very best F1 websites around. It sounds very promising.

Radio coverage

There is a separate press release concerning radio coverage. It had already been confirmed than Anthony Davidson will be the co-commentator on Radio 5 Live, alongside David Croft. This is mixed news for a number of reasons.

First of all, it should be pointed out that the BBC has pulled off a major coup by signing Anthony Davidson for the entire season. The driver still clings on to hopes that he will get a race drive. But with empty seats in short supply, it looks like Davidson has chosen to develop his career as a commentator.

Davidson has had a few stints as a commentator, on ITV as well as on BBC Radio. He is very good at the job in my opinion. He seems almost as natural behind the mic as Martin Brundle. He effortlessly explains to the listener what a driver is going through, and his technical knowledge of the current cars will almost certainly be second to none among commentators throughout the world.

Sadly, this means that Maurice Hamilton will no longer be a regular commentator on Radio 5 Live. This is unfortunate as I enjoy listening to his comments and opinions. I am sure we haven’t heard the last of him though. I hope he stays involved with some of the podcasts he has worked on in the past — particularly The Inside Line, which I have praised a number of times here.

Otherwise, though, the Radio 5 Live team remains the same. David Croft is perhaps not the best commentator around, but he is a likeable presence with a great enthusiasm for the sport. I’m particularly looking forward this year to watching practice sessions on BBC Red Button, where the commentary will be provided by the Radio 5 Live team. Practice has always been an enjoyable listen, in a Test Match Special sort of way.

There is also good news on Radio 5 Live’s Friday night preview show, 5 Live Formula One. Martin Brundle and David Coulthard will make regular appearances discussing the latest issues in F1. I can’t wait to hear what the pair will come up with. Both are colourful analysts of the sport, and they have worked with each other for many years, so the chemistry will no doubt be super.

What’s missing?

Rumours on message boards had suggested that there may be the option to watch highlights of each Grand Prix all day after the race. But there is no mention of that in the press release.

It looks as though there will be no HD coverage after all. This is a major disappointment. The BBC have hinted in the past that they would jump at the chance to broadcast F1 in HD, so this looks like it’s Bernie’s doing.

And where is the information on the support races? This is what I was most looking forward to learning about today, but looking at the BBC’s press release you wouldn’t know they even existed. I would be gutted if GP2 didn’t end up on terrestrial television, after the races were shown live on ITV4 last year. I am hoping that red button coverage will be announced at a later date.

5 comments

What to expect from the BBC's F1 coverage

28 March 2008 21:21

Categories: Opinion

Having considered the past of ITV’s Formula 1 coverage, it is time to turn our attention to the future of the BBC’s F1 coverage.

The first thing to point out is that, of course, just about everything is pure speculation for the time being. We have been given a few hints of what to expect — HD coverage, internet and mobile coverage and things like that. This all sounds like a very good step in the right direction. (It is ironic that this year ITV’s coverage is sponsored by Sony’s HD products — and it’s taken a move to the BBC for F1 fans to enjoy the sport on Sony’s HD products!)

Obviously the move to the BBC is popular for one overriding reason — races will be broadcast uninterrupted, without adverts. Beyond this, though, is the move to the BBC going to be the best thing for F1 coverage in the UK?

A note of caution must be struck. First of all, as pointed out by Ben Evans today, ITV revolutionised F1 coverage in the UK. While we may cringe at the fluffier elements of the pre-race show on ITV, at least there is one! On the Beeb, F1 was usually part of a packed Sunday Grandstand programme. Sometimes coverage basically started when the race started.

Even more amazingly, races were not guaranteed to be shown live until 1995! And coverage of qualifying was by no means a certainty either. You have to hand it to ITV on this front. They might have shoved F1 away to some of their more obscure digital channels from time to time, but I don’t think they have ever opted not to broadcast a race live (although there were a few difficult moments in the days before Freeview!).

Of course, there is nothing to say that the BBC will treat F1 in the same way as they did in the mid-1990s. Television has changed a lot — sports coverage especially so. Nevertheless, the BBC has a packed schedule. As far as I can tell, they seldom have problems filling their Sunday afternoon schedules — either on BBC One or BBC Two (let’s face it — the EastEnders omnibus, love it or hate it, is an institution).

The Beeb does have one thing going for it. The red button service essentially gives the BBC two extra channels at most times of the day. There will be opportunity costs here as well though, and F1 will have to compete with other BBC interactive services.

But if it is true that it was Bernie Ecclestone’s decision to pull the plug on ITV’s F1 coverage, it seems likely to me that he has sought guarantees from the BBC about the quality of coverage. It is not impossible that a guaranteed live terrestrial slot is part of the deal.

Also, a lot of people have pointed out that the BBC does not have much in the way of sporting events these days. And with Hamilton hype reaching overdrive, the BBC could have an opportunity to present F1 as the crown jewel of its sports coverage.

A survey out today shows that Formula 1 is now the UK’s fifth most popular sporting “category”. Ahead of it are the FA Cup, Wimbledon, FA Premiership and Six Nations rugby. Of these, the BBC has the rights to only Wimbledon and the Six Nations — events that are highly concentrated in just a few weeks of the year.

But for this reason, anyone hoping for an end to coverage utterly fixated on Lewis Hamilton will surely be disappointed. The BBC may not be a commercial organisation, but it can be every bit as populist. It also has to draw in the viewers in order to justify the money it has spent on F1 (estimated to be around £200m). The Beeb’s coverage will probably focus on Hamilton just as much as ITV do.

On a related note, many have expressed their unease at the rumours that Top Gear will be heavily involved. My feeling is that far too much has been read into a few comments about Top Gear. The most extreme one I can find is this:

Coles has also said that the success of BBC’s revamped Top Gear programme will be a major influence on the tone of their F1 coverage in 2009.

“When Lewis Hamilton did a test lap on Top Gear it got more viewers than the Brazilian Grand Prix,” he explained. “Bernie (Ecclestone) was very impressed with the Top Gear proposition and there will be cross-fertilisation between the show and the races.”

Now, that could mean anything. It could simply mean trails for the race being dropped into the Top Gear programme. As for “influence on the tone” of the coverage, this does not necessarily mean actually involving the Top Gear presenters. As has been pointed out by many, this would be a mega mistake — the Top Gear presenters frequently express their dislike for F1! The BBC would be foolish if they actually thought that it would be a good idea to have such people presenting F1 coverage.

Having said that, I have a feeling that Richard Hammond wouldn’t actually be a bad anchor. After all, Jim Rosenthal was self-confessedly ignorant about F1 but in the end I thought he did an okay job on ITV. These Top Gear rumours do sound as though the F1 coverage will be dumbed down quite a lot though, which is a shame. But like I said, the BBC have to do something to appeal to more than just hardcore F1 nuts.

So, Top Gear presenters aside, who else could be on the BBC’s team? I have seen a lot of people suggesting that people like David Croft and Holly Samos who already present F1 coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live could be moved along to present the television coverage. But it is worth remembering that the BBC still have rights to broadcast F1 on the radio. They might well decide to leave the radio coverage as it is while it still works, while taking the opportunity to broadcast on television as a chance to make a fresh start.

Three obvious candidates for lead commentator pop into my head — assuming James Allen is out of the equation, as most assume he is. One is David Croft. He is a bit like James Allen I think, but doesn’t put his foot in his mouth so often. Crofty gets excited in a similar way, and he is obviously very passionate about the sport. Could be a good shout, although like I said the BBC might consider him to do such a good job on radio that they might keep him there.

The second candidate is one that I haven’t seen mentioned often — Jonathan Legard. The first article I read about the Beeb winning the rights on Pitpass said, “of course” Jonathan Legard is likely to be the lead commentator. Somewhat conflictingly, the article also describes David Croft as “a shoo-in for the Allen job”, though they might have meant for ITV.

Jonathan Legard used to do the commentary on Radio 5 Live up until the height of the Schumacher domination years. He left to become the station’s chief (I think?) football news reporter. Obviously that’s a pretty good job to have anyway, but you would imagine he’d be tempted by the opportunity to be the lead F1 commentator on television. Legard’s style contrasts to David Croft’s. Legard is more analytical. It might depend on who his sidekick is. Having two analytical voices in the commentary box might not work.

Another possibility — yet another that I have seen little mention of — is Ben Edwards. It amazes me that he seems to be seldom considered as a potential James Allen replacement because he seems to do an excellent job whenever I see him commentate. He is highly experienced as a lead commentator, and he can do both the Croft style excitement and the Legard style analysis.

On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine Ben Edwards commentating with anyone other than John Watson! They must be joined at the hip.

An outside possibility is for Martin Brundle to be the lead commentator alongside David Coulthard. I have thought for a while now that Brundle would make as good a lead commentator as a ‘colour’ commentator. After all, he has had to carry James Allen for several years now, so he is used to playing the two roles.

David Coulthard has been linked to a role at the BBC as a ‘colour’ commentator. I am sure DC wants a job like this once he retires from driving, and he would be more useful in this role than Brundle because of his more recent experience as a driver.

On Martin Brundle, I am sure that most F1 fans agree that the BBC must pull out all the stops to bring Brundle to the Beeb. He is an institution now, just as Murray Walker was when the Beeb lost the rights to ITV.

An on Murray Walker, any suggestion that this will see a return to the commentary box for him is surely complete nonsense. Murray Walker didn’t retire because F1 left the BBC — he commentated on ITV for years. He retired because he was past it. He is even more so today. It’s not bad for the occasional race, but an entire season? No way.

As I said though, it’s all speculation for the time being. I am sure the BBC will give us some decent coverage though. With their red button service, it is tempting to think that we could get a watered down version of F1 Digital+, where we can perhaps go interactive to watch different parts of the race or view the timing screen. I would have thought Bernie would go along with this, seeing it as a pilot for a relaunched F1 Digital+.

Going by what Bernie Ecclestone has said, we can expect to have coverage of practice session as well. ITV have only just started that this year, online. And the BBC have a good infrastructure to provide online coverage and highlights packages over iPlayer. They already do this with MotoGP.

In summary, the move to the BBC gets my thumbs up. It will be a good opportunity for BBC to bring Formula 1 coverage in Britain up to date, just as ITV did when the won the rights. Let’s just hope their coverage isn’t too Lewis-focussed and dumbed down.

Here is how Formula 1 exited the BBC — with a look back at the highs and lows of the BBC’s twenty years covering the sport.

10 comments

F1 season review: broadcasts

9 December 2007 21:36

Categories: Entertainment, Formula 1, Radio, Television

2007 F1 season review

A series of posts

Today’s post in my series reviewing the 2007 Formula 1 season was going to be about F1′s bigwigs — Max Mosley and the FIA, Bernie Ecclestone and FOM. However, events in this area are continuing and show no sign of stopping yet, so I’ll leave it for later.

Instead, I’ll move on to what I was going to write about next week — the television and radio coverage. Because I live in the UK, this means ITV and BBC Radio 5 Live. But I’ll also have a look at the most important aspect of the television coverage, the FOM-controlled “world feed”.

ITV

It was a bit of a depressing year to watch ITV coverage. In previous years they hopelessly talked up the prospects of Jenson Button’s success but they realised they were flogging a dead horse so let other drivers get a word in edgeways.

Now that a Brit who can actually win regularly has come on the scene, the coverage has become completely myopic. “Britain’s Lewis Hamilton” (© Steve Rider 2007) was impossible to avoid and you would be forgiven for somtimes thinking that he was the only driver competing.

Even interviews with other drivers were littered with questions about Lewis Hamilton. I remember one particularly uncomfortable moment early on in the season during an interview with Robert Kubica. The question — if I recall it correctly — was something along the lines of, “What do you think of Lewis Hamilton? He hasn’t made any rookie mistakes yet.” Tough luck if you wanted to learn anything about Kubica.

I never thought I’d say this, but I think I would rather have Jim Rosenthal back in place of Steve Rider. The way he goes all gooey at the thought of precious Lewy-Lew-Lew is embarrassing to watch.

Next to him stands Mark “‘Ello guv” Blundell. He would make an excellent pet parrot. “Absolutely Steve” is all he ever seems to say. He would agree if Steve Rider said the world is run by lizards.

Ted Kravitz has his fans, but I don’t see it. He is supposed to be a pitlane reporter, but he seems more like the Correspondent for the Statement of the Obvious. “They’re putting some new tyres on… And, is it? Yes! They’re putting some fuel in as well!” Yes, I can see that Ted.

What’s really worrying is the fact that once or twice this year he has got confused between hard and soft tyres. This is despite the fact that James Allen goes over the tyre rules roughly every five minutes. It beggars belief.

As for James Allen himself, I still don’t like him as a commentator and it appears to be the majority opinion wherever you turn. He has had the job since 2001 now though, so I’m not holding my breath for a change.

He has improved a lot though. Compare two videos — one from 2006, one from 2007. The first is Jenson Button’s first win in Hungary. You can see a glimpse of the desperation of ITV’s bias:

Will the floodgates now open for Jenson Button as they did for Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill before him?

Well I think we all know the answer to that now. But the really scary bit comes after that. He sounds like he physically shits himself as Button crosses the line. Does a Button win make him turn into The Incredible Hulk?

I guess he must have been embarrassed when he watched it back, so he knew to moderate his excitement a bit for the next Button, er, I mean Hamilton win. But he got his timing all wrong and it came out as:

Lewis Hamiltoooon………

…

…

……

…

WIIIIIIINS!

The video isn’t the real coverage — it’s a loving recreation made by somebody on Grand Prix 4. You need to fast forward to around 3:35.

There are also the usual grumbles about adverts. I see them as a necessary evil, but it is just as well grands prix are broadcast on the radio as well because otherwise we would miss a lot of important events. I hate it when football fans complain about ITV’s adverts, because at least in football the actual action is never missed!

When Lewis Hamilton’s car ground to a halt in Brazil, ITV was showing adverts. A similar pivotal moment was missed under exactly the same circumstances last year, when Michael Schumacher’s engine blew in Japan.

Of course, ITV and the people who make the decision to go to a break cannot be expected to predict the future. But the presence of adverts will always count as a major black mark against ITV’s coverage of Formula 1.

Credit where it’s due though: Martin Brundle. What an excellent commentator he is. Some see him as biased in favour of certain drivers, but I don’t see it myself. He knows, for instance, when his client David Coulthard is in the wrong and says so (for instance, the incident in Australia springs to mind).

Brundle also knows how to praise Lewis Hamilton without completely crawling up his arse. And — most importantly — he never forgets that there are 21 other drivers racing as well.

In sum, though, I am seriously considering just turning the volume down on the television and listening to Radio 5 Live for commentary. I would miss Martin Brundle though. Mind you, at the rate things are going, Martin Brundle might have his accreditation snatched away by the increasingly totalitarian Max Mosley anyway!

BBC Radio 5 Live

I mentioned above that I am considering listening to Radio 5 Live’s commentary with ITV’s pictures next year. So what has BBC Radio got that ITV hasn’t?

Well, the BBC is free of adverts. However, Formula 1 isn’t the only sport covered by Radio 5 Live, so coverage usually isn’t interrupted. So it doesn’t trump ITV in that respect.

But the commentary is pretty good. David Croft is obviously very passionate about the sport and there is usually some sensible analysis from whoever his co-commentator is (usually Maurice Hamilton). It is not completely immune to Hamilton hype, but it is a whole lot better than ITV.

The BBC also often provides coverage of practice sessions as well on Sports Extra. So if you are at a loose end on a Friday it is often worth switching the radio on and getting the live timing on your computer.

In addition, there are excellent race previews and reviews available as podcasts. The features on these programmes are usually of a much higher standard than the drivel (cookery lessons with Kovalainen and the like) served up by ITV.

I notice that Radio 5 Live’s Formula 1 coverage gets a bit better every year. It has come on leaps and bounds over the past few years and it’s difficult to find fault with their coverage (at least in comparison with ITV).

FOM

This year saw a big improvement in FOM’s television coverage. It finally made the leap to producing the coverage in anamorphic 16:9 format and started filming (but not broadcasting) in HD.

There has also been the usual trickle of new graphics to display more information. One that particularly surprised me was a graphic that showed the temperature of the tyres on Lewis Hamilton’s car during the formation lap! It was only used once, and the needle was fluctuating all over the place which suggests it might not be quite up to scratch. Nevertheless, how does it work?! Amazing stuff from FOM yet again.

Another graphic that I liked plotted a car’s position on a circuit map while a competing driver was in the pits. A great idea, and pretty well executed (if a bit large). But as far as I know it was only used once in the entire season! More please!

I’d also like to hear a bit more team radio. It feels like this varies from race to race, which I don’t really understand. It also depends on the teams opening up their radio communications. Only Renault seems to have the right attitude in this regard, and McLaren and Ferrari are both obviously so paranoid that we only ever get fleeting snatches of conversation.

FOM also took control of the world feed for all but three of the races. This meant that we no longer had to suffer as much of the dire direction that used to be the norm in F1. It’s good to see FOM finally sorting it out, but why do Monaco, Brazil and Japan still have local directors?

The Japanese Grand Prix coverage was particularly atrocious. It normally is. It’s famous for focussing rather heavily on Japanese no-hopers. This year several important incidents were missed by the director — including Alonso’s crash and the collision between Webber and Vettel. Not even a decent replay was shown, even though the footage exists (it is included on this year’s review DVD)!

Aside from these little mishaps though, I’m finding it difficult to fault the FOM coverage this year. It seems to get better every year.

« Previous in series — Next in series »

5 comments

F1 coverage to get its much-needed boost?

12 March 2007 00:40

Categories: Entertainment, Formula 1, Television

As the 2007 Formula 1 season approaches (only a week to go, wheee!), there is only one question on everybody’s lips:

Is the television coverage going to improve?

I am not talking about ITV’s coverage. Although we would all prefer there not to be any commercial breaks and would like to believe that there is someone better for the job of lead commentator than James Allen, that is not my target today.

Formula 1 is meant to be one of the very biggest sporting events in the world. Football might be more popular, but only at a local level. Each country watches its own domestic matches. Few football matches are watched world-wide on the same scale as an F1 grand prix is.

Formula 1 is only really beaten by the World Cup, the Olympics and the Superbowl in terms of world-wide popularity as a sporting event. And those tournaments (except for the annual Superbowl) only come around once every four years — there are between 16 and 19 grands prix every year.

So why is the television coverage still stuck in the dark ages?

Well, maybe not the dark ages, but Formula 1 coverage has barely changed in its approach since the early 1990s. Infact, for several years, Bernie Ecclestone has actually stunted innovation in order to teach the teams a lesson, or some other obscure political reason.

In some ways, Formula 1 fans are now suffering because its television coverage was originally a little bit too far ahead of its time. In the late 1990s Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM began experimenting with a high-quality digital television service, nicknamed “Bernievision”. Viewers had six different channels to choose from, ranging from conventional race coverage, to a channel focussing on back-markers, to one focussed on pit lane activity, to a data stream showing drivers’ times and speeds in detail.

To encourage people to sign up, though, Bernie Ecclestone had to deprive normal viewers of their normal service. That’s right — standard Formula 1 television coverage actually decreased in quality.

To take one prominent example, the director of the standard feed could only choose from two on-board cameras out of the entire pack. This usually meant Michael Schumacher and a local hero, leading to some pretty monotonous viewing. This is not to mention the patchy quality of the “world feed” which is usually controlled by a local director. Often the local director will concentrate on — you guessed it — Michael Schumacher or a local hero.

And there have been multiple times when the director has literally lost the plot and missed important events that were developing on track. This led ITV’s commentators James Allen and Martin Brundle to complain live on-air — often in quite strong terms, such as calling the director a numpty — about the shoddy quality of the coverage, which ITV was at pains to point out it had no control over.

Meanwhile, FOM had the best equipment and expert directors who often seem to have a sixth sense about developing incidents. On the one hand, that was fair enough and understandable from FOM’s point of view. There has to be something to encourage people to upgrade to the new digital service. Unfortunately for everybody concerned, Ecclestone’s ambitious digital project failed as it was deemed too expensive (or ahead of its time) for viewers. It was put to bed five years ago, apart from in Germany.

After that, standard coverage stayed pretty much as it was, while the top-of-the-range offering from FOM was left to gather dust. FOM has occasionally been used to provide the world feed as Formula 1 has increasingly moved into developing countries where television coverage is not up to scratch. Still, most European races are controlled by local directors, and the vast dips in quality are shockingly obvious.

Over the past few seasons, Formula 1 fans have seen a gradual improvement in coverage. The “world feed” had access to all of the onboard cameras, rather than just the two T-cams. There has also been a steady improvement in the on-screen graphics that can convey to the viewer differences in driving style between drivers.

But there has still been the feeling that Formula 1 coverage has been behind the times ever since it bit off more than it could chew in the mid-1990s. While other major sports have fully embraced, for instance, HD, Formula 1 has been churning out coverage exclusively in the old-fashioned 4:3 aspect ratio.

Thankfully, it appears as though we are indeed about to see a vast improvement in Formula 1 coverage. It has been confirmed that the world feed for all of this year’s Formula 1 races will be produced by FOM. Moreover, they will be produced in anamorphic 16:9 format (ie. widescreen) and an HD feed will be made available to broadcasters.

This news has been kept relatively quiet (although I concede that these details are probably only interesting to geeks) and it is unclear whether or not viewers will actually receive these pictures this year, or if these pictures will be for the archives. But seeing as ITV have bought a load of HD equipment for F1 races, it seems as though British viewers at least will receive the improved pictures.

I joked on F1Fanatic that since ITV has no control over the world feed, HD only meant that we would be able to see Steve Rider’s dandruff (if he has any dandruff — and with that perfectly coiffured barnet, it is difficult to imagine!). But it actually seems reasonable to put two and two together.

How about on-board cameras though? On-board cameras ought to be exciting, but they aren’t really. I don’t know if it’s just because we have become so used to it, but the T-cams seem really sanitised. They don’t really give you a good impression of how much skill a driver has to have to hit the apex lap after lap at high and quickly varying speeds.

Recently on YouTube there was a video from a 1994 (?) race featuring footage from a camera that was actually inside Mark Blundell’s helmet. Unfortunately the video has now been removed. But it was a much better illustration of what a driver goes through. Such cameras still exist today, so it is a puzzle as to why they are not used in Formula 1 coverage.

Could it be because drivers found it off-putting? It would be interesting to see what Mark Blundell thinks about it. Today he is a broadcaster, so he knows the story from both sides of the coin.

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doctorvee