A bit average I thought - although they are actually there - Burns was in the studio.

Makinen on the pace already - Burns, not - cool!

Trout

 

suppose they're starting off slowly to educate the non-rallying plebs

was that "cautious" driving from Burnsie? what kind of testing does he do if he's never driven on dry tarmac?

nice to see tommi setting good times in a decent car rather than the tired mitsi

nice quote from alistair, something like "can now challenge for the title in a competitive car" (who's car has he borrowed? )

flame suit to hand

 

30 mins is not enough time to kick this off. I would have liked to have seen 1 hour with a bit more scene setting and more time with the drivers.

P.s. Richard Burns - lucky or wot?

 

it was good.

nice to see it on for once.

1 hr tomorrow

 

With Anthony (and I guess numerous others)...I would have liked to see a little more...1 hr would be good....

But maybe they are just working up to it...

 

Early days guys. Remember that apart from the sparse coverage on BBC, those without Sky etc maybe won't have seen the championship before, hence the brief explanation about rounds, scoring etc.

It was only the first day, but seemed a decent mix of rallying and interviews. Burns - you're a lucky lucky boy. Let's hope that doesn't last all season.

Do the graphics look very similar to last years coverage on Eurosport with the maps zooming in, or have I seen this somewhere else?

One last thing, were the Focuses (Foci?) lighter blue up the side due to salt, or is this a new graphics scheme?

Mike.

 

I think it looks promising, most of the cars seemed to have roof / bonnet camera's on them.

Well done to C4 for taking on the challenge.

MB

 

Well at least its on when it says - Always find the Eurosport times random for rallying (Switch it on for (9:30 or whatever and it wouldn't start til 10:00 or something) Anyway, I'd prefer a bit more coverage, I think an hour a day and a live stage at the end on Sunday would be good... Just my opinion though Don't mind the format, but it was short - at least it was on a sensible time...

Jon

 

[rant mode]
WTF is with this anti-burns campaign? He was lucky - what like hes the first to drive away from a crash. Ooh he's up himself etc etc.

FFS we have an english world champion and there are peeps dissing the chap. Any other country and theyd be a bloody legend. What is it about this country that we whinge about being crap at sports yet when we win half of you have to find something bad about it
[/rant mode]

 

Promising start IMO. I thought the studio was back in Blighty until Burns turned up.

 

It was - its an android that drives Burnsey's car..... oh no it Burnsey..... well he's about as plastic and rigid as one

got to take my hat off to him though. He may have his head up his own ****, but wouldn't you if you were as clean, clinical and a tidy driver as him?

I don't like him - I prefer Colin, but its nice when the Brits are up at the top!

 

Good

I'm happy that for the next few months every couple of weeks we have 3 or more rally reports

That is shed loads better than what we've had for the past x many years

& we have a British champ - excellent I've got to say that at this time I have mixed loyalties - 1) Subaru & the drivers & 2) Burns/McRae. So Burns drives a Peugot & McRae a Ford, they are British & f'n good drivers.

This is the best thing to happen coverage/exposure wise to WRC & I want more

(OK - Put me down as currently pleased with coverage )

 

Needs an hour I was just settling down when they said goodnight.
Now I have to wait till 12.30 to see what Eurosport do

 

was it just me or did Tommy Makkinen look happier driving the scooby than he did in the Mitsi?

Last nite on CH4 or was it Eurosport, when interviewed about what he thought about the Subaru he said "its a lot easier to drive"
So does that mean that the EVO was a pig to drive then?

Its good to see him on the pace so quickly, and smiling

Good luck to Burnsie, he may be driving a froggy car, but he's still British !

BOB

 

I'm not complaining. It's a damn site more coverage compaired to what we got on terristrial TV last year

 

As far as I can see McRae is so far up his own **** its untrue. Has to play stupid little games like 2 year olds do - anyone see the pathetic T shirt on last nights programme.

Its nice to see an English World Champion. Who gives a toss about McCrash hes not English Never understood why anyone English supports him. Go to a big pub in Edinburgh when England are playing say Iraq at Football and see who the support is for

Theres a certain F1 driver thats not MrPersonality, but hes pretty good at his job. Look at the number on the front of Burns car

Its also nice to see C4 using 3 days worth of prime time slots to show Rallying. Youve got to let them see viewership numbers/ad revenue before they can give more time.

Jonathan

 

Right, well I've been watching both C4 and Eurosport. As someone whose been following WRC for a few years now, I prefer the Eurosprt coverage. Less flash more action. O.k. so Eurosport themselves leave a lot to be desired on timekeeping, but its a much more straight foward show IMO. C4 reminds me (so far) of when ITV took over F1. Studio with silly interviews. "How are things going?, O.k. so far!" Pad a program out with timefillers. When all most of us want is the action with a commentary.

And FFS why did Penny keep oooing and aaring. I thught she was more professional than that.

P.s. GO BURNS

 

My 2 penneth - I'm used to watching the Eurosport coverage so it was nice to see the programme go out on time! Eurosport drove me up the wall with their time changing

I liked all the presenters especially Robbie Head, guess he could be the WRCs answer to Martin Brundle! I'm soooo jealous of Penny Mallory and I'm sure if I'd been in her posistion I would've ummed and aaahed a few times too, she'll get better and she does know what she's talking about when it comes to rallying.

I would definately liked to have seen more action from the stages and definately, definately more in-car footage, when will they realise that this and only this is the only way to convey the true speed and skill with which the drivers attack the stages? An hour would be so much better as then they could cover at least the top 10 drivers instead of just the select few.

So on the whole a definate improvement on the Eurosport offering - remember that in each of the Eurosport programmes the first 10 - 15 mins was taken up with the last days/previous coverage, ok if you've missed the other programmes but annoying when you haven't.

It'll be interesting to see how much they repeat tonight on Channel 4.

I'm optimistic!

Sal

 

Good to see WRC on Channel 4.Their use of Eurosport graphics,maps and securing Jeremy Hart to provide the commentary was a plus. While I realise that Burns and McRae need to be promoted to new mainstream viewers, I found Eurosport gave equal coverage to all drivers,making for a more balanced programme.Hopefully Channel 4 will do the same as the season progresses. Otherwise, its back to 0030hr Eurosport updates for me, as it was in previous seasons.

 

C4 coverage was $hit... Oooo lok there are only 2 drivers out there Colin and Richard... Ooooo look they went round a corner lets call in Robbie Head (nice bloke but no presenting skills) what was going on there ...."Well they both went arond that corner with inch perfect driving"...OK...Lets call in Paddy Hopkirk (top dog) Paddy was it the same going round that corner in your Mini in the 60's as it is for the present day boys....." well things were a bit different then!!"... OOOOO lets call in Johney Herbert(why)...Would you have done the same in an F1 car.... Blaah Blaah Blaah......

Come on lets see some rallying not all the Bo((ocks talking in the studio.

Had to sit up till 00.15 to watch the good old faithful Eurosport footage. At least they showed action all the way through and remember that there were other drivers in the evebt too!!!

MUST DO BETTER C4 !

(did enter the competition though..well u have to dont u!)

Tim

 

I think the weekend's coverage was reasonably good for a 1st attempt. OK, so there was a bit too much of Burn's 'off' on the 1st day, and the Johnny Herbert 'I don't know what I'm on about' bit was a tad crap, but other than that it was good. Perhaps they suffered from a lack of footage due to Sisteron being cancelled on day 1, but they could have put some of the other drivers on (Alistair Mc Rae was only on at the end of sunday's programme). Oh, and they missed some of the most spectacular scenery in the area.
Next rally will be the real test, they shouldn't have to do so much scene setting.

 

True....

And did you like it when Penny was asking questions in the service area..... She asked and answered the question for them and then stuffed a microphone under their chins for them to say.."yes" , "no" or "maybe"......

Ooooo it got to me...can you tell!!!!!

Tim

 

Hi All,

I think the problem at the moment is that they are having to sell the program to a much wider audience, which means that (for the moment at least) the progam will be suitable for under 8's. I think once a few programs are out of the way they will start getting a little more grown-up.

Mind you, the coverage is a damn site better than what we used to get on the beeb.

I think we need to give it a chance.

My favorite moment was on Sunday when the reporter ran up to the Citreon manager and asked ...

Reporter - What do you think about the decision to give you a two minute penalty for illegaly changing tyres?"

Manager - "no comment"

Reporter - "why not?"

Sorry, but I found that highly amusing

Cheers

Gazza

 

I thought it was good.

It could improve and I certainly hope so.

Bit more action would be nice and at least two hours a night.

 

If Penny could get her nose any closer to Petta's asre, i'm sure she would get it stuck...

'Oh just look how smooth he is through the bends, ohhhh and theres another, ahhhhhh straight throught that one, yes yes yessssss ohhhhhhhh, i'm spent'

As they say on the radio 'the licky licky brown nose trophy goes to Penny'

Good coverage though, nice to see a new approach, loved it when they were interviewing....

'just let me push all these other wa**ers out of the way, and i'll shove this mike down his neck'

Things can only get better

 

Sorry, thought it was kack.

It was 22 minutes into the saturday show before we saw any footage at all

What is the story with the in car cameras ? Set too far back and too high, so that you can only just see past the bonnet of the car. That's for the whole 10 seconds of in car footage they bothered to show.

The biggest **** take of the whole weekend was on Sunday night. Fairly long piece of footage of Colin Mcrae I think, negotiating the down hill section at warp speed. Started off hearing the co-drivers calls, and then the dopey woman decides that she has to talk total dross over the top of him. Completely ruined what might have been the one redeeming part of the coverage [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] I liken it to air show footage where they have to play blaring music to drown out the sound of the planes

I don't hold out much hope of it getting any better. Now that the presenters are getting used to having their mugs on screen do you really think that the ratio of useless studio interviews to actually rally coverage will change ? Don't think so.

Although eurosport have never managed to get the show out on time, at least the coverage is respectable. Anyway, just set the vcr to start an hour early and run for the full 6 hours of the tape. Problem solved

All IMHO of course.

Edited to say that I agree with ga33a, I was rofl when I heard that as well. It was the way he said 'why' that got to me.

Andrew.


[Edited by AndrewW - 1/21/2002 10:14:31 AM]

 

Hey - ease up folks!

I thought it was pretty good.

They've got to make the programme as widely appealing as possible to justify putting it in three weekend primetime slots.

Don't forget - it's all too easy for car/rally enthusiasts to say "it wasn't long enough" or "too much studio - not enough action" but if the the WRC programming is to continue airing on primetime they have to approach it from every angle to interest and satisfy a wider audience.

I for one am really pleased the WRC is getting this level of coverage this year, and if we have to put up with a few dodgy interviews and pointless fillers then so be it.

I'd rather have it like this than not at all...


Rich

 

here here richS

Come on guys give C4 a chance. Not bad for a first attempt.

 

It was poor in my opinion.
FAR too much time spent talking in the studio and not nearly enough showing the action.

I know BBCs reviews with Tiff Needel would be shown a couple of weeks after the event, but at least they concentrated on the action.
I realise it's harder to do this when reporting on events that happened the same day, but they could have shown more than they did.

 

I too thought it was utter pants of pantsville, too much talking and not enough action, seems all these sports shows nowdays, just concentrating on people who have no experience of the subject talking absolute poo for 20 mins then 10 brief mins of action which we all want to see......with 5 mins of ads right in the middle, pointless.....