Formula One is to return to the BBC from next season after it took the rights from ITV.

 

The corporation today said it had secured all-platform rights from 2009-2013. The deal is reportedly worth around £200m.

 

Dominic Coles, the BBC's director of sport rights, said: "The biggest motorsporting event in the world is returning home after 12 years.

 

"F1 is a crown jewel of sports broadcasting, so to bring the rights back to their traditional home from 2009 is tremendously exciting.

 

"Fans will be able to enjoy uninterrupted, state of the art and innovative coverage from BBC Sport, across all of our TV, radio and new media platforms, for the first time since 1996."

 

ITV, whose contract was due to run until 2010, said pulling out "was a straightforward commercial decision".

 

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone said he thought the BBC would be able to give the sport more attention than ITV.

 

"It's not that we are unhappy with ITV but I think maybe they will have their hands full with other things and maybe the BBC can service us a bit better," he said.

 

"I think they will be able to service us an awful lot better, a little bit more time."

from: digital spy

 

Why do BBC think any sporting event they have ever shown has its home at the BBC and showing it anywhere else just doesnt feel right. The good thing is the races won't have stupid breaks in them.

This is brilliant news.

 

Whatever ITV has done with their coverage, it was never ever as good as BBC's superb coverage.

 

Hopefully the superb David Croft will transfer his brilliant Radio 5 Live/Extra coverage of the races onto TV, at least he was never as embarrassingly partisan & sychophantic as the ITV "Lewis Hamilton is the new racing messiah" coverage is (And I'm a Lewis Hamilton fan but ITV have just been overkill in his favour!). While hopefully former F1 World Champion Damon Hill will return as the expert summariser.

 

Whilst lovely Holly Samos deserves to be seen as well as heard as a pit lane interviewer/summariser:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/presenters/media/holly_pic2.jpg

 

Obviously, having adverts during the race was just plain daft and at times totally infuriating on ITV but that is stating the obvious.

 

:w00t: :party: :party2:

EXCELLENT news! :yahoo: I've always hated ITV's coverage and their catchphrase of "While you were away" :rolleyes: the worst things I remember was firstly when that bloke ran onto the track just as they were taking a break and secondly they took a break and came back and everyone found out that during the break Damon Hill had taken the lead as much as it was a dramatic moment with the silence and then the screen suddenly it said he was in the lead but the BBC did EVERYTHING better let alone not having adverts, if only they could bring Murray back :(

Great news, no more ads :cheer:

 

Hope they don't wheel out senile old Murray though to do the commentary he has been embarrassing beyond cringworthy over the years, Allen is 100 times better than Murray ever was but I hope Croft or Legard get the job

Legard would be excellent. There's rumours Brundle will move to the BBC though, which wouldn't disappoint me. He's fairly good, let down by James Allen really...

:cheer: - Much has I may love ITV's coverage of it, I hated having the breaks.

 

Now just watch - from next year, the BBC will be getting complaints about the amount of sport they don't have on a Sunday.

:cheer: no adds :cheer:

 

and less hamilton bias. :w00t:

and less hamilton bias. :w00t:

 

In our dreams :(

 

With the exception of maybe a replacement for Allen the rest of the ITV team will likely move over to the BBC and if anything I fear MORE Hamilton arse licking not less

 

 

Apparently they used to do it with Mansell loads...

 

I don't see why it's so wrong to get behind your contry's sportsmen so much anyway. Are you really suggesting the Spanish and German media would be any better with Alonso or Schumi? Of course they wouldn't! It's hardly bias, it's support for your own countrymen, it's not wrong, it's patriotic!

Edited March 27, 200817 yr by RabbitFurCoat

In our dreams :(

 

With the exception of maybe a replacement for Allen the rest of the ITV team will likely move over to the BBC and if anything I fear MORE Hamilton arse licking not less

 

:cry:

 

i hope that the rest of the field gets more of a look in.

 

even in china when hamilton crashed out he was still all they could talk about. Drove me crazy

Apparently they used to do it with Mansell loads...

 

I don't see why it's so wrong to get behind your contry's sportsmen so much anyway. Are you really suggesting the Spanish and German media would be any better with Alonso or Schumi? Of course they wouldn't! It's hardly bias, it's support for your own countrymen, it's not wrong, it's patriotic!

 

Different though, ITV provide the world feed to several countries not just UK, Australia and Canada for instance have ITV commentary and coverage so Germany and Spain are purely internal

 

I would like to see far less coverage of Hamilton and more technical features and more features about behind the scenes in F1 and interviews with engineers and team bosses, the continual obsession with Hamilton I find nauseating and it is putting people off Hamilton

Apparently they used to do it with Mansell loads...

 

I don't see why it's so wrong to get behind your contry's sportsmen so much anyway. Are you really suggesting the Spanish and German media would be any better with Alonso or Schumi? Of course they wouldn't! It's hardly bias, it's support for your own countrymen, it's not wrong, it's patriotic!

There's being patriotic, then there's taking the p***.

 

and then there's ITV-F1, they did it to Button to -_-

I would like to see far less coverage of Hamilton and more technical features and more features about behind the scenes in F1 and interviews with engineers and team bosses, the continual obsession with Hamilton I find nauseating and it is putting people off Hamilton

Exactly!

 

Maybe if there was less worshipping of him i might actually find him reasonable