Commercial breaks

[FanOfF1]

Fudge.
I hate them. Here in Australia there are too many. I lose count on how many there are. I don't care when there are things such as the Safety Car or a Red Flag but when the race is on? Come on.
How about you guys? Do you have to put up with ad breaks after only several laps?

[Meatwad]

Not anymore in Finland, now that F1 is on pay TV. The free-to-air highlights naturally have commercial breaks.

In the past, the commercial breaks sometimes came at the worst possible time. For example, in the 1997 European Grand Prix (which I have on an old tape), they missed the Schumacher/Villeneuve crash, with the first thing shown after the break being Schumacher in the gravel.

However, the World Series by Renault races on Eurosport suffer terribly from commercial breaks. When they actually show the races (often it's delayed due to football, snooker, tennis etc.), there is at least one break. In the last race, they missed the start.

[AustralianStig]

Fudge.
I hate them. Here in Australia there are too many. I lose count on how many there are. I don't care when there are things such as the Safety Car or a Red Flag but when the race is on? Come on.
How about you guys? Do you have to put up with ad breaks after only several laps?

To OneHD's credit (the broadcaster in Australia) I was pretty impressed that they seemed to cut down the number of ad-breaks in the race yesterday because they got so many in during the red flag period. They obviously have a contract to fulfil with their advertisers, so it's a necessary evil.

What I don't like is when they don't give us a proper report back of what happened during the break, or if they go to a break just as an entertaining battle is commencing.

Oh and I remember there was once a support race for the V8 Supercars that was about 7 laps long, they managed to squeeze an ad-break in but missed the finish

[F1000X]

Fudge.
I hate them. Here in Australia there are too many. I lose count on how many there are. I don't care when there are things such as the Safety Car or a Red Flag but when the race is on? Come on.
How about you guys? Do you have to put up with ad breaks after only several laps?

To OneHD's credit (the broadcaster in Australia) I was pretty impressed that they seemed to cut down the number of ad-breaks in the race yesterday because they got so many in during the red flag period. They obviously have a contract to fulfil with their advertisers, so it's a necessary evil.

What I don't like is when they don't give us a proper report back of what happened during the break, or if they go to a break just as an entertaining battle is commencing.

Oh and I remember there was once a support race for the V8 Supercars that was about 7 laps long, they managed to squeeze an ad-break in but missed the finish

A couple years back I took the recording of a grand prix off my DVR and edited the commercials out to put it on a DVD. If I remember correctly there were 14 commercial breaks in a 2.5 hour broadcast. American television sucks. I watch the Sky coverage every time I can't see a race live.

[DonTirri]

In the past, the commercial breaks sometimes came at the worst possible time. For example, in the 1997 European Grand Prix (which I have on an old tape), they missed the Schumacher/Villeneuve crash, with the first thing shown after the break being Schumacher in the gravel.

Funny, I have the same race on an old video tape aswell... Made me deathly afraid of commercial breaks for a few years, coming back to Schumacher on the gravel... Kyllönen's reaction was priceless.
But yeah, no commercials on finland if you got the pay tv package. the ONLY good thing about the pay tv package.

[Ed24]

Best way to avoid missing anything in ad breaks is to have an online stream on your laptop ready and switch to that in the ad breaks.

[Shizuka]

Hungary fell foul to the ad breaks since 2004 or so. Also, a brief story.

Although Formula-1 is on free-to-air terrestrial television (it always was, believe it or not), somehow the first two or three years on a commercial station was easy on advertising - I don't recall getting ads during races.
Then RTL Klub decided to slowly put ads into races, with a form that took up form somewhere around 2007 or so (I don't remember... the only thing that kept me there was László Palik, who disappeared off the face of Earth after losing his presidency over at Hungaroring): splitscreening the ad and the race, with no commentary or sound during the break. The most annoying thing about it was the fact that they never really announced the ad, they just shut up and bam, that RTL logo suddenly started to puzzle together (the insert for the ad break start was always that).
Palik left in 2010, and that is when I finally got fed up with Hungarian F1 commentary. I joined the F1 Rejects forum on my 22nd birthday, somewhere at the same time I decided to switch to the BBC commentary. As it's impossible to get British television in HWNSNBM land, I went for streaming. And boy, even with Legard, I felt the quality was miles above the Czollner-Walter pair (Walter is a touring car driver, but holy shite, his commentary was so boring...)...
RTL Klub finally decided to give up on Formula-1 after the 2011 season, and Gyula Czollner barely was emotional during the goodbye segment. Whatever. BTW, RTL Klub never went HD during F1.
F1 returned to the national television in 2012, but the commentary fell even more. Dániel Mezei (who was co-commentator next to Palik in the 2000 season mainly on this station) was joined by Gábor Wéber (who is another touring car driver, just like Czollner), and oh boy. M1(HD) took over the ad break style, but Mezei's idiotic commentary pissed off many, many Hungarian viewers. One time he said "only 12 drivers finished the race", when Wéber responded "the graphics only show the first 12 at the moment". You can imagine the rest.
Zoltán Szujó (who worked for RTL as basically the same way as Ted Kravitz does for Sky now) picked up the lead role after 2012 ended, and although he really is an enthusiastic and emotional commentator, he never reaches the heights of the Palik-Czollner role. M1(HD) always takes at least 2 ad breaks during the race, although they don't seem to be as bad as the German RTL station is. Sometimes I had to resort to that, because especially on the American continents' races (Brazilian, Canadian and the US back in the day) NEVER had LIVE qualifying. RTL Klub never thought of them as important, so they crapped it back to the 23:00 time frame, albeit uncut. GJ.

[James1978]

We're lucky in the UK - Sky Sports who I normally use unless we lose signal keep their breaks to before and after the race and not during it. Yesterday they didn't even have a break during the stoppage period which ITV would have had loads during. Even though BBC have only half the races live, that too is a good alternative to Sky - I watched Canada on BBC due to loss of signal.

ITV were terrible for that though. They was on an advert break the moment the 1998 championship was decided (Schumacher had his puncture during a break), and also they had to have a break about 2 laps from the end of the 2005 San Marino GP as they missed one earlier and were trying to time it so they did it after Schumacher would have passed Alonso as they anticpated then had to rush it in as they realised it might not happen!!

[Shizuka]

ITV were terrible for that though. They was on an advert break the moment the 1998 championship was decided (Schumacher had his puncture during a break), and also they had to have a break about 2 laps from the end of the 2005 San Marino GP as they missed one earlier and were trying to time it so they did it after Schumacher would have passed Alonso as they anticpated then had to rush it in as they realised it might not happen!!

Don't forget Japan 2006, when they went for a break when Schumi's engine went boom!

[CoopsII]

Didnt ITV also once cut to an ad break rather than show Ralf Schumacher crossing the line to win at Magny Cours?

Now I know Ralfy wasn't always the most popular driver but even so....

[FanOfF1]

Fudge.
I hate them. Here in Australia there are too many. I lose count on how many there are. I don't care when there are things such as the Safety Car or a Red Flag but when the race is on? Come on.
How about you guys? Do you have to put up with ad breaks after only several laps?

To OneHD's credit (the broadcaster in Australia) I was pretty impressed that they seemed to cut down the number of ad-breaks in the race yesterday because they got so many in during the red flag period. They obviously have a contract to fulfil with their advertisers, so it's a necessary evil.

Yeah they saw an opportunity there to do just that. You're not missing out on anything (except updates when/if news happens). My biggest annoyance is the ads go for at least 3 minutes long (might be putting it politely there).

What I don't like is when they don't give us a proper report back of what happened during the break, or if they go to a break just as an entertaining battle is commencing.

There are always battles for positions and here is the thing, that is just WHAT THEY DO many, many times.

[FanOfF1]

We're lucky in the UK - Sky Sports who I normally use unless we lose signal keep their breaks to before and after the race and not during it. Yesterday they didn't even have a break during the stoppage period which ITV would have had loads during. Even though BBC have only half the races live, that too is a good alternative to Sky - I watched Canada on BBC due to loss of signal.

ITV were terrible for that though. They was on an advert break the moment the 1998 championship was decided (Schumacher had his puncture during a break), and also they had to have a break about 2 laps from the end of the 2005 San Marino GP as they missed one earlier and were trying to time it so they did it after Schumacher would have passed Alonso as they anticpated then had to rush it in as they realised it might not happen!!

Yeah, in Australia we get YOUR coverage and commentary. That is what I have noticed, you are ALWAYS ready when we come back. Like I said though, during stoppages to racing I don't care. Do they take breaks during those times?

[good_Ralf]

Here is the moment where ITV cut into a break in Suzuka 2006. In 1997 ITV cut into breaks when Hill passed Schumi in Budapest and when the McLarens retired from the lead at the Nurburgring.

[PT8475]

Here is the moment where ITV cut into a break in Suzuka 2006. In 1997 ITV cut into breaks when Hill passed Schumi in Budapest and when the McLarens retired from the lead at the Nurburgring.

Ffs you can even see the smoke just as they cut off! I remembered that ad break, but now I look again, just... Argh.

[Fetzie]

RTL aren't too bad, about 4 minutes every 15 minutes. I have also seen them cut the ad break short if something happened (they tacked the rest of the ad break onto the next one).

[Alextrax52]

Here is the moment where ITV cut into a break in Suzuka 2006. In 1997 ITV cut into breaks when Hill passed Schumi in Budapest and when the McLarens retired from the lead at the Nurburgring.

We had a discussion about this in the TV Director thread I set up at the close of last year. You also gave us the moment when ITV resumed after Hamilton's gearbox woes in Brazil 2007.

I did have a golden gem when I was on a holiday towards the end of ITV's coverage. It was 2008 and the Valencia street circuit. I was watching the race in Spain with ITV coverage but when they went to a break I switched over to a Spannish channel and they were showing qualifying and the race that weekend. Although I couldn't understand the language it was nice to see the parts not cut out by adverts and it was just as well because ITV went to a break literally a few seconds before Raikkonen's engine went bang.

[johnston21]

In Canada, when there is a commercial break I mute the TV (while the screen is split by the broadcaster; 1/2 F1 Live, the other the commercial), and turn-up the volume of the F1 app. A few moments of James Allen, then back to DC (after the break).

[Aerospeed]

TSN has the side-by-side option, which basically shows both the race and the commercial on the screen, with the audio obviously on the commercials. Given the red flag yesterday the commercials were mainly during then, and the race had lower than normal commercials. Usually TSN does a decent job of timing on the breaks. The only time I can remember something happening during the side-by-side was in Brazil 2009 when Nakajima crashed out of the race. Other than that, I can't remember very much of the foul-ups in the scale of having championship deciders happening during commercials.

[girry]

In the past, the commercial breaks sometimes came at the worst possible time. For example, in the 1997 European Grand Prix (which I have on an old tape), they missed the Schumacher/Villeneuve crash, with the first thing shown after the break being Schumacher in the gravel.

Funny, I have the same race on an old video tape aswell... Made me deathly afraid of commercial breaks for a few years, coming back to Schumacher on the gravel... Kyllönen's reaction was priceless.
But yeah, no commercials on finland if you got the pay tv package. the ONLY good thing about the pay tv package.

Ditto.

There was a funny ad break incident in finnish tv earlier in '94....it was one of the races where JJ Lehto was sidelined for Verstappen (Magny Cours) so he joined the commentary team. Live on TV, there was an ad break....however, the next day when they replayed the race again, there was no ad break. They'd forgotten some mic on so the chatter the commentators had during the ad break was heard - they complained how damn boring the race was, and one of the regular commentators angrily remarked how "Verstappen will now get praise....damn sure sure you, Jyrki, would bathplugging have finished in points today, even with your bathplugging neck casted!", to which JJ had to agree agree

[CaptainGetz12]

Here in California F1 is aired both on NBC, but at often inconvenient hours, and on a Spanish sports network. The Spanish channel doesn't have traditional "cut to commercial", instead it has the screen narrow to show a sponsor and have the announcers give a brief plug for it. It doesn't detract from the action and i'm surprised more English-speaking channels haven't done it yet.

Yeah I barely understand the commentary, but I honestly couldn't care less about commentary. To me, the racing alone is enough entertainment and what goes on on track explains enough for me.

[MrMG]

There was another memorable badly-timed break for ITV years ago when the priest ran onto the track at Silverstone. We only saw a brief glimpse of him accompanied by a "WAAAARGH!" by James Allen before the end-of-part sting kicked in. They replayed the whole incident as "Live" when they returned. Also a year later they missed Trulli's massive accident.

It's actually quite interesting watching those old races with the Australian/Canadian coverage, the commentators talk over footage that only the UK viewers were seeing. Sounds a bit silly really!

IIRC the reason ITV gave for the end-of-race break at Imola during the Alonso and Schumacher battle was that they postponed the break as Button was leading, even though he had still to make his final pitstop and was never gonna be in contention for the win.

The 1998 championship decider was unbelieveable, a sheepish Brundle welcoming viewers back to the coverage with the words: "You are looking at the new world champion" as Hakkinen sprinted away on his own. Luckily for them it didn't get too much bad press as it was at 5AM and most viewers would have been watching the rerun later on, where they moved the ad break.

ITV had this really annoying habit in later years of going to an ad break whenever the safety car came out. In the US GP in 2006, they took their first ad break on Lap 2!

[roblo97]

ITV had this really annoying habit in later years of going to an ad break whenever the safety car came out. In the US GP in 2006, they took their first ad break on Lap 2!

Gosh, I remember that because Heidfeld decided not to be boring by fliping the BMW 3 ish times. In hindsight, ITV was one of the worst at comercial breaks.

[flyerguy]

We are lucky about ads in Brazil. Even if F1 has always been on FTA (on the same Network for about 40 years), there has never been ad breaks (as long as I know). There are only breaks after the checkered flag.
During the races we have moments where the sound is cut and an announcer read a list of sponsor names and slogans while a their logo, a small one, is show on the corner of the screen. But even this is very short, 10 to 20 seconds a time, only a few times a race.
There may be breaks if the race is paralyzed. And there is always a break between the checkered flag and the podium.

The biggest problem here is that the transmission is only about the qualifying session and the race. When the drivers start spraying the champagne the transmission ends. You never get to see any interviews or press conferences. Free Practices are only show on pay tv.

[RonDenisDeletraz]

The ads don't bother me that much anymore, I would take it over sending money to that bastard Murdoch for pay TV anyday

[FanOfF1]

Here in California F1 is aired both on NBC, but at often inconvenient hours, and on a Spanish sports network. The Spanish channel doesn't have traditional "cut to commercial", instead it has the screen narrow to show a sponsor and have the announcers give a brief plug for it. It doesn't detract from the action and i'm surprised more English-speaking channels haven't done it yet.

Yeah I barely understand the commentary, but I honestly couldn't care less about commentary. To me, the racing alone is enough entertainment and what goes on on track explains enough for me.

That is better. Or at least with just having a sponsors/general advertisements on screen without missing the race because of ad breaks like in Australia and other places...

[DemocalypseNow]

We are lucky about ads in Brazil. Even if F1 has always been on FTA (on the same Network for about 40 years), there has never been ad breaks (as long as I know). There are only breaks after the checkered flag.
During the races we have moments where the sound is cut and an announcer read a list of sponsor names and slogans while a their logo, a small one, is show on the corner of the screen. But even this is very short, 10 to 20 seconds a time, only a few times a race.
There may be breaks if the race is paralyzed. And there is always a break between the checkered flag and the podium.

The biggest problem here is that the transmission is only about the qualifying session and the race. When the drivers start spraying the champagne the transmission ends. You never get to see any interviews or press conferences. Free Practices are only show on pay tv.

Brazil is interesting, because it reminds me of something that the FOM has been getting a lot of flak for lately.

You know those CGI adverts with logos pasted over track elements like run-offs, grandstands, etc? Globo has been doing this for a while now with their advertisers. I've seen massive Nova Schin logos plastered over the grass by CG effect at Interlagos on their feed before, for example. It does look a little bit cheesy, but who cares when it means avoiding a proper ad break?

[lgaquino]

We are lucky about ads in Brazil. Even if F1 has always been on FTA (on the same Network for about 40 years), there has never been ad breaks (as long as I know). There are only breaks after the checkered flag.
During the races we have moments where the sound is cut and an announcer read a list of sponsor names and slogans while a their logo, a small one, is show on the corner of the screen. But even this is very short, 10 to 20 seconds a time, only a few times a race.
There may be breaks if the race is paralyzed. And there is always a break between the checkered flag and the podium.

The biggest problem here is that the transmission is only about the qualifying session and the race. When the drivers start spraying the champagne the transmission ends. You never get to see any interviews or press conferences. Free Practices are only show on pay tv.

Brazil is interesting, because it reminds me of something that the FOM has been getting a lot of flak for lately.

You know those CGI adverts with logos pasted over track elements like run-offs, grandstands, etc? Globo has been doing this for a while now with their advertisers. I've seen massive Nova Schin logos plastered over the grass by CG effect at Interlagos on their feed before, for example. It does look a little bit cheesy, but who cares when it means avoiding a proper ad break?

absolutely! for all the bad things in their transmission, the lack of Ad breaks (or rather their solution to that) is the best thing. Not to mention that during those 20 seconds the commentators shut up and we can properly hear the cars.

To proper enjoy the race I have to resort to a rather convoluted system with my TV, my notebook and an appleTV device:
Watch the pre-race on Sky F1.
When the race is about to start, I switch the TV to Globo and put it on mute. And listen the commentary on SkyF1. There's a ~5 sec lag, but I've grown used to it.
After the race, I switch back from Globo to SkyF1 on TV.

The only issue is that sometimes the network is not playing ball and the streaming freezes and skips like crazy. ..but it's better than nothing

[DemocalypseNow]

When the race is about to start, I switch the TV to Globo and put it on mute.

No love for Galvão?

[Dj_bereta]

When the race is about to start, I switch the TV to Globo and put it on mute.

No love for Galvão?

No.

[lgaquino]

When the race is about to start, I switch the TV to Globo and put it on mute.

No love for Galvão?

No.

none whatsoever

Funny thing though, you watch old races and it is pretty good! He's excited about what's going on and that made the spectator excited too. now, the only thing left is to pick the inevitable embarrassing comments he makes and make fun of them