I’m in Nova Scotia visiting my sister and after an hour or so earlier today of watching raindrops fall on puddles, F1 cars either slide off course or crash completely and Eddie Jordon and David Coulthard try to one-up each other as to who knew more about the sport, Jeanne looked at me and said:
“This is boring.”
So we turned off TSN and went out for a drive around Pictou Harbour, pretty content in the knowledge that - as Bernie Ecclestone was predicting (according to the TV people) - the rest of qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Brazil would be rained out and the grid would be frozen with Nico Rosberg on pole and probably-soon-to-be-world-champion Jenson Button somewhere in the Top Ten and in pretty good shape to wrap up his first title.
How surprised was I, then, to turn on my computer later to find out that while it took nearly three hours to do it, the qualifying session had finally been completed, it turned out to be one of the most dramatic in years and Rubens Barrichello had won the pole for his home GP with a last-second pipping of Mark Webber.
Now, I didn’t get to see all this excitement by choice. It turns out (judging by the number of angry emails I’ve since received) that a whole bunch of other race fans didn’t get to see it either because TSN apparently got bored at some point too and decided to pull the plug and didn’t bother to go back.
And because the Speed Channel is blacked out when F1 programming is on, there was nothing these race fans could do about it - except to write to me and rant. Look, folks: I’m the first to start screaming when I think TSN or Rogers have done something wrong. Just scroll down in this blog, if you don’t believe me. But I don’t know what they could have done differently in this particular case.
It was boring and I bailed. They did too. Have you ever been at a baseball game and the score’s been 10-3 for the visitors in the eighth inning and you leave to beat the traffic and you hear on the radio later that the home team not only tied the score but went on to win the game in extra innings? That’s what happened today.
So we turned off TSN and went out for a drive around Pictou Harbour, pretty content in the knowledge that - as Bernie Ecclestone was predicting (according to the TV people) - the rest of qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Brazil would be rained out and the grid would be frozen with Nico Rosberg on pole and probably-soon-to-be-world-champion Jenson Button somewhere in the Top Ten and in pretty good shape to wrap up his first title.
How surprised was I, then, to turn on my computer later to find out that while it took nearly three hours to do it, the qualifying session had finally been completed, it turned out to be one of the most dramatic in years and Rubens Barrichello had won the pole for his home GP with a last-second pipping of Mark Webber.
Now, I didn’t get to see all this excitement by choice. It turns out (judging by the number of angry emails I’ve since received) that a whole bunch of other race fans didn’t get to see it either because TSN apparently got bored at some point too and decided to pull the plug and didn’t bother to go back.
And because the Speed Channel is blacked out when F1 programming is on, there was nothing these race fans could do about it - except to write to me and rant. Look, folks: I’m the first to start screaming when I think TSN or Rogers have done something wrong. Just scroll down in this blog, if you don’t believe me. But I don’t know what they could have done differently in this particular case.
It was boring and I bailed. They did too. Have you ever been at a baseball game and the score’s been 10-3 for the visitors in the eighth inning and you leave to beat the traffic and you hear on the radio later that the home team not only tied the score but went on to win the game in extra innings? That’s what happened today.
Your analogy doesn't work. In your hypothetical baseball game, TSN wouldn't stop broadcasting the game in the 8th inning just because it was boring, they would see it through. The same should have been done for the F1 coverage.
Posted by: Pete | 10/17/2009 at 09:42 PM
Read your column and decided to post that while some fans mave leave an "almost over" hockey or ball game TSN would never do that. However Pete said exactly what I was going to say above. The trouble with TSN is than they don't take auto racing seriously, it is just a filler between the "spit and scratch" sports. The question is do auto fans not watch TSN because of this treatment .. or does TSN not cover auto racing because people aren't interested in it. For some reason out here in Eastern Ontario we still get F1 on SPEED, and what you TSN viewers missed out on was quite interesting. When racing is on TSN and an American station, I always watch the American station ... always get the feeling that I will miss something while they update hockey or ball, or get the miserable rain delay treatment ... or miss the end of race interviews as TSN rushes off to bring us up to date on "their" stuff.
Posted by: Gord | 10/19/2009 at 03:37 PM
TSN's coverage this season has been mediocre at best. From sound issues through to breakaways (not their fault the Beeb doesn't do commercials) where action is missed, it's been rather uninspiring coverage. Why not take the BBC feed from the get-go so we can get the pre-race coverage? Is their schedule so packed with excitement that an additional 1/2 hour is out of the question? Come on TSN, either cover it properly or let Speed show their version. Breaking away before knowing how it's going to go isn't responsible coverage, it's a joke.
Posted by: KevinF | 10/20/2009 at 08:34 AM