ITV held the broadcasting rights for the Formula One coverage in the United Kingdom between 8 March 1997 and 2 November 2008. ITV gained the rights for Formula One coverage for 1997 in late 1995 from the BBC and focused on more in-depth coverage, conducting more interviews and gaining access to better camera angles. The coverage was initially presented by Jim Rosenthal with veteran commentator Murray Walker and former racing driver Martin Brundle being the initial commentators before Walker's retirement after the 2001 United States Grand Prix and was succeeded by pit-lane reporter James Allen. Rosenthal left in 2005 and was succeeded by Steve Rider who presented the coverage until ITV ceased to broadcast Formula One after 2008. Formula One coverage returned to the BBC in 2009 for ITV to focus on more extensive coverage of UEFA Champions League football matches.
The programme was successful in collecting three consecutive BAFTA awards for sporting coverage but also garnered criticism for showing advertisements during their coverage along with their handling of competitions held by the broadcaster. In December 2015, ITV was rumoured to take over the broadcasting rights from BBC from 2016 onwards, after BBC had terminated its broadcasting contract three years early. However, on 21 December 2015 it was announced that Channel 4 would broadcast F1 alongside Sky.
History
1997–2008
When the BBC lost their rights to broadcast Formula One in late 1995, ITV gained the coverage for 1997. The deal worth £60 million was negotiated by FOM president Bernie Ecclestone. ITV chose to bid for the rights due to constantly being beaten at weekends while the Grand Prix coverage was on.
ITV's first broadcast was at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix and was hosted by Jim Rosenthal along with Simon Taylor and Tony Jardine as expert analysts and Murray Walker and Martin Brundle as the commentators. The pitlane reporters James Allen and Louise Goodman stayed on for the whole of ITV's coverage over 11 years. ITV had set about focusing their efforts into more in-depth pre- and post-race analysis, better camera angles and conducting more interviews. Rosenthal, Taylor and Jardine all presented from a studio with a view of the paddock and the studio was transported to all the races. One feature for 1997 was known as 'Inside F1' where a driver would demonstrate a certain piece of equipment on a Formula One car and would summarise what operations the equipment performed along with its effects. There was also a track guide using a computer simulation provided by Psygnosis also for 1997. Taylor was primarily hired as a technical analyst during 1997 and was also widely considered to be ITV's main backup for lead commentator in case Walker became ill or unavailable but this would only last one season on ITV's F1 coverage leaving it at the end of 1997 allegedly unhappy over the broadcasters desire to cut down technical analysis segments in order to appeal to a broader audience and to allow for more advertising breaks.The post-race qualifying and race coverage was mainly a discussion between the presenter and the experts going over the key facts of what occurred. In the same year, Simon Taylor was left unable to broadcast live after feeling seasick during the Monaco Grand Prix when the team were presenting on a yacht that kept moving around. Sometimes the presenters hosted from the ITV studios for the Asian races due to costs of travelling.
In the early years, ITV also showed Murray & Martin's F1 Special, which usually aired on Saturday teatimes at each Grand Prix weekend. Introduced by Murray Walker and Martin Brundle, the programmes featured detailed reports on the day's qualifying session, along with interviews and features with the drivers and team personnel. The programme was slowly phased out in 1999, with fewer specials airing, before being dropped altogether at the end of 2000. However Brundle and Walker continue to co-present the end of season review under the title of Murray & Martin's F1 Christmas Special from 1997 until Walker's last season in 2001.
ITV also introduced Martin Brundle's hugely popular gridwalk at the 1997 British Grand Prix, where roughly 10–15 minutes before the start of the race Brundle would walk around the grid interviewing drivers, team personnel, celebrities and whoever else he could find. Brundle had elected not to commentate from some races such as the Canadian Grand Prix in 1997 where he raced at Le Mans and missed the race in 1998. He also elected not to attend the Hungarian Grand Prix on several occasions. When Brundle was absent, different people would stand in the commentary booth, including Derek Warwick, Jody Scheckter, Anthony Davidson and 1996 champion Damon Hill. Mark Blundell also stood in for Brundle on several occasions, prior to becoming a permanent member of the ITV team in 2001 and then continued to do so until 2005.
ITV were not able to show the qualifying for the 1999 French Grand Prix due to a dispute with Formula One Management. FOM President Bernie Ecclestone asked ITV if they wanted live coverage with the broadcaster refusing stating they would show coverage at a later time. Ecclestone apologised in the Sunday Express and the race coverage was unaffected.
In a one-off move for the return of the United States Grand Prix in 2000, ITV moved the coverage over to ITV2 as the schedule of the main channel could not occupy the coverage of the race. The 2001 United States Grand Prix was Murray Walker's last in the ITV commentary booth, having missed four other races that season. James Allen moved up from his former role as pitlane reporter to replace Walker in the commentary box with Brundle still commentating as usual with Ted Kravitz who had previously served as research assistant inheriting Allen's old role of pit lane reporter.
In October 2002, the BBC had prepared pay £175 million to gain the rights off ITV when their contract was to expire at the end of 2004. In April 2004, ITV signed a six-year extension to their contract worth £150 million. In that same year, the coverage dropped its trackside studio and the presenters and analysts provided the coverage directly from within the paddock, allowing them to be at every race location for the first time – in previous years, for certain races, particularly for those held in Asia, the trackside studio was based in London, using satellite link-up to broadcast the race. Despite mostly covering races on sit from 2004 to 2008, ITV would revert to using a London Studio for the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix. With the advent of new anti-tobacco advertising laws in the United Kingdom that were placed in force on 31 July 2005, it was feared that Formula One coverage would be blacked out because with the showing of tobacco company logos on television, the broadcaster would face extra charges even in a country where tobacco sponsorship was permitted. ITV was the UK's live television broadcaster at the time of one of F1's most controversial races in the form of the farcical 2005 United States Grand Prix at which 7 of the 10 planned team entrants on Michelin tyres withdrew on the formation lap due to tyre safety concerns leaving just 3 teams using Bridgestone tyres (Minardi, Jordan and Ferrari (6 cars) to compete in the race, the broadcasting team received widespread praise for how they handled the unique and farcical situation as it unfolded. In September 2005, it was reported that ITV had secured Steve Rider's services and would replace Rosenthal from 2006 onwards to present coverage of Formula One. Rider made his debut broadcast covering ITV F1 coverage at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix." The Times, 4 March 2006; Retrieved 2 April 2006 Jardine also left the ITV coverage at the end of the 2005 season, leaving Blundell as the sole expert analyst.https://www.crash.net/f1/news/54701/1/jardine-im-going-to-miss-ithttps://www.pitpass.com/27097/Jardine-dropped-by-British-broadcaster
ITV extended their contract with North One Television for a further five years in an agreement that started at the first round of the 2006 season and would produce over 100 hours of content which also included qualifying and the highlight shows. ITV were the host broadcasters for the British Grand Prix.
In March 2008, ITV announced the coverage would be transferred to the BBC from the 2009 season so that the broadcaster could focus more on coverage on the UEFA Champions League. The contract to show the sport at the time of announcement was worth £25 million. ITV later announced that they had enacted a clause within their contract enabling them to leave F1 coverage after the 2008 season.
At the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Martin Brundle stood in as the lead presenter as Steve Rider was unavailable due to his commitments hosting England international football on the same weekend. This wasn't the first time that ITV's main F1 presenter had missed a race for such a reason, Rosenthal had missed the 2005 Belgian Grand Prix to be part of ITV's live coverage of boxing on that particular weekend, he was replaced in the role for that race by Angus Scott. Similarly, Rider missed the 2006 United States Grand Prix as he was in Germany presenting ITV's coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, with Scott again presenting that race in his absence.
Ironically, ITV F1's highest ever broadcast rating came in its final race, the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, which attracted 8.8 million viewers, peaking at 12.5 million viewers and saw Lewis Hamilton win his first Formula One Drivers' World Championship title.http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008/11/hamilton_drives_125m_to_itv1.html On 17 November 2008, BBC announced that Martin Brundle would continue his commentary role alongside Jonathan Legard during the 2009 season, while Ted Kravitz would continue his pit-lane reporter role alongside Lee McKenzie.
Features
Theme music ITV's F1 coverage used five different themes throughout its lifespan. The first theme was a special, untitled, track performed by Jamiroquai which lasted from 1997 to 1999. This theme was commissioned in February 1997 and cost £100,000 to compose. Neil Duncanson, who worked for Chrysalis Sport and was ITV-F1's producer, was a friend of frontman Jay Kay, who is a fan of Formula One.
In 2000, Jamiroquai's theme was replaced by "Blackbeat" by Apollo 440 which lasted until 2002, replaced the following year by a remixed version by Arnon Woolfson of "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Throughout 2004, ITV incorporated the song "Catch Me If You Can" which was written specifically for the programme by Woolfson and performed by singer-songwriter Louise Griffiths, who at the time was engaged to BAR driver Jenson Button. The final theme was "Lift Me Up" by Moby which ran from 2006 until 2008.
Website The ITV-F1 website was launched in March 1998 as a joint venture between ITV, F1 Racing and Business Net at a cost of £700,000 for the year. Initial content was provided by F1 Racing with news updates from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle. The site was revamped in July 1999 with the addition of a superstore selling Formula One merchandise along with a multimedia content area and a loyalty club. The website was closed in January 2012 citing the joint televised deal between the BBC and Sky as the reason.
Sponsorship Between 1997 and 2001, ITV's coverage was sponsored by Texaco, who outbid RAC in December 1996. For the first year, the sponsorship promotion was created by Steve Pickard and directed by David Harris who were both from IMP. The sponsorship credits were based upon the speed and excitement of a Formula One team refuelling one of their racing cars with a circular theme involving the Texaco logo. Texaco placed £12 million in the first three years of their contract with ITV. The credits were directed by Darryl Goodrich and produced by Nicolas Unsworth.