Jon McKnight

Bye-bye, ITV F1… and thanks for nothing!

Whether Lewis Hamilton emerges as World Champion or not after today's Brazilian Grand Prix, the real winners will be those of us who have had no choice but to watch Formula One on ITV.

For when the chequered flag goes down on the winner of today's race, it will also mark the end of a frustrating era in which ITV thought it acceptable to deprive viewers of hours of live race coverage so that it could show them adverts instead.

As regular readers of this column may remember, ITV viewers lost four hours, six minutes and four seconds of live race action last season - the equivalent of more than two-and-a-half entire races!

That statistic - the first to be compiled - was produced by this column during a whole season of sitting in front of the TV with a stopwatch. Hardly fun, but someone needed to do it to expose just how much contempt ITV felt for the fans it was supposedly serving with its F1 coverage.

Miracles do occasionally happen, though, and ours occurred on 20 March this year when, out of the blue, the BBC announced that it had bought the rights to Formula One coverage for next season.

This column's report on it is here and includes a pic of Roger Mosey, the BBC's Director of Sport, who we fans can thank for it.

From next season, we'll be able to watch uninterrupted coverage of a sport in which even hundredths of a second count - something that ITV chose to ignore when it showed us five ad breaks per programme despite the live event continuing unseen by us.

I do hope, though, that the BBC's commentators include at least one former Formula One driver who can, like Martin Brundle, give us a true insight into what might be going through a driver's head as events unfold.

But for now, we should celebrate victory over the ITV spoilsports who've ruined our viewing for years.

Jon McKnight

Author of Sort The Bastards!

Direct Line's reputation on the line?

Why does Direct Line use an 0845 number for its car insurance Customer Services? And why doesn't it allow customers to e-mail it?

The Customer Services woman I've just spoken to after a seventeen-and-a-half-minute wait on hold couldn't answer either of those questions.

So I was forced to speculate myself.

Could it be, I asked her, that Direct Line makes huge profits every year from forcing customers to ring expensive 0845 numbers when it could have used an ordinary landline number that almost everyone could ring for free as part of their bundled calls packages?

Could it be that Direct Line doesn't allow customers to e-mail it because that would be free, fast, and efficient - as opposed to having them waiting ages on over-priced phone lines?

All I'd wanted to do was e-mail a PDF of a proof of no-claims bonus to Direct Line. It would have taken seconds and cost nothing.

Yet I had to wait, listening to the most mind-numbingly repetitious music on hold, for more than a quarter of an hour before I even spoke to a human being.

No, I couldn't e-mail it, she said, because they don't ue e-mail. And no need to check the date of this posting; I am writing in the 21st Century.

The woman was happy for me to fax her, had I had a machine to hand, but couldn't accept that a scanned and e-mailed PDF of a document had exactly the same status and properties as one that had been faxed.

If Direct Line is unable to answer its phones more quickly than that, why doesn't it make its customer service line a freephone number? That would mean that instead of the customer paying for Direct Line's inefficiency, the firm would pick up the tab itself with a huge phone bill.

But I suspect that the firm would simply begin answering quickly, as it should, to avoid the costs that it doesn't mind passing on to us.

If more people complained about it, she said, Direct Line might take notice.

I know readers of this column do like a challenge, so there you are!

Jon McKnight

Author of Sort The Bastards!

As not seen on ITV…

If ever proof were needed that ITV were unfit to show Formula one racing through their stubborn determination to show ad breaks during the action, two potentially race-changing incidents during today's European Grand Prix provide it.

First, two cars almost collided in the pit lane after what stewards believed might have been an unsafe release; then Raikkonen's engine blew up.

Both incidents happened while we viewers were being treated to adverts instead of the race we'd tuned in to watch.

While we did get to se them in replay, the whole point of watching a live race is to see things when they happen, not in review at a later stage.

Thankg God the BBC will be showing uninterrrupted coverage of Formula One from next season. Millions of us just cannot wait.

Jon McKnight

The biggest loser in British history

What on Earth possessed Hastings Direct to choose Harry, the animated version of King Harold, as their mascot?

Cute he may be, and his singing of the company's phone number 0800 00 1066 sounds all very avuncular, but it's hard to imagine why an insurance company like Hastings would risk pinning their success on a figure whose leadership skills and achievements can hardly inspire confidence.

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at the marketing meeting when Harry was chosen!

Did no-one have either the historical knowledge or the courage to point out that Harold lost his eye, his life, and his kingdom in the most catastrophic failure ever to beset this country?

He was, without a doubt, the biggest loser in British history.

Just three little words, uttered at the right time, would have saved Hastings Direct from themselves: "William the Conqueror".

What other gems can we expect if the culprit who thought that one up branches out into other industries? Canute water-repellents? Icarus Airlines? Herod's Kindergartens?

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

David Cameron and the cycling scandal

David Cameron's admission that he broke umpteen laws while cycling in London highlights a serious inequality between the rights and obligations of motorists and pedal-pushers.

The Tory leader's confession was only wrung out of him after The Mirror newspaper obtained film of him pedalling through red lights, going the wrong way around Keep Left bollards, and cycling across a pelican crossing when the light was red.

But the problem is much wider than that.

If you're a pedestrian and a car hits you, the car can be identified from its number plates; the driver will have had to pass a test of competence; the driver will have insurance, or be prosecuted if he hasn't; and if the driver is at fault, he can be banned from driving by a court.

Not so if you happen to be injured by a cyclist.

Bicycles are not subject to any kind of registration regime, so there's little chance that anyone could identify a bicycle involved in a hit-and-run.

Telling the police that the bike had two wheels and a frame is hardly going to help them find it, whereas it would be a piece of cake if they had to bear registration plates like every other type of vehicle.

That very anonymity is probably the main reason why cyclists like David Cameron feel free to break every rule in the Highway Code with apparent impunity.

Cyclists don't have to pass any kind of test, either. And while the Highway Code is full of rules that also apply to them, the lack of a regulatory regime means many cyclists never pick up a copy in their lives, never mind abide by it.

Cyclists don't have to have any kind of insurance, either. So if a cyclist hits you, perhaps riding along the pavement or the wrong way on a public road, you have no chance of receiving proper compensation.

Unless the cyclist happens to be an eccentric millionaire and is therefore worth sueing, hough I suspect that many of them are either too poor to afford a car or wish they were living in Victorian times when cycling seemed such a sensible idea.

If the cyclist is at fault, there is no chance whatever that the cyclist can be banned from cycling as a way of protecting the public. He could be penalised for being drunk in charge of a cycle, of course, but there is no such thing as a cycling ban.

It's frustrating enough that cycles are given priority at traffic lights in so many of our cities, but what makes it worse is when they ignore the cycle lanes we've all had to pay for and continue to wobble along in traffic, either forcing us to crawl at a snail's pace or tempting us to edge on to the other side of the road to overtake them, which must cause a fair number of accidents.

In Plymouth, for example, the council spent hundreds of thousands of pounds installing cycle lanes on the main road between the city and Tavistock, yet cyclists don't use the cycle lane and struggle up the hills on the main road, causing annoyance and disruption for motorists.

Surely cyclists should be forced to use cycle lanes where they exist and should be fined, heavily, if they use the roads instead. But with no number plates, how could they ever be identified and prosecuted?

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

BBC to the rescue of F1 fans

The nightmare is nearing an end. ITV's don't-give-a-damn-about-the-viewers reign as the sole provider of Formula One Grand Prix TV coverage to the UK will be over at the end of this season. And not a day too soon.

The commentary and the coverage itself was fine. But ITV showed its utter contempt for viewers by running ad breaks during the live races - a policy that robbed viewers of four hours, six minutes and four seconds of live race action.

That's the equivalent of more than two-and-a-half entire races.

Imagine if ITV had dared to show ads during live football matches - not at half-time, but during the matches themselves. There would have been uproar. But because it was F1, ITV just carried on regardless, more interested in how much it could charge advertisers for airtime than the fact that the ads would ruin the enjoyment of the very programme viewers had tuned in to see.

Shocked by ITV's indifference to its viewers, and by Ofcom's decision to turn a blind eye to ITV's flouting of its own regulations, this blog launched the ITV F1 Ads Campaign and the Formula One Roll of Shame, updated after every race to show which advertisers had decided to buy airtime knowing that it would ruin viewers' enjoyment of the race.

Thanks to this morning's revelation, that campaign is now redundant.

The BBC will be resuming coverage of F1 from next season for at least five years, which will mean uninterrupted overage of every race, as well as live coverage on the web as well.

It feels almost as if a hostile force has agreed to leave and the occupation of the sport we enjoy will be over.

Despite having worked for the BBC for a few months last year - after I launched the campaign, and quite unexpectedly - I've never had anything against ITV or the commercial necessity that it had to sell ads during its F1 programmes.

But it did not need to sell them during the live race itself - and Ofcom should not have allowed it to.

There is media speculation that ITV wasn't attracting enough viewers for its F1 coverage, which is why it decided to give up the contract a year early.

I have no way of telling if that's the case. But if it were true, could the lack of viewers be due to the fact that fans who tuned in to ITV's coverage gave up in disgust - and in their droves - when ITV plonked five ad breaks right in the middle of the races, denying them almost a quarter of an hour of coverage in a sport in which even hundredths of a second make all the difference?

Poetic justice, perhaps.

Sitting here with a stopwatch to time the ad breaks in every single race of last season, sometimes in the very early hours, was hardly fun. But it did expose the magnitude of ITV's contempt for us by compiling, for the first time, statistics detailing the precise amount of race time ITV robbed us of.

As a reminder, here's a race-by-race breakdown of how much we missed of each race last season:

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs
Hungary 14 mins 20 secs
Turkey 14 mins 23 secs
Italy 14 mins 28 secs
Belgium 14 mins 27 secs
Japan 11 mins 20 secs
China 14 mins 21 secs
Brazil 14 mins 24 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST LAST SEASON: 4 hours 06 mins 04 secs!

One man who should take the credit for rescuing Formula One for the fans is Roger Mosey (pictured below), the BBC's Director of Sport. His shrewd negotiations snatched the sport away from ITV and saved it for the nation, without adding a penny to the licence fee.

I doubt if anyone will erect a statue to him, but Roger Mosey has made an even bigger contribution to UK fans' enjoyment of Formula One than Lewis Hamilton did in his astonishing debut.

And I hope we all remember Roger's contribution when the BBC takes over and we get to see Lewis Hamilton racing rather than an ad for Ronseal, or those little ad-break bumpers that tell us that Honda or Sony have sponsored the programme without mentioning that they're simultaneously spoiling it.

Bless you, Roger.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 fans miss out again!

Just noticed that ITV was promising to show live Formula One coverage on its itv-f1.com website this season - a new initiiative that I thought might give some consolation to those of us who object to having our coverage of F1 punctuated with irrelevant TV commercials.

But no such luck. Instead of showing the race on the web without commercials (which would have cost ITV nothing) it simply simulcasts its TV coverage with the ads still in.

An opportunity wasted. And confirmation, if we ever needed it, that ITV has little but contempt for us, its viewers.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

ITV viewers to miss 4 hours of F1 action

As the countdown begins to today's Australian Grand Prix, viewers of ITV in the UK can look forward to missing more than FOUR HOURS of the live race action this season.

And in a sport in which even hundreds of a second can make all the difference, we can expect to miss a breathtaking 14,764 seconds, if the amount of live race action we were deprived of last season is anything to judge by.

That's because ITV inists on showing TV commercials during the live race action itself, instead of grouping the ads into the two parts of the programme that come before and after the live race.

ITV clearly puts the interests of its advertisers before the interests of mere viewers like us, and advertisers are so determined to put their commercial messages in front of us that they don't seem to realise - or give a damn - that they're spoiling the very event we tuned in to watch.

Elesewhere on this blog you'll see chapter and verse on who the offenders were - and why I believe ITV are in contravention of Ofcom's rules on the showing of ads during live events.

I won't repeat them now, but remember that this blog has produced the world's first comprehensive set of statistics showing precisely how much of each race we fans were cheated out of by ITV.

As a reminder, here's a race-by-race breakdown of how much we missed of each race last season:

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs
Hungary 14 mins 20 secs
Turkey 14 mins 23 secs
Italy 14 mins 28 secs
Belgium 14 mins 27 secs
Japan 11 mins 20 secs
China 14 mins 21 secs
Brazil 14 mins 24 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST LAST SEASON: 4 hours 06 mins 04 secs!

No-one else has ever bothered to sit down with a stopwatch and detail this shameful deprivation of viewers' enjoyment, but I offer it here for the record.

I won't be doing it again this season as the point has been made, but I would urge any fellow fans who care about this to raise the matter with ITV and with Ofcom - and not least with the advertisers who are paying to ruin our pleasure.

Enjoy the season... or at least the bits of it that ITV deign to let you see.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

End of the road for Evel Knievel

So stunt motorcyclist Evel Knievel has finally failed to cheat death. At least he didn't end up under a bus, although, during his career, rather a lot of buses ended up under him.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 21.10.07

If ever we needed proof that ITV is shortchanging viewers by showing randomly-placed adverts during its live coverage of Formula One, it came in today's final race in the world championship.

Lewis Hamilton, the world championship leader, was in sixth place in the Brazilian Grand Prix and fighting hard when his car suddenly ran into problems and he dropped 12 places to 18th in just one lap.

Dramatic. Shocking. Sensational. But we didn't see a single frame of it.

Why not? Because ITV thought we'd rather watch commercial messages from X Box, BMW, Sure, Norwich Union Direct and Vodafone.

Interesting as those companies' offerings might be, we viewers tuned in to watch the live race - and, thanks to their selfishness in buying airtime during the race instead of in the sections of the same programme before and after the race, we missed Hamilton's dramatic change of fortunes.

This is unforgiveable, for several reasons.

First, ITV have no idea what's going to happen next in a race in which anything can happen, and often does.

Secondly, Ofcom is shirking its duty to the viewing public by allowing ITV to get away with showing commercials during the live race coverage.

Ofcom says its own rules allow ITV to show commercials when the focus of the coverage shifts from one part of the event to another.

The specific wording is: In live coverage of long continuous events breaks may be taken at points where the focus of coverage shifts from one point to another of the event for example after a resume of the current placings in a race and before refocusing on a particular section of the race.

As any Formula One fan knows, there are no natural breaks in a Grand Prix race. The focus of the coverage should be total, from start to finish, not shift from one part of a race to another, as there are no "parts".

So there is no point at which the showing of ads could be justified. We know this. Ofcom knows this. And ITV knows this.

Nevertheless, ITV simply gives a rundown of the current positions and goes to an ad break, no doubt crossing its fingers that nothing interesting will happen while it's showing us ads instead of the race action.

This time, those crossed fingers didn't work. Whatever the problem was with Hamilton's car, it happened while we were being entertained by Norwich Union Direct and the rest, so we didn't see it.

Returning to the live race coverage to discover the potential world champion had unaccountably dropped to 18th place and was no longer a serious contender for the title was something that will leave a nasty taste in ITV viewers' mouths for years to come.

In fact, it's hard to be sure whether ITV are actually showing us an hour and a half of TV commercials interrupted by snatches of the Grand Prix, or the other way around.

One of the commentators even criticised the director for looking at exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong moment.

But that's what ITV does when it goes to an ad break while the race is in progress.

In the end, Kimi Raikkonen took the world championship just one point ahead of Lewis Hamilton - a well-deserved victory in this particular race - but those of us who have followed Lewis Hamilton's every move this season cannot help but feel cheated that we were deliberately prevented from watching the moment when the chance of seuring a world championship in his debut season finally eluded him.

ITV needs to re-think its policy, and Ofcom needs to do the decent thing and prevent the broadcaster from spoiling future seasons for us.

As regular readers know, this is the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

This season, ITV robbed us of more than two entire races worth of live coverage.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

X Box 360
BMW 1 Series Coupe
Sure
Norwich Union Direct
Vodafone / Lewis Hamilton
Pepsi Max Your Life
Russian Standard Vodka
Snickers
Renault Laguna
Russian Standard Vodka (second offence)
Eon
Sony Ericsson
Tom Tom Go
Saab 9-3
Lynx Dry
Bulmers original
Honda
Rennie Dual Action
Audi R8
Eon (second offence)
Timberland
Fosters Super Chilled
Allure Homme Sport from Chanel
24-7 Football
Coors Light
Honda (second offence)
Direct Line

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs
Hungary 14 mins 20 secs
Turkey 14 mins 23 secs
Italy 14 mins 28 secs
Belgium 14 mins 27 secs
Japan 11 mins 20 secs
China 14 mins 21 secs
Brazil 14 mins 24 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 4 hours 06 mins 04 secs

But who cares?

If you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 07.10.07

Extraordinary scenes in the Chinese Grand Prix - but no thanks whatever to ITV and its ad-break planners that we were actually able to see them.

That, as usual, was left to pure chance.

Lewis Hamilton, tyres balding by the yard, suddenly slipped in the pit lane and ended up in the gravel trap, wheels spinning hopelessly as none of the marshalls could or would push him free.

Hearts around the motor racing world missed a beat as Lewis Hamilton's chances of winning the world championship in this race ticked away until he realised it was all over and climbed out of his stricken car.

But all of that could have happened in an ad break - and we would have missed the lot.

ITV, having no proven powers of clairvoyancy, had no more idea that was going to happen to Lewis Hamilton than the driver himself did, so we could have been watching commercial messages from Norwich Union Direct and The Sunday Telegraph instead of witnessing, live, his shocking exit from the Grand Prix - possibly the decisive moment in the world championship that could hand it to Raikkonen or Alonso.

We didn't miss it - but we could have done. And ITV, presumably, wouldn't have cared... just so long as it filled its coffers with the revenue from the ads. After all, that's much more important than letting viewers see the live race action they tuned in to see, isn't it?

Now we'll have to wait until the Brazilian Grand Prix in a fortnight to see who'll be the World Champion - but will there be a decisive moment in that race, and how do ITV know when it might be?

They won't, of course, so we could see the Formula One World Championship decided in an ad break with viewers who tuned in to watch a live race having to see that decisive moment in flashback!

This time we missed Ralf Schumacher's collision and spin in ad-break three, so it's no good convincing ourselves that these things don't happen.

As regular readers know, this is the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

So far this season, ITV has robbed us of more than two entire races worth of live coverage (details here) - and there's still one race to go this season.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Bridgestone
Santander / Abbey
Vodafone / Lewis Hamilton
San Miguel
Lexus Hybrid Drive
Bulmers Original Born For Ice
The Sunday Telegraph
BT - bt.com/business
Norwich Union Direct
X-box 360
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Rendition
Norwich Union Direct (second offence)
Orange
MPH - mphshow.co.uk
Ladbrokes
NatWest
T-Mobile Top-Up Friday
Peugeot 308 - Inspired by nature.
Direct Line
Allure Homme Sport from Chanel
Fosters Super Chilled
Guinness
BetFair www.betfair.com
World from Mastercard
BMI
Norwich Union (third offence)

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs
Hungary 14 mins 20 secs
Turkey 14 mins 23 secs
Italy 14 mins 28 secs
Belgium 14 mins 27 secs
Japan 11 mins 20 secs
China 14 mins 21 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 3 hours 51 mins 40 secs

But who cares?

If you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 30.09.07

Thanks to divine intervention rather than any restraint by ITV or its advertisers, we Formula One fans didn't miss as much of the race action as usual during this year's Japanese Grand Prix.

That's only because the first 19 laps, including the start of the race, were an organised procession behind the Safety Car in surely the most appalling conditions most drivers will ever have experienced, with torrential rain, mist, and ever-present clouds of spray.

This gave ITV the chance to screen several ad breaks in a row, knowing that - just for once - there wouldn't be much live race action for us to miss.

Nevertheless, we still missed 11 minutes and 20 seconds of the race.

At least we couldn't complain that this race lacked incident! There was an accident in the first lap after the Safety Car came in; Mark Webber was sick inside his helmet; Sato's car caught fire as he left the pits, only for the driving rain to put it out; Alonso crashed out; Vettel took himself and Webber out just as they appeared to be in line for a podium; and Lewis Hamilton survived to win despite being whacked into a spin by Kubica.

The total live race coverage we've lost so far this season is three hours, 37 minutes and 19 seconds - a scandal that ought to be as important to race fans as anything that's gone on in the McLaren spygate episode (more details here).

As regular readers know, this is the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

So far this season, ITV has robbed us of more than two entire races worth of live coverage (details here) - and there are still two races to go this season.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Carlsberg
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
The Heartbreak Kid
Honda
Vodafone - Make The Most Of Now
Citroen C4
BT Total Broadband
Saab 9-3
Lynx
OO7 Spycard Collection
Danone Actimel
Lynx (second offence)
Norwich Union
Lexus Hybrid Drive
Lloyds TSB
Peugeot 308 - Inspired By Nature
Carlsberg (second offence)
Orange Speakeasy
Norwich Union (second offence)

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs
Hungary 14 mins 20 secs
Turkey 14 mins 23 secs
Italy 14 mins 28 secs
Belgium 14 mins 27 secs
Japan 11 mins 20 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 3 hours 37 mins 19 secs

But who cares?

If you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Treading carefully

How strange that the famous Pirelli Calendar never features women with spare tyres.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 16.09.07

F1 fans lost 14 minutes and 27 seconds of the Belgian Grand Prix today due to insensitive advertisers who bought airtime during the live race coverage on ITV.

The total live race coverage we've lost so far this season is three hours, 25 minutes and 59 seconds - a scandal that ought to be as important to race fans as anything that's gone on in the McLaren spygate episode (more details here).

Today's most irritating advertising slogan has to be Virgin Trains' "Love every second".

Yes, Sir Richard, we fans do love every second of the race. So why did you plonk your advert right in the middle of it and force us to miss precious seconds of the race we love?

As regular readers know, this is the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

So far this season, ITV has robbed us of more than two entire races worth of live coverage (details here) - and the season isn't even over yet.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Toyota Auris
Monster.co.uk
Directline.com
Vodafone / Lewis Hamilton
AXA PPP Healthcare
Allure Homme Sport from Chanel
The new Saab 9-3
Esure / Michael Winner
British Gas
Monster.co.uk (second offence)
Virgin Trains / Love Every Second
Right Guard
eBay.co.uk
PC World
Recyclenow.com
Orbit Complete
HSBC's Premier Service
Norwich Union Direct
Volvo XC70
Honda
Airwaves Black Mint
Mercedes-Benz
British Gas (second offence)
BT
Sainsbury's Car Insurance
Ford Focus Zetec Climate
Carlsberg
Recyclenow.com (second offence)
Scottish Widows
Michelin
Norwich Union Direct (second offence)

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs
Hungary 14 mins 20 secs
Turkey 14 mins 23 secs
Italy 14 mins 28 secs
Belgium 14 mins 27 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 3 hours 25 mins 59 secs

But who cares?

If you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Inside info on the other F1 scandal

McLaren have been fined a breathtaking £49.2 million for misappropriating Ferrari's secrets - but that isn't the only F1 scandal we should be concerned about.

The other Formula One scandal has barely received a mention, yet it also involves millions of pounds, behind-the-scenes deals, and a callous disregard for the millions of fans whose enjoyment of Grand Prix motor racing is being systematically spoiled as a result.

How strange it should have received so little publicity.

The scandal I'm referring to is the fact that, so far this season, ITV viewers have been deliberately deprived of the equivalent of more than two entire races' worth of live coverage.

That's not a misprint. With four races still to go, we mere viewers (though we are the people who keep ITV in business) have missed an astonishing three hours 11 minutes and 32 seconds of live race action in which even a hundredth of a second can make the difference to the world championship.

That's an awful lot of hundredths of seconds that ITV and its greedy advertisers didn't care that we missed.

So why do they do it?

Simply, because they can. And because Ofcom, which is supposed to be the watchdog, lets them get away with it.

As the advertisers are paying huge amounts of money to grab our attention, interest us in their products or services, and buy our loyalty, you'd think they'd want to do everything they could to avoid upsetting us.

But no. Instead of buying advertising airtime in the two long stretches of programme before and after the live race, they deliberately buy slots that will interrupt the race at random intervals with no possible way of predicting what we viewers will be missing as a direct result of their insensitivity.

They will continue to get away with it for some time to come, because we fans don't do anything about it.

We continue to buy their products and services, even though they are routinely spoiling the very programmes we tuned in to watch.

It doesn't happen during live football matches, because there would be an outcry. It doesn't happen at events at which Royalty are present, because that's against the rules. But it happens five times in every Grand Prix race, because we fans don't do anything about it and are seen (perhaps rightly) as a pushover.

If we wrote to the companies that buy adverts during the live races and told them we would be withdrawing our custom until they made a pledge to stop doing so, they would have to listen. After all, there's no point advertising if it upsets the very people that you are trying to impress and persuade.

But how many of us have actually done so?

Nobody has even bothered to quantify the problem until now. Call me an anorak if you like, but I've spent every race this season timing the ad breaks and noting the names of the advertisers to produce the online F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - the first full set of statistics to reveal just how serious this problem really is.

If you share my belief that the advertisers are wrong to buy space during the live races (see full argument here) then why not do something about it?

Contact the media, contact the F1 forums... and, most importantly, make your views known to the companies that are buying those adverts.

Send them a link to this site, and forward it to everyone you know who cares about Formula One. If you don't, you'll be forever wondering how the race is going while you're watching another two minutes and 54 seconds of commercial messages about Ronseal fence treatments or Norwich Union Direct... five times every race.

And if you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 09.09.07

Alonso might well have been the winner of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza... but we, the ITV viewers, have been the losers throughout this season.

Thanks to insensitive advertisers who didn't care if they ruined our enjoyment of the races by buying advertising airtime during the live race itself, we have now missed the equivalent of more than two entire Formula One races so far this season.

This is an astonishing statistic that has never been revealed before, because on-one has bothered (as I have) to sit down and time the ad breaks for every single race.

If anyone had done so before, there would have been an outcry from F1 fans who suddenly realised just how much of their races they had been cheated out of by advertisers who were, incredibly, trying to impress them with their services or products at the same time as spoiling the very races they were tuning in to see.

This is absolutely scandalous.

We have seen 13 races of just over an hour-and-a-half each, yet ITV and its advertisers have actually deprived us of more than three full hours of live race time. And the season isn't even finished yet.

But perhaps we F1 fans are a walkover and don't really care that ITV and these advertisers hold us in such contempt?

As regular readers know, this is the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

So far this season, ITV has robbed us of more than two entire races worth of live coverage (details here) - and the season isn't even over yet.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Vodafone / Lewis Hamilton
Norwich Union Direct
HSBC International Premier Service
Tiscali Broadband
Volvo XC70
Honda
VW Passat
Norwich Union Direct (second offence)
PC World
Santander Bank / Abbey
Airwaves Black Mint
Philips / robotskin.com
Brylcreem
Confused.com
Mazda 2
Citroen C4
Carlsberg
Norwich Union Direct (third offence)
Allure Homme Sport from Chanel
Churchill.com
Smirnoff
Jeep Patriot
Scottish Widows

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs
Hungary 14 mins 20 secs
Turkey 14 mins 23 secs
Italy 14 mins 28 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 3 hours 11 mins 32 secs

But who cares?

If you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 26.08.07

A dull Grand Prix, unless any of the exciting bits occurred while we, ITV's viewers, were forced to watch the adverts while the live race continued out of our sight.

As regular readers know, this is the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

So far this season, ITV has robbed us of more than an entire race worth of live coverage (details here) - and that's likely to double to the equivalent of two whole races by the end of the season.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Honda
Vodafone / Lewis Hamilton / Make The Most Of Now
Robot Skin / Philips
The Times / The Game
Freelander 2
San Miguel
Right Guard 24hr Time-Release Protection
Sky Sports
Moneysupermarket.com
Chrysler Sebring
Lynx Snake Peel Exfoliating Scrub
Go Green / PowerGen
Strongbow
BT Vision
Ford Focus Zetec Climate
Smirnoff
Deep Freeze Cold patch
Fiat Bravo
Nationwide
Carlsberg Pub Teams
DelPrado
Airwaves Black Mint
Renault Clio
Abbey / Santander / Lewis Hamilton

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs
Hungary 14 mins 20 secs
Turkey 14 mins 23 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 2 hours 57 mins 04 secs

But who cares?

If you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Turkish Grand Prix ads update soon

Watch this space at 3pm today for the latest update of the F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - the only guide on the web (or off it) to the advertisers who choose to ruin our enjoyment of Formula One racing by showing their ads during the live race.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 05.08.07

Shame on Setanta Sports for showing not one, not two, but three commercials during ITV's live race coverage of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

As a company that is encouraging people to pay to view its own sports coverage, isn't it just breathtakingly insensitive to drum up awareness of its offerings by deliberately ruining the enjoyment of Formula One fans on three separate occasions during the same live race?

I trust Formula One fans will bear this in mind if they are considering signing up for the Setanta service. A few pointed questions to the sales staff or even to the head office of Setanta might make them aware of their culpability and begin to change things.

Here's Setanta's UK contacts if you wish to make your feelings known:

Setanta UK
4th Floor
8 Waterloo Place
London SW1Y 4 BE
Phone: 08700 50 69 80
setantauk@setanta.com

As regular readers know, this is the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

So far this season, ITV has robbed us of more than an entire race worth of live coverage (details here) - and that's likely to double to the equivalent of two whole races by the end of the season.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Ford / New Mondeo
Setanta Sports
Npower.com
Vodafone / Lewis Hamilton
Honda
Sainsbury's Car Insurance
Nivea For Men / Extra Soothing Aftershave Balm
Eon / Wind Of Change
Level Crossings: Don't Run The Risk
Just For Men / Right On Target
Chevrolet Captiva
San Miguel
MoneySupermarket.com
Setanta Sports (second offence)
Ford Focus
Reserve Tank / Orange
Allure Homme Sport from Chanel
Strongbow Total First Pint Refreshment
Wilkinson Sword Quattro Titanium Energy
Setanta Sport (third offence)
Powergen / Go Green
Renault Clio Ripcurl
NatWest / Another Way
Jeep Grand Cherokee
BT Vision
Think! Don't Drink And Drive
Just For Men / Right On Target (second offence)

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs
Hungarian 14 mins 20 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 2 hours 33 mins 41 secs

But who cares?

If you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Up the pole with Alonso

Just awoke from a nightmare that Ferdinand Alonso might have persuaded the organisers of today's Hungarian Grand Prix to start the race three hours early at 10am, thus ensuring he'd win without the bother of having to overtake any of those pesky competitors.

Fortunately, it turned out to be nothing more than a bad dream... and now he'll have to fight his way back to victory - if not respectability - from sixth place.

Watch this space today for the latest update of the F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - the only site on the web that tells you how much of each race we've missed due to selfish advertisers buying advertising airtime during the live race itself rather than in the parts of the programme before and after it.

Full statistics will appear on this blog within 10 minutes of the chequered flag. Don't miss it. If you haven't been a regular reader of the ITV Stop The Spoilsports campaign, you'll be astonished at how much of the races we've missed so far this season.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Favouritism for Lewis Hamilton?

Lewis Hamilton is often accused of being a lucky driver, though it should be pointed out that the harder he works, the luckier he gets.

But his luck was mixed this weekend at the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

Having crashed on Saturday but emerged from the wreckage unscathed, Lewis was one of half a dozen Formula One drivers who aquaplaned off the track during the race way beyond any hope of recovery in the furthest reaches of the gravel trap.

Race over, we all thought. But no. A crane turned up a few seconds later and hoisted his car aloft with him still in it before plonking it back on to the track so he could continue.

Incredible as it might seem, and astonishing as it was to watch, this was apparently allowed purely because Lewis kept his engine running.

This must have been puzzling to the other drivers, scattered all around him, who were simply left to their fate as the F1 World Championship leader whizzed off in a cloud of spray.

The excuse given was that Lewis's car had ended up in a dangerous place. But so were the other cars who'd come off on the same corner. So why was he favoured?

It was unfortunate for him to have been out of the race so early - and it would have been a loss to viewers - but that's what F1 is about: unpredictability. Which is why ad breaks in the middle of live action are such a disgrace.

Ralf Schumacher skidded off later into a gravel trap - also in a dangerous place - and a crane rumbled up seconds later. But it didn't helpfully lift him back on to the track so he could continue. So why didn't he receive the same assistance as Lewis Hamilton did?

Another astonishing sight was Lewis being allowed to overtake the Safety Car to unlap himself in what was certainly the most extraordinary and exciting race for years!

Then he pitted and switched to dry tyres while clouds of spray were still flying up all around the course.

But he paid the price by spinning off seconds later at the Dunlop curve.

New face Winkelhock even led the race in a Spyker on his Formula One debut, though soon lost it after the red-flag restart, and victory eventually went to Alonso after some edge-of-the-seat driving that certainly merited his podium place.

Remark of the day, though, went to the ITV F1 commentator who said, while the race was red-flagged and in suspension:

"It seems to me like a very good time to go to a break, Boys, so we miss less of the action."

Do you think he's been reading this blog, by any chance, or has a tweak of conscience every time he sees the latest update of the F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame?

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 22.07.07

We viewers of the European Grand Prix from the Nurburgring missed less of the live race action than usual this time - but that was no thanks to ITV.

We can thank a higher authority for that... and I don't mean Ofcom.

We could almost have been in flooded Hull for a while as the Heavens opened and one car after another aquaplaned off the track, resulting in the first red-flagging for years and a suspension that added an extra half hour to the race.

That gave ITV the rare opportunity to shows its ads during a time in which the cars had actually stopped racing - and few fans would argue with that.

But the fact remains that the downpour and race suspension was an unpredictable event, and we all know that ITV would cheerfully have run the ads during the hotly-contested race itself without a single thought for we mere viewers who buy the products and services that the spoilsport advertisers are pushing.

Ironically, one of the ads, for Mercedes-Benz, exploits the alleged rivalry between Alonso and Hamilton and is actually very well produced, very funny, and very entertaining. But has it not occurred to M-B that we fans would prefer to see their rivalry live on the track rather than in an advert that is depriving of of the chance to see what the two F1 rivals are up to out there?

Mercedes-Benz really ought to know better.

As regular readers know, this is the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

So far this season, ITV has robbed us of more than an entire race worth of live coverage (details here) - and that's likely to double to the equivalent of two whole races by the end of the season.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Honda
Iveco Stralis Trucks / All Blacks
Renault Clio RipCurl
www.escotsounds.com / concerts
Vodafone
Carling Black Label
Wilkinson Sword Quattro Titanium
Ford Mondeo
Bulmers Original Born For Ice
Orange Gigs & Tours
Think! Don't Drink And Drive
Peugeot 207 SW - The Drive Of Your Life
Powergen
Santander / Abbey / Lewis Hamilton spraying Champagne
Allure Homme Sport from Chanel
San Miguel
Right Guard 24-Hour Time Release Protection - www.24hourman.co.uk
Mercedes-Benz - Lewis Hamilton and Ferdinand Alonso rivalry
BT Vision
NatWest
Jeep Patriot
AA
Deep Freeze Cold Patch
Fosters Super Chilled

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs
European 14 mins 20 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 2 hours 19 mins 21 secs

If you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

European Grand Prix ad-breaks update

Watch this space from 3.30pm today (Sunday 22 July) for the latest update of the exclusive ITV F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - the only site on the web that reveals how much of each Formula One race we miss due to ITV's insistence on showing ads during the live event.

This update was due at 3pm but the chaotic conditions of the opening four laps, the red-flagging and the inordinate delay mean the race is likely to finish about half an hour ltater than usual - and that depends on the rain!

So far this season we'd missed more than an entire Grand Prix length of race action, with that likely to rise to two races' worth by the end of the race calendar.

You'll find all the statistics here: who the offending advertisers are, how much of today's race we will have missed, and how much race-time we've missed so far this season.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 08.07.07

The fortunate F1 fans who watched the British Grand Prix live from Silverstone at any one of 30 Vue Cinemas in the UK today didn't know what they were missing - so let's hope this update of the F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame will compensate for their loss.

While the Vue Few were watching Lewis Hamilton whizzing around in a vain attempt to stay in front of Kimi Raikkonen, we ITV viewers were treated to almost a quarter of an hour of TV commercials informing us about Iveco trucks (much more interesting than live F1 coverage?), BK Fusions ice cream, deodorants, alcohol, mobiles, and insurance.

The Vue Few can see a complete list of the TV commercials they missed below, though I hope it doesn't put them off from attending any future live screenings of Grand Prix once they realise the delights they missed out on.

The one that must have upset them the most was the Abbey / Santander Bank commercial trumpetting their sponsorship of Lewis Hamilton, and even showing him spraying a bottle of Champagne from a podium.

No doubt the bank thought that was far more important for the fans and their prospective customers than letting us see Lewis actually driving around the track during the live race itself.

I trust F1 fans everywhere will remember this next time they want a financial product or wish to open a bank account.

As regular readers know, this is the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

So far this season, ITV has robbed us of more than an entire race worth of live coverage (details here) - and that's likely to double to the equivalent of two whole races by the end of the season.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

CompareTheMarket.com insurance
Carling Black Label
PowerGen / Go Green
BK Fusions ice cream
Chevrolet Captiva
Iveco Stralis Trucks / All Blacks
Panasonic Viera
Right Guard 24-hr
Renault Clio RipCurl
Morrisons
T-Mobile Flext
L'Oreal Men Expert
Eon
Magners Irish Cider
Hastings Direct / www.hastingsdirect.com
Lexus
Honda
VW Golf
HSBC
Vodafone
San Miguel
02
Lynx Vice
Abbey / Santander featuring Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes-Benz C-Class

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs
Britain 14 mins 29 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 2 hours 5 mins 1 sec

If you really do care about this loss of enjoyment, please sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Vue to the rescue for Silverstone

F1 fans who object to being robbed of a quarter of an hour of live action by ITV and its insensitive advertisers at every Formula One race now have an alternative... at least for this weekend's British Grand Prix.

Vue Cinemas are screening the entire race, live and without interruption, on Sunday at 30 cinemas around the UK.

It will be on the big screen, in HD, with fantastic sound - and not an advert to spoil things.

To add to the sense of occasion, rather than detract from it as ITV manages to do, Vue's screenings will include a live commentary by Jonathan Palmer and an exclusive 10-minute pre-race interview with Murray Walker and Lewis Hamilton.

While we will have to pay for our tickets, of course, this will be the first time this season that we've been able to see an entire race from start to finish.

As readers of this site will know, ITV has so far robbed us of the equivalent of more than an entire F1 race - and as we're only halfway through the season, we'll be losing the equivalent of a second race, too.

Perhaps no-one other than me has been sad enough to sit down with a stopwatch and time all the ad breaks in ITV's coverage before, but that might explain the revelation, brought to you exclusively here, that we have lost more than an entire race worth of live action so far with that likely to double by the end of the season.

You can read about that here and see previous postings about the ITV F1 Ads Campaign here.

Tickets for the event on Sunday 8th July are available from www.myvue.com or by calling 08712 240 240 or directly from participating cinemas.

Only 7,000 seats are available at £15 each. All Vue ticket holders receive a free official race program which normally costs £10 plus a soft drink and popcorn, the press release says.

Can't go myself, of course, as I shall be sitting here with my stopwatch recording ITV's crimes against sports coverage so that we will all have reliable statistics for the entire season.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 01/07/07

Welcome to the latest update of the F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

So far this season, ITV has robbed us of more than an entire race worth of live coverage (details here) - and that's likely to double to the equivalent of two whole races by the end of the season.

This time, in the French Grand Prix, Santander / Abbey even had the cheek to show us a clip of Lewis Hamilton spraying Champagne in a re-enacted win sequence... while the great man himself was busy fighting Massa and Raikkonen for a track position, unseen by those of us who were desperately wanting to watch every second of it.

How insensitive for a company that sponsors an F1 driver to show an advert puffing their sponsorship during the live race!

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Voadfone
The Police Double CD Collection
Lynx Vice
Nationwide
Honda Asimo honda.co.uk
Iveco Stralis Truck / All Blacks
Heineken Premium Continental Bier
Jeep Patriot / www.jeep.co.uk
Orange
Allure Homme Sport / Chanel
Chevrolet Captiva / www.chevrolet.co.uk
Churchill Car Insurance / www.churchill.com
Airwaves
Digital UK
Fosters Superchilled
Carling Black Label / Circuit Boards
Santander Bank / Abbey
BT Total Broadband
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Magners Irish Cider
Eon
Sky+ Box / www.sky.com
Hastings Direct /www.hastingsdirect.com
Renault Clio Ripcurl

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs
France 14 mins 29 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 1 hour 50 mins 32 secs

If Formula One fans really do care about this loss of enjoyment (and I'm beginning to wonder) I would encourage more people to sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

ITV rob viewers of entire F1 race!

Incredible as it might sound, ITV have deprived viewers of the equivalent of an entire Formula One Grand Prix - so far - and we're only seven races into the season.

It's easy for fans to moan about ad breaks spoiling the races, but it's only when we put it into context that we can see just how breathtaking this theft of viewers' enjoyment really is.

As the only site on the web that monitors and publishes all of the ad breaks in all of the races, Stop The Spoilsports! can reveal that the total amount of live race coverage stolen from us by uncaring ITV and its "greed first, viewers second" advertisers so far this season is 1 hour, 36 minutes and 3 seconds... the equivalent of an entire F1 race!

Full details are listed separately for each race under the heading "F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame" etc.

Readers who share our shock at this revelation might care to sign the Downing Street petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/... unless, of course, no-one's really bothered.

Meanwhile, the only way to discourage these advertisers from spoiling our races for us is to lobby them, write to them direct, and tell them we won't buy their products or use their services if they continue to spoil our sport.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 17.06.07

Welcome to the latest update of the F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - the only site on the web that gives a full listing of all the advertisers who thought we'd be more interested in hearing about their services and products than in the Formula One Grand Prix itself.

Every race, this site lists the offending advertisers, the amount of the live race they've deprived us of, plus the total race time we've been robbed of so far this season.

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Honda
Heineken Premium Continental Bier
Vodafone
Lloyds TSB / The Black Horse / Airmiles
Hastings Direct (www.hastingsdirect.com)
Ford C-Max
Iveco Stralis
iPod and iTunes
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Fosters Super Chilled
Lexus 220d
Kaiser Chiefs / Yours Truly, Angry Mob
Direct Line
Magners Irish Cider
Allure Homme Sport / Chanel
Bulmers Original
Halifax Home Insurance
AA
Daily Mail / Danielle Steele DVDs
Renault Clio RipCurl
Ronseal Power Sprayer
L'Oreal Men Expert Vitalift
Network Rail / Level Crossings - Don't Run The Risk
Alfa Romeo 159
Carling Black Label

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs
USA 14 mins 20 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 1 hour 36 mins 03 secs

If Formula One fans really do care about this loss of enjoyment (and I'm beginning to wonder) I would encourage more people to sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

F1 Advertisers Roll Of Shame - 10.06.07

A fantastic, eventful race which was the most exciting for years. But our joy at seeing Lewis Hamilton win his first Grand Prix in such style and such difficult circumstances was overshadowed by the realisation that ITV stole more of the live race with ad breaks than in any race this season.

The six breaks added up to 17 minutes and 15 seconds - more than a quarter of an hour of an event in which even hundredths of seconds can make or break a world championship contender.

True, there were four safety cars in this race and ITV did, sensibly, put some of its ad breaks during those, but ITV's reliance on those was shown to be dodgy when one driver crashed straight into a barrier during a safety car period!

Here is a list of this race's advertisers who thought we'd prefer to watch advertisements for their products and services rather than enjoying the race we'd tuned in to watch.

THE F1 ADVERTISERS ROLL OF SHAME

Honda
Vodafone
Ford C-Max
Ronseal Power Sprayer
Hastings Direct
Santander/Abbey
Bulmers Original
Iveco Stralis
Renault Clio
O2 (twice)
Heineken
Fosters' Super Chilled
Samsung LCD TV
Orange Reserve Time
Lexus
Allure Homme Sport from Chanel
Hondamentalism.com
BT
British Grand Prix, voiced by Murray Walker
Magners Irish Cider
Motorola Moto Rizr78
VW Golf
Daktarin Aktiv Spray Powder
Strongbow
Panasonic Lumix
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Lynx Vice
Carlsberg Edge

Here is the cumulative total of the losses suffered by viewers as a direct result of ITV's insensitivity in showing ads during the live race itself.

RACE TIME MISSED

Australia 06 mins 56 secs
Malaysia 14 mins 31 secs
Bahrain 14 mins 22 secs
Spain 14 mins 24 secs
Monaco 14 mins 15 secs
Canada 17 mins 15 secs

TOTAL TIME LOST THIS SEASON: 1 hour 21 mins 43 secs

If Formula One fans really do care about this loss of enjoyment (and I'm beginning to wonder) I would encourage more people to sign the online petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/spoilsports/

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Number's up for Mayor's dodgy plate

I'm not expecting an invitation to tea at the Mayor's Parlour in Warrington any time soon.

Why? Because I was the first person to reveal that the registration mark on the Mayor's official limousine was illegal.

Private Eye had run a piece in its Rotten Boroughs column that included a picture of the official car parked on double yellow lines.

It was following up an original story that had caused quite an outcry in the Warrington Guardian - but no-one noticed that the letters and numerals on the registration mark were mis-spaced and therefore illegal under the strict regulations that govern the display of registration marks on vehicles.

Both Private Eye and the Warrington Guardian checked with the DVLA, who confirmed my claim that the registration mark was illegally displayed as EDI instead of ED 1.

Does that matter? Well, yes, not least because it is impossible to acquire a mis-spaced number plate legally.

To obtain a number plate, you have to take documents and ID to an approved registration mark supplier who will use official templates to produce a plate that complies with the very strict regulations on spacing and the representation of letters as well as the correct typefaces.

You can't just walk into Halfords and ask them to turn ED 1 into EDI, for instance. So how did the Mayor's officials get hold of the plates, then?

I think we should be told.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Taking a dim view of window tinters

Police concerned about the dangers of drivers not being able to see through windscreens so heavily tinted that they're illegal are up against the likes of Kevin Wing, owner of the Tinted Windows Company in Watford, who admits tinting to illegal levels but attempts to cleanse his conscience (if any) by choosing to think that the drivers might be using their cars for advertising or show appearances rather than for driving on the highway.

In a report on the BBC News website Mr Wing attempts, in the great tradition popularised by Pontius Pilate, to wash his hands of any responsibility for the consequences of what he is doing.

The website asked for a comment. Here it is:

Who does Kevin Wing, owner of the Tinted Windows Company in Watford, think he's kidding?

His claim that many of his customers are using cars in adverts or shows so it's all right to tint their windows beyond the legal limit is typical of a dealer who's happy to take the money and hang the consequences.

What if his customers run over and kill children because they couldn't see through their windscreens, thanks to his illegal-level tinting?

He says that he can't tell whether people intend to use the illegal-level tinting for a show purpose or not.

In which case, don't tint to illegal levels, Mr Wing. Or get customers to sign a disclaimer stating that they only intend to use their vehicles in shows or adverts and will not drive them on the highway.

Which begs the question: how do those customers get their vehicle away from his premises after he's tinted them to illegal levels?

If they drive, then he knows they were lying to him about their intentions, and therefore he ought to ring the police immediately to alert them. Or doesn't he care?

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!