If only this were true….

I am sure I cannot be the only person who shouts at the TV when watching any of the motorcycle racing currently being shown on British Eurosport. Well, I know I’m not, a quick poll from friends and family showed that this seems to be a universal complaint. Not to mention our dog’s unease when we sit down to watch and wondering when the next outburst will be!

So, the camera work, blimey where do I start?

Actually that’s a good place, the start, I won’t even mention going to an ad break in the warm up lap.
There has been a habit lately of panning back with the camera as the riders start so that instead of watching the front runners so do we can see who got the best start and if all the riders get round the first corner? Oh no we have to watch the riders at the back.

Next, on-board shots. This is a fairly new thing and I’ll admit we do get the occasional good bit of on-board filming, there was some at Cadwell Park last week, but these are few and far between, I do not want to watch a juddery image of the bloke behind, what I really want to see is the action from the front or some riders jostling for position.
Thank goodness that at least they’ve also dropped the graphic of the rider’s head that used to pop-up as well, that one of Kiyo last season was positively gruesome.

The Pits – there is too much of the lets see what the team’s reaction to that was, a quick shot, fine, not a problem, but I do not want to see someone’s girlfriend waving at camera, back to the racing please.

Riders coming off. For some people (my Dad included) this is what they watch for and is why programmes like Crash are made. But during a race I do not want to see extended footage of a rider piling through the kitty litter, picking up his bike, talking to the marshals and walking back to the pit. Yes, we all want to know that a rider is all right, but meanwhile back at the front….

The Rossi factor – it seems that no matter where Rossi is the camera has to be there even when he’s not in a race! So we have to pan to him watching the 125GP or riding around on his moped in pit lane in the middle of a WSB race – er hello?

Celebrities – in the middle of a Moto GP race recently Brad Pitt was watching the race from pit wall – like am I bovvered? – So instead of watching the riders going down the start and finish straight we had to watch Brad Pitt watching the race and as a result we missed what happened at the first corner! Someone needs to be given their P45 for that one.

So if the job ever does become vacant British Eurosport should listen to the fans’ opinions and then we might get some decent coverage.