Formula One commentary
It seems there is no end to bad news for local Formula One fans. After Melita Cable acquired the rights to transmit F1 race weekends and decided to block free-to-air transmissions from Rai, during the Malyasian F1 Grand Prix event race commentary was...
It seems there is no end to bad news for local Formula One fans. After Melita Cable acquired the rights to transmit F1 race weekends and decided to block free-to-air transmissions from Rai, during the Malyasian F1 Grand Prix event race commentary was provided in Maltese by Pierre Vella.
While I have no doubts regarding Mr Vella's genuine love for the sport of F1 and his effort to do a good job, it did not and never will match the professionalism of commentary by Rai or ITV (UK satellite TV).
One does not become a professional sports commentator overnight. Furthermore, the service can never be comparable because of lack of facilities and resources available to the local media.
Both ITV and Rai have TV crews present at the GP venue, who mingle with the F1 teams and drivers and therefore are able to provide live interviews from the pit lane, technical insights from ex-F1 drivers and exclusive news. This is considerably better than merely providing a commentator who is sitting in front of a TV, such as Melita Cable chose to provide with Mr Vella!
Since the public is now being asked to pay for what used to be a free service, one would at least expect retention of the same level of service, not deterioration.
Did anyone from Melita Cable bother to ask for feedback from its customers before taking this decision?
Melita should add this question to the multitude of questions and complaints already published in the papers and which were left unanswered. I reiterate:
Is it ethically and legally correct that a viewer, subscribed to watch F1 races, must also pay for wrestling, tennis and other sports for which he might not care less?
Why does a subscriber to the sports channel package still have the transmission from the Italian stations blocked during the Grand Prix (or any other event) and be forced to switch to the sports channel?
I would appreciate an honest answer from Melita Cable, but rest assured I will not be waiting with bated breath - they are probably too busy drawing up deceptive contracts for their subscribers.