For those of us (and that by definition means Alvaro fans) who have an interest in the classes outside of MotoGP itself, the various bits of news and information about the BBC's exclusive takeover of coverage for 2009 has been a huge worry.
I must admit that the choice of commentators doesn't rile me as much as overall questions of the amount of 250 and 125 coverage (you can always turn the volume down), and the fact that much of what we are interested in looks like it will be stuck behind the red button, away from where it can be recorded.
BBC MotoGP Series Producer Belinda Rogerson has responded on Crash.net (in as far as you can call the following a response - to be brutally honest apart from a couple of piffling and largely irrelevant bits of technical smoke and mirrors, and some elaboration on the commentators, it's nothing new from what they said last summer...) to other disgruntled and concerned fans.
Here's what she has to say:
"BBC Sport are proud of their coverage of MotoGP and bringing premier class racing to a terrestrial audience. In 2009 we are expanding our coverage to include Qualifying of the 125 and 250 classes on Saturday alongside MotoGP Qualifying from every round on the red button. There will be live coverage of every race and in Europe MotoGP Extra after the race has finished giving further insight and interviews. That's around 7 hours of coverage each weekend.
"Our coverage attracts audiences of over a million with an approval rating that has been the highest for any terrestrial program in a given week. We believe the BBC team and the commentary team are key to that success and we look forward to another exciting season in 2009.
Steve Parrish raced at the very highest level and Charlie Cox is an experienced lead commentator with a great passion for and extensive knowledge of motor bikes. We always review our coverage at the end of the season and I frequently read the comments posted on a variety of websites including this one but commentary is a hugely subjective issue and we believe we have the best team to lead our programme.
In terms of presentation Suzi Perry has a wealth of experience from years of fronting motorbike racing and our pitlane reporter Matthew Roberts has worked as a journalist for Dorna for 8 years before joining the BBC and his excellent connections with the teams enabled us to break stories last year ahead of anyone else.
"We have taken on board feedback about the non-recordable nature of the red button when viewed on certain platforms and as a result we will be looping the Qualifying on Saturday afternoon and evening and will do the same with the races on Sunday into the following week. A timetable for this will appear on the website at the start of the season.
The inability to record the red button is a Sky Box issue rather than a specifically BBC one so we are doing all we can to enable you to watch the sessions you may have missed live. If you can get Eurosport then you will also be able to access the red button. Under the terms of the licence we can't turn BBC3 or 4 into a sports channel although we can use them occasionally and they are unavailable during the day as the bandwidth is used by CBeebies and CBBC.
"All broadcasters take the race coverage from Dorna and this is currently not produced in HD although I understand they are planning to do so in 2010. We took the widescreen coverage of the racing as soon as it became available at the start of the last season and we are always looking for further ways to innovate our coverage. I have a great deal of time for all the Eurosport team, I know them all personally and I was very sorry to see them go at the end of last season but this was a decision taken by Dorna and not the BBC."
It's this inconsequential stuff about red-button recording being a Sky issue and so-on that grates... These people knew the limitations of the technology perfectly well, and also apparently the limitations of their own channel outputs (not being able to elect to build a sports channel as such) and were by default in a perfect position to see - as me and anyone with half a brain (or possibly less) were able to - that the end product would therefore be a lesser offering by far than Eurosport's.
Why on earth - despite that bit about it being DORNA's decision (what rubbish! DORNA forced them to broadcast this?) did they commit to ensuring they were the sole broadcaster of a product that it was utterly inappropriate for them to broadcast.
I have to say I'm as annoyed about it as when I first heard, as everything continues to confirm my worst fears over the quality and quantity and accessibility of 250 and 125.
Get it out from behind the red button and into the videostream and give us *AT LEAST* what Eurosport did (Friday 250 & 125 sessions for example!) and then you will have found a base level from which to build something to be proud of.
Until then it's a load of crap.
They have very deliberately bid to be in a position where they broadcast an exclusive, yet worse, product than people had before - and the public now have absolutely no choice on TV coverage and have to go to the Beeb to watch something weaker, more difficult to access and more limited in extent of sessions covered and in the ability to record. The BBC should be fucking ashamed, quite frankly.
I tell you I'm just glad I'm going away; I'd have a bloody anger stroke if I had to contemplate this mess much more!
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