Tour de France on TV

[Postboxer]

I think there's a rule that you can only have a maximum of 12 minutes of adverts during each 'clock' hour, though they have to have a daily average that is lower, hence the short breaks overnight.

[thirdcrank]

I think there's a rule that you can only have a maximum of 12 minutes of adverts during each 'clock' hour, though they have to have a daily average that is lower, hence the short breaks overnight.

Looking at this the other way round, I doubt there's 48 minutes of cycling programme per hour. At the very least, I fancy that the insert covering the competition is counted as programme rather than adverts. I've no plans to put a stopwatch on it.

[JJF]

As the starter of this thread....thanks for the replies. My friend found the Tour on 24 as you said. She was probably unable to find it by clicking thro' the channels because of the adverts. Thanks.

[francovendee]

I just watch the highlights - or rather a recording of them, skpping the ads which usually take up about 40% of the program.

I do the same, I'm just glad to have one channel showing cycling that I don't have to pay a subscription for.

[simonhill]

As the starter of this thread....thanks for the replies. My friend found the Tour on 24 as you said. She was probably unable to find it by clicking thro' the channels because of the adverts. Thanks.

Is your friend aware of the TV guide that is on most televisions. It shows all the channels by the hour for the next 7 days.

Usually a button on the remote labelled Guide or epg.

[Darkman]

I watch it on ITV4. Mainly because I cannot stand Rob Hatch's dodgy foreign accents, or Shaun Kelly going at it like he's commentating the Grand National.

If they don't bother you but the ads do, there's always GCN+, but then that isn't free.

[thirdcrank]

I've not watched Eurosport since it became part of the Sky package and I'm too mean to pay. I used to watch it when it was free on satellite but, of course that meant the ads to pay for it. In those days, I thought Sean Kelly was the most laid-back commentator of the sport, just as Chris Boardman is today. I used to find Dave Duffield annoying - a combination of Murray Walker and Test Match Special, although his technical expertise about bikes was considerable.

A couple of things yesterday from Matt Rendell on ITV 4. Something like "The average speed of the breakaway is 42 kms an hour and for the bunch 53." To which CB commented "Something wrong with the maths there" of course, it was current speed, not average.

Later, cut to a shot of a rider captioned "Arrière du peloton" and he commented that it was unclear from the shot where the rider was in the bunch.

It's a lot easier from the comfort of my settee.

[mjr]

It's on Freeview on ITV 4 which around here (Leeds) is ch 24. They should be warned that the adverts seem to take up nearly as much of the programme time as the cycling.

Not quite! The itv4 cycling is 4x4min adverts per hour, at least during highlights, rather than the usual minor channel 4x5min during dramas. I think this may be because they are often repeated on itv1 HD at night, which has 4x4min ads, so the show fits a neat hour of schedule instead of 56min. (My recorder has 4 and 5 min skip buttons...)

[thirdcrank]

It's not the length of the ads in minutes so much as the the ages they seem to drag on, especially when you'd prefer to be watching the live programme. I've been doing that this afternoon while shredding some old paperwork. I timed one commercial break from beginning to end. From the moment the live transmission stopped till it re-started was 5mins 45 seconds. I didn't time the ads that the watchdoggie might define as adverts and they may have lasted only 4 minutes but the break began with Zwift - where fun is fast - and ended with the advert for the competition and finally Zwift - where there's no fun at all if you are wondering what happening on the road

[mjr]

The live show may be using 4x5 as permitted for minor channels or may be varying break lengths. The competition doesn't count towards that and has its own time quota, but usually appears at most once an hour.

[ANTONISH]

I usually record it on Eurosport but of late I've recorded it from ITV4.
I find the shouty RH's exaggerated foreign pronunciations irritating - particularly the gargled "R's" of his French.
Much nicer listening to the informed comments of David Millar.
I always record and fast forward through the adverts.

[thirdcrank]

An advantage of the highlights show is that it contains more of the post-stage interviews etc. After the Ventoux stage I was interest in what Cav might have to say. I fast-forwarded through the first 45 minutes then fumbled the remote and ended up fast-forwarding straight to the end. I could have rewound but decided I wasn't really that interested.

[Darkman]

It's not so much the length of ads that bugs me, more the content.

The majority fall into three categories on Sky:
1. Past-their-sellby-date celebrities trying to flog life insurance and/or dodgy-looking medical aids that probably don't work.
2. Old people having a jolly good pissup because one of them's just paid for his own funeral.
3. For just £2 a month, you can adopt a tiger, a snow leopard, a panda, a donkey, an elephant, a polar bear, an African orphan boy...

[rareposter]

It's not so much the length of ads that bugs me, more the content.

The majority fall into three categories on Sky:
1. Past-their-sellby-date celebrities trying to flog life insurance and/or dodgy-looking medical aids that probably don't work.
2. Old people having a jolly good pissup because one of them's just paid for his own funeral.
3. For just £2 a month, you can adopt a tiger, a snow leopard, a panda, a donkey, an elephant, a polar bear, an African orphan boy...

Yeah, you could accrue quite the menagerie with all of those adverts for animal rescue!
I always thought it was a pity that the donkey and the poor African girl that has to walk 10 miles for water couldn't just be paired up.

Still, it's better than those Watchfinder adverts from a couple of years ago when the whole ITV4 coverage was sponsored by them and it had a guy (badly) riding a bike with the focus on his expensive watch.

[thirdcrank]

It's not so much the length of ads that bugs me, more the content.

The majority fall into three categories on Sky:
1. Past-their-sellby-date celebrities trying to flog life insurance and/or dodgy-looking medical aids that probably don't work.
2. Old people having a jolly good pissup because one of them's just paid for his own funeral.
3. For just £2 a month, you can adopt a tiger, a snow leopard, a panda, a donkey, an elephant, a polar bear, an African orphan boy...

Yeah, you could accrue quite the menagerie with all of those adverts for animal rescue!
I always thought it was a pity that the donkey and the poor African girl that has to walk 10 miles for water couldn't just be paired up. ;-)

Still, it's better than those Watchfinder adverts from a couple of years ago when the whole ITV4 coverage was sponsored by them and it had a guy (badly) riding a bike with the focus on his expensive watch. (My emphasis)

Very true, but I think it's a good example of damning with faint praise