There was a big fiasco in Italy over rights for TV coverage (the season was delayed several years running...those crazy italians!) and the prices went up and C4 decided it was no longer worth investing in Italian football.
C4 had shown a diminished enthusiasm for Italian football in the couple of seasons preceeding their ultimate decision to withdraw.
The line used was that the viewing figures didn't support the investment. However, the way in which C4 treated Gazetta in the last season did lead to accusations that they were trying to suppress the audience figures so as to give more justification for the reason to pull out.
The cost of covering racing and then cricket (neither of which met the minority remit, many contributors here felt) also had a major factor. This forum survived, though, since it had such a high number of hits, C4 couldn't quite bear to part with the advertising revenue...
...and also people prefered to spend a Sunday afternoon with Kenneth Williams, Sid James, Joan Sims and chums rather that enduring yet another Juventus v Perugia display of tedium.
here goes; when channel 4 started coverage in '92, all italian games were played on sunday afternoon. This meant that by buying the rights they could show the likes of Juve-Milan and the Milanese and roman Derbies in their otherwise quiet sunday afternoon slot.
This cosy arrangement changed when the italians discovered Pay-Tv, and started moving all the big fixtures to saturday and sunday night. Channel 4 did not want live football on saturday or sunday night, so for many (too many?) years they stuck with whatever was on offer in the afternoon.
Eventually the lack of prime fixtures became too much, and they decided to opt for the sunday night game, but delayed in 'mezzanotte' form.
Accordingly, when they started talks on their new deal in 2002, they told the Italians they didn't want live rights anymore - just the highlights, as the intention was to continue showing Gazzetta and the like.
The italians - in the form of RAI's international office - declared they could only sell the rights as a complete package, live and highlights at fthe full price.
C4 put in an offer anyway, based on what they considered to be worth of the bit they wanted; the highlights. This was rejected.
6 months later, the italians released the bottom had dropped out of the market for their rights, and pretty much everyone else's, and sold Serie A to Eurosport. For less than C4 offered as it happens.
We got ten years out of it, which is more than Gridiron managed - so can't complain.
I have the Roma v Parma game from 2001 - the title decider - on video, and watching it these days several things stand out.
1) JR makes lots of barbed comments about the time Serie A games are being broadcast. At the end of the show he had to advertise a Mezzanotte that was going out at 3.25am on a weekday and a Gazzetta that was scheduled for 7am on Saturday. His disdain for these slots was quite evident
2) C4 cut the coverage with 5 minutes of the last game of the season remaining, in order to show the old B&W film Giovanni keeps referring to. Absolutely shocking
3) JR must pluck his eyeborws as they were much more prominent then
4) Does the transcript of his chat with fans on this forum after ROma-Parma still survive, as I took part rather drunkenly given the circumstances
Oh, and I almost forgot the most obvious reason why C4 dispensed with Football Italia...
5) WHen SKY bought the Premiership rights in 1992 almost nobody had a satellite dish or cable TV. Even the vast majority of pubs had no access to SKY's coverage. There was simply no coverage of English football on terrestrial TV, and Serie A was undisputed king of world football at the time, so C4 scored a bit of a coup by broadcasting free on terrestrial telly a league that was actually better than ours anyway...This explains the predominance of the relatively small club Fiorentina among British Serie A fans - they had a good team in 1992-6, when C4's coverage was at its most popular.
I have to say the coverage on Bravo this year is absolutely excellent, and the quality of the football is as good as ever. I just hope JR and the team continue with their shows as I, and many other people of my age group (30s), are now more interested in Serie A than in the Premiership
I thought they dropped it because Serie A is full of dirty, cheating divers?
Digeridoo's summary was excellent - most notably, his final line about how we should be thankful for those ten years. Gazzetta was perfect on a Saturday morning; the live game was always welcome on an otherwise boring Sunday afternoon.
James was (and still is) the most interesting footballer presenter around (admittedly, not a hard competition) and the action was usually very good.
Is there any dvd's of old matches or video's or something? Ive got withdrawal symptoms. Ive only got the last 10 mins of the juve - perugia match ( where the pitch was waterlogged for most of the game ) cos I taped over it by accident doh. Any ideas anyone?
The "line" that Dave refers to was my line, and just a statement of the bleedin' obvious. I didn't remember C4 ever using it. Coverage declined for the obvious reasons listed by digeridoo, not because of "lack of commitment".
And the idea that C4 had a duty to take losses on Italian football (funded from what? Donations from Doug Ellis presumably?) because it fulfilled the C4 remit of "minority interest" is enough to suggest that Dave's post was actually a spoof. But having spent a good hour on Friday arguing (incorrectly it seems) that "The Armstrongs" is a spoof, I expect I'm wrong again.
Dave's post rings true to me. C4 were reluctant hosts for Football Italia for the last couple of years. As I said upthread, I believe JR used to make barbed comments about this during shows. Similarly, he has gone out his way to praise Bravo for their commitment to Serie A this season.
I suspect C4 followed the mass of British public opinion in believing that Italian football had gone into terminal decline in the early 00s. I am a ROma fan but I believe we won lo scudetto in one of the weakest championships Italian football has seen for decades. Milan and Inter were nowhere, the likes of Zaccheroni was getting top jobs, all the Italian clubs were going out of the cHampions LEague early.
C4 brought in French Football because it was the plat du jour with Les Bleus winning in 98 and 2000. But they got the timing horribly wrong. The French were on their way out, while Italian clubs have provided 6 of the last 16 quarter finalists in the Champions League, and 3 of the last 6 finalists. There has been one Italian winner and one all-Italian final since C4 jettisoned Serie A.
I will hold my hand up to Serie A being relatively weak from about 1999-2002, but in my opinion it is now the best league in Europe again, and some of the football from Roma and Milan this season has taken my breath away.
Of course C4 commitment declined, but not out of some sinister plot. Since C4 is largely funded from advertising, their programmes must be watched. Or programmes that cost an arm and a leg to put on must be watched at least. Italian football viewing figures declined in the late 90s for the reasons outlined by digeridoo. Irritating a handful of hard core supporters obviously made sense to C4 for the greater good of the channel and its viewers. It is telling that no other channel other than Bravo is interested in showing Italian football. Gazzeta was finished the moment Ravanelli signed for Middlesbrough.
Originally posted by Romanista: C4 brought in French Football because it was the plat du jour with Les Bleus winning in 98 and 2000. But they got the timing horribly wrong.
You're telling me... the flagship French football show was broadcast at 3:30am on a Wednesday morning, with highlights at 7:00am on Saturdays.
I agree with your comments and those in digeridoo's excellent analysis above. The change in KO times and the decline of Italian football were of course instrumental in the dwindling audience for Football Italia.
I also think the boom in SKY subscriptions brought some fans back to English football, which they hadn't been able to watch at home for a few years.
But I'd just say that C4 did little to help the situation. They should have kept Gazzetta at a reasonable Saturday morning slot and showed the game of the week delayed, if they couldn't fit it in live.
The slots they gave the show towards the end were derisory, as was the decision to cut coverage of ROma's title win in order to show a black and white film that was making its 314th appearance on TV.
Actually, Bravo is peeing me off a bit because of their revitalised scheduling of Gazzetta. It's bad watching a programme looking ahead to the complete weekend when most of the matches have already been played. It was really convenient for me to watch Football Focus then switch over to Bravo+1 for Gazzetta.
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