"The production team would normally wait for the outcome of the situation to avoid being in a break at the crucial moment," the report quoted from
ITV's defence, "As the race progressed, the point at which the last race break would normally be taken passed and a judgement call was required. To take a break before the situation was resolved could have resulted in missing the action. With time running out, the decision was eventually made to take the break. In retrospect, the break should have been taken earlier but, at the time, it had been a difficult call to make."
The broadcaster also played down the analogy between football and
F1, claiming that the two sports led to very different coverage techniques, with the football focus remaining on the ball, while F1 coverage flitted to various areas of action, with replays covering anything missed while cameras were focused elsewhere - including commercial breaks.
The second complaint, regarding the missed portion of the press conference, was linked to the late race break and the decision to reply the laps lost to the commercials.
Summing up, Ofcom confirmed that it 'acknowledged the points made by
ITV about its coverage of F1 and recognised the problems faced in finding an appropriate point for the final race break due to the way the race had developed', but determined that the broadcaster had breached Section 6.7(b) of the industry rules.
