Why do TV broadcasts of races have bad screen formats?

I watch motor racing on the TV from all over the world. Most broadcasts have the leader boards on the left side, with a relatively large gap between the left side of the leader display and the left side of my TV. This leaves a gap which I find very annoying as it "wastes" about 10-15% of my screen. The "gap" plus the leader board itself makes for a much smaller viewing window than I would prefer. This is especially bothersome on short twisty tracks.

Anyone here in the broadcast business that understands this practice? Can't they at least reduce the "gap"?
 
Broadcasters have all sorts of rules about the formats, it's likely there's a rule about safe space around the edges, so even if the leaderboard went to the edge they still wouldn't move the content over as that would be a space they warn people not to use. TVs can have slight differences that may cut that area out, so they stay away from the edges as much as possible.
 
If your TV has the ability to turn overscan on and off. Maybe you could save a profile with it switched on. This will lose image from all four sides and make the graphics look closer to the edge of the screen. It could help if you can forget that you are losing some of the image.
 

Latest News

Online or Offline racing?

  • 100% online racing

    Votes: 70 7.3%
  • 75% online 25% offline

    Votes: 99 10.4%
  • 50% online 50% offline

    Votes: 139 14.5%
  • 25% online 75% offline

    Votes: 265 27.7%
  • 100% offline racing

    Votes: 379 39.6%
  • Something else, explain in comment

    Votes: 4 0.4%
Back
Top