Future Rally Media Coverage

[Sulland]

There has been a lot of discussion on how Rally is covered today and has been in the past. Motors TV has been given a lot of uppercuts on how their first weekend went, but are learning. North One Sport ( http://www.northonetv.com/ ) owns the rights, and has a contract with FIA, that also say that they will develop WRC to a Premier Brand ( http://www.crash.net/world+rally/New...mpionship.html )

What do they need to do to get there ?

What media to use to reach that goal, and how to use them: TV, Internet, Mobile phones and so on ?

If you could have your saying, what would you like to have to improve your experience using new technology ?

[Barreis]

They're bad..

[AndyRAC]

They've a long way to go. A Premier brand - honestly, I can't see it.

[Barreis]

They have big name now: The Ice Man. But he will soon go from this sport.. If they want brand they must have highly paid drivers.. Now it's sport where rich sons pay their seats so why to pay somebody..

[Audimadgeoff]

I feel that the first step would be for terrestrial TV coverage. The BTCC has grown in popularity in the UK because it is screened on ITV. If people have the choice between watching some reality TV show or motorsport then we might stand a chance!
However, for watchable TV coverage we need a mixture of hardcore footage - incar, static and helicam and 'layman' footage where an educated presenter explains what seperates the cars from road cars, how the technology affects us daily, proves that rallies are financially beneficial to the locals etc etc
Radio coverage is essesntial too. On BBC radio 1 F1 is the only sport that gets a mention. Again, the national papers dedicate a decent amount of coverage to F1 but next to nothing on rallying - if Northone or the FIA have to pay to take out an advertorial then so be it!
Web coverage can always be improved but it is actually the 'least worst' coverage we are recieving at the moment!

This would be a start! As for 'superstars'... well we have them already, just none are British! how much terrestrial coverage (TV, paper, radio) does the WRC get in France, Spain, Norway and Finland? I'm sure it is a fair bit as they all have stars in the sport!

[Iskald]

They're bad..

Sulland tries to start a discussion. You sabotage it. If you have no other agenda, why the f... do you bother?

[Ghostwalker]

They have big name now: The Ice Man. But he will soon go from this sport.. If they want brand they must have highly paid drivers.. Now it's sport where rich sons pay their seats so why to pay somebody..

I agree about the last part especially when drivers like PG's careers are
going nowhere because they can't find enough sponsors to pay for the 50000€ that is required to rent the Fabia S2k for a rally.

This means that its only a rich boys championship.

Sure there will probably be more factory teams next
season but are they different?

Then about coverage.
It needs to be accessible with working websites, live streams and live broadcasts, both in-car and outside-car, and more new camera angels.
The live internet video feeds doesn't need to be commentated but rather have just authentic sound. Simply put they put up some cameras on the stages and connect them to separate internet streams (one for each camera).

As a complement there should be an audio stream (like WRR but without the music and with less nonsence) with info about stage times and interviews.

There should/could also be a sort if live blog/live ticker with general info about what's happening in the rally. Stage times, incidents basically the same as the audio feed.

Stage and Rally area maps with live car position (via GPS).

There should be at least one live stage per day.
Perhaps one "Forrest stage"+SSS live.

[wrc_flipper]

There has been a lot of discussion on how Rally is covered today and has been in the past. Motors TV has been given a lot of uppercuts on how their first weekend went, but are learning. North One Sport ( http://www.northonetv.com/ ) owns the rights, and has a contract with FIA, that also say that they will develop WRC to a Premier Brand ( http://www.crash.net/world+rally/New...mpionship.html )

What do they need to do to get there ?

What media to use to reach that goal, and how to use them: TV, Internet, Mobile phones and so on ?

If you could have your saying, what would you like to have to improve your experience using new technology ?

UK perspective only!......

Lots to do, but It wont happen overnight - lots of people on this formum think that each wrc went they will got corner by corner action 24/7 on the internet and free to view TV. Its simply not going to happen (unless you get the guys who just won £100+million quid on sponsoring it)
Live stages / hellicopters etc all cost big money and with pressuire from the FIA, events and teams to cut costs revenues have been cut. But saying that new sponcers have some into the WRC.

TV
Lets face it - we will never get to see rallying on mainstream primetime tv.
The likes of BBC and ITV like high viewing numbers and rallying wont give them that. Also the 3-4 day format of rallying does not suit mainstream tv, where as f1 in a couple of hours slot does.
What does suit rallying is the old channel4 program of a roundup show, offering the days highlights plus extras.
Those who think the golden days of BBC coverage are coming back are living in a dream world!
The likes of MotorsTV (sorry not seen the coverage so cant comment on the quality) are the way forward offering a roundup show at the end of each day.
The Dave show has improved - noticed the lack of z-list celebs, but I would like to see the following week with extra coverage of lower the field.

Printed Press
With the internet give near-live coverage of WRC and IRC events, to me when Motorsports News drops though the door on Wednesday/Thursday it seems very outdated. Some more in-depth items would not go amiss - especially amount of people they send to each event! Noticed Jerry from MN ranted in one of his items about a proposal to have regular indepth release from wrc during the events - which he snubbed, suppose it would cut his jolly's down each year

Radio
World Rally Radio is a great idea and to me does a good job. More stage coverage is needed, but again back to the mighty £.
5Live / Talksport - do offer some brief update, but the round up program or hourly catchup would be good.
Nice ideal is Totalrally.com - would be good to have this on mainstream radio once a week.

Internet
Well where do you start. Well anything connected to a computer costs money. Developing iphone apps and internet costs time and money. wrc.com is doing more soon so the investment is coming in along with ideas on gps tracking, slpit times, webcams etc etc

Media at WRC events
The top guys offer press releases thought the day, but smaller teams media is not on the top of the list - it would be good if someone could cover these at events and report back on them and not just the big boys.

Well thats my rant over - board at work (not rally related work!)

[AndyRAC]

I feel that the first step would be for terrestrial TV coverage. The BTCC has grown in popularity in the UK because it is screened on ITV. If people have the choice between watching some reality TV show or motorsport then we might stand a chance!
However, for watchable TV coverage we need a mixture of hardcore footage - incar, static and helicam and 'layman' footage where an educated presenter explains what seperates the cars from road cars, how the technology affects us daily, proves that rallies are financially beneficial to the locals etc etc
Radio coverage is essesntial too. On BBC radio 1 F1 is the only sport that gets a mention. Again, the national papers dedicate a decent amount of coverage to F1 but next to nothing on rallying - if Northone or the FIA have to pay to take out an advertorial then so be it!
Web coverage can always be improved but it is actually the 'least worst' coverage we are recieving at the moment!

This would be a start! As for 'superstars'... well we have them already, just none are British! how much terrestrial coverage (TV, paper, radio) does the WRC get in France, Spain, Norway and Finland? I'm sure it is a fair bit as they all have stars in the sport!

Absolutely!! Top post!
Completely agree - 'normal' TV is an absolute must. While the MotorsTV deal might seem good, look what else they cover. All what would be described as 'minority/niche' sports. That is what WRC is now viewed as, same as MX, Enduro, etc Hardly Premier brand!!
As for Radio, Newspaper coverage - fat chance!! Take RallyGB - 5Live hardly mentioned it - on the Friday the FiA Presidential election was announced - a perfect opportunity to mention the event - Nothing!! In fact some of the panel had no idea who Ari Vatanen was. The move of Kimi was thought to be a great chance for good coverage - not really. There was an article in the Independent, but apart from that - it was disappointing. Even a lot of the car magazine websites didn't overdo themselves.
All in all it's going to be a massive job, because the sport has disappeared from public view - and nowadays there are only a few sports that get great coverage, the rest get scraps. It's been said before, but F1=Motorsport!!

[DonJippo]

They have big name now: The Ice Man. But he will soon go from this sport.. If they want brand they must have highly paid drivers.. Now it's sport where rich sons pay their seats so why to pay somebody..

In rallying and other forms of motorsport you always have to had money in order to get to the top where they start to pay you but what this has to do with the topic of the thread?