I'm sure the common factor with all the potential 'promoters' is the control of the calendar.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
Why invest in a property over which you have so little control?
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I'm sure the common factor with all the potential 'promoters' is the control of the calendar.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
Why invest in a property over which you have so little control?
The FIA insisted that all existing contracts be honoured. That means in the UK Sky would have owned the championship but it would have been shown on ESPN and Motors - Two of their competitors.
But the biggest turn-off for any investors were the European TUPE laws which compelled anyone taking on the rights to also employ all of the ex-NOS staff on their previous salaries and terms and conditions.
This's all horror at the moment.
Garbage. The FIA would have had nothing to do with that, and it was well known that the ESPN deal was only for one year. NOS was well reported to have a provisional deal in place with ITV4 for 2012 when it all went pear-shaped.Quote:
Originally Posted by tintin
If that is the case, then why is this not still an issue for the FIA who have taken on the role, or for EBU who have taken on the role of TV production under the FIA?Quote:
Originally Posted by tintin
The EBU is based in Switzerland, so not covered by EU law.Quote:
Originally Posted by rallyfiend
...although a lot of ex-NOS staff are working on the coverage anyway.
The TV production is one part, the promotion of the Championship is another.Quote:
Originally Posted by tintin
Clearly FIA are managing the sponsorship and other elements done by NOS.
I am a former employee of North One Television and spent the last 2 years working on the WRC for the production arm for the company. I haven't read through all the posts on here so I can't say if what I will say will be news to any of you but I thought it best to put across the point of view of someone from the inside and give everyone a better understanding of exactly what happened near the end.
Firstly, around September time, we were told by the powers that be at North One that Roman Antanov had decided he could provide WRC coverage, worldwide, cheaper and more efficient using his own employees. This meant the whole TUPE ordeal started with his company CSI and all was planning to go ahead up until November when he was arrested/made insolvent and the deal was off, with the rights to the rally then to be decided by the FIA. Firstly they were encouraging new bids from anyone that could pick up the pieces and carry on the progress already made, there were 2 parties interested, the first pulled out 5 days before Christmas as the FIA had not responded to any communication from this party and got fed up of being messed around. The second was from a Middle Eastern party and just as everything looked to be in place, just after new year, the FIA decided that they wanted North One Sport/Television to have nothing to do with it anymore as they had become tired of being 'messed about' and with 'nothing stable in place'.
From the inside, I can tell you for a fact that had the FIA decided to go with one of these new bids for global broadcast and promotion, the WRC would be in a much better place than it is now. It was thrown on Eurosport late in the day and they didn't have the resources or funding to take on such a job and since then it has become a complete joke with Nokia backing out last week, it is moving backwards at a rapid pace. Firstly, nobody wants to sponsor an event/manufacturer that isn't being promoted/broadcast on a global scale so eventually more and more sponsors will drop out and because of this, none of the teams will have the funding to race in as many events each year, slowly dropping out. Mini is a prime example of this, Prodrive pretty much jumped straight off the sinking ship one it had been announced.
North One Sport were actually doing an incredible job maintaing the rally as it was, the FIA like to criticise their work as it wasn't making as much money as they would have liked and the WRC will always play second fiddle to F1. WRC doesn't recieve as much coverage not because North One Sport/FIA weren't pushing it in the right directions but simply because it isn't sexy enough like the F1. In my honest opinion, the FIA are entirely to blame for this and only now are they starting to realise what a huge mistake it was to end North One Sport's involvement with the WRC in the way that they did.
The 2 years I spent working on the WRC were the best years I've enjoyed as a professional and I know that nothing will rival it. I hope one day to get back into the same line of work and rejoin the incredible family that is the WRC.
If anyone has any questions that they think I might be able to answer, please don't hesitate to ask and I will try to answer as best I can.
Is this a sign that EBU will continue next year?