Quote Originally Posted by dodge33cymru View Post

I hope they tie it in with WRC Radio and I don't have to listen to more Jon Desborough...
Really? That's what I fear the most, that the studio segments will basically be WRC Radio with a camera. It's already so banal and leashed. Aside from the sort of news that you can also get from reading the "text updates", you can be sure that absolutely nothing interesting will be said. They're insiders! They hear rumors all the time! They have their own opinions! Why are they so pathologically afraid of saying anything interesting or controversial? Are they that desperate to keep getting invited to the Citroen VIP area for lunch?

What made the Red Bull TV coverage such a breath of fresh air was not that they had interviews or better graphics. It was that the hosts and interviews were actually mildly interesting and said mildly interesting things. They didn't sound like they were afraid for their jobs if they said something that upset someone. Movistar+ in Spain has a really great one hour panel discussion after each rally with regular guests like Luis Moya, Carlos Del Barrio, and WRC reporters. All they do is talk about real inside info, gossip, speculation, predictions, funny stories, opinions. It's fantastic! Here's a random episode from a few years back: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27gfhy

There is absolutely zero reason why the English-language coverage has to be so stale in comparison. You need people who will speak their minds. Mike Chen, Colin Clark, Nicky Grist, Martin Holmes. Not necessarily those four, but people like them. Sit them down at a big table, point the camera, and just let them go at it. If the live commentary ends up being Jon Desborough making puns and the studio segments are Becs Williams talking about the weather as they were flying in, telling us the next stage start time, and not acknowledging in any way that some spectator just got hit by a car on live TV, I will unsubscribe.