Quote Originally Posted by car View Post
I was giving this some thought the other day and I came to the conclusion that the WRC+ service should be free to all. Rallying, as we all know, is struggling for exposure and is facing more and more competition from other televised/ web broadcast motorsport. Making WRC+ free would surely increase interest and viewing figures, giving the manufacturers and sponsors more of what they are in the sport for in the first place.
The WRC really should be doing everything is possibly can to attract as much interest as possible.
This might be a bit of an optimistic and over-idealistic way of seeing the service. I would agree that rallying would likely attract more people if WRC+ were a free service, but the consequences of it being free would be hard not to spot. I can see both positives and negatives coming from this.

First of all there would be advertising during live stages (and probably highlight shows as well). This would be the only realistic way of WRC Promoter earning some cash while they're at it. Also, when you and I pay 39.99 € annually (which isn't much) for our subscription, we're contributing to WRC Promoter to make the service better. This allows for more cameras, more renowned colour commentators (Luis Moya, Craig Breen etc.) and better equipment in general. We help fund these broadcasts through our annual payment.

I do however agree to quite an extent with what you're writing. I just propose a different way of doing it. It's quite baffling to me that you cannot test WRC+ for an extended period of time before purchasing it. The best WRC Promoter has offered all season is "Try one month for 1 € if you sign up for our newsletter". Despite 1 € not being much, it's still hardly a bargain as just one month isn't a long time. You only have about one rally to make up your mind.

The first full year should be free to all. Full stop. Also, they should target new fans of the sport. Why not give schools and other institutions codes to pass onto their students? This could be sort of a "save 50-75% on your subscription for as long as you're in school". This would not only bring in more young fans (and seeing that your friends are enjoying rallying could make you jump on board as well) and let's face it, the youth is the future of the sport. Let's get kids interested in rallying - and schools being able to offer big savings on a subscription (or perhaps even being able to make it free for their students) would be a massive boost to WRC+ as well as our sport in general. This would also (hopefully) secure these fans for the future, where they'd be paying subscribers for a long, long time after they've finished school.