Whatever the full solution is I think it should start with a better TV deal and general promotion - I can't ever remember BRC being mentioned on autosport.com...

Without decent TV coverage sponsors won't be interested and neither will manufacturers (whether works teams would be a good idea is another thing, I'd just personally love to see official R5 Fords, Peugeots, Skodas & Citroens competing against each other) and I would guess the events themselves would benefit from the increased coverage too.

Unfortunately it's a viscous cycle as the TV deal probably can't happen without a strong enough championship to show - someone's going to have to take a punt and commit to it. Personally I think a TV channel would be more open to it if the championship was under new management rather than the current promoters who seem to be doing a pretty poor job of it.