Most liked posts in thread: WRC: New deal near (?) on promotion and broadcast rights

minimark · Jan 18, 2012

Bam, there it is..

Understand that without knowing what future coverage is going to be or it's quality; a team can't even make a proper pitch to a potential sponsor, much less a manufacturer...

Hope it works out well!!

Steve · Jan 20, 2012

FIA President buoyant about WRC future (best-of-rallylive.com)

The FIA President Jean Todt gave a press conference at the service park in Valence this morning. A former successful co-driver himself (although he has never won the Rallye Monte-Carlo), he expressed his optimism that world rallying will bounce back after the surprise disappearance of its former promoter, North One Sport (NOS).

The Frenchman accepted that the recent, unexpected loss of NOS put the FIA and the World Rally Championship in an uncomfortable position, but underlined that he saw the â€˜crisisâ€™ as an opportunity for the series.

â€œWe want to be ambitious to secure better futures for the world championship, the European championship and the sport in general,â€ he said. â€œOnce we have chosen a new promoter for the WRC, we will work actively with them, the event organisers, competitors and manufacturers to bring the championship to where it was previously. I donâ€™t want to rush, but I really feel that 2013 will see a step forward, followed by a further step in 2014, and I am optimistic that we will get to where we want to be.â€

Jean Todt confirmed that he believes in each event having its individual â€˜soulâ€™ and that he wants the â€˜dreamâ€™ factor to become a predominant characteristic of rallies once again. â€œSometimes, today, I can only recognise the different cars because of their sponsors.â€

The calendar also appears to be a priority for the Frenchman. â€œWith 10 rounds in Europe, and three elsewhere, it is not a world series. We need a better balance, with events in Africa, Russia, Asia, etc. I would like to see a situation where it is half and half.â€ He also repeated his intention to build a strong European Rally Championship on several occasions.

He refused to reveal details about his search for a new promoter, although he did mention Eurosport Events and â€œother potential candidatesâ€.

â€œFor the Rallye Monte-Carlo, we had an emergency. We worked closely with the ACM and Eurosport to find a solution and I think the result is quite pleasing. Rally Sweden follows in a few weeksâ€™ time and we are continuing to work to find a satisfactory agreement for the remainder of the year.â€

The FIA President also talked about the SupeRally system (tested in Greece in 2004, introduced in 2005) which enables crews who retire to re-join rallies. This year, the organisers are free to run the system (now known as â€˜Rally2â€™) if they wish, but the Monte Carlo organisers declined the option. â€œI like the idea that if you retire, you cannot go on to score points. I can sympathise with teams who lose a car â€“ like Ford and Latvala onWednesday â€“ but retiring is part of racingâ€¦â€
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Steve · Jan 20, 2012

FIA president Jean Todt on the World Rally Championship's crisis and future (autosport.com)

Friday, January 20th 2012, 10:34 GMT

FIA president Jean Todt met with the World Rally Championship media in Valence this morning to discuss the current promoter crisis in the series.

The championship started its 2012 sesaon without a confirmed promoter or guaranteed television coverage after North One Sport's contract was terminated following partner company Convers Sports Initiatives' collapse into administration.

Amid fears that the situation can set the sport back massively, Todt took time to give a lengthy press conference to address both the present crisis and the WRC's longer-term future.

AUTOSPORT was there to hear what he had to say.

Q. Is there a solution to the promoter question?

Jean Todt: Yes. We are working very hard on that. We had one emergency to cover which was Monte Carlo Rally, which has been covered. The ACM has been dealing directly with Eurosport and the result is quite pleasing. As you can see, until the end of the rally, you can see on not only Eurosport channel, a lot of TV coverage. We have been able to secure on emergency plan timing and tracking. We are working to have a satisfactory agreement for the rest of the championship and for the following years. We will have contacts with Eurosport Events and some contact with other potential promoters and we are very optimistic that we are able to find proper solutions before the Swedish Rally.

Q. Working with Eurosport, is this a good time to discuss the potential to get the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and WRC together?

JT: They work to different matters. The WRC is the FIA's world championship. IRC is a commercial series; it's nothing to do with the FIA. Some parts of IRC are part of the European Rally Championship.

It is clear that we have a vision for rally which is quite ambitious. At the moment, if you ask me if I am happy with the calendar of the World Rally Championship, the answer is no. You cannot call the World Rally Championship a championship with 10 rallies in Europe and three outside of Europe. We need a more balanced calendar, but this doesn't happen in one day. We want to have the re-introduction of one rally in Africa, one in Russia and Asia. Definitely we have to consider the balance of the calendar.

We also want a very strong European Rally Championship, which is part of the FIA assets. Of course, we move on with our discussions with Eurosport Events, they are the organisers of the commercial series and this is something we will address on the long-term strategy.

Q. Manufacturers have complained about the lack of promotion for years. Dakar and IRC have good coverage, why is it so difficult to promote and sell rallying?

JT: I think it's important to be ambitious and I am quite supportive of the complaint of the manufacturers. We as the FIA and myself as president of the FIA, we have a fantastic opportunity to have a better WRC and a better ERC and a better rally sport. We are working on that.

Like I said, it's not to be achieved in one day, but if we work well together with the new promoter, which will be chosen with the organisers of the events, with the competitors, the manufacturers, we will be able to go back to a very strong championship. This won't happen in one year, I think this is a five-year programme. We are now starting in 2012 and I really feel 2013 will be the next step, 2014 a further step and I'm optimistic we will be where we want to be.

In the situation of the World Rally Championship, including the TV coverage, it was not done as much as we wish it had been done and we look forward to the opportunity to improve significantly the situation in the future and that's where we will grow. This is part of the developing programme. We are going to work strongly with the promoter which will be chosen, we will definitely address this: we need TV coverage. We are well aware that TV coverage on world rally is more difficult than Formula 1. It will take time, but we are working on it.

Q. There were numerous potential investors in North One Sport, one of which was an investment bank from Qatar. Did you meet with them and if not, why not and also, given the FIA's lengthy process of due diligence into Vladimir Antonov, how did this situation arise?

JT: First, you know I am not going to comment on speculation. Speculation does not give answers and does not give you strong promoters which we do need.

North One Sport was chosen a few years ago as a promoter. They came to us because they had some opportunities with a Russian company. We had a very detailed audit and due diligence made and it was positive - that is why we agreed North One to have on board this new partner. Unfortunately, as you, we understood the main shareholder had some personal problems and it affected the whole organisation including North One, North One Sport.

Unfortunately it is not something we would have expected, particularly at this present moment and we had to meet different potential promoters. Unfortunately, a lot of people you meet, there is not a real content behind and hopefully we will find a proper partner for the future of the World Rally Championship.

Q. Some privateers and manufacturers have complained about the cost of competing on longer events such as this five-day Monte Carlo Rally. Can you comment on that?

JT: You know, unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know how you put that, we are not in a world where everybody is happy. In the rally world, we have a more democratic world and I'm sure a lot of people are rally fans and want to see a positive and constructive evolution of rally. Unfortunately, you will not be able to make everybody happy.

But what we can give to rally is the proper roads, adventure, reliability and, of course, what is absolutely crucial is that costs are contained. Motor racing costs too much and it's something we need to address. When you talk about changing things, you must make sure it's positive for the show and positive on the good way for the cost; interesting for new technologies - we have a very strong responsibility for the environment.

Respecting the comments for the manufacturers, because funnily enough the manufacturers are claiming for the new technology, but when they talk about sport they are more cautious - which I understand. But, by 2015 we will introduce, in consultation, new technologies and if we can link that with action for road safety, those are the parameters we always consider.

Q. More overseas rallies mean more costs, what is the priority here?

JT: If we make the WRC concentrated to German rally, French rally, which are 20km from each other, economically it will be easier. But, we say we want a strong world championship and we are working on that. We have to try to see how to combine a worldwide event while taking into consideration the limited budgets available. We want to have one proper World Rally Championship with a balance of half in Europe and half outside Europe.

Considering the rules, the format of the rallying, we must thing about more reliability, endurance, adventure and, you know, a few years ago you could change the engine for each rally, but now you have three engines for the whole year. This is a significant reduction of cost. We have reduced the cost for the number of spare parts and we can limit the number of spare parts available and the manufacturers are absolutely able to do that. So, we advocate a change which is convenient to a vision of rallying, but what takes into consideration the cost implication.

I am convinced in the future you can make one rally with one or two sets of tyres which would be a good combination between rallying and mobility.

Q. Monte Carlo Rally runs without the superally re-entry regulation. What do you think of this?

JT: I would say I quite like the idea that if you have retired, you have retired. I feel it's not natural, it's not normal [to rejoin]. It is the only category where, if you have retired, you can still score points. I don't see any logic. I welcome this proposal from the Automobile Club de Monaco.

What will happen in the future, I would let the experts make their proposal â€“ the WRC Commission makes their suggestion for the future. But, for me, we have never seen any kind of racing where you retire and then a few hours later you come back and score points. I understand it can be helpful to do some further testing and to learn more your car, but I am sure we can address those problems, but again, I am completely against the idea of scoring points when you retire. I'm sorry, when you have a strong team like Ford losing a car after the fourth stage with [Jari-Matti] Latvala, I feel it's a shame, but that's racing.

Q. Are current WRC cars too powerful and using too much technology?

JT: You cannot use too much technology, not too powerful. You must accept that things change. I must say, for me, competition is a combination of promoting a brand, promoting new technologies and promoting a dream. I think we miss some part of the dream of fascination in rallying at the moment, so it's something I want to address more in detail without going back to the Group B cars, who were more spectacular and more powerful and more dangerous.

For me, the safety in the sport is an area where a lot of progress has been made, but it is never enough. And we know that rallying is probably more difficult to protect as much as we wanted the safety of the drivers and the spectators and it's something we must address all the time.

I feel rally cars should have some maybe further tests of dream which we don't have at the moment. I am not as expert as I used to be when I was organising the cars on the road. I still love cars and sometimes I do recognise one rally car from the other through the sponsor and I don't think it's good; I would like to recognise the brand.

Q. You mention the hope of introducing new technologies by 2015. What sort of new technologies?

JT: I would say more hybrid technologies. We are introducing some electric technology in some other categories. This is a wish, which has to be discussed with the people directly involved and I would expect some proposals on that and as I said earlier, introduced by 2015.

Q. Electric cars by 2015?

JT: No. I don't want to open a debate. Electric cars will not be in this world superseding the normal car. Electric car is good for the city and we do believe in electric car in short distances, you know 15 or 20 minutes. But, even if we are talking about changing format for rally this morning, I don't think anybody wants rally to last 15 minutes or to stop one night for recharging the batteries.

Q. What is the future in one minute of the World Rally Championship?

JT: When you are going through a difficult period, normally you may use that as an opportunity and that's what we try. For me it's very important that when you promise, you deliver on that promise. Having been in an unpredictable, unexpected and uncomfortable situation on medium and longer term... This is why we are not rushing to make the full commitment. We want to make an opportunity and hopefully it will become an opportunity even if I feel disappointed that we could not move further together with our promoter who we give as much chance as we could have done.
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Steve · Feb 3, 2012

The bad news keeps coming...

FIA, Eurosport fail to agree promoter terms (crash.net)

The FIA has failed to reach an agreement with Eurosport Events over the promoter role for the World Rally Championship.

The FIA confirmed the latest set-back in a statement on Friday evening as it seeks to resolve the issues that arose when North One Sport was placed into administration.

With no deal having been agreed with Eurosport regarding the promotion of the series, the FIA is now set to open talks with other parties to try and secure a deal.

In the meantime, the governing body has been forced to tell event organisers that they will have to try and negotiate their own individual TV deals until a promoter is in place â€“ which raises major questions about whether any deal can be done for Rally Sweden, which takes place next week.

"The FIA regrets to announce it has not proven possible to find an international promoter as well as a global broadcaster for the 2012 World Rally Championship season at this stage in time," the statement issued by the FIA read.

"The Federation has been involved in lengthy and detailed discussions with interested parties but a series of issues proved impossible to reconcile, and it finally had to take the decision to withdraw from these negotiations.

"In addition to the usual sporting and technical services it provides for these events, the FIA will finance the timing/tracking of each event so that the Championship can take place in the best conditions.

"Teams, manufacturers and the other stakeholders have all been informed of this situation.

"The FIA will now open discussions with all the other parties which have expressed interest in the promotion of the WRC in order to guarantee the future development and growth of the FIA World Rally Championship."
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Steve · Feb 4, 2012

A little more perspective. Part of an article found on Best of Rally Live:

Unless a TV production company or channel shows an interest (there is talk of Al-Jazeera which could be interested because of the presence of a Qatari team), the different rally organisers will need to find their own partners for the production and broadcasting of images, as well as for the promotion of their event. This is a costly job which will only add to what is already a considerable budgetâ€¦

Without a global promoter, some observers believe that the WRC today finds itself down a dead end, while others believe it is simply a return to the 1980s/1990s.

ISC (International Sportworld Communicators) was founded by Bernie Ecclestone in 1982. In 1996, ISC and the FIA signed an exclusive 14-year deal for the production and broadcasting of WRC images. In 2000, ISC was sold to David Richards with an exclusive contract that had been extended to 99 years!

In 2007, a British TV production company, North One Television (formerly Chrysalis Television), bought ISC and the associated rights. North One Sport reigned over the WRC until January 2011, which is when its chairman Neil Duncanson sold North One Sport to Convers Sports Initiatives (CSI), the property of Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov. CSI went into liquidation this winterâ€¦
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Steve · Feb 14, 2012

FIA confident of agreeing new international TV deal for WRC this week (AUTOSPORT.com)

By David Evans | Tuesday, February 14th 2012, 09:14 GMT

The FIA is confident that it will nail down international television coverage for the World Rally Championship this week.

Following the loss of North One Sport as promoter and the subsequent collapse of talks with Eurosport, there had been grave concerns for footage from this year's series. Eurosport agreed a deal with the organisers of the Monte Carlo Rally and Finnish firm Filmworks did the same with last week's Rally Sweden.

The ideal scenario is the central distribution and sales of television coverage of the whole WRC. It's known that a deal had been made with ITV4 for more comprehensive coverage of WRC in 2012 and it's this kind of deal that the FIA is hoping it can achieve again for this season. Individual events have now been told to stop working with local broadcasters.

With an FIA-sanctioned deal ready to be signed this week, there are fears that, having been told by the FIA that the television rights to their events belong to the rallies, some event organisers will complete multi-year agreements with local stations and weaken the FIA's position to attract a series-wide promoter.

WRC Commission president Jarmo Mahonen told AUTOSPORT: "The television should be okay. I can't go to details, but we are working to the plans to have central distribution - we should come out with these plans in the next few days."

Mahonen admitted that the production of television wasn't a concern, adding: "That's the small part on this game. The big thing is about the distribution and maintaining the broadcasters [around the world]. Our aim is to plan and find a system very quickly for the central distribution of footage."

Asked if the FIA could distribute footage, Mahonen replied: "That is one possibility or you put it out to agencies â€“ there are several agencies around the world who can do this."

Rally Sweden distributed the coverage it underwrote at a cost of â‚¬300,000 to 30 broadcasters, ensuring the Jari-Matti Latvala's victory on the Karlstad-based event was seen in more than 120 territories last week.
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Crashton · Feb 14, 2012

Steve I think you should bid on the contract. From what I've seen you know what you are doing.

Justa Jim · Feb 14, 2012

Crashton said:

Steve I think you should bid on the contract. From what I've seen you know what you are doing.
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I agree completely Crash. That could bring M/A to a new level.

Jim

Steve · Mar 6, 2012

Progress...maybe.

Like I said to Nathan a while back, you know the situation is desperate when you're actually hoping for the FIA to step into a situation and do something positive or productive. It's not what they're known for...we're usually screaming for them to stay out or stop meddling...

FIA poised to seal new World Rally Championship TV arrangements (AUTOSPORT.com)

By David Evans | Tuesday, March 6th 2012, 11:09 GMT

The FIA is believed to be on the verge of confirming an agreement for World Rally Championship television rights - at least until the end of the season.

The manufacturers and event organisers met with FIA president Jean Todt and WRC Commission president Jarmo Mahonen in Paris yesterday, with the likely outcome of the meeting being that the European Broadcast Union will take on the production and distribution of television from WRC rounds until the end of the season. A longer term agreement between EBU and the governing body has been talked about.

A source from within the manufacturers' meeting said they were pleased with the possible EBU option.

"It sounds like a good way forward," said the source. "The WRC needs the television to breathe, so we need to make this happen. The [EBU] will, we believe, take some of their own people to rallies and rely on some of them on the ground locally. Once they have made the pictures, EBU can then talk to its members in all countries in Europe about running them."

Once EBU is in place, one of the first tasks will be the start renegotiating with key channels such as ITV4 in the UK, with which an agreement to broadcast the WRC had been reached with former promoter North One Sports.

The rally organisers in the WRC have now signed an agreement with the FIA confirming they will not do their own individual deals - a significant shift from the letter issued early last month from Mahonen telling organisers: "Each WRC organiser will, unfortunately, have to negotiate the television broadcasting of his event."

Rally Sweden was the first event to do that - and did so successfully, with the event organisers reportedly turning a profit in excess of 100,000 euro from the second round of the series.

Rally New Zealand chairman Peter Johnston said: "We are very pleased to see a sound outcome from the present situation as the FIA takes the reins. With their co-ordination of the television media services, facilities and distribution, we can feel confident that the 2012 FIA World Rally Championship will continue to run to its usual high standards."
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Steve · Mar 8, 2012

WRC TV: The wait is (nearly) over (MaxRally.com)

8th March 2012
By Giles Wade

The telephone connected, but my informant was quiet.

â€œJust out,â€ he whispered, â€œbut things are looking up. Weâ€™re getting somewhere. Definitely getting somewhere.â€

My spy was in Paris. And had just been informed of the FIAâ€™s progress in rescuing our world. And the television in particular.

Call off the end of our world, itâ€™s no longer nigh.

But weâ€™ve been close and weâ€™re not out of the woods yet. The deal with the European Broadcast Union makes a huge amount of sense for the sport as it stands right now. It would underwrite the quality of production with scope for local flavour, delivering programmes which tell the story without the kind of editorial constriction which was becoming commonplace under the previous regime.

And the good news is that the EBU is well and truly on top of selling the telly as well as making it. But this is the bit which has to be right. The EBU canâ€™t be labouring under any illusions here, itâ€™s not about to start peddling the Championâ€™s League or anything like that.

The televisual value of our sport is massive. To us. To the wider world itâ€™s worth considerably less. WRC Commission president Jarmo Mahonen recently described the series as a sleeping giant. Well, television channels arenâ€™t about to fork out millions for footage of anything asleep. Fortunately, the arrival of Volkswagen and the closed-season diver shake-up, has stirred the giant. Itâ€™s opened an eye and hit the snooze button. But any minute now itâ€™s going to wake again.

Last year, North One Sport rejected mainstream satellite coverage to take cash â€“ and admittedly plenty of programming time â€“ and put the WRC behind a second paywall on ESPN. Thereâ€™s strong feeling in the service park that this one move did more damage to the WRC in Britain than any other commercial decision in the WRCâ€™s recent history.

For a while, it seemed like the sport genuinely teetered on the brink of oblivion. But in fact, it didnâ€™t.

Really, it didnâ€™t.

There was never any doubt that the Monte Carlo Rally would run â€“ and never really any doubt Eurosport would film it and show it. For a moment or two, it seemed there was never any doubt Eurosport would film the whole season.

Until part two of our winter of discontent kicked in when there was no agreement between the FIA and Eurosport.

The sport wobbled again when individual events were told to go out and source their own television deals â€“ with Rally Sweden leading the charge and demonstrating the market for WRC on television remains very much alive. Rally Sweden forked out a reported â‚¬300,000 on getting Finnish firm Filmworks to produce the coverage, but worldwide television sales now reflect a healthy profit on that last-minute exercise.

And now progress and genuine progress is being made. The EBU is expected to sign up for the rest of this season, while potentially providing a longer-term solution as well, all of which is good news for you and I.

The World Rally Championship, returning regularly to a small screen near you soon.

Fingers crossed.
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Steve · Sep 28, 2012

New global Promoter for WRC (WRC.com)

28 Sep 12

The FIA World Rally Championship will get a new global Promoter from 2013 following the approval of the World Motor Sport Council at a meeting in Paris earlier today.

The WMSC approved for the FIA to proceed with an agreement with The Sportsman Media Group and Red Bull Media House to become the new global Promoter of the FIA World Rally Championship from 2013.

The Promoter will be responsible for investing and developing the WRC with a view to increasing its profile, reputation and commercial value. In particular, the Promoter, working in close collaboration with the FIA, will be focused on introducing live television and an innovative digital media strategy in the next years.

In other exciting developments, as part of a cost-reduction process and to attract greater entries, the WMSC confirmed WRC Teams competing in the 2013 FIA World Rally Championship will now only have to contest one non-European event. WRC Teams must however still nominate and take part in a minimum of seven events.

The structure of the support championships has been revised to reflect the interests and demands of the competitors. From 2013, the current championship for S2000 cars will be replaced by the WRC-2 Championship including cars with four-wheel drive (R5, R4 and S2000). A specific cup for cars in the Group N category will also form part of the FIA WRC-2 Championship, and titles for teams, drivers and co-drivers will be awarded to those who have scored the most points in six of the seven events in which they have taken part.

The current Production Car World Rally Championship will be replaced by the FIA WRC-3 Championship, including Group R cars with two-wheel drive (R3, R2 and R1). Titles for teams, drivers and co-drivers will be awarded to those who have scored the most points in five of the six events in which they have taken part.

The current FIA WRC Academy will be re-named the FIA Junior WRC Championship.

For safety reasons and therefore with immediate effect, each crew that is entered with a WRC car is permitted to use a route note car on asphalt events.

To limit costs and encourage participation, from 2013 the use of the latest evolution of parts homologated by manufacturers will not be mandatory for WRC cars entered by drivers not scoring points in the Manufacturersâ€™ Championship. This also applies to all cars in the S2000 category with a 1.6-litre turbo engine.

The 2013 WRC calendar was also confirmed and appears in a separate story.
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Nathan · Sep 28, 2012

This ought to bring some stability to the broadcast package. Who knows, with these being German and Austrian based companies maybe BMW will see fit to spend some money on the MINI Rally program.

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