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WRC moves to ESPN for 2011
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(31 posts, started )
WRC moves to ESPN for 2011
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Great, another step towards failure. If they want WRC to maintain its viewers and fans, it needs to be available for free.
So that's ALMS, WRC

Great
So glad I finally got a racing underground invite.
This is going to suck.


Hard.

[Edit]
Quote :ESPN's Jeroen Oerlemans added: "[The] WRC is a superb, dynamic product with a fervent following among a growing legion of enthusiasts, and the return of MINI to [the] WRC further enhances the local relevance in the UK as we grow ESPN's portfolio of motorsports."

Really? You just told the world that one of the favorite racing series is a commodity. Jackass.
"The ESPN channel will screen 30-minute nightly bulletins at the end of every WRC day,"

Hasn't channel 4 been there and done that, not to mention Eurosport?
What the hell is "pioneering" about that?

I'm not surprised one of the more wealthy broadcasters has taken it, though. I think if any season is going to reinvigorate WRC audiences it will be this one. I quite liked Dave's review shows, though.
Perfectly expectable move by a broadcaster. WRC have to survive, and if someone offers them a deal, they would be stupid not to take it.

We don't have free to air broadcasting at all in the UK anyway, so any broadcasting costs the viewer money.
Quote from Intrepid :Perfectly expectable move by a broadcaster. WRC have to survive, and if someone offers them a deal, they would be stupid not to take it.

We don't have free to air broadcasting at all in the UK anyway, so any broadcasting costs the viewer money.

Of course everyone has to pay their TV license, but ESPN is another extra cost which isn't available to everyone.

If WRC want to survive, they shouldn't look for short term solutions (cash for this deal) for long term problems (declining viewers)
Is this only in the UK, or in the USA as well?

Good news for Americans if it's both, since we get f**k all for coverage now.
Quote from DeadWolfBones :Is this only in the UK, or in the USA as well?

Good news for Americans if it's both, since we get f**k all for coverage now.

I highly doubt it includes America, but you never know I guess. Might be on ESPN3 over here.
Quote from DeadWolfBones :Is this only in the UK, or in the USA as well?

Good news for Americans if it's both, since we get f**k all for coverage now.

Wasn't Discovery HD supposed to broadcast the 2010 season?
Quote from MAGGOT :Wasn't Discovery HD supposed to broadcast the 2010 season?

Yes, however I never actually got to watch any of it (never could find when it was on!). I hope this deal is for USA as well.
Quote from MAGGOT :Wasn't Discovery HD supposed to broadcast the 2010 season?

Yes, but it was always a few weeks after the event happened before I got the footage. Plus that's when my DVR comes into play.
another nail in the coffin of an already struggling leading name in motorsport
I hope they show it here in the US. Discovery HD Theater coverage was great last year but WAY TOO LATE. Why didn't they just show it a couple days after the event? Or next day? Why wait a week or two? Idiotic. Hope ESPN does better.
hopefully WRC and ESPN will have taken a long hard look at eurosports coverage of the IRC from monte carlo, more live coverage and in car footage than you could shake a stick at (what the hell does that mean anyway?), commentators that actually appeared to be watching the event rather than talking randonly over a coffee and nice simple interviews with drivers at the stage finishes (just enough without becoming an inconvenience to the drivers).

also for some reason the actual in car footage seemed to be of higher visual quality than what you see on the WRC, not sure if it really was, but maybe the equipment was of higher quality, at one point it was good enough to make my parents, who are in their late 70's, stop as they walked past and stand watching it for a good 15 minutes and my 11 year old son, who normally doesn't give motorsport on TV a second glance, quite happily watched the whole of the last two stages coverage without any encouragement from me.
WRC.com still shows discovery for the US area. Though, the page is not updated yet as it doesn't show ESPN UK for Great Britain & Northern Ireland, nor Sport 1 for Germany.
only 30mins? c'mon,they have to find new replacment for those things they show more times a day..
With all the crap on TV in general these days, you'd think they could find the time for more WRC coverage.
to be fair to WRC, according to autosport this week ESPN were the only broadcaster that were even interested in taking the WRC !! which is a sad indication of it's percieved status amongst sports broadcasters in the UK.
eurosport of course own the IRC so it's no surprise their coverage of the monte was so good.

the problems started when the WRC started hunting for the best deal from broadcasters rather than forming long term partnerships which encourage more effort in developing the coverage, the IRC's coverage looks an awfull lot like what dave richards envisaged for the WRC 10 years ago but thanks to the way the WRC media rights have been changed, then changed again on short term contracts, the WRC is still going on about coverage of one special stage live as a big breakthrough whilst the monte's coverage was so good it's easier to say what they didn't show live.

for me the WRC is now at a stage were it doesn't know what it wants to be, it's gone to shorter and shorter, more compact formats (the fact that solberg talks about how much better the "longer" events of just 10 years ago were says everything, at the time they were considered sprints compared to the events in the 80's or earlier) all to supposedly aid teams and media but with little effect on participation or coverage and now just as a new class of car is being introduced with the aim of increasing manufacturer entries. they're talking about going away from the central service area routes and back to more spread out events.
Too bad Subaru aren't getting back into WRC. If the coverage on TV in the US was more up-to-date, I bet the ratings would be higher. I mean who the hell wants to wait a week, or even 2 days to see coverage they could watch online sooner? It makes no sense.
Any news on WRC coverage in the US/ on ESPN?

EDIT- didn't find much but this rumor:

"Discovery HD Theater will carry WRC for 2011 in the USA, but not Canada. Don't know if Canada will get WRC coverage, but there will likely be some websites that will host the coverage, for those Canadian fans who absolutely want the WRC."

http://www.rallye-info.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=136

Will have to get some confirmation.....
sad that wrc can't even update their homepage about tv coverage... for those europeans who don't know where to watch it, MotorsTV still has the rights for summaries, but not for (power) stage live coverage.

the ESPN thing is only ESPN UK.
Quote from ESPN.co.uk :ESPN is bringing UK WRC fans the most extensive season-long coverage of World Rally Championship to date, across ESPN’s multiple media platforms, including ESPN, ESPN Classic and ESPN.co.uk.

I have to say I don't find anything about WRC coverage on Discovery's homepage, though... so I'm not too much of a help...
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WRC moves to ESPN for 2011
(31 posts, started )
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