Electric Revolution: WRC Promoter on Bringing World Rallycross Championship Into the Broadcast Fold and Going Green in 2022

Electric revolution: WRC Promoter on bringing World Rallycross Championship into the broadcast fold and going green in 2022 By Heather McLean, Editor

Thursday, November 4, 2021 - 14:23

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WRC Promoter is taking World RX all-electric from the 2022 season

WRC Promoter is all set for a year of transition to electric in 2022 with FIA World Rallycross Championship (World RX). It took over the rights to World RX this year from IMG, adding to its portfolio which includes World Rally Championship (WRC).

Part of the rights deal for World RX included the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC), which is now part of a five-tier sporting pyramid for rallying, creating a talent feeder factory up to the WRC.

World RX is a very different kettle of fish compared to WRC however, being raced on a closed circuit rather than out in the wilds, as WRC is. Yet Florian Ruth, WRC Promoter's senior director for content and communication, told SVG Europe there are plenty of synergies between the two.

He explains: We just saw a lot of synergies and a lot of potential in the World Rallycross. That's why we took it over as a promoter. With the World Rallycross, we also won the tender for the European Rally Championships. We also see a lot of potential and a lot of synergies between the WRC and the ERC in terms of events and in terms of media production.

We see very big potential with the new electric era. I think this sport really can be one of the most fascinating head to head racing series out there

WRC Promoter is looking to cross-pollinate between the WRC, ERC and also World RX, merging and introducing fan bases, and bringing production levels for World RX and ERC to the standard of WRC.

On World RX, Ruth says that because of the closed race circuit format, the broadcast production is much simpler than for WRC, which covers vast distances in diverse and rugged countryside around the world. However, he adds: It's easy to make it good, but it's a big challenge to make it very, very good. I hope people have seen this season that we really put a lot of effort and dedication and a lot of creativity into making rallycross appealing for the hardcore fans, but also more appealing and more understandable to a wider audience.

That was our whole broadcast concept and our whole broadcast philosophy this year, he continues. We want to bring rallycross to people who might have not seen it yet, or not understood it, or not have been that deeply involved in rallycross up till now. So that's about how we cut rallycross, how we produce it, how we explain it and how we put our features together, and how we've designed the graphic package. We need to make it understandable and we're trying to bring these people into rallycross, especially for next year where we're going completely electric where we'll target not only the existing, but also a completely new audience with graphics and more.

The acceleration of this car and the performance of it is just incredible. We think that electric is the future of this sport; the battles we're going to see! says WRC Promoter's Florian Ruth

Revolutionising the broadcast offering

Previously, World RX events were made available as a one hour broadcast only. Now it is available on RX , which launched in summer with All Live content, as well as premium and archive content for a monthly subscription fee. Around rallycross events viewers can watch a 12 to 15 hour live stream.

The broadcast concept what we launched for WRC, with WRC and the All Live project is now four years old, says Ruth. In 2018 we produced for the first time every stage, every minute, everything live at the WRC. We have reproduced that same system for the World RX the RX OTT platform to broadcast everything live. So you have a studio inbetween to broadcast behind the scenes, in the paddock and from the teams and so on, so the whole vision for this event is the same as for WRC; to have the final the peak of the event a live one hour broadcast, but everything else as well. What happens beforehand and after we offer the fans also.

RX is receiving interest from broadcasters, says Ruth, who adds: We've received some very good feedback on RX from the fans and from the broadcast market who are very interested and are looking into it because it's a new product. They can take it as a live feed.

Ruth adds: It took a while for all the broadcasters and the media industry to understand our concept for WRC . But now we're there and we have a big number of broadcasters taking the All Live WRC product. Now we're doing the same for World RX. There's a lot of broadcast hours and that's very interesting for a lot of different broadcasters.

This year fans of World RX have had to get used to the idea that they now have to subscribe to RX rather than watch the one hour race stream for free on YouTube, as they had become used to before WRC Promoter took over the commercial rights to the series.

However, says Ruth, they are enjoying the added benefits of the new streaming platform. The service and the offer they get for this [subscription] really convinced fans. Obviously some were critical in the beginning, but now they understand we offer more; it's more behind the scenes, it's more analytical. They can have it all on demand as well, and for the first time we've also bought in onboard cameras on demand, so fans can compare their favourite drivers from different angles and compare the heat and rewatch the heat from the angle they want, and that's an asset that the fans really appreciate, and we have had tremendous feedback.

New camera angles for new storytelling

This year WRC Promoter and its technical provider, NEP, rolled out new onboard cameras and racing drone cameras for new World RX viewing angl

LINK:	https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/electric-revolution-wrc-promo...
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