ESPN acquire WRC broadcast rights

January 12, 2011   ·   0 Comments

ESPN and North One Sport, the promoter of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), have reached an agreement for the WRC to be televised exclusively on ESPN in the UK.

The deal is set to provide motorsport 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.  The WRC had previously been broadcast on ‘Dave’ for the last 3 years.

WRC coverage begins on Friday, 11 February with highlights from the opening round of the 2011 season in Sweden including coverage of the first live ‘Power Stage’ on 13th February.

As part of the new deal, EPSN are committing to live coverage of the Sunday Power Stage for up to13 rallies (and on a same-day delay in cases of schedule conflict), including original ESPN studio commentary surrounding the live coverage.  ESPN will also screen 30-minute nightly highlights at the end of every WRC day, along with hour long preview and review shows of each event.  In addition to coverage on ESPN, archive WRC footage will also be seen on ESPN Classic in 30 one hour programmes.

Jeroen Oerlemans, vice president and channel manager of ESPN – Europe, the Middle East and Africa said : “WRC is a superb, dynamic product with a fervent following among a growing legion of enthusiasts, and the return of MINI to WRC further enhances the local relevance in the UK as we grow ESPN’s portfolio of motorsports,”

Simon Long, CEO of North One Sport added, “This is a pioneering TV agreement, not only in the UK but globally. It brings the exciting prospect of more coverage, fresh programming and more promotion than ever before. The combination of the innovative content, production and digital promotion that ESPN offers combined with our revamped sport is extremely good news as we seek to reach out to new fans in the UK.”

ESPN will broadcast a behind the scenes show telling the story of Mini’s return to the sport and the development of the Countryman WRC. The ‘Road Car to Rally Car’ show goes out on Wednesday, 2 February.

Tags: ESPN, ESPN Classic, Rally, WRC