TV killed the rally star

[zephyr3d]

Saw this section in Top gear website, which i kinda agree with it. Good for tv, but itz gonna kill the best part of rally... for good. :emoticon_U:

So, here I am just about to give WRC's TV coverage a kicking when I watch a re-run of the Monte Carlo Rally on Eurosport and...

...it's quite good actually.

Not up there with Channel 4's old WRC TV show, but good nonetheless.

Then I started thinking. TV could be the downfall of the World Rally Championship as we know it. Pray it doesn't happen, but it could. Here's why.

Any world-level sporting event depends on massive media exposure and for now that means TV.

A WRC event is spread over three days, sometimes four. Tune in to watch a day's highlights (often at 1am) and you get a bit of background, a bit of action and? that's it.

Good for the hardcore WRC bobble-hatter, but not so good for the casual viewer. Why? Because there's no winner; just a leader at the end of the day. The winner gets his champers on the final day.

Rallying's entire USP - racing against the clock - is easy enough to understand, but for the casual viewer racing head-to-head is far more exciting. Hence the Super Specials; two rivals racing each other on bespoke courses set up in stadiums, city centres etc.

Forgive me for banging on about the casual viewer, but if a TV station transforms a casual viewer into a dedicated viewer they swell their audience. Simple.

For now, the SuperSpecials make up a tiny proportion of a WRC event. But they're the most TV friendly of all the stages.

Therefore a clumsy but effective way to boost the TV spectacle is to increase the number of Super Specials, or perhaps (whisper it) radically alter the rally format so that an entire WRC event is made up of Super Specials.

And what about a winner being crowned at the end of each day, and the overall rally winner handed extra points on the final day?

The thought of this makes me quiver with rage because I've just returned from my first rally and following the event like some kind of obsessed gypsy, walking across fields, standing in the cold and lighting fires on remote stages made it for me.

But you can bet that WRC's bigwigs are looking at altering the format because TV, not the spectator, is God.

Let's hope the pursuit of greater TV audience figures doesn't ruin the unique motorsport spectacle that is the WRC.

http://www.topgear.com/blogs/motorsport/005-tv-killed-the-rally-star/

 

[infernaL]

isnt watching super-daily cars racing in rough terrain doing powerslides and flying over roadgaps exiciting enough ?

 

[Rally [><]]

Ermm.. Im a rally nut and I saw the M.Carlo rally on TV.. the SSS looks awesome.. To me.. To even watch rally on the TV is just BEST!!.. BUT.. watchin rallying mere inches away is just breath taking.. Generating more audience means more bucks i guess.. :)

my 2cents worth.. :)

 

[gary]

what the article is actually saying, is that because superspecials are popular with TV stations, it could lead to more superspecials, than actual stages out in the countryside.. In case you guys dont know what a superspecial is, its a short course, usually 1km or less, usually indoor in europe, and it pits 2 cars together head to head, running parralel courses.

and because TV is god, it might very well influence WRC bosses to increase superspecials, thereby reducing actually "real rally" special stages in the countryside, which in turn, might destroy rallying as we know it.

 

[zephyr3d]

yeapz.. gary's right about that.... thatz what the article is trying to say.. who knowz, there might even not be anymore countryside rally, which would ultimately make rally boring instead... hope it wont happen.