WRC.com interview with Simon Long (ISC) about the future promotion of the World Rally Championship

080121 long WRC.com interview with Simon Long (ISC) about the future promotion of the World Rally Championship

WRC.com have interviewed International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC) CEO Simon Long about the future promotion of the World Rally Championship.

ISC were appointed global promoter for the WRC in January with a contract that runs from 2010 until 2020. With ISC already holding the commercial rights to the WRC, with North One Television, it effectively means that they can already start to implement changes now.

WRC.com interview with ISC CEO Simon Long:

What will the appointment of a promoter actually mean to the fans?
It means they can be confident there's someone who's taking the championship by the scruff of the neck in terms of the way it's packaged, the way it's promoted and the way it's made more accessible. Whether you're a die-hard enthusiast who travels to the rally or whether you just watch some of the television coverage, we want people to be able to see more of their favourite sport, more often, more easily and in a far more exciting way.

Before the promotion deal how much say did ISC have in the direction of the sport?
Not a great deal. The previous relationship was about producing and distributing television. There were some commercial rights, around sponsorship, but that was pretty much it. We had the FIA on one side charged with regulations, safety, and the technical aspects of the sport and us doing the TV. Now we are right in the thick of things, working hand in glove with the FIA, rally organisers and manufacturers.

So what's most important to you - to increase the number of on-event spectators, the television audience or the number of entrants?
We want to increase them all. Of course we want to see more competitors. Right now the numbers are too low - between 40 and 50 isn't where we want to be. We should be between 80 and 100 given where we've been in the past and what we know we're capable of. The Service Park needs a re-think, too. There's no reason why we can't take the best aspects of an outdoor rock concert and something like the Le Mans 24 hours to create a car-themed festival atmosphere. We could hold events around the midday service, but the evening should be when the fun really kicks off with a full range of entertainment and a party atmosphere.

Presumably getting more manufacturers involved is a priority?
If you look at the history of the WRC manufacturers have always been coming and going. Typically, there have been about three per season. We've currently got two very good ones in Ford and Citroen. We miss very much Subaru and Suzuki but the good news is we're having positive discussions with other names on the back of three things: the appointment of a global promoter, the new technical regulations and a calendar that works for manufacturers as well as being good for the sport in general. That gives us a good deal of optimism about the future. Through 2010 and 2011 there's every possibility that we will retain our existing manufacturers and attract one, possibly two new ones. I can't say who they are but we are talking to several. The one health warning about this is that the automotive industry is one of those hardest hit by the economic downturn, and however attractive and however much value WRC can deliver we have to be mindful of the realities that the industry faces right now.

Who makes decisions about areas like technical regulations and what does the future hold?
The FIA still has ultimate sign-off but we have had quite a lot of involvement in the last few weeks. Right now, though, we need to make sure we've got the best short term remedy to attract the biggest number of competitors with assurances about prices not escalating out of control. When the economy begins to recover, then we can look at things like engine size, turbos and even things like Formula One style kinetic energy recovery systems. We're very conscious of the need to think about the environment and issues like alternative fuels that are on the horizon, but right now we want to safeguard the championship and maximise the number of competitors.

And what plans do you have for television?
As ISC we've had around 10 years experience of working with North One Television on the production side, so we've got a product which I think stands the test. WRC TV is now regarded as a quality benchmark but we believe we have to raise the game. The trick is to put the consumer at the heart of the action and to cater to the mainstream rally audience and our rally fans.

Mostly our television programming is a chronological reportage of the event, but in the broadcast universe now there is a proliferation of choice; there's leisure, sport, music, travel, lifestyle and so on. The beauty about rally is that we have content that can tick all of those boxes. In October we'll unveil a new portfolio of sports programming which will offer great WRC coverage to our established fan base but also a broader scope of coverage which is more lifestyle, music and travel oriented.

Right now we have over 200 broadcast partners and the WRC is shown in about 130 countries. We're looking to increase our international edit facilities on rally so broadcasters from around the world can customise the programme to their local audiences. We're looking to increase the quality of our on-board cameras, too. We're working towards a solid state high-definition technology and to get it into more cars.

090131 cam WRC.com interview with Simon Long (ISC) about the future promotion of the World Rally Championship

How about live television coverage from WRC events?
Live television is an ongoing debate. We recognise that to be one of the top sports you have to have a live component. So we are continuing to look at ways to deliver just that. Live could be a Super Special stage, which is a great spectacle on one hand, but we don't think that's the 'real' rally. It could be a part stage, such as the last one, where you can see the winner crowned on the podium, or live could be a series of live elements across the weekend, linking in and out to give a sense of the theatre of the event over the course of a weekend. Viewers could pop in and out on television or via the internet.

But we're not looking at television in isolation. We want to use the internet more and more, and integrate what we're doing on conventional television with what we're doing in the digital space. We foresee more and more of a blurring between our offerings for both. In the long term we see internet with interactive elements and television all coming together. That's the big ambition.

So we can expect to see more content on wrc.com?
There are lots of opportunities. This year the website ran an internet-only stage in Ireland which worked very well. We're testing different formats in terms of quality, logistics and cost and we hope to make the results available on wrc.com or on television. Wrc.com is the playground, if you like. We're looking for the site to become the hub where viewers can come and watch the action from just about any angle. In future that means, quite possibly, more onboards, more live stages and also things like mapping and ways of relating the live splits and timing with a visually live experience. Possibly using webcams at the start and finish of stages, when the cars come into service, live interviews and live vehicle tracking.

The beauty is we have 300 plus hours of content from 12 events this year, so there's a lot of action out there waiting to be unlocked. We're using perhaps six or seven hours of that on each event. There's scope to show all our onboard footage, perhaps as video on demand, and for people to watch only their favourite drivers, events, and access archive material. We want to give users a sense of community and involvement.

Further on the gaming element is something we're extremely keen on. We're having discussions about being able to integrate an 'as live' gaming experience with the rally in real time - and that really will be the 'wow' rally game. As technology and compression rates evolve it's perfectly conceivable within the next couple of years that we'll be able allow the gamer to come in via, lets say, wrc.com through their X-box. They'll be able to compete in their living room live with their favourite driver, and then integrate their performance with the onboards which by then we'd have available as well, and compare their performance against the world's best.

What do you think about the current format of WRC rallies?
In recent years perhaps we've become a little bit too slavishly faithful to the 'cloverleaf structure' - whereby crews made repeated trips to and from a central Service Park. There's a good argument for having a central nerve centre but equally I think we need to be a bit more flexible about how we recover some of the essence of the traditional WRC which is about mobility and going out into open country and across whole regions while still retaining a focal point. It will be a marriage of old and new here - we're looking at the possibility of more remote servicing, providing it's in a great showcase environment where spectators can go and get involved.

How is the appointment of a promoter likely to affect the events in the WRC calendar?
In our role as promoter the FIA is looking to us to recommend a calendar. It was the FIA's job in the past, and it is still their job to finally approve it, but it's all about being sensible. There is a lot of history behind many events in the calendar and we're having a long hard think about how to get the right balance between those events that constitute the DNA of the sport - the classic, heritage rallies we have - together with an inevitable interest in moving to new territories and geographies as we become more global. I don't believe a 12-round calendar does full justice to the breadth of the product so a 14 round calendar is, we believe, a more sensible alternative. And, who knows, over time maybe as many as 16, but right now we have to marry the economics with the quality we're looking for from the events.

Will you keep the proposed bi-annual event rotation system? Not necessarily. I don't want to jump the gun here, we're doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that we base our final recommendation on facts and good sound business principles, but it's fair to say that the rotation system is one that we're having a good hard look at. Perhaps it will emerge in a different format in the future, maybe as a combination of classic fixed events and some rotation. Everything is up in the air right now. Our job is to come up with a responsible solution that puts WRC in the middle of the radar where it belongs. At the moment it's been pushed aside and isn't given the coverage it deserves. The calendar is inevitably a key component of that.

What about next year's calendar?
The calendar has been announced but there are at least a couple of events which are under scrutiny and may well not make the starting line up, so we're already thinking about how we can get the strongest possible line up and, who knows, that could be 14 events rather than 12. We expect to have this signed off by June.

Source/Photos: wrc.com