Terrestrial TV is key for BRC

The deal to guarantee terrestrial TV coverage is huge one for the emerging British Championship; an announcement that competitors have been awaiting as eagerly as fans.

While ideally the TV deal would have come about a bit sooner to give drivers longer to pitch for sponsorship, the championship has been working hard behind the scenes to fund and choose the correct production company, which they believe they have found in Hayfisher.

It’s hard to look past the company that has WRC and BRC experience; how many companies can boast that experience?

And the quality is really the key here. Rumours have been rife about where the coverage would end up, and a popular gossiping point has been live streaming. Whether you believe live streaming is the future of the sport or not – that’s for a different debate – I think it’s important the championship walks before it can run.

Embarking on a relatively unproven method of coverage would be unwise at this point, but easy to embrace as the championship has benefited from being so forward thinking.

Hopefully I don’t sound too pessimistic, but this is in essence a new championship. New events, new organisers...

Scoring a reliable TV package will give some continuity to fans who can’t get over to the likes ofthe Circuit of Ireland. But it also gives drivers and teams a sensible option of promoting their sponsors effectively, without having to trawl through the dark web to get at it.

It’s difficult to find any sort of middle ground in terms of opinion in where the BRC is going at the moment, it’s all good. Let’s hope that another sensible decision by the organisers yields the quality of coverage all the stakeholders in the championship deserve.