World Rally Championship to pilot live web content during Rallye de France

Stages from this week’s Rallye de France Alsace will be streamed live and exclusive on the World Rally Championship’s official website, wrc.com, as part of a pilot project to investigate future digital opportunities for the all-action series.

World Rally Championship promoter North One Sport has made a substantial investment in the trial, which will be used to test the latest camera and streaming technology as well as to gauge the appetite among fans for live online coverage and more interactive content.

The pilot is also the first test of a new partnership between North One Sport and digital specialist, Streamworks.

Around 14 hours of coverage is planned, spread across Friday and Saturday’s competition, with the action available to view free of charge on a web media player accessed exclusively from the home page of wrc.com.

The coverage on Friday (30 September) will run between 1300hrs and 2000hrs (local time), with action from Saturday (1 October) shown between 1245hrs and 1930hrs.

On both days content will consist of interviews and atmosphere from the service park and the end of day press conferences. This will be mixed with stage action shot from two helicopters and by cameras mounted inside the rally cars. English and French commentary will be available.

“The digital landscape presents numerous opportunities to further expand the reach of the World Rally Championship and this experiment is a big step forward in our plans to develop formats and content to suit,” said North One Sport CEO, Simon Long.

“We have made a significant investment to get the project to this stage and it’s exciting that we are now ready to try and turn the theory into reality; however it’s important to make clear that this is a trial first and foremost and we expect to learn a great deal. This is unchartered territory, both technically and in terms of programming, but it’s a vital stage in our development plans for the next 12 months.”