WTCC’s TV audience is growing fast. Since the inception of the World Championship in 2005, figures grew from 70 million viewers across 20 broadcasters to over half a billion viewers across 84 broadcasters in 2012.
The full 2012 broadcast figures will be announced by IFM, the Germany-based sports research firm, in its yearly report to be published by the mid of January.
“Among the 84 broadcasters, 49 were free-to-air channels, 31 were cable and satellite channels and four were news agencies. There was a total of about 1,400 hours of WTCC programming in 2012, compared to 1,237 hours in 2011, while the cumulative audience increased by nearly 10 per cent,” explained François Ribeiro, motor sport development director at Eurosport Events.
Speaking about the near future, Ribeiro said: “In 2013, our priority targets are Russia and USA. We are currently in negotiations with premier networks in both countries. On top of this we want to push for improving our coverage in Japan.”
WTCC’s TV strategies are directly connected to the importance of the automotive markets: “We really try to make sure that WTCC is aired, whether it is covered by Eurosport or not, in the main automotive markets. And then of course we try to place our programmes in the emerging markets, which are key to the car manufacturers.”