The Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship will double its LIVE web-streaming broadcasts this year, with two camera crews on all events and the stage action footage shown as it happens on the Special Stage social media platforms.
In 2018, a total audience of 645,000 people watched the Asphalt Rally Championship action via the Special Stage Facebook pages. The spectacular action was superbly complemented by commentary from the irrepressible Howard Davies – and not only will this continue in 2019, but the coverage will be enhanced by a second camera crew and commentary from Gemma Watson. Gemma has been part of the Special Stage commentary team for six years and has presented on the Asphalt Championship before.
Guest presenters will also join the broadcast team at each event. Last year Amoury Molle (Rally van Wervik), Alastair Fisher (Carryduff Folklift Down Rally), Bob Fowden (Old Forge Garage Mewla Rally) and Ryan Champion (Ford Parts Cheviot Stages Rally) joined the team, and the first guest commentator of 2019 will be Phil Collins, who will add his legendary wit and expert driving knowledge to the opening round’s broadcast from the Rallynuts National Tour of Epynt (10 March).
Figures clearly show that live web-streaming reaches a far bigger audience than recorded television coverage, hence an even greater amount of effort and resource being put into it for 2019. However, television cannot be ignored, so news highlights from each round will continue, as well as a longer end of season review, edited specifically for television.
The on-line action from the Asphalt Rally Championship will be more interactive as well, with viewers able to vote for their ‘On-line Star of the Rally’ – based on what driver impressed them the most in terms of style, commitment, battling against the odds and good old-fashioned maximum attack! The driver with the most votes will be announced after each round, with a viewer who voted for that winning driver pulled out of a hat and rewarded with a special rally prize!
Jane Evans, Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship Co-ordinator, said: “The live web-streaming coverage last season was a huge hit with people watching it on-line from all over the world, including fans who were actually at the events themselves, and increasing the coverage for 2019 will let people see more of the action than they have ever been able to see before. Extended coverage will mean that all the registered Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship contenders will get to feature more times throughout the season.”
Wayne Goldring, Special Stage Producer, said: “With our state-of-the-art broadcast-quality equipment, drone footage and satellite links, we were able to broadcast live action footage from every round of the Asphalt Rally Championship last year. The remote locations and some truly atrocious weather conditions didn’t affect our broadcasts too much, but they did produce some outstanding rally action – which was viewed live by close to three-quarters of a million people. We want to expand on that coverage and we’re delighted that as well as Howard Davies and a camera crew out on the stages, we’ll have Gemma Watson and a second camera crew out on all events as well. This will allow us to double up on the web-streaming, with the two teams allowing us to broadcast more dynamic coverage from the best locations, as well as enabling more use of the drone and more live driver interviews. We’re very excited with everything we have planned for the 2019 Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship, as we’ll be covering British national rally competitors in more depth, and to a bigger audience, than ever before.”
2019 Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship
10 March…. Rallynuts National Tour of Epynt
10/11 May….Masterpixel Media Manx National Rally
15 June….Rally van Wervik
20 July….Carryduff Forklift Down Rally
25 August….Old Forge Garage Mewla Rally
22 September…. Ford Parts Cheviot Stages Rally
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