BTCC Coverage

[pimmy]

Originally Posted by Matt K

Well said. Agree with every point you've made. And the point that the championship "looks like aging cars going round a track with the names of unknown people on the side" seems to be sadly spot on.

The funny thing regarding aging cars is that Team HARD. (of all people) are the only ones running a current model. All the others are either out of production or have been facelifted. But this has nothing to do with the coverage, so carry on!

[Evantra]

Could be nice to try F1-style ‘Grill the Grid’ videos too. I’ve seen a few things in the past like drivers drawing the circuit from memory, but it seems inconsistent and a bit half-hearted.

[coffinpilot]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Could be nice to try F1-style ‘Grill the Grid’ videos too. I’ve seen a few things in the past like drivers drawing the circuit from memory, but it seems inconsistent and a bit half-hearted.

This. It's the key. I saw the video with Nick Halstead and Paul O'Neil talking about how the BTCC is opening up social media for drivers and teams - in using race day footage with support championships to follow. But what has come out so far is utterly miserable.
It's going to take more than just bringing a mate or girlfriend to film on a phone and sticking an ITV logo on it. I even saw Halstead on socials asking for someone with experience to come and film from the pitwall for them. I thought he was some kind of social media expert with ITV links - if you're going to do it, do it properly.

For example I follow a few F1 folk on YouTube - like fan channels, media people, and a couple (which must be all!) of the people doing stuff around BTCC. I get that they can't film stuff on track, but they're not supposed to film pitlane even when drivers are getting ready and stuff. That's archaic. There's a couple of podcasts go on YouTube, a couple of young lads do some interviews/reviews, and one photographer does some daft little video recaps (although their TCR ones are better because they can use film of cars on track.) The Lithuanian guy who does vlogs is doing more for the sport than some teams but when I asked him about it he said that going official would mean no filming of stuff on the circuit - it appears that the BTCC don't chase down fans who post stuff from the crowd (that would create bad blood and backfire.)
NAPA and EXCELR8 have good stuff, if they could intergrate on track stuff, or pitlane stuff it would be brilliant. That trip to the arcade vid for the 2 Tom's was gold.

My kids love F1 - and it's as much because of the people on YouTube talking about it, and snippets on Insta/TikTok/Twitter. BTCC could harness those fans if they opened up, but truth is it's run by old people and a TV channel - if they don't shift to the socials of the 21st century they are going to lose that battle.

I know Rowbo pops up on here, just today I saw a vid on his Insta of the car on track, it's a good start, that's great but hopefully more will come using better gear. I now he was asking for fan input - which is great - I hope there was enough to get the bosses going 'Yes.'
I know some of the GT racers around the world have money to burn for that kind of thing with pro video folk, but it's what you've got to aim for. There are ways to do it for far cheaper than flying a pro video person in.

But what Evantra says about inconsistent and half-hearted is walloping the nail on the head. Choose the drivers who it'll work with. No offence but it doesn't seem to be the gig that Turkington, Hill or Cook would suit, but Ingram, Rowbottom, Taylor-Smith are born for it. If only a few more were as dedicated as Lloyd it would make a huge difference.

[AnnoyedMoose]

Ingram was the first who really did the YouTube stuff but he never got the views so tailed off with it. He's doing a bit more now in conjunction with the team.

What BTCC really needs to get the youngsters interested is a new console based sim/game. GT racing has picked up a lot of younger fans because of the amount of sim racing featuring it.

[thetool]

I think the BTCC could do with an amibitious championship administrator who isn't 68 years old. He was only 35 when he began turning the series into the international success it was in the 90s. He's the very definition of a safe pair of hands these days, but in terms of growth, innovation or progress - particulaly on the commercial rather than technical side, he and TOCA have become dinosaurs.

Peter Riches stepped down at the end of last year. I dare say it's probably time for Alan Gow, Dan Mayo & Ian Watson to think about steping aside and bringing in new people with more modern ideas.

[Evantra]

On the subject of YouTube, Dan Lloyd’s latest vlog on Donington is currently on 73k views, whilst most of the others are on less than 2k.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by AnnoyedMoose

What BTCC really needs to get the youngsters interested is a new console based sim/game. GT racing has picked up a lot of younger fans because of the amount of sim racing featuring it.

They tried… somewhat. Nice to see them all on RFactor but I think that one’s a bit too on the sim side. Interesting that some of the earlier NGTC cars are still included on the new Forza Motorsport.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by Evantra

They tried… somewhat. Nice to see them all on RFactor but I think that one’s a bit too on the sim side. Interesting that some of the earlier NGTC cars are still included on the new Forza Motorsport.

They also sold the game rights to a company that was owned by Russians, which outsourced most of its coding to Ukrainians.

Since the invasion and sanctions that followed, that company has struggled to actually produce any games, and is now in severe financial trouble.

The BTCC game is two years late, and actually won't happen. They also haven't produced the Indycar game or three NASCAR games that they should have done, and a game to promote 100 years of Le Mans looks like it's finally coming to market this Christmas, a whole year late.

[thetool]

Originally Posted by sceptic

They also sold the game rights to a company that was owned by Russians, which outsourced most of its coding to Ukrainians.

And that was only after twenty years of the rights either being tied up with Codemasters who didn't want/couldn't use them or not being issued at all.

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by thetool

And that was only after twenty years of the rights either being tied up with Codemasters who didn't want/couldn't use them or not being issued at all.

Was that Richard West's doing?

[thetool]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

Was that Richard West's doing?

Original deal with Codemasters began in '96 under Gow's first regime. How long that was for I'm not sure, and it's hard to find any corrobrating sources from the time.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Evantra

They tried… somewhat. Nice to see them all on RFactor but I think that one’s a bit too on the sim side. Interesting that some of the earlier NGTC cars are still included on the new Forza Motorsport.

The rights were sold to Motorsport Games, who are owned by the Motorsport Network. During COVID they begun organising online events and somehow blagged actual series licenses for several series, despite never having actually developed a game - only published. The events were popular, but largely a failure - server crashes and "red flags" for bugs etc. The company is also in legal trouble.

They were meant to develop a BTCC game (and Le Mans, and NASCAR, and IndyCar games), but it was never completed and they've run out of money and let staff go

The cars started appearing in rFactor 2 because Motorsport Games bought Studio 397, who were previously known as ISI and developed rFactor 2. Most of the staff from ISI who worked on it are no longer with ISI/Studio 397/Motorsport Games and work for rF Pro now.

[psq43]

Wonder how long Tony Cochrane has got left running SXG and The Suns.....

Note, yes, that's wishful thinking

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

The rights were sold to Motorsport Games, who are owned by the Motorsport Network. During COVID they begun organising online events and somehow blagged actual series licenses for several series, despite never having actually developed a game - only published. The events were popular, but largely a failure - server crashes and "red flags" for bugs etc. The company is also in legal trouble.

They were meant to develop a BTCC game (and Le Mans, and NASCAR, and IndyCar games), but it was never completed and they've run out of money and let staff go

The cars started appearing in rFactor 2 because Motorsport Games bought Studio 397, who were previously known as ISI and developed rFactor 2. Most of the staff from ISI who worked on it are no longer with ISI/Studio 397/Motorsport Games and work for rF Pro now.

BTCC has pulled the licenses from MSG.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

BTCC has pulled the licenses from MSG.

“Nascar Rivals developer Motorsport Games has cut around 38 jobs in a recent round of layoffs, mostly affecting roles in the UK and Australia.
The Miami-based studio cut approximately 40% of its workforce worldwide "to bring down its year-over-year operating expense," as detailed in a SEC filing on October 29
Its restructuring program is estimated to be approximately $400,000 to $500,000 consisting of severance and redundancy costs to employees, the majority of which will be paid in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2023.”

[cameronpoe]

I speak to the NAPA media team at every round, they are pleased at the level of engagement they get on the Social Media through BTCC, they are looking to ramp up again 2024, they have a dedicated team and this costs money which I accept not all the teams can compete with but the idea is to lift the series as a whole along with the NAPA brand awareness which I personally think they are doing. I have probably been to 98% of BTCC rounds since 2015 and I think the crowds have held up and in some cases strengthened, the New Junior Formula will be really good and should attract lots of entries, its easy to be a little "snobby" about racing in Europe but anybody who is looking for Pro-Career in either F1 or WEC will be needing to spend at least £6-7m in case of F1 and probably closer to £10m to get noticed and around £3m -£5m to get near a (Factory Seat) in WEC, so these are massive numbers that only a few people from the same social demographic can afford. The BTCC offers a chance of something different, I know many people on this site believe there a no Professionals in BTCC, but the current champion turned down a paid seat in Supercars, and my own son races as a full professional as do others, so I think the Junior championship will have different appeal to different drivers and there families who are all pretty switched on as to what is and is not possible.