2006 ETCC Estoril News and Rumours

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

It has very little media coverage, no mainstream TV and no gravitas.

No mainstream TV? It had (almost) the same live TV coverage as WTCC. Also the internet coverage was not much lesser than WTCC. According www.fiaetcc.com 25,000 people visited the event.

I think there are two factors why the grid was smaller as expected. The first one is the date. If the race would be half november there would be more time to prepare the cars and find budget. Probably they choose this date because of the Macau event. For the ETCC it would be better to race at Macau end of october/begin november and have ETCC last week of november. On the other hand if the ETCC event is at the end of november teams are already focussing on the next season, drivers are out of contract, etcetera which results in less interest.

The factor budget is the second problem. For private teams it's often already a problem to find budget for the local national championship. And to find extra budget for an event which has a short history like ETCC is not easy. But I can imagine for drivers and teams it's interesting to race against foreigners and some WTCC competitors. So the interest from most drivers and teams is available but maybe the event needs only a few years to get a better reputation. In F3 these sort of races work (Masters of F3 at Zandvoort, Macau F3 race), so why could it not work in touring car racing?


Is is it correct there was a total of 200,000 € price money?


We are a bit negative about the event but I liked both races. So despite the grid I am positive about last weekend.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by FIRE

No mainstream TV? It had (almost) the same live TV coverage as WTCC. Also the internet coverage was not much lesser than WTCC.

I think you missed my point. Eurosport coverage can never be construed as "mainstream TV" when their audience figure is so small compared to terrestrial TV (which is "mainstream"). So to say that the ETCC had the same coverage as the WTCC and therefore had major/mainstream TV coverage is very wide of the mark.

ETCC or WTCC...both have the same issue; it's not shown on major domestic terrestrial TV (BBC,ITV,C4 or C5). Hence the viewer figures are very small by comparison.

To put things into perspective, as I said before, the simple fact is that probably four times as many people watch the advert breaks during the BTCC telecasts, than watch the WTCC/ETCC coverage itself.

I am not trying to dismiss the coverage of the ETCC, but merely pointing out the fact that if it had major terrestrial TV coverage, then it would have been easier for many teams to be able to justify the expense in doing the race due to the amount of exposure they received. But with the small viewing figures the event receives, it's pretty hard for sponsors/teams to get behind the event....which was self-evident. That's just the commercial realities of the world.

[JMeissner]

Of course it would be the best to get it out in to all terrestial TV channels everywhere...

But this is the second year of the race in its existence. Things does not happend that quickly.

Getting the race on Eurosport is more than a good start. If you want a sports channel in europe, Eurosport is the number one choise.

[Chris Y]

Motors TV would be the number one choice.. At least they generally stick to schedule and don't postpone coverage because of a repeat of women's volleyball or something.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by Chris Y

Motors TV would be the number one choice..

The problem with Motors TV is that, at least here in Sweden, it's more or less nonexistent. Eurosport, on the other hand, is included in pretty much every cable-tv and satellite package available, even some of the most basic ones.

Don't know what the situation is for the rest of Europe, but as said, at least here in Sweden Eurosport has a much, much wider reach.

[FIRE]

I agree with rustyfan.

I think Eurosport 1 (cable TV) is available for 80 or 90% of all people in Holland. Motors TV and Eurosport 2 (digital TV) around 5 or 10%.