Oz TV deal confirmed for World Rallycross

The inaugural season of the FIA World Rallycross Championship has confirmed that each round’s two-hour TV show will be seen in Australia on Foxsport’s SPEED plus on-line telecasts on EDGEsport (IINET).

As part of the TV announcement the new series will be broadcast in more than 100 countries with a combined household reach of over 816 million homes via a network of over 30 different broadcasters.

The announcement by Martin Anayi, Managing Director of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, revealed burgeoning interest in rallycross from broadcasters across the globe.

“It’s extremely exciting to have the support of more than 30 broadcasters,” said Anayi .

“Even though it’s our first season as a full World Championship, we’ve already secured commitment from some of the world’s biggest pan-regional broadcasters such as Fox Sports. We’re still in discussion with some other regions so we may have even more broadcasters to add to our TV portfolio before the opening World RX in Portugal in just over a week.”

The TV announcement came at the pre-season launch at Franciacorta International Circuit in Brescia, Italy with teams shaking cars down ahead of next week’s opener.

The line-up includes 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve was present in a Peugeot 208 Supercar.

“I’ve loved racing since I was five – it helps keep me alive,” joked Villeneuve at the press conference.

“I did some ice driving in France and then I began to think that RX might be the next step. “The format of the races helps make it really exciting to drive. The fact that rallycross has now become a World Championship is good but this year my main aim is to learn and we will see what happens after that.”

The three manufacturer-backed teams of Ford-OlsbergsMSE (Andreas Bakkerud and Reinis Nitiss), VW-Marklund (Topi Heikkinen and Anton Marklund) and Peugeot-Hansen (Timur Timerzyanov and Timmy Hansen) were all in attendance.

The 2003 World Rally Champion Petter Solberg will campaign a new-for-2014 Citroen DS3 Supercar.

“I really want to win,” said the Norwegian.

“There are a lot of good drivers this year but I will fight, don’t you worry! Last year we were not quite ready but we really treated it as more of a test. This year, we will fight for the Championship title.”

Two-time DTM Champion Mattias Ekstrom announced his plans to compete in selected World RX rounds with Swedish-based EKS team in a Audi A1 Supercar. Ekstrom will be joined by former Junior World Rally Champion, Pontus Tidemand, as the duo compete for the Euro RX title this year ahead of a full World RX campaign in 2015.

The 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship will get underway with World RX of Portugal in Montalegre on 4-5 May.

See below for World Rallycross global broadcast schedule