Jeers To Eurosport

I am terribly disappointed. Checking the results for the FIA World Touring Car Championship today, I saw a link on the Eurosport FIA WTCC website that indicated the availability of "Live" streaming video. This promises to cover the first two rounds at Monza today.

You can imagine my excitement. I had missed the first race but I figured I would be able to see the second race live from Monza. Fantastic!

Alas, due to technical troubles on Eurosport websites, us touring car fans are left with just reading the results of the race. What a huge let down. Checking the error message on the Windows Media player it seems that the server could not be contacted.

Eventually, Eurosport removed the live link. Boo!

Really, I don't know how one would create a world championship without the ability for viewers to watch the races. Its all and well if you live in Europe and get Eurosport on satellite. The rest of the world isn't that lucky. Sadly, if this is the case then the WTCC is destined to be a European affair cutting out the excitement to the rest of the world.

I'm a die hard fan and would enjoy it simply by watching a live web stream. But even this is denied us. Sorry, but this simply wouldn't happen if Bernie was running this show or them good ol' boys at NASCAR.

I think Eurosport and the WTCC organizers are missing out on a potentially huge market in the rest of the world. They won't create a following if they don't have viewers. A pity, since touring car racing usually has more action in a single race than Formula 1 has in an entire year.

I hope they do something about this. And I hope manufacturers like BMW and Alfa Romeo get them to do something about it too. After all, the big boys are out to get the largest possible viewership and the blokes running the show are not doing a great job at it.

And the official WTCC website completely, utterly and pathetically SUCKS!