International Sportsworld Communicators Ltd. (ISC), the global media and commercial rights holder for the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), today announced the latest TV audience statistics and data*, illustrating that the worldwide television audience of the WRC has increased 44% in three years.

The global TV marketplace continues to be fiercely competitive.  The continuing development of multi-channel television, new media and new programme formats is substantially fragmenting audiences and the battle for sports audience share and airtime is particularly strong.  However, WRC viewing figures have been on the rise in recent years and new data illustrates that this trend continues to strengthen.

WRC worldwide audience figures have grown by 44% from 2002 to 2005.  In the same time frame, the reach of WRC has also developed significantly with new broadcasters tapping into previously untouched territories and new programming, resulting in a 158% increase in the total number of hours of coverage from 1,780 in 2002 to 4,610 in 2005.

Year on year, WRC has seen a 3.7% increase in its worldwide audience to 802 million during 2005.

The total number of dedicated WRC broadcasts has increased by almost 27% during the last year, with 6,696 dedicated WRC broadcasts in 2005 in comparison to 5,281 the year before.

The introduction of Rally World in 2005, a new rally magazine programme, contributed to a 31% increase in the average number of broadcasts per rally since April 2005.

Coverage in Japan saw a 36.4% increase from 17.1 million viewers in 2004 to 23.3 million by the end of 2005 as TV coverage increased on existing networks.

Other key TV markets also saw a rise in audience viewing figures since 2004 with Spain boasting a 34.8% increase as a result of new programming on existing networks and France improving by 18.5% as a result of increased programming on France 2 and M6.

Figures in Scandinavian TV markets showed similar increases during 2005, as a result of additional programming and consistent broadcast schedules.  Norway’s audience figures increased by over 50%, Sweden’s by 10%, Finland’s by 1.5% and Denmark’s increased by over 100%.

WRC’s official website http://www.wrc.com/ has seen a 25% increase in average monthly visitors from 323,728 in 2004 to 403,027 in 2005, peaking at 590,000 during Wales Rally GB.

For a hard copy of the WRC 2005 Fact Book, please email press@wrc.com , stating your name and full postal address.  The complete WRC 2005 Fact Book will be available for download under the Press Releases section of the Press menu on http://www.wrc.com/ by the end of February 2006.

* This data is compiled by TNSSPORT, one of the world’s leading research companies, on behalf of ISC.

Note to Editors:

For more information on WRC please go to www.wrc.com

Ellie Storey
Communications Advisor
International Sportsworld Communicators Ltd.
gsm: +44.79.09.90.88.05
ellie@wrc.com
http://www.wrc.com/