TV deals - good news!

[Kiwi3]

Some good news for A1GP:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/70764

The Ferrari thing has obviously helped in Italy, and the fact that ESPN Star are going to do enhance coverage for their India feed is promising in what is a potentially very attractive market for sponsors.

[N.A-D.R]

It's great that A1Gp has brought out some positive news instead of negative. Im so happy it will be shown on foxsports and channel 9 in australia!

[jackschmidt]

Good news. In a sea of ******** and stupid news, it's certainly a breath of fresh air. In my opinion, there are still concerns and questions A1 should be answering and October is drawing near. I'm excited to see the new cars, but A1 hasn't shown competency in my eyes. They've managed to turn such a potentially strong season into a huge mess.

[Kiwi3]

I must say I disagree. There are a lot of things that A1GP do well:

1. Good website
2. Good multi-media, e.g. video clips on website, podcast, fanzone site
3. Clear concept and branding (although shame many motorsport traditionalists do not buy into the concept)
4. In my part of the world anyway, good PR. I get weekly news releases to my email directly from A1GP PR staff, unfortunately it's all in Chinese!

Recently their news has been good, with almost daily news on team liveries or driver announcements. There wasn't much up until two weeks ago however this makes sense - why issue material in the off season when people are then going to forget anyway. Better to stack news just before the season starts so that people tune into Zandvoort, which is what they are doing.

The real test is later today when we see how many more cars there are at this week's test. We will know how many they've been able to build since the last test and then will be able to calculate if there will be 23 (24? how many teams exactly?) by October 3.

[dave not neil]

[jackschmidt]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

I must say I disagree. There are a lot of things that A1GP do well:

1. Good website

Granted the website is about the only thing that's functional, I'll give you that.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

2. Good multi-media, e.g. video clips on website, podcast, fanzone site

Multimedia goods have been fairly scarce. A few videos here and there don't make up much of anything. They revealed the Ferrari car for sure but nothing else has been revealed. I'd like to see the content they produce be upped for the season. Also that ESPN/Star Sports snafu on season preview is heineous. Regardless of whether there was a race in Mugello, A1 should be ramping up the stuff to fill the void. Mugello disappeared in September and we don't have a replacement of any sort. Just cars driving around Donnington and Silverstone. What a huge vacuum. No season preview special, no Mugello. I'm not particularly interested in the fanzone site, often times I think only a few sections of the site are active. Other parts of that forum are almost deserted.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

3. Clear concept and branding (although shame many motorsport traditionalists do not buy into the concept)

Clear concept, definitely is something they try to drive home. It is also good we remind ourselves that in the 30s to 50s, F1 was very similar to that and A1GP following on that concept is a good one. They just seem to falter at shifting to higher gear because of their inept abilities.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

4. In my part of the world anyway, good PR. I get weekly news releases to my email directly from A1GP PR staff, unfortunately it's all in Chinese!

And you call that good PR? In all seriousness, I do not understand how A1GP can maintain such a good PR image when the online-based A1GP news sites trying to help them in the first few seasons are now receiving the short-end of the stick and being snuffed out of the accredited media circle.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

Recently their news has been good, with almost daily news on team liveries or driver announcements. There wasn't much up until two weeks ago however this makes sense - why issue material in the off season when people are then going to forget anyway. Better to stack news just before the season starts so that people tune into Zandvoort, which is what they are doing.

I hope they have Earth-shattering news yet to unveil. Like a new source of fund. Everyone knows RAB Capital has not been happy with Tony and the way his series has run on red ink for the past seasons. And there's also rumours of how they are behind payments and such. I'd want A1GP to step in and answer those problems point for point, but they choose to unveil the news they want to and ignore the other criticisms being rounded up on them, a tactic I am only well too intimate with.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

The real test is later today when we see how many more cars there are at this week's test. We will know how many they've been able to build since the last test and then will be able to calculate if there will be 23 (24? how many teams exactly?) by October 3.

This I want to see. I don't want Zandvoort to get canned. I hope it doesn't. I maintain the stance that they've obviously doomed themselves with production problems by starting to design and build the car in March. Let's count the cars on track... I'd guess there should be around 10 to 15 this time.

[RichardRenes]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

I must say I disagree. There are a lot of things that A1GP do well:

1. Good website

Not up to date though. Monaco and Korea should have been added by now, and the 'about the car' section should be about the Ferrari, not the Lola-Zytek.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

2. Good multi-media, e.g. video clips on website, podcast, fanzone site

The best fanzones are those where the teams participate, which only few teams do sadly. Malaysia has a good fanzone, but not on the a1gp site. And the live timing seems to be conveniantly off for the tests now.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

3. Clear concept and branding (although shame many motorsport traditionalists do not buy into the concept)

Branding is clear, but I still think A1GP is a bit too greedy for what is a fledgeling series. The car could/ should have appeared in models, scale 1/43 and 1/18 for instance, but the production for the Amalgam 1/43 A1GP line has halted due to trademark issues. Likewise, a game never saw the lights because A1 stopped it, and merchandise appeared only well into season 2. In that respect, Superleague Formula has their act together in a better way if you ask me.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

4. In my part of the world anyway, good PR. I get weekly news releases to my email directly from A1GP PR staff, unfortunately it's all in Chinese!

PR used to be good in Holland too.... but even team NED has been unusually quiet this summer, and they were unusually late in declaring their drivers.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

Recently their news has been good, with almost daily news on team liveries or driver announcements. There wasn't much up until two weeks ago however this makes sense - why issue material in the off season when people are then going to forget anyway. Better to stack news just before the season starts so that people tune into Zandvoort, which is what they are doing.

Still, some announcements should have been made months ago. Drivers/ teams can have an effect on ticket sales, so new teams or famous drivers should be announced a.s.a.p. I mean, if indeed Valentino Rossi is going to drive a few for Italy as rumoured, think what that will do for ticket sales!!!!!
Also, it's ridiculous that 1 day before a big test, and 2 weeks before Zandvoort, we're still getting artists impressions rather than actual photos of a car.

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

The real test is later today when we see how many more cars there are at this week's test. We will know how many they've been able to build since the last test and then will be able to calculate if there will be 23 (24? how many teams exactly?) by October 3.

I hope they have at least 16 or 17 cars driving today.

[Kiwi3]

Multimedia goods have been fairly scarce

.

Compare it with what other sports do and you'll see it's not at all bad. FOM do very little and commercially F1 is 100 times bigger. I agree totally however that there are some basic things that they have missed like updating the home page with Korean and Monaco flags.

Also that ESPN/Star Sports snafu on season preview is heineous.

Why are you automatically blaming A1GP and not ESPN Star? The latter has got to be one of the most lazy broadcasters in the world in terms of editing, their GP2 coverage for example is a joke, for one round they just cut the start and first ten laps and then run the rest unedited in order to fill a time slot. They also NEVER update their schedule on their website. If I were A1GP I would have requested a delay to the season preview so that it screens a week before Zandvoort. I wouldn't bet on ESPN Star then updating their public schedule.

Regardless of whether there was a race in Mugello, A1 should be ramping up the stuff to fill the void.

No they shouldn't. Consumers have a short memory, and if they ramped up material too early then it would be forgotten again before the season started. You need to wait until a reasonably short period before the season starts and then ramp up the communication, which is what they are doing.

Mugello disappeared in September and we don't have a replacement of any sort. Just cars driving around Donnington and Silverstone. What a huge vacuum.

Unfortunate and disappointing I agree, but this is due to whatever the cause of the delay with the cars is. Nothing to do with marketing or PR.

I'm not particularly interested in the fanzone site, often times I think only a few sections of the site are active. Other parts of that forum are almost deserted.

Agree that it is being neglected a bit, but in reality it's not a very important piece of the puzzle at this point anyway. At least it is there and being used, although for more insightful debate then come to ten-tenths, where we have much more knowledgeable and longer term fans having intelligent debates such as this.

And you call that good PR? In all seriousness, I do not understand how A1GP can maintain such a good PR image when the online-based A1GP news sites trying to help them in the first few seasons are now receiving the short-end of the stick and being snuffed out of the accredited media circle.

At this point you have me rolling on the floor. You are way over-estimating the use and value of such websites. Second hand news which you can easily find on professional media sites or rumours posted as news. They have limited readership and do nothing for the long term prospects of A1GP. There is one in particular that has a very professional look and feel and the developer has obviously put a lot of heart into (who I empathise with), but then there are a few more that are just crap. Reality is that professional news organisations and broadcasters are way way more important as only they can reach a general audience, and they are the ones that need to be looked after.

I hope they have Earth-shattering news yet to unveil. Like a new source of fund. Everyone knows RAB Capital has not been happy with Tony and the way his series has run on red ink for the past seasons. And there's also rumours of how they are behind payments and such. I'd want A1GP to step in and answer those problems point for point, but they choose to unveil the news they want to and ignore the other criticisms being rounded up on them, a tactic I am only well too intimate with.

I don't think this is as simple as you make it sound. Start a debate in the media on your financial situation and it will only spiral and get worse. There is no easy solution to this one. The number of team announcements over the past week or so have made me feel more confident, I don't think there would be so much activity if the series was about to go belly up. At least I hope I'm right, my gut feel is that they are OK for the short term, technical delays aside. We shall soon see.

[Mak]

TV great news if there are cars to film. Lucky to have more than a couple today at Snetterton I've heard. A1 have big problems with the management and leadership of the series. They have been very inefficient and wasteful with there resorses and probably squandered a great opportunity to create and build a popular and productive series. They have been guilty of the excesses created by the easy available cash liquidity of the past decade. Lets hope they can survive in the new era. Not to many sourses around that would invest in a business that has made a $500 mil US loss over 3 years?? I am a great fan of this series but it needs to be run much more efficiently..

[Lam Pak]

no tv deal for china mainland. is this joke? this is fun ladies and gentlemans.

[Kiwi3]

Yes I noticed that too. Last season it was on CCTV on the Tuesday afternoon after the race or something, so nobody would have watched. It's on ESPN Star of course but that is in English and it is technically illegal to install satellite TV in China (although many people do it).

A hard one to figure out this, considering how keen Chinese people are to cheer national teams at the moment and that there is a China team in A1GP. Even if they cannot do a deal with CCTV there are dozens of provincial channels and they are all short of content.

[Asa]

In China, you get 80+ channels already on cable which costs maybe RMB10 a month. Who needs satellite dish?

[Kiwi3]

Originally Posted by Asa

In China, you get 80+ channels already on cable which costs maybe RMB10 a month. Who needs satellite dish?

For the upcoming season, anybody who wants to watch A1GP!