Rally Sweden will be shown on Motors TV after the prganisers confirmed that there will be coverage of this weekend’s event available to viewers outside the host country.

After talks between the FIA, the governing body of world motorsport and Eurosport over the World Rally Championship’s television rights broke down last week, the FIA declared that international TV rights would be sold on a rally-by-rally basis by the respective event organisers.

Rally Sweden CEO Glenn Olsson said: “We are doing this for all our fans to save the championship and its organisers and teams, and not least for our own sake and our sponsors. This is a multi-million [euro] project and, as we are not ready with the economics, this is very hazardous for us.”

Motors TV will show nightly highlights at 10.35pm. A short spectator stage begins the rally later tonight, with the main bulk of it taking place between Friday and Sunday. Viewers should expect the coverage to be significantly different from the Eurosport-produced Monte Carlo Rally which opened the season last month.

The World Rally Championship remains in turmoil after talks between the governing body FIA and Eurosport over television production and distribution of the series broke down.

Eurosport were expected to take over this aspect of the WRC after previous commercial rights holders North One Sports went in to administration, and even covered the first round of this year from Monte Carlo after a last-minute deal with the event organisers. The plan was for the FIA themselves to take over the promotion of the series, with Eurosport responsible for filming and production of rallies, as well as the distribution of TV rights.

However, both parties walked away from the table last week, leaving Rally Sweden, the second round of this year’s championship beginning on Friday currently without any international television coverage.

It is believed the sticking point relates to European employment law. Under the statute, should Eurosport take over as commercial rights holders then they would be required to take on the North One staff laid off by the termination of their contract, something the broadcaster seems reluctant to do.

This meant the FIA were forced to tell event organisers that they were responsible for finalising their own deals for television coverage on a rally-by-rally basis.

A ridiculously wordy statement from WRC Commission president Jarmo Mahonen told them: “Despite very lengthy negotiations with Eurosport, we sincerely regret to have to inform you that, unfortunately, it has not been possible to conclude an agreement even when trying to give them the possibility to act as a provider of services, providing television coverage of the WRC.

“Therefore, the FIA will not be able to put in place a global promoter, or even global television coverage at this time. As a result, each WRC organiser will unfortunately have to negotiate the television broadcasting of his event.”

Local terrestrial station SVT will cover the Swedish Rally in the host country, but the organisers face a race against time to sort a deal out for viewers in the rest of the world.

This is the latest disaster for a championship that has suffered numerous setbacks over the last decade. The public have grown tired of Sebastien Loeb’s (above) dominance (eight titles in a row), and the number of manufacturers backing the series has dropped. Meanwhile, interest in the UK has diminished to practically zero following the sad deaths of Colin McRae and Richard Burns, and the lack of any sort of successor to them.

This latest fiasco, if not resolved shortly could well be the final nail in the coffin for the WRC as we know it.

ACM, the organisers of the Monte Carlo Rally have confirmed Eurosport will produce the television coverage for the first round of the 2012 World Rally Championship (WRC).

The iconic rally, which begins on Wednesday had been left without anybody to film footage for the event after the FIA terminated their contract with promoter North One Sports on Sunday, leaving the sport in a shambolic state.

With time running out before the rally, ACM were forced to arrange everything themselves-including finding somebody to provide live tracking and timing. They enlisted Eurosport, who have covered this event for the last three years when it was part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge

They still face a race against time in order to get their coverage all mapped out though. The contract specifies that five nightly 26-minute highlights programmes will need to be produced, but the usual end-of-rally power stage will not be shown live. Even still, it is a big ask at such short notice.

This deal is only for the first round of the season, but an announcement from the FIA confirming Eurosport as covering the complete WRC for the next three years is expected imminently.

The FIA have terminated their contract with North One Sport, the commercial rights holders of the World Rally Championship (WRC).

As reported on tellysports last week, Convers Sports Initiatives, the parent company of North One went in to administration in November. Nobody made an offer to purchase the company and carry on the promotion of the WRC despite seven ‘expressions of interest’, so on Friday the FIA found North One to be in ‘breach of contract’ and ended the deal.

The FIA are now in an awkward situation with a week to go until the start of the 2012 season. The promoter/commercial rights holder are responsible for the day-to-day running of the championship, as well as timing and tracking, sponsorship servicing, and importantly-television production and rights distribution.

This means ESPN and Motors TV’s contracts to show the WRC in the UK are now void, and barring a late deal with the new rights holders will not be televising the series in 2012.

Eurosport Events, who currently promote the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) and Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) are expected to take over the role, but even then they face a race against time in order to have everything in place ahead of the Rallye Monte Carlo that starts on the 17th January. However, with Eurosport available across most of Europe, as well as many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, that at least solves some of the issues of distributing television rights around the world.

With Monte Carlo being part of the IRC since 2009 before reverting back to the WRC in 2012, Eurosport Events have covered this event in recent years, so will have some knowledge of how best to televise the rally at short notice.

Of course, they haven’t officially been confirmed as promoters, and somebody else may still get the role. Presumably the FIA will announce the news officially when everything is in place for the first round of the season.

The FIA are set to announce the new commercial rights holders for the World Rally Championship, after current promoter North One’s parent company went in to administration.

Convers Sports Initiatives (CSI), who also own Portsmouth Football Club, took over North One Sports back in March 2011 and are now the subject of insolvency proceedings. With North One being a valuable asset for the bank, it has seen the FIA searching for a new promoter-of which three are believed to have tabled bids.

For those unaware, both the FIA and FIM (for motorcycle racing) sell the commercial rights for major international series to companies who are then charged as promoter of that championship. They are then responsible for its day-to-day running and organisation, as well as any television production and selling of broadcast rights. Examples of companies acting as promoters in motor racing include Formula One Management for F1, Dorna for MotoGP and Infront for World Superbikes.

This is a major issue, and could cause concern for ESPN and Motors TV who currently hold the broadcast rights in the UK. Theoretically their deals should have been terminated with the change of promoter, but this may not necessarily be the case and they could carry on as before-just with their programmes coming from a different source. If not, new contracts will need to be signed ahead of the season-opening Rallye Monte Carlo on the 17th January.