24h Le Mans
The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and Infront have extended their long-term exclusive media rights partnership. The agreement includes all WEC races, including the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans, which forms round three of next year’s world championship.
The extension of the partnership is a great illustration of how an agency like Infront and rights-holders can work hand-in-hand in securing a state-of-the-art media distribution while unlocking new revenue streams and ultimately developing the sport.
Since taking over the media distribution back in 2015, Infront has gradually extended the geographical reach of WEC by widening the scope of the historical partnership with Discovery and closing numerous agreements with national broadcasters. As a result, fans across 196 countries have been able to enjoy WEC action on the track this season.
In the meantime, a multi-platform distribution plan has been developed in core markets allowing fans to consume action via multiple touchpoints. A good illustration of this is France where fans have been able to access 24 Hours of Le Mans coverage via multiple sources including Discovery-owned channel Eurosport, free-to-air channel L’Équipe, WEC owned-OTT service not to mention the many clips and highlights continuously available on WEC’s social media channels.
With the introduction of the Hypercar category this season, the series is expected to become more exciting than ever. Indeed, Audi, Ferrari, Peugeot, Cadillac and Porsche have already confirmed their commitment and will be among the contenders together with Alpine, Glickenhaus and Toyota for the victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans centenary edition in 2023. The return of some of the sport’s most celebrated names will bring new attention to races just as motorsport as a whole is experiencing a huge upturn in attention. “This is a very exciting time for endurance racing. We expect epic battles on the track in the years to come and we will be able to tell incredible stories to our fans across the world”, explains Frédéric Lequien, FIA WEC CEO.
Pierre Fillon, President of the ACO, added: “We have worked with Infront on elaborating a strategy that enables us to fully leverage our content offering while always keeping us operationally involved in all decisions and bringing us to the table with broadcasters. We highly value their complete transparency and expertise and are looking forward to the upcoming years together.”
The long-term renewal of the exclusive media rights partnership reflects the trust within the collaboration and the results Infront has achieved. “Both teams have made a superb job in securing extensive media distribution worldwide, including long-term pan-regional as well as multiple single-territory deals while generating strong revenues in the same time. We welcome this extension with WEC and the ACO and have a clear goal in mind for the years to come: make sure the media distribution we deliver for WEC grows together with the sport of endurance”, comments Julien Ternisien, Senior Vice President Summer Sports at Infront.
The 2022 season features six races across three continents, kicking off with the official prologue in Sebring, USA, in March and concluding with the 8 Hours of Bahrain in November. Fans will be able to enjoy the highest level of sportscar racing through a wide-ranging programme including extended live coverage plus race highlights, driver analysis, podium coverage, interviews and more. For more information, see the WEC 2022 Calendar.
