After Kimi Räikkönen left F1 and moved over to WRC the interest in F1 went down substantially. Räikkönen's return to F1 is like a victory in lotto for MTV3, who owns the sport's tv-rights.- After Finland's top years in F1 we faced poor years and the interest to F1 has gone down among the big audience. Now the expectation parameters and hopes for success are high again. It would be a tough thing in any sport if a sportsman this famous would make a comeback, Tatu Lehmuskallio, sport manager from MTV3, says.
- It's obvious that we expect the orders to grow above the curve that we are used to. Of course Kimi's comeback will have a positive influence, Lehmuskallio states.
- We have different kinds of arrangements with teams, unions and singular sportsmen. F1 is no exception in that matter. Let's see if we can come up with some special arrangement, and if it seems reasonable then we will go for it. In Kimi's case the main focus will still be on the racing itself.
Kimi's departure hurt
The TV-boss confesses that Räikkönen's departure from F1 hurt badly.
- It was a bit like if you would own the tv-rights to some European soccer game but then your own country wouldn't make it to the final tournament. It was hard because we always pay for the tv-rights according to the the expectation parameters.
- When Kimi left F1 we took a risk to see if the financial equation would work even if Kimi wouldn't drive. And it worked since the pay-tv -business has worked well despite of the lack of Finnish success.
URHEILUTIETO
Source: Iltalehti
Courtesy: Nicole
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