Progressive realism: Aurora on taking up the broadcast reins for World RX alongside new promoter for the series, the FIA
World RX cars line up for a race at the 2025 season opener in Portugal at the end of May
Independent production company, Aurora, is the new host broadcaster for the World Rallycross Championship, also known as World RX, which has been taken into the FIA fold very recently.
The role for Aurora – as well as bringing the production to fruition – is about breaking down barriers to entry for both the athletes, as well as existing and new fans. SVG Europe caught up with Matt Beal, director of broadcast at Aurora, to find out how the deal came about and what the goals for this season are.
World RX is back
When WRC Promoter, which had held the rights for World RX and with it, Euro RX, since 2021, decided not to renew its contract, the FIA looked for a new rights holder and failed to come up trumps. It then decided to take matters into its own hands, and James Nixon, the FIA’s sporting manager for Extreme H, took World RX into his care as well.
Nixon, now the FIA’s sporting manager for World Rallycross and Extreme H, said on a LinkedIn post recently: “World RX is back. It was up, then it was down, then it dipped even further… but the decision was made: we brought it back, stronger, better, and with the passion it deserves!
“Rallycross is an incredible sport. It has earned its place on the world stage, both as a World and European Championship. For years, it’s been powered by the blood, sweat, and tears of teams, drivers, sponsors, and event organisers.
“Now it’s our time, all of us, to pull together and rebuild it into something amazing again. We’re starting the rebuild. We are a united front at the FIA Road Sport Department, led by Emilia Abel, and I am incredibly lucky to have brilliant people by my side: Janina Gonzalez Corominas, Bryan To, Romilio Quintanilla, and many more.
“We’re bringing in the passionate and skilled TV production team from Aurora Media Worldwide, led by Matt Beal, to raise the bar. So much more is coming. This is only the beginning. We will do this, together,” Nixon concluded.
Comments Beal on the FIA’s move to take World RX and Euro RX inhouse: “Basically it’s to save the World Championship and the sport. Essentially, FIA sees itself as a custodian of the sport.”
The role for Aurora as the new host broadcaster at World RX is about breaking down barriers to entry for both the athletes, as well as existing and new fans. Pictured, Matt Beale, Aurora’s director of broadcast, leading the way at the season opener in Portugal
Progressive realism
On working with Nixon at the FIA as its new host broadcaster, Beal comments: “He’s really progressive and also a real realist. He gets both sides of what can be done for everybody. Half of it is the operational and the programme, and the other half of is the commercial, and then there’s two things have to work together; if you just think you’re making shows without thinking about the commerciality of a business, you fail, and if you just think of it as a business, you’re not in the entertainment industry that will fail. Like Aurora, [Nixon] can operate those two sides of the coin kind of simultaneously, because that’s the world we’re all in.”
Beal comments on the FIA’s move to revamp the sport: “They’ve taken a big brave decision to not go behind any pay walls. It’s free and streamed to their YouTube and Facebook channels, as well as international deals in all the markets that they go to, for every live points race.
“That’s a decision by the FIA and us to work with [those championships] to make the products and design to help the sport and the people competing in it, which basically is grassroots; if you look after the grassroots, the world top end will grow because you’re feeding the base.
“And that’s where the FIA has been really brave,” notes Beal. “They’ve come into it from an FIA point of view as a governing body, a custodian of a sport, to put mechanisms in and partners in like us to look after the sport and see it grow in the longer term.”
It is all about making sure fans are happy and access is open, Beal says. “I think that’s probably the biggest mandate I was given,” he continues. “We’re here to look after the sport and look after the fans, and so the products we designed across the [RX of Portugal] were affecting that. We made the choice that we are going to show every single competitive race live at the time of event. That’s 42 races we do across the weekend, so everything’s in there.”
The season opener – RX of Portugal – took place from 31 May to 1 June in Lousada, with World RX, Euro RX1 and Euro RX3 competing. Next up for World RX, Euro RX1 and Euro RX3 is RX of Sweden which takes place from 5 to 6 July in Höljes Motorstadion.