Breaking News: Red Bull to Broadcast 2012 World Cups, DH1 Series Likely Cancelled 23

Having followed this story closely (as closely as possible), quite a few observations:

-RockyRoads were never set up to take over the media rights. They are the series title sponsor. We do not yet know what will happen to overall media rights, broadcasting, independent filmmakers etc. The UCI went out to the market with a procurement excercise to find a new media partner - this is not a last minute thing, they announced that a while back, and now it appears they are ready to make the final selection. So Red Bull would have already been planning for a while, and they obviously know what they can do.

-Freecaster is getting the rough end of the stick for sure. They've helped show what is possible, with great personal investment from the people involved (I doubt it ever turned into the money factory some are claiming it is - otherwise they would not have had an issue to pay the UCI what they were asking for 2012). I can't say I approve of the UCI's action here, because Freecaster should have been given the opportunity to continue what they have started...but it's a free market eventually. I was really surprised to see DH1 fail to gather up the Facebook followers they were looking for, and I think that really tells a story in itself. Cedric Gracia has 90k followers, and DH1 can't even make 20k? OK, there is only ONE CG, but still... :-).

-Red Bull. Well, they are powerful, but I hope they do this the "freecaster way". Meaning actual live streaming (not the re-run with added commentary stuff they do with Warner for X-fighters for example). And yes, whatever you do, bring in WARNER!!!

-UCI. Well, they've really come across heavy-handed on this one. They way they've reacted to DH1 really tells a story. Announcing the creation of the "European UCI cup" (the former IXS cup), talking about labelling certain Enduro series, elite teams are given FREE entries for the 2012 worldcups - that was apparently announced on Sep 26 - quite possibly could have deterred some teams from looking into DH1. Being threatened and protecting your business is certainly normal, and in the end, if it ups the ante for everybody, then it's a good thing. Still, they've clearly outmanouvered their old media partner Freecaster, which really sucks.

-other media players: the UCI dropped the ball big time when they got into a war with DirtTV over filming rights at the last Worlds. One can only hope they learned from that, and that they will realize that all these independent film-makers are equally crucial to the growth of the sport - many of them carry a heavy load purely on passion for the sport, so recognize that, and don't screw them over for a quick buck! Red Bull, if you're listening - let everybody play!

-RockyRoads: all I can say is, there's webtraffic, and there's webtraffic...
No pissing in my own beer, but really, they have it all to prove still at this point (check out the new logo and website! I mean, damn...). Let's hope they are for real, and that they can actually take our sport forward...(there's always hope).

Disappointed for DH1. It would have been nice to see a series built around the riders, rather than advertising revenue. I know that money is a part of the game, but I can't help to think that this was a snake move on the part of Red Bull--maybe waiting to see if DH1 could do all the legwork and gather everybody up. A major corporation like Red Bull rarely comes in this late in the game; their budgets, planning, logistics are generally already set up for the next season. I hope I'm wrong; I've been a big fan of Red Bull for the support they give to sports like snowboarding, fmx, etc, and I'm thrilled to see them come into MTB in a big way. I just feel terrible that all of the hard work that went into DH1 disappears in a flash. And paradoxically, as much as I'm happy to see Red Bull come into MTB in such a major way, I kind of feel that MTB sold a little part of its soul to The Man. But hey, a lot of good could come of this, it's a big day for MTB.

This concludes my long winded-ass analysis lol.