Articles

Oneplay Sport to live broadcast the entire Barum Czech Rally Zlín

13. 8. 2025 - Roman Ordelt

Rally fans can once again look forward to an extraordinary range of television coverage from the Barum Czech Rally Zlín. The Oneplay digital platform will offer the complete Barum Czech Rally Zlín program, broadcasting all 13 special stages live on the sports program Oneplay Sport 2. Viewers can expect a maximum of 13 hours of dramatic spectacle including top drivers from the European Rally Championship (ERC). Marek Kindernay, director of the production company O2 TV s.r.o (Oneplay Sport), revealed to us in an interview what viewers can expect.

Last year, the sports channel (then O2 TV sport) offered extensive coverage from the Barum Czech Rally Zlín in the form of live broadcast from all 15 special stages. What was the response from viewers to this broadcast project?

The viewership of the Barum Czech Rally pleasantly surprised us and we had a very positive response to the broadcast of all the special stages. It is clear that rally sport is gaining more and more popularity in the Czech Republic and the interest of the viewers is growing.

This year, the cooperation with the organizers of the Zlín rally will continue. What scope of broadcasting will you offer to your viewers?

We will offer a similar scope as last season. A total of 13 special stages will be seen by viewers exclusively on the Oneplay Sport 2 program. They can look forward to up to 13 hours of live broadcasts.

Oneplay was created by merging two streaming services, Voyo and O2 TV. This merger took place at the beginning of March. How do you evaluate this step five months later?

Yes, the new Oneplay digital platform was created in March. The merger has significantly increased the coverage of households and I am happy that sports, including motorsports, are given a large space on the platform.

How many employees of your television will participate in the upcoming broadcast and will you also send a television crew to Zlín, or will you set up a studio there?

In addition to providing and handling the broadcasts, we again have a crew directly in Zlín, which will make current reports from the scene. Fans will then see a complete overview and all outputs in the Týden v motorsportu show, which is broadcast by the Oneplay Sport 2.

Along with Tomáš Zetek, experienced editor Petr Krutský is regularly commenting the rally broadcasts on your channels this year. How did the mutual cooperation come about and will he also comment on the Barum rally?

Our motorsport team is constantly growing and I am glad that Tomáš has brought a capable colleague. I believe that both of them will accompany the broadcasts with interesting observations and comments, as they have done in the past. The main thing is that the viewers will enjoy it.

Motorsport is a large part of your television portfolio. What can you offer viewers, or do you plan to expand the current offer to include other motorsports disciplines?

In addition to live broadcasts of the WRC and ERC series, we regularly broadcast reviews of other local motor racing events. The number of regular magazines has also grown, and in addition to the program Týden v motorsportu, we are also broadcasting the program Týden v jedné stopě, which is hosted by road racing competitor Veronika Hankocyová. The flagship is, of course, the Formula 1 and Moto GP broadcasts, which Oneplay offers on the Nova Sport 5 and Nova Sport 6 channels.

By the way, how difficult is it to negotiate with the owner of the television rights, or rather the promoter of the championships, about their sale, and for how long do you own the broadcasting rights in the Czech Republic?

Maintaining the exclusivity of broadcasting rights costs considerable financial resources, but we try to regularly renew the rights to popular sports for our viewers. We have secured the broadcasting rights to the WRC and ERC for the next seasons.

Finally, a question for you: will you have time to visit Zlín in mid-August and watch the Barum rally directly on site?

I would really like to visit Zlín this year, but I will be at the seaside in Poland with my children during the rally. However, I will definitely watch the broadcasts remotely on Oneplay.

For more information, visit www.czechrally.com and don't forget to follow Barum Czech Rally Zlín on social networks, official Facebook, Instagram, Twitter profiles and in other press releases.