Finally, a new UK TV deal has been announced for the World Rally Championship.

After Dave declined to renew its deal which ended last year, there were rumours that it could end up on Five – which wouldn’t have been a bad result.

But no, it’s off to subscription channel ESPN, in an exclusive deal. Which means no WRC on Freeview at all in 2011. Which means I’m grumpy.

Admittedly, the coverage does sound good. An hour-long preview before each rally, then half-hour highlights programmes after each day’s action, and an hour-long review after the rally. Plus live coverage of the new Power Stages. And other odds and sods.

Simon Long, CEO of WRC promoter North One Sport:

“The combination of the innovative content, production and digital promotion that ESPN offers combined with our revamped sport is extremely good news as we seek to reach out to new fans in the UK.”

Okay, so to reach out to new fans, you restrict coverage to a subscription channel with a far smaller reach than any previous UK TV deal. Clever.

I really can’t get over quite how bad this deal is for the WRC. It makes the IRC’s Eurosport coverage look positively mainstream.

The only good news is that I can find no mention of this being a multi-year deal. Fingers crossed for a better package for the 2012 season, then.

The 2011 season

It’s made worse by the fact that the 2011 season has the potential to be rather interesting.

It’s new cars all round, and with Ford running eight Fiestas, and Citroen just four DS3s, there’s a real chance that Ford could have an advantage. Plus there’s the new Mini Countryman.

Driver-wise, there’s the battle of the Sebastiens at Citroen, with Ogier trying to usurp Loeb. Kimi Raikkonen returns, in a DS3 under the ICE 1 Racing banner. The last DS3 goes to Petter Solberg, once again running as the Petter Solberg World Rally Team.

At Ford, Mikko Hirvonen will want to reassert his authority over Jari-Matti Latvala after a rubbish 2010. Mads Ostberg joins Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson running under the Stobart banner. Ken Block returns with the Monster World Rally Team, Khalid Al Qassimi sticks with Ford, and Dennis Kuipers has the final Fiesta with the new FERM Power Tools World Rally Team.

And at some point we’ll get to see what Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke – and anyone else who gets one – can do with the Mini.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Shame I – and most of the population – won’t be watching.