Industry news: MotoGP™ extends worldwide TV coverage in 2013 with broad new agreements

As the 2013 MotoGP™ season kicks off in Qatar this weekend, Dorna Sports has announced a raft of new TV agreements, in addition to its current broadcasters, to bring the premier-class of motorcycle racing directly into peoples’ homes in over 200 countries via over 77 TV networks. With MotoGP™ always looking to not only improve the show on-track, but also bring the spectacle to new audiences across the globe, new and extended agreements for this season with broadcasters in countries such as Belgium, Holland, Austria, Cambodia, Angola, Finland and USA, amongst others, are a welcome addition to the sport’s already extensive TV coverage.

In Belgium this season, MotoGP™ will continue to be broadcast on the Vier channel in the northern region of Flanders, whilst in French speaking Belgium, both the MotoGP and Moto2™ races will be broadcast live on the free-to-air RTBF channel for the first time. New broadcast agreements in Austria will see ORF broadcast both highlights of each round of the championship and live coverage of several Grand Prix on their free-to-air ORF Sport+ channel, as well as news and highlights coverage of the Championship being available on Servus TV.

In other European territories, an extended agreement in Holland with Sport1, means all qualifying practices and races from all categories will be broadcast live for the Dutch fans. In Finland, a renewed agreement sees Nelonen Sport Pro offering full coverage of the season.

The BBC’s broadcasts in the UK this season will bring extensive coverage of MotoGP Qualifying Practices on BBC2 followed by coverage of all the MotoGP races, the following day. This will be complemented by full coverage of the entire championship on British Eurosport again, meaning UK fans won’t miss a minute of the action on track.

In Italy, Mediaset Italia will continue its coverage of the Championship this season with new faces in their presenter line up from the paddock, as their hero Valentino Rossi looks to reignite his charge on his Yamaha. Additional news coverage will also be broadcast in Italy by both RAI and Sky Italia.

Mediaset España’s extensive coverage for the Spanish audience, on their Telecinco and Energy channels, will this season be enhanced by a new multiscreen player, available on their mitele.com platform providing fans with a fantastic new viewing experience from every race, including live coverage of all the action from several new camera angles as well as access to live timing and tracking data.

With two Czech riders in the MotoGP class this season in the shape of Karel Abraham and Lukas Pesek, the country’s new channel Fanda, launched by the Nova TV group last year to cater for young males, will be showing all MotoGP races live with the other classes also broadcast on the sports channel, Nova Sport.

In the USA, a renewed contract will see MotoGP continue to be broadcast on Speed TV until the launch of the Fox Sports channels later this year. The exciting launch of these new channels, a huge undertaking by the Fox Sports group, which will bring the best in international and American sports series to US audience, coincides with the Indianapolis GP. This means that MotoGP will be a central part of the Fox Sports launch weekend in August and will then continue to be a key property in the Fox Sports programming line up for the remainder of the season. Alongside MotoGP other big name leagues and sports such as Major League Baseball, US College Football, US College Basketball, Major League Soccer, UEFA Champions League and Nascar will make up the all new Fox Sports 1 schedule.

In Latin America, ESPN will continue to broadcast extensive coverage of the 2013 season across the region. Whilst Globosat in Brazil will continue to show all races live on their SPORTV channels. This coverage will be complemented this year by renewed agreements with free to air broadcasters in the region. In Venezuela with Meridiano and in El Salvador with Telecorporación Salvadoreña who will broadcast races from all categories on Canal 4.

A long term agreement continues during 2013 with Fox Sports Asia, covering the whole region and complemented by additional coverage in individual territories on NTV in Japan, Trans TV in Indonesia, Guangdong TV in China, Ten Sports in India and Channel 9 in Thailand. A new agreement with Hang Maes channel this season will also see highlights of each Grand Prix available for the first time on free to air television in Cambodia.

Across Africa, another long term agreement continues with Supersport during 2013 whilst a new agreement for this season with TV Zimbo in Angola, will see the MotoGP race from every Grand Prix broadcast live on this terrestrial free to air channel.

Furthermore, in an ground breaking new agreement for the 2013 season with Sport24, the first live sports channel available on airlines and cruise ships, fans of MotoGP will now be able to watch the races live whilst travelling on planes or ships, making their holidays more enjoyable.

Source: motogp.com / Dorna
Photo: Gareth Bouch for Vroom Media