Eurosport has agreed a new long term partnership for live coverage of the British Superbike Championship to the end of the 2020 season.
The deal with MotorSport Vision (MSV), rights holders of the series, renews exclusive TV and digital rights for live coverage of every round on British Eurosport, as well as across all Eurosport’s portfolio of channels in Europe and Asia.
As part of the new agreement, British Eurosport will increase its live coverage of the premier and support classes, extending to Saturday’s qualifying sessions.
Both of the established three stage BSB knockout qualifying and the British Supersport sprint race will be broadcast live from each round, except when races are held on Bank Holiday Monday, in which case qualifying and the sprint race will be on Sunday.
British Eurosport will continue to cover every race of the BSB series live and in high-definition until the end of the 2020 season.
This sits alongside its significant line-up of live motorsport which also includes World Superbike and Grand Prix Speedway events, plus World Touring Cars and the world-famous Le Mans 24 Hours.
British Eurosport Managing Director David Kerr said, “MCE British Superbikes continues to be one of the strongest set of rights on the channel, so extending the term of the deal and adding even more depth to our coverage is fantastic news.
“Working with a dynamic rights holder like MSV allows us to go beyond the traditional broadcaster relationship and spend time discussing what we can do together in the best interests of BSB.
“Extending the term of our agreement means we can take a much longer term view and invest in more live programming that will deliver premium quality content for our viewers and will raise the profile of BSB and the other series even further.”
Stuart Higgs, Series Director of MCE British Superbikes said, “Eurosport is well known as the ‘Home of Bikes’ particularly in the UK and MCE BSB has been the cornerstone of that programming for some time.
“They understand bike racing and the series, have a strong, growing and loyal viewing audience and they understand how we want the series to grow.
“In addition, being part of the Eurosport family means we now have a far wider global distribution, including the USA through Discovery Velocity. Overseas markets are a key consideration for us and it is an area we want to grow over the term of this deal.”
The 2013 BSB season concludes this weekend (October 19-20) as part of British Eurosport’s ‘Superbike Sunday’ with nearly nine hours of live motorcycle racing.
This features coverage from the final BSB rounds at Brands Hatch, with just one point separating leader and reigning champion Shane Byrne from his closest challenger Alex Lowes.
Also, there is live action from Jerez as the finale to the World Superbike Championship takes place with Kawasaki’s British rider Tom Sykes leading the standings by 37 points and he is likely to take the title at the final rounds this Sunday.
Coverage starts at 9.15am on British Eurosport 2 and in high-definition on British Eurosport 2 HD.
