BTCC to remain on ITV until 2026

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ITV Sport has signed a new five-year deal to continue broadcasting live coverage of the British Touring Car Championship.

The agreement with series organiser TOCA will see extensive live coverage of the popular motorsport series remain on the ITV network through to the end of the 2026 season.

ITV has broadcast free-to-air coverage of British motorsport’s elite series since 2002, with this latest agreement taking the relationship into a 25th consecutive year, making this the longest TV partnership in UK motorsport history and also one of the longest-running partnerships in UK sports broadcasting.

With the current ITV deal concluding at the end of the 2021 season, this new contract will commence from 2022 and will see the broadcaster continue to screen the championship live and exclusively on ITV4, with at least seven hours of coverage from each race day.

Highlights programmes will continue to be aired on ITV4 and on the main ITV network, whilst BTCC qualifying sessions will be continue to be shown via ITV’s dedicated website – itv.com/btcc.

All broadcasts will also be streamed for free via the ITV Hub, with all programmes being available to watch on-demand via the same service.

Commenting on the deal, Niall Sloane, ITV’s director of sport, said:

“We are delighted to extend our contract with the British Touring Car Championship. Fans throughout the UK can watch free-to-air some of the best racing in European motorsport through to the end of the 2026 season and we look forward to developing the coverage even further with our friends at TOCA.”

ITV’s new deal is the most extensive free-to-air broadcast arrangement in the history of the BTCC and UK motorsport, providing at least 340 hours of coverage each season – totalling 180 hours of live action and highlights across the ITV channels, plus another 160 hours of online streaming and highlights.

Whilst other forms of major live motorsport have been lost behind a paywall, including Formula 1 and MotoGP, TOCA says its policy is to carry on with its mainstream free-to-air television coverage of the series and is “proud to confirm this latest agreement”.

Alongside its TV coverage, ITV Sport will also publish further videos online and race clips will be made available via social media, ensuring that everyone can watch the BTCC via their preferred platform free of charge.

The popular BTCC support championships will also continue to receive live coverage and dedicated highlights programmes.

Alan Gow, BTCC chief executive, added:

“I’m immensely proud of the great and close partnership that we have with ITV. Their commitment and enthusiasm to bring the BTCC to as wide an audience as possible is absolutely unrivalled.

“It was vital to me that the BTCC maintained its vast live free-to-air coverage. Simply, we want the maximum amount of people to be able to watch our great racing – it’s the bedrock of our enormous popularity. So hiding our championship away behind a paywall would only have the exact opposite effect.

“With the new hybrid regulations and our fantastic broadcasting coverage now locked into place right through to the end of 2026, it provides the solid foundation on which all our teams and partners can base, and build, their involvement.

“I’m not sure how many major motorsport championships in the world have an unbroken (and in fact increasing) free-to-air broadcasting relationship spanning a quarter of a century with the same broadcaster, but by my reckoning it’s probably only one… the iconic British Touring Car Championship.”

ITV’s live coverage of the 2020 British Touring Car Championship continues on ITV4 through to the end of the season, which in this most unprecedented of years will conclude at Brands Hatch in mid-November.

For more information about the British Touring Car Championship, visit btcc.net

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