Eurosport is to become something of a 'one-stop shop' for bike racing fans after securing exclusive live rights to the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.
BSB will join MotoGP and World Superbikes in the
Eurosport portfolio, with the channel set to devote 48 hours of live coverage and 66 hours of highlights coverage to the British series on
British Eurosport 2.
Bike fans will be able to enjoy a regular four-hour live race day show featuring both BSB races, the British Supersport Championship and Yamaha R1 Cup support races all live from each BSB round with expert presentation and analysis.
Raceday highlights will also be shown in primetime that evening, and throughout the following week a “British Superbikes Extra” show featuring the British 125GP, National Superstock and KTM Super Duke Championships.
"The acquisition of British Superbikes has got our ambitions for the new
British Eurosport 2 off to a roaring start," director David Kerr said. "We have a long relationship with bike fans and can now add this great championship to our already unbeatable line-up of bike racing. The arrival of the British Superbike Championship clearly positions
British Eurosport as the home of live motorcycle racing on TV."
Race day will also be streamed on the
eurosport.yahoo.com website, while a deal has been done with commercial rights holder Motorsport Vision to also broadcast BSB on the
Eurosport Asia-Pacific platform – taking the championship to nine further countries.
"As the new rights holder it is clear that television coverage is vital to the future development of BSB, so a great deal of effort has gone into understanding what matters and securing the optimal package," MSV boss Jonathan Palmer said. "
ITV1 was not going to continue carrying live BSB coverage from 2008 and we are in a new era in which the digital channels will be the home of virtually all sport.
"I believe it is important that we have a broadcast partner that is recognised as the logical and natural home for bike racing, so fans know where to find BSB on television. With nearly 20 years of sport broadcasting and now covering both MotoGP and World Superbikes,
Eurosport was the therefore the perfect choice and I was delighted to find that they were as excited as we were about completing the hat trick with BSB too.
"I am determined that BSB shall also become internationally famous as the best national superbike championship in the world and
Eurosport's global coverage will play a major role in achieving that."
