ITV is to continue with its live Sunday afternoon coverage of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in 2007.
It will be the fifth consecutive year that ITV1 has committed to broadcasting the BTCC, the country's premier motor racing championship.
In addition to their
Formula 1 duties, Louise Goodman and Ted Kravitz will host the channel's BTCC coverage for the first time. Ben Edwards and former BTCC champion Tim Harvey will continue as race commentators.
The second half of the 2007 season will be shown live on ITV1 with the opening five race meetings shown live on a prime ITV digital channel, with comprehensive highlights on ITV1.
All ten race fixtures will also receive highlights coverage on ITV's Men & Motors channel, while each race day including the BTCC's support championships will be shown live on independent sports channel Setanta Sports.
Details of which ITV Freeview channel will broadcast the live BTCC action, plus broadcast times, will be announced in due course.
We are very proud and excited to continue our association with
ITV, series director Alan Gow said. What effectively amounts to an expansion in coverage across its network is testament to its commitment to the BTCC.
We now have a total of four different TV channels that will be broadcasting the BTCC throughout the UK and thus it gives the championship a unique and excellent spread of terrestrial, Freeview and subscription broadcast platforms a factor that is important with the increasing use of digital channels by the public. Nearly 80 per cent of UK households now have either Freeview or cable/satellite and ITV's prime digital channels regularly sees audiences of over a million viewers for UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and live boxing.
