ITV to broadcast BTCC until end of 2026

Опубликованно 18.09.2020 20:15

The ITV network will broadcast the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) until the end of 2026, following a new five-year deal with series organiser TOCA.  

The new broadcast agreement starts at the beginning of the 2022 season   and will take the partnership between ITV and TOCA into its 25th year.  

The BTCC will be shown exclusively on ITV4 and ITV4 HD, with each race receiving at least seven hours of coverage. In total, the new agreement will account for a minimum of 340 hours of airtime per season, including highlights and post-race streaming.  

Highlights programmes will continue to be shown on ITV and ITV4, and   live qualifying coverage will be hosted at itv.com/btcc, or on the ITV Hub on-demand service.  

ITV will also show race highlights and live clips on its social media feeds.  

TOCA said that “Whilst other forms of major motorsport are being lost behind a paywall”, it aims to “continually expand its mainstream free-to-air television coverage”.  

Alan Gow, BTCC chief executive, said: “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 nearly a quarter of a century with the same broadcaster, but by my reckoning, it’s probably only one… the iconic British Touring Car Championship.”

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