MotoGP – La Dorna skips Eurosport! –

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La Dorna skips Eurosport !

MotoGP - La Dorna skips Eurosport! -

MotoGP host company Dorna won’t renew deal with Eurosport next year: our new strategy is to work with national channels to broadcast MotoGP to a wider audience for free, says Dorna.

Mechanical thunder clap on the sidelines of the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen this weekend (read): Dorna, the organizing company of MotoGP, has just announced that it will not renew its agreement with Eurosport for the retransmission of the Motorcycle Speed ​​World Championship in 2009.

"After several years of fruitful collaboration, MotoGP rights holder Dorna Sports wishes to announce the end of its agreement concerning the retransmission of the World Championship by Eurosport from the 2009 season.", said the Spanish company in a press release.

The European audience
of the Barcelona GP

  • In Spain,TVE counted no less than 3.658 million viewers on average, peaking at 4.733 million during Pedrosa’s solo passage on the line! Either more audience than the victory of tennis player Nadal or the Canadian F1 GP! Since the start of the 2008 season, the distribution of MotoGP has seen an audience increase of 20% compared to 2007.

  • In Italy, Mediaset 1 recorded 8.346 million viewers (!), Almost a million more than the previous edition of the GP of Catalonia! Seon Dorna, the global audience increase compared to 2007 would be around 46.2% !

  • In England, BBC 2 claims 19.7% of the market share during the broadcast of the (easy) victory of Pedrosa on his land, or 1.4 million viewers! The channel claims to have also noted a general audience increase of around 20%.

  • In Greece, ET3 achieved an incredible 61% audience increase during the Catalan GP, ​​with nearly 710,000 spectators glued to their screens !

  • Last year in the world, 184 countries broadcast MotoGP, which represents 3,589 hours of broadcasting and an average of 5.162 million viewers during the season.

    • Nicknamed "Eurospub" by the bad tongues – because of the numerous commercial cuts during the live broadcasts, despite its paid subscription -, Eurosport has until now provided the live broadcasts of the 125, 250 and MotoGP races.

    La Dorna however preferred "thank Eurosport for its collaboration, which both parties have enjoyed for several years, and which has allowed MotoGP to increase its popularity and media exposure while providing the European channel with top quality videos"…

    The world of TV is by no means one of the softest around, but Dorna’s new strategy is to "work with national channels across Europe, in order to broadcast MotoGP free of charge to a wider audience", explains the company of Carmelo Ezpeleta bluntly..

    In the UK, the BBC (public channel!) Will enjoy MotoGP exclusivity from next year, while in Spain and Italy – where TVE (public channel!) And Mediaset already have long-term agreements. -, negotiations are underway to extend the broadcasting times on weekends.

    In Germany, an agreement was signed with a private free channel for exclusivity until 2011, while in France and other European countries, negotiations are underway including "details will be revealed later", says Dorna. To be continued…

    There is no more left for the Dorna – and especially for French motorcycle racing fans! – only to find an arrangement in order to be able to broadcast the races live – and for free! – on the French terrestrial network: good prince, Carmelo Ezpeleta (the boss of Dorna) has been specifying for several seasons already that he is ready to give up broadcasting rights if a public channel agrees to retransmit "his" GP! A gesture that says a lot about its desire to extend the reach of the world championship … and the lack of interest of the "big" terrestrial channels !

    Because it is unfortunately the lack of audience that got the better of the meager attempts to broadcast motorcycle races on French public channels. Will the excellent performances of Mike di Meglio in GP 125 and the presence of two French in the premier category this year be enough to decide the managers of the chains to try the experience again? We could hope so, especially if Mike gets the title at the end of the season….

    For now, everything suggests that negotiations are underway with W9, which already offers topics of about an hour summarizing the weekend’s Grands Prix: this channel owned by the M6 ​​group, visible on cable and television. TNT is also quite involved in motorsports since it is one of the few to broadcast an ultra-comprehensive summary of the world car rally championship where a French driver, Sebastien Loeb, has been ruling for several seasons in one ( almost) total media indifference…

    Unless TF1, the parent company of Eurosport France, decides to catch up with the MotoGP broadcasts? Unlikely. And in this case, it would certainly be necessary to put an end to the direct…

    Anyway, that Site readers can be reassured: our famous Tour by Tour will be repeated every Monday on the Motorcycle Journal of the Net !

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