Australian motor-racing series Supercars has signed a five-year deal with Foxtel and the Seven Network worth over $200 million in cash and advertising. Foxtel has won the race for domestic broadcasting rights after signing this deal.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Supercars managed to get the new deal on similar terms to the previous six-year contract with Foxtel. The previous deal was worth $241 million. The new deal will run from 2021 up to the end of the 2025 season. The deal will allow Fox to broadcast every practice round, qualifying round, and the main event on its pay-television channels and Kayo OTT service.
The Seven Network will carry free-to-air coverage of six rounds each year, including the Repco Bathurst 1000 plus and a seventh event in the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 hour endurance race. Details of the events that will be broadcast by the Seven Network have not been announced yet, but all events not shown live will be covered in a post-event highlights package.
Sean Seamer, Supercars CEO said that the new deal was a major coup for the championship as it approaches a new era. He also said, “I am delighted to continue working with Patrick Delany and his team at Fox Sports and Foxtel. We are also thrilled to welcome back the Seven Network, which helped bring motorsport to Australian living rooms way back in the early 1960s.”
Delany, Foxtel Group CEO stated that his company’s motorsport audiences are up by 35 percent this year compared to 2019, with streaming growth for the category on its streaming services Foxtel Now, Foxtel GO and Kayo up 82 percent.
He then went on to say, “While the 2020 season has faced disruptions from Covid-19, the team at Supercars have done an outstanding job of keeping their loyal and passionate fan base entertained and most of all producing world-class competition. We are looking forward to bringing Supercars to our growing legion of motorsport fans like no one else can over the next five years.”
The 2020 Supercars season was suspended due to the pandemic after its first round in February. It returned at the end of June, although the comeback has been complicated by renewed outbreaks of Covid-19.