Pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has struck a three-season extension to its rights deal for the MotoGP motorcycling championship.
The agreement with MotoGP’s commercial rights-holder, Dorna Sports, means Sky will be the exclusive home of the championship from 2019 to 2021.
Sky’s dedicated channel, Sky Sport MotoGP, will air all three categories – MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 – as well as the new electric MotoE World Cup series.
Sky will also provide extensive MotoGP coverage on digital platforms. Skysport.it will offer videos, images, news, interviews, magazine programming and continuously updated content, as well as news in real time on Sky Sport24, the Sky Sports App and the official social media channels.
Manel Arroyo, managing director of Dorna Sports, said: “It has been proven that we have developed a highly profitable partnership, developing new viewer experiences and putting in consistent work to help to grow the audience of the sport even more. After five seasons working together, Sky have become a perfect ally with whom we are going to continue exploring new possibilities for our sport in the future and growing our MotoGP audience in Italy.”
Sky has now locked down rights to its two key motorsport properties. In January, Sky secured exclusive rights to the Formula One motor-racing championship for the first time after sealing a three-season extension to its contract.
The agreement includes exclusive television and digital rights across the 2018 to 2020 seasons. Until last season, F1 coverage in Italy operated under a system whereby which all races were broadcast live by Sky, with state broadcaster Rai transmitting nine grands prix, along with highlights of the remaining races.