Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has announced that it plans to launch a channel dedicated to motorcycling’s MotoGP championship in March.
The news was one of a series of announcements made as Sky celebrated 10 years in the Italian market this week. It comes as the broadcaster prepares to assume the rights to MotoGP from next season.
In May 2012, Sky secured the television rights to MotoGP from the 2014 season with commercial broadcaster Mediaset having shown MotoGP in Italy for more than a decade.
Sky will have the exclusive rights to broadcast all 18 races of MotoGP’s three classes – MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3. The broadcaster will introduce HD coverage of the series. Sky will also be required to provide free-to-air coverage of eight MotoGP races.