THE British Touring Car Championship has made a bold commitment to provide free-to-air television coverage of all its events for the next three seasons.
The category’s fresh contract with ITV takes effect from next year, spanning through the end of 2029, and guarantees seven hours of race day coverage from each of its 10 annual rounds.
“I’m extremely pleased and proud to have finalised our new contract with the ITV Network, thus continuing our excellent and continually expansive broadcast partnership for the BTCC and its support championships into an incredible 27th year,” said BTCC chief Alan Gow.
“This new contract underlines my unwavering commitment to continue to keep the BTCC as freely accessible to as many people as possible… rather than for it to be hidden behind a paywall.
“My policy has always been for the BTCC to have the widest reach achievable, and our long relationship with ITV makes that happen.
“In fact, the BTCC is the only UK motorsport that has live, free-to-air coverage of an entire championship on mainstream linear television. Thanks to our great partners at ITV, long may that continue.”
The BTCC turned heads in 2024 when it inked a deal to have its season streamed live globally via social media platform TikTok.
The extent of free-to-air coverage is a regular talking point among Supercars fans.
Six of the 14 rounds this year are on FTA, which equates to a basic rate of 43 percent. An alternative view is that 12 of the season’s 37 races are on FTA (32 percent).
The NRL compares similarly, with its weekly offering typically involving three of eight games on FTA (37.5 percent).