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V8 Supercars drive from Seven to TEN, Foxtel & FOX Sports

A new $241m deal for six years will see V8s on TEN / FOX Sports after next year.

V8 SupercarsV8 Supercars are driving to a new home in 2015 following a $241m six-year deal between TEN, Foxtel and FOX Sports.

The V8s, which have aired on Seven for seven years, consists of $196 million cash and $45 million of advertising – the biggest ever secured for the sport.

The event will switch to TEN / Foxtel after next year, with high definition coverage on FOX Sports.

V8 Supercars CEO, James Warburton (pictured, second from left), said: “This is a tremendous and significant deal for our sport. It is a great boost to our amazing race teams and fans and will lead to unprecedented coverage on multiple platforms for our sport, never before seen on such a scale.

“I thank Richard Freudenstein, CEO and Managing Director of Foxtel; Patrick Delany, CEO of FOX Sports; and Hamish McLennan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of TEN Network Holdings, for their plans and commitment to grow this sport to unprecedented levels.

“I would also like to thank Seven and their commitment to the sport since 2007 and of course their continued support for 2014, the final year of our partnership.”

Foxtel CEO and Managing Director, Richard Freudenstein (pictured third from left), said: “Foxtel is delighted to partner with V8 Supercars, Australia’s pre-eminent motorsport series. This relationship will significantly strengthen our sports offering and give yet another reason to subscribe to Foxtel.

“Hundreds of thousands of Australians love motorsports and I know that dedicated fans will be delighted that Foxtel and FOX Sports will be able to deliver a breadth and depth of coverage of the V8 Supercars Series that they’ve never seen before.

“Not only will the series be available in amazing High Definition on the Foxtel cable and satellite service, fans will also be able to enjoy all the action on the move with Foxtel Go or with the convenience of Foxtel Play.”

FOX Sports CEO, Patrick Delany (pictured, right), said: “V8 Supercars have a proud history of innovation. We relish the opportunity to work with talented V8 Supercars race teams and the team at V8 Supercars TV to give the sport the FOX Sports treatment – every minute of practice, qualifying, support categories and the Championship races – all Live and in stunning HD.

“We will be there for the fans and we will make no compromises in delivering them the finest coverage. We will focus on innovating coverage to take fans closer to the action, the heroes, the stars and the insights. There will be weekly entertainment shows to complement the Live race coverage and a massive promotional platform via not only our seven FOX Sports channels but the entire Foxtel platform,” he said.

TEN Network Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Hamish McLennan (pictured, left), said: “We are delighted to welcome V8 Supercars back home to TEN in 2015.

V8 Supercars is an iconic Australian sport, reaching into every part of the country, and James Warburton and his team have big plans to make it even stronger and better.

“TEN is now truly the home of motorsport. Formula One, MotoGP and V8 Supercars will make a powerful, exciting combination for all our viewers and advertisers. Today’s announcement is in line with our strategy of investing in premium live sport and adding more Event TV to TEN.

“I’m personally looking forward to seeing the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and other great V8 Supercars events on TEN,” he said.

TEN’s release does not provide broadcast details of its V8 races.

James Warburton, a former Seven and TEN exec, has said parts of the series will be exclusive to subscription and parts will be simulcast on free-to-air.

In a statement Tim Worner CEO of Seven said, “The Seven Network has been a strong and a positive partner for V8 Supercars over the past seven years.

“We have dramatically increased the quality of the television broadcasts and expanded coverage of the sport across our media platforms.

“We put forward an offer for a new television rights agreement that represented a substantial increase on the current rights agreement and one which made financial sense for Seven and V8s and would have ensured its presence on Australia’s leading television network for years to come.

V8 Supercars declined to build on this relationship beyond 2014. However, we look forward to broadcasting V8s next year, the final year of our agreement and leaving the sport in good shape.

“We wish the sport, the teams and the drivers the best. We will give the V8s in 2014 everything we’ve got in the way that only Seven can.

“We have a very strong sports line up across a wide range of live sports that the Australian public love to watch on Seven and this situation will inevitably lead to other opportunities and we will be very ready for them.”

Rick Kelly, Nissan Motorsport co-owner and driver of the #15 Jack Daniel’s Nissan Altima V8 Supercar welcomed the news.

“From a team owner’s point of view, it’s a very exciting day for Nissan Motorsport and the championship,” he said.

“This new deal is a real credit to James Warburton and his team at V8 Supercars.

“James has a strong background in the television industry and this news really cements the future of our sport and gives a clear indication that V8 Supercars is heading in the right direction.

“In these tough commercial times, to do a significant, long-term deal is very positive for our team and three key stakeholders Nissan, Jack Daniel’s and Norton.

“It will help build our race team into an even stronger force in the years ahead.”

V8 Supercars also announced new three-year deals with the Queensland and New South Wales Governments for four events on the Gold Coast, Townsville, Sydney and Ipswich, with an additional Championship event in Sydney at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2014.

43 Responses

  1. If Ten fail to show the racing in HD on One then they can shove it up their backsides. I am so sick and tired of Seven’s coverage saying HD all the time, whilst my brand new Samsung TV and blu-ray PVR tuned into Prime TV’s supposed ‘HD channel 60’ tells me that the pictures are in 576i standard definition…

  2. @Guy – actually 7 races as the 6 six you mentioned are marquee races which are Clipsal, Townsville, Bathurst, Sandown, Gold Coast and Homebush. Ten has the exclusive rights to Australian F1 GP which includes the V8 race at Albert Park.

  3. Sun Herald is reporting today that FTA viewers get 6 Live Rounds – Bathurst, Clipsal, Sydney, Gold Coast, Townsville and one other and the rest in late night hour long highlights. Pretty dud deal for FTA viewers and the sport if you ask me. It will make it very hard for teams to get sponsorships when there is so few rounds shown on FTA. IMO at least Seven showed us every round live! Sure if you have PayTV its win win win but if you don’t its not good.

  4. @William
    David Basheer works for SBS. Slater works for Fox. They’ve done every Friday night. Both have their own boundary riders.
    TEN take the world feed for footage (FOM) and their commentary is Sky whilst they use the BBC guys (Clarkson and Allen) as their ground guys.

    I’m thinking TEN will use a Rust type as host, maybe offer Fox a commentator (someone off 7 maybe). Don’t see why they’d waste money doubling up on things. Not worth it.

  5. @glennc – yes SBS is silly as they should of got their World Game to commentate and besides if it is just like the BBC coverage of F1 and Ten still can get Channel 7 commentators. Ten is not silly in regards to their Formula 1 or MotoGP as Ten have I think a seperate deal in place with Sky Sports and Ten take the world feed of MotoGP

  6. @dwuuuu,
    The Fords have been there all year. Just not good enough to beat the Holdens in most races. Holden and Ford will be there in the future although they might not be made in Australia…like most other cars.
    I hope Matt White and Larco move to Ten.

  7. @William the commentators are the main reason I don’t watch V8 Supercars regularly. They’re annoying IMO.
    So SBS look silly for providing a quality HD feed of free to air A League because it just so happens to be predominantly Fox’s coverage?

  8. @glennc – Crompo, Larko and Skaiefy are the best commentator for V8s as Ten should get them off 7 and leave the others behind. Ten paid very small amounts for the deal where as Fox paid huge amounts for it. Ten should hire them not get a clean feed from Fox Sports as it would look silly IMO

  9. Why would TEN re-hire Crompton, or look at poaching existing 7 people when they’re the junior partner in the deal?
    I’m thinking TEN will use whoever Fox provide to do the commentary.

  10. @CraigW – why would Bernie Ecclestone give the rights to SPEED, as it wouldn’t make sense at all for it to be shown on Pay TV. Ten should renew MotoGP and F1 beyond 2015 or 2016 when they are up for renewal. As it would be a disaster if FOM gave the rights to SPEED as it is simply not possible which in return means less viewers. FTA is the way to go to help the sport grow not Pay-TV.

  11. Most people want Ten to hire Crompo, Skaiefy, Noons, Crompo, Larko or even Woods. As people want Ten to give Mark Berreta and White the flick as they are useless compared to Rusty and Daz. They have no knowledge whatsoever. Crompo is the legend of V8s if it wasn’t for him, Noons, Larko or even Skaifey the sport won’t be any good

  12. I love all the comments about News Corp and TEN getting close and it meaning News Corp will buyout TEN when it’s not the case. Firstly, Murdoch denied any such acquisition at TEN’s AGM this week, and secondly this deal is exactly the same as the one Seven made with Foxtel and FOX Sports for the AFL yet no one thought that it had hidden meaning involved. However, in saying all that, the ACCC said they wouldn’t opposed such an acquisition and personally I wouldn’t either.

  13. Sorry @JM – I think Skaife would be a freelancer.

    While I don’t think Mark Baretta will move I’m interested to see if Matt White has a ‘get out’ clause in his contract at 7 linked to V8 coverage.

    Speed have been playing a lot of the ‘classics’ lately, and it’s been great to hear the original ‘A Team’ of Woods, White, Crompton and Diffey.

    With Ten presumably just taking the street circuit and endurance meetings live and Speed/FS running with the rest, I do wonder if Speed will have its own team. They did a good job on Bathurst preview.

    I think the only means that Woods will return to Ten is by retransmission from Speed’s coverage.

    Any improvement on 7’s coverage will be welcome. Most rounds weren’t on their main channel and/or on delay.

    Would like to see F1 on Speed too.

  14. Oh dear. This is great news but I hope 10 don’t spoil it by re-hiring Crompton! Would be more than happy to see Bill or Matt return to the coverage though!

    Hmmm wonder what will happen on those days the multiple racing clashes? Switch to One now for GP or stay with us on Ten for V8’s! Uh oh!

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