Motorcycle racing series MotoGP has announced a new US broadcast partnership with the TNT Sports network to cover its 2024 season.
TNT Sports, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), will nationally broadcast every sprint and race event of the 2024 MotoGP World Championship across its range of TV networks and digital platforms.
TNT’s main channel and the truTV network will host the series on linear TV, and the B/R Sports add-on to OTT service Max (formerly HBO Max) will house MotoGP on streaming in the US.
The 2024 MotoGP season will feature a record 22 races, and the TNT Sports broadcast will be inaugurated on the first grand prix of the season, on Sunday (March 10) in Qatar.
All three days of each grand prix, including the qualifying sessions and the accompanying Moto2 and Moto3 races will also be streamed on Max as part of the deal.
Last year, the MotoGP season rights were held by media giant NBCUniversal, a rival of WBD, but reportedly expired earlier in 2023.
The 2023 MotoGP races were aired for free on a delayed basis on the free-to-air NBC channel, on the pay-TV CNBC channel, with only the Americas round shown live by the broadcaster.
The NBCUniversal broadcast deal also did not feature any of the pre-race practice or qualifying sessions as the new deal does, indicating the step up in coverage of the new deal.
In the UK, WBD’s European arm of TNT Sports, distinct from the US brand of the same name, also holds the rights to the 2024 MotoGP season.
The announcement of a new US broadcaster for the series comes amid persistent reports that Bridgepoint, the UK-based private equity firm and largest shareholder in MotoGP parent company Dorna Sports, is in advanced talks to sell the series.
Sky News, the UK media outlet, has reported that Bridgepoint - which bought its interest in Dorna from CVC Capital Partners in 2006 - has put a valuation of up to €4 billion (£3.4 billion) on the series.
Bridgepoint owns 40% of MotoGP, with Dorna and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) holding smaller stakes. CPPIB bought its holding in 2012.
Sky has also claimed that Liberty Media, which already owns the iconic Formula 1 motor racing series, is one of the frontrunners to take control of MotoGP, and that the process could potentially be concluded within weeks. An acquisition by Liberty would put that group in an extremely commanding position in the world of motorsport.
