BBC and British Eurosport react to BT Sport’s MotoGP deal

The BBC and British Eurosport have given their reaction to the confirmation today that BT Sport has successfully bid for the exclusive UK TV rights for MotoGP from 2014 onwards.

BT Sport’s new five-year deal was officially announced in London this morning, meaning fans will no longer be able to watch Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi on the BBC and British Eurosport.

The BBC has been showing exclusive coverage of MotoGP for the last five years and was desperate to negotiate an extension to that current deal with Dorna.

In a statement released earlier, the BBC said: “”We believe that we have brought the sport to a new, wider audience. We would like to thank our production teams for the contribution they have made in raising the profile of the sport in the UK.

“We are very proud of our Moto GP coverage and submitted a competitive bid to retain the broadcasting rights beyond our current contract. We will continue to bring great content to our audiences for the rest of this season.”

British Eurosport’s contract with Dorna meant they showed all Moto3 and Moto2 races live with a delayed running of the MotoGP race.

An official statement from British Eurosport said: “British Eurosport is disappointed that MotoGP series rights holder Dorna has decided to change its strategy from 2014 onwards in the UK.

“We are proud to have covered MotoGP for many years and thank our respected commentary team of Toby Moody, Julian Ryder, Neil Spalding and Steve Day along with the team behind the scenes for making that coverage so popular with bike fans.

“At British Eurosport we are passionate supporters of motorcycle racing and it continues to be a cornerstone of the channel’s output.

“In 2013, we added the Speedway European Championships and FIM Speedway Grand Prix to our offer of the MCE British Superbikes and World Superbike Championship. We will show every round of these four series live, in full and in HD until at least 2015 and we hold the exclusive live rights to those series in the UK.”