Fox Sports Signs Multi-Year Deal For Broadcast Rights To MotoGP World Championship

Fox Sports announced that it has signed a "three-year extension" with Dorna Sports for U.S. media rights to the MotoGP World Championship, with races to air on SPEED/Fox Sports 1 in '13, according to John Ourand in this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Specific terms of the deal, which runs through '15, "were not released." Fox Sports is "paying a rights fee for the property, as it has in previous deals." The schedule includes three races in the U.S. The events are "usually televised live on Sunday afternoons in one-hour windows" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/25 issue). The season will open April 7 on the SPEED channel with the Grand Prix of Qatar live at 3pm ET. For U.S. rounds, "Bob Varsha hosts; Ralph Sheheen and Jonathan Green split play-by-play duties; Scott Russell provides analysis and Greg White reports from the pits." The team of Gavin Emmett and Nick Harris call int'l races, with Varsha, Sheheen, Greg Creamer and Dave Despain "sharing the role of studio host" (FOX).