ESPN STAR Sports to showcase Superbike World Championship in Asia across its networks
Infront Sports & Media confirms new television rights agreement with Asia’s biggest sports content provider
The agreement will further strengthen the worldwide coverage of the Superbike World Championship as the television broadcast agreement includes live and delayed races as well as race highlights, which will bring all the excitement of the Superbike championship to fans across the region including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
Stephan Herth, Infront’s Executive Director Summer Sports, said: “The agreement with ESPN STAR Sports further increases the outreach of the most exciting motorbike action available in Asia. It will benefit the manufacturers, teams and all commercial partners. We have worked hard to enhance the quality, range and servicing of our broadcast agreements for the Superbike World Championship step by step over the past three years and we will continue to do so.”
The addition of the Superbike World Championship adds to an exciting list of motorsport events on ESPN STAR Sports, including the Formula One, MotoCross and SuperMoto.
Said Mr. Craig Dobbs, Executive Vice President, Programming and Production: “We are delighted to extend our partnership with Superbike to continue showcasing the best of motorsport to fans in Asia. ESPN STAR Sports is Asia’s home for motorsports and with our stellar line-up of leading sports events, this new partnership underscores our commitment to serve our viewers with top quality sport programming.”
The broadcast of the Superbike World Championship will start with the upcoming Superbike round held in Kyalami, South Africa, 14 – 16 May.
About FIM Superbike World Championship
FIM Superbike World Championship is the only road racing World Championship using production motorcycles. The series is one of the sport’s fastest growing and most promising properties; popular with fans, manufacturers, broadcasters and commercial partners. It is promoted by Infront Motor Sports in Rome, the motor sports division of the Infront Group and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The 2010 season is the 23rd in the history of the series. It is global in its scope, with 13 rounds in 12 countries, covering four continents and visiting many prestigious racing circuits.
About ESPN STAR Sports
ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world’s leading cable and satellite broadcasters. As Asia's definitive and complete sports broadcaster and content provider, ESPN STAR Sports combines the strengths and resources of its ultimate parent companies – Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.) and News Corporation Limited (STAR) – to deliver a diverse array of international and regional sports to viewers via its encrypted pay-TV services.
ESPN STAR Sports showcases an unparalleled variety of premier live sports from around the globe 24 hours a day to a cumulative reach of over 300 million viewers in Asia. ESPN STAR Sports has 19 networks covering 24 countries, each localised to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers. This includes ESPN SEA, ESPN China, ESPN Hong Kong, ESPN India, ESPN Malaysia, ESPN Philippines, ESPN SEA 2, ESPN Taiwan, MBC-ESPN (Korea), STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports Hong Kong, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Malaysia, STAR Sports SEA, STAR Sports SEA 2, STAR Sports Taiwan, STAR Cricket, ESPNEWS and ESPN HD.
On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia. ESPN STAR Sports aims to reach consumers at any time, any place and through all new media platforms, both internet and mobile. The multi-lingual, online platforms, espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw interact with millions of users providing them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. Developed for the sports fan that is constantly on the move, mobileESPN enables the serious sports fan to follow their favourite sports more closely than ever before with a combination of specially produced video news clips, in-depth news coverage and analysis.
For further information, please contact:
Jörg Polzer
Associate Director, Communication & PR
Infront Sports & Media AG
Tel. +41-41-723 15 15
Fax +41-41-723 15 16
press infrontsports.com
www.infrontsports.com
Elgen Kua
Senior Manager (Corporate Communications)
ESPN STAR Sports
DID: +65 6216 6034
kuae espnstar.com
www.espnstar.com
