V8 Supercar racing will be seen live in New Zealand after SKY Television was awarded the media rights to the Championship for the next five years, starting with six and a half hours coverage of this weekend's blockbuster Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
SKY Television secured the five-year broadcast rights to televise all V8 Supercar Championship events in New Zealand. The agreement spans to the end of 2017.
"We welcome SKY Television to the V8 Supercar family and look forward to a fantastic and enduring partnership," V8 Supercar CEO David Malone said.
"We are delighted our approach to SKY has led to this new partnership as our ever-growing New Zealand fan base is incredibly important to us. We are certain partnering with SKY ensures the ultimate package for the fans, the sport, our teams and our invaluable partners."
All V8 Supercar races will be broadcast live on SKY Television on Saturdays and Sunday. Signature events, including this weekend's Clipsal 500, will also feature Friday coverage.
SKY will broadcast both 250 km races live from Adelaide this Saturday and Sunday; as well as ARMOR ALL Qualifying and the ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout on Friday.
"In more recent times the time difference between New Zealand and many of our events has been problematic for our New Zealand viewers on free to air television," Mr Malone said.
"The agreement with SKY Television delivers full coverage of all races across the season. This was particularly imperative for us when we began the negotiations.
"For these reasons SKY Television is a fantastic broadcast partner for our sport in New Zealand."
Richard Last, Director of Sport at SKY was enthusiastic about welcoming V8 Supercars to SKY Sport;
"V8's are a fantastic addition to SKY Sport, I know there will be a lot of very happy SKY customers with this news. The SKY Sport team are passionate about all sport and are looking forward to delivering V8 Supercar races to motorsport fans."
The V8 Supercar Championship commences with the epic Clipsal 500 where 28 brand new cars and four manufacturers - Holden, Ford, Mercedes and Nissan - go head to head for the first time.
Kiwi motorsport fans will be able to support the four New Zealand drivers Shane van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin, Fabian Coulthard and former A1GP driver Jonny Reid on the grid. Kiwi great Greg Murphy will also drive for the Holden Racing Team in the Endurance Cup.
Murphy is also vying for a place on the grid at the ITM400 Auckland in April if he can secure backing to enter a Holden Racing Team supported wild card entry.
This weekend there will be multiple replays of ARMOR ALL qualifying one and two, the ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout and both Races across all SKY Sport channels. New Zealand viewers should check the SKY Television EPG for full details.
As part of this arrangement Sky Television has agreed to provide full coverage of the ITM400 Auckland at Pukekohe on short delay on free to air television. Full details will be announced shortly.
Details for this weekend's broadcast are:
Friday March 1:
ARMOR ALL Qualifying 1: 5.30pm SKY Sport 2 LIVE
ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout: 6.30pm SKY Sport 2 LIVE
Saturday March 2:
Race 1: 5.00pm SKY Sport 2 LIVE
Sunday March 3:
ARMOR ALL qualifying: 1.30pm SKY Sport 2 LIVE
Race 2: 5.00pm SKY Sport 2 LIVE
About SKY Television
SKY Television is New Zealand's pre-eminent pay television operator, offering a wide range of sports, movies, music, on-demand and general entertainment content across more than 110 channels. As of 31 December 2012, SKY had 846,931 subscribers, with 49.4% of New Zealand homes signed up. Established in 1990, SKY is a Top 50 company on the New Zealand Stock Exchange with more than 40% of shares Kiwi-owned. SKY is also the cornerstone shareholder in Fatso, New Zealand's premier online DVD rental service.
In July 2008, SKY launched MY SKY HDi, a new High Definition decoder and PVR with Dolby Digital surround sound. SKY currently offers 10 1080 High Definition television channels (SKY Sport 1, 2 and 3, ESPN, SoHo, SKY Movies and SKY Movies Greats, TV3 HD, TVONE HD and TV2 HD). In February 2011, SKY launched iSKY, an online TV service that delivers SKY subscribers seven live streaming channels, catch-up TV from 20 channels and an iSKY store offering online rental of premier and library movies and TV series. In February 2006, SKY completed the purchase of New Zealand free-to-air television business Prime Television Ltd, giving SKY further opportunities to showcase its programmes while ensuring New Zealand consumers can view delayed free-to-air sports programmes such as rugby, rugby league and cricket in primetime. SKY is proud to support The Starship Foundation, New Zealand Olympic Committee, The Special Children's Christmas Parties and SportConnect.
For further information please visit the web sites: www.sky.co.nz www.skysport.co.nz www.isky.co.nz www.primetv.co.nz
About V8 Supercars:
The V8 Supercar Championship is the premier motorsport category in Australasia. In 2013 there are 15 events including the Rolex Formula One Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Two events will be held overseas - in Auckland, New Zealand and in the USA at Circuit of the Americas in Texas. Seven V8 Supercar events feature the Dunlop Series, a separate Championship which supports the development of up-and-coming V8 Supercar drivers. In 2013, V8 Supercars produces its own television content for Australia's Seven Network. Through a network of international telecast partners V8 Supercars was broadcast into 137 countries, a reach approaching 500 million households. 2013 is the first year for the Car of the Future (CoTF). These new cars are lighter, more economical, have increased agility and are highly competitive. The Ford vs Holden battleground of the last 20 years has been supplemented by new manufacturers and investors in Nissan Motorsport racing four Nissan Altimas and Erebus Motorsport racing three Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG V8 Supercars.
For further information please contact:
Cole Hitchcock
General Manager Communications
V8 Supercars
+61 412 743 097
ch@v8supercars.com.au
Kim Taylor
Publicist Sport
SKY Television
+64 9 5834318
ktaylor@skytv.co.nz