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In this week’s Pirtek Poll we want to know how you rated Supercars’ return to the Seven Network at the Mount Panorama 500.
Channel Seven’s coverage of the Repco Supercars Championship season-opener saw the action shown not only via terrestrial television, but also live-streamed for the first time through 7plus.
Adding its own flare to the broadcast, the network flanked its pre- and post-race coverage at Bathurst with its own presenting line-up.
Seven went for familiarity with its presenters, bringing some of its Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series crew to the opening Supercars event of the year.
That included presenters Abbey Gelmi and Mark Beretta, former Supercars full-timer Jack Perkins, and former international cricketer Brad Hodge.
Early indications from the Seven Network have been positive with the broadcaster recording a total of 2.34 million viewers across Channel Seven and 7mate on the two days. More than four million minutes of streaming also took place on the 7plus digital platform, too.
While Channel Seven will show a total of six events throughout 2021, it’s expected the network will only top and tail its coverage at the major events at Mount Panorama.
The season-opener in Bathurst marked the first time since 2014 that the Seven Network has broadcast Australia’s premier touring car championship.
After a six-year spell at Network 10, a new deal between Supercars and the Seven Network brought the championship back to its original home at Australia’s most iconic motorsport venue.
Channel Seven first began showing the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1963, first losing the rights to Channel 10 at the end of 1996.
Supercars returned to Channel Seven between 2007 and 2014 before another return to Channel 10 from 2015 to 2020.
As with Channel 10, the latest television deal sees a continuation of six events being shown live via free-to-air, those being the Mount Panorama 500, Darwin Triple Crown, Townsville Super500, Sydney SuperNight, Bathurst 1000 and the Gold Coast finale.
Channel Seven will have hour-long delayed highlights packages available via their online platform of every other round.
In this week’s Pirtek Poll we want to know how you rated the Seven Network’s coverage of the Mount Panorama 500.
Cast your vote or leave your thoughts in the comments sections below.
