Supercars announced a landmark new broadcast agreement on Monday which will see the series continue with current partners Fox Sports/Kayo and Seven.
As is the case with the existing agreement, Fox Sports is the primary broadcast partner, while Seven only holds the rights to select rounds as the free-to-air partner.
This year there are six FTA rounds – the season opener in Sydney, the Darwin Triple Crown, Townsville 500, Bathurst 1000, Gold Coast 500 and the Adelaide Grand Final.
However the announcement of the new TV deal was vague when it came to FTA rounds next year, only listing the season opener, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Adelaide.
That doesn’t mean there will only be the four FTA rounds, though.
“It depends a bit on how many rounds we do, to be frank,” Supercars CEO James Warburton told Speedcafe.
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“It’s a proportion of free-to-air rounds versus exclusivity for the subscription provider. Once we settle some conversations around what the calendar looks like, then we can give you the full detail of that.”
Warburton also reiterated the importance of being partners with a subscription TV provider, despite it being unpopular with fans.
“The truth is most things, and most sports, are going behind a paywall,” he said.
“We’ve always tried to strike the balance of getting enough of our sport available for free to build the reach – we don’t have the luxury of four or five games every weekend, we’ve got oner weekend across either 12, 13 or 14 race weekends.
“So you have to have a level of exclusivity for the pay TV or subscription provider, and then the free-to-air piece.
“But I look at what we do and on the stats there is more Supercars available for free than there are NRL games or AFL games. It’s just that it comes in clumps, we don’t get a Friday night or Saturday night available for free. It’s a bit different.”
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