The V8 Supercars Championship has put its hand up to move some of its event coverage onto the Seven Network’s secondary digital channel.
V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane has said that he is willing to have the V8s broadcast on 7mate to ease the category’s ongoing conflict with the AFL.
If the V8s are shown on Seven’s digital channel 7mate, it would be an Australian first for a major sport to elect to be on a digital channel.
‘Time shifting’ issues at this year’s Bathurst 1000 sparked cries from fans to keep the racing ‘live,’ and with the new anti-siphoning list released recently, Cochrane told The Australian’s marketing writer Simon Canning that he is open to the idea of moving some events over to a digital channel to have them broadcast as quickly as possible.
“We do have a massive problem at Seven and that is the (scheduling) conflict that we run into from time to time with the AFL,” Cochrane told The Australian.
“Our current contract says we have to be on the prime free-to-air channel.
“One of the things that will help in the future will be, for example, that we might put one of our ‘heritage’ events on 7mate with a replay on the main Seven network later in the day.”
Cochrane also told The Australian that he plans to boost the number of V8 Supercars rounds to 18 by 2015, with up to six international events.
For an extended story with Cochrane in The Australian CLICK HERE.
