The MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing series is the new top priority of the beIN SPORTS Americas network.
That’s what a beIN SPORTS Americas executive told members of the MotoAmerica paddock in a meeting Friday night at Road Atlanta.
“We are committed to making motorcycle racing [a] household name in the U.S. We now have MotoGP, World Superbikes and MotoAmerica, so we are now the new home of motorcycle road racing,” Rafael Torres, Senior Director of Sports Programming for beIN Sports Americas, told a room packed with riders, team managers and the KRAVE Group partners who started MotoAmerica. “I am new to the sport. I’ve been telling the guys that I’m super excited since I started doing this. If I’m a new convert with only a month following this thing, I think America should be ready for this. It’s better to me than most of the other sports that are out there, especially motorsports. So why not?
“This is ours. I mean, we have MotoGP and we have SBK [World Superbike], but guys, that’s global and that’s a lot of people from the outside. There’s nothing wrong with being from the outside, but we want to make this, the US-based [series] big. We’re going to do the best we can to do the best production possible, and it’s going to get better as we go on. Just like you guys get better with practice, we’re going to get better every week.
“We’re in it for the long run. We want to make it work.”
As proof of beIN Sports’ commitment to MotoAmerica coverage, the network hired Dan Parisi, the producer of AMA Pro Road Racing coverage from 2009 to 2013, the GEICO Motorcycle Superbike Shootout series coverage in 2014, and the Two-Wheel Tuesday shows on SPEED.
“We will have a MotoGP [TV] director directing all the races [broadcasts],” Parisi told the group. “That’s a very big deal, because they have very high standards. We’re budget-challenged with certain things, like on-board cameras, but Dorna has a big investment in the series, and they want it to grow, and they’re here to help MotoAmerica make it look better than it has before.
“On Sunday we will have a live half-hour pre-race show followed by Superbike Race One live. For the afternoon we have Supersport Race Two [shown tape-delayed] and Superbike Race Two [shown live]. I have a two-and-a-half-hour window and in that two and a half hours I have to put more than two races in there because those two races aren’t enough for me to fill that time slot. I’m working on planning right now to do a lot of KTM [race highlights] in some of these broadcasts. I’m going to get [the KTM RC390 Cup] in every broadcast as much as possible.
“The good thing is I’m pushing to get as much motorsports and motorcycle content spread out to other programming on the network as well. There’s a big push at the network. Motorcycle racing is very important. [A company memo] came out just the other day [saying] MotoAmerica takes top priority from everything at the network.”
Among the other things learned at the meeting and from talking to Torres and Parisi include:
A total of 14 cameras, including a “super slo-mo” camera will be in use at Road Atlanta
MotoAmerica races will be shown with no scheduled commercial breaks from green flag to checkered flag
Other beIN SPORTS Americas programming is being rescheduled to accommodate MotoAmerica’s live race broadcast schedules
MotoAmerica races will be rebroadcast at other times mid-week
A new, weekly motorsports show on beIN SPORTS will be heavily focused on MotoAmerica activity
beIN SPORTS Americas currently has over 45 million subscribers in North America
MotoAmerica races will be broadcast to the United States and Canada, but there is potential for MotoAmerica races to be broadcast globally to 33 countries and five continents
Every MotoAmerica race, except for the KTM RC390 Cup, will be webcast live on beIN SPORTS CONNECT, which is available only to beIN SPORTS Americas subscribers through their cable/satellite providers
beIN SPORTS Americas is available from nine of the top 10 cable/satellite TV service providers in the U.S.
beIN SPORTS Americas is or will soon be available through a variety of “Over The Top” services like Apple TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, etc.
beIN SPORTS Americas may also offer a pay-per-view service for online viewing in the near future
beIN SPORTS has the broadcast rights for NBA and NFL games in other parts of the world