TELEVISION AUDIENCES ROCKET FOR MotoGP OPENER Leading broadcasters from around the world have reported excellent audience data for their coverage of the opening round of the MotoGP World Championship at Jerez on Sunday. The leading figures came, not surprisingly, from Italy, where an impressive 6,974,000 viewers enjoyed a memorable victory for a national rider and factory in Loris Capirossi and Ducati through the Mediaset network (Italia 1), representing a 34.68% share. Interest was even higher in Spain, where a stunning MotoGP debut from Dani Pedrosa helped to secure an audience share of 44.20% for Televisión Española (TVE) up more than 6% on the famous Rossi-Gibernau duel from last season with an average of 48.31% during the race. Home victories for Álvaro Bautista and Jorge Lorenzo in 125cc and 250cc no doubt stoked the interest of the Spanish fans as up to 5,579,000 viewers tuned in to live action from Jerez, representing a peak share of 50.3% and adding to a record race-day crowd of 131,162 at the track itself. In the UK viewing figures peaked at 1,300,000 on BBC2, representing a 30% rise on last year’s average for all races and a 3% rise on average audience share, which registered at 15.1%. Elsewhere, Austrian network ATV+ doubled their audience share from the same race last season whilst in Finland increased coverage through Nelonen (Channel Four Finland) secured an 18% share for the MotoGP race. Interest also continues to grow in Ireland, where RTE claimed a 12.4% share, whilst audience share on Greece’s ET3 channel rocketed from their usual average of 2.3% to peak at an incredible 11.2%. This data reflects the massive interest in the 2006 MotoGP World Championship, with fans across the globe eagerly awaiting the next round, which takes place in Doha on Saturday April 10th at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar.