The most eagerly anticipated season in the 58 year history of the MotoGP World Championship will be enjoyed by more television viewers than ever thanks to a host of new deals that will see the races transmitted live across several new countries around the globe in 2007. Iceland (Skjarinn Einn/Screen One), Slovenia (POP TV), Ecuador (Relad), El Salvador (Ch2 & 4) and New Zealand (SKY TV) will all be showing live coverage of each of the 18 Grand Prix events throughout the season, and in Cyprus (CYBC 2) each MotoGP Race will be broadcast live. In the Czech Republic, free-to-air terrestrial network CT2 have agreed a deal to screen live broadcasts of all races for the next two years, whilst race fans in Holland will be able to enjoy live coverage of the MotoGP and 250cc races, as well as special coverage of the A-Style TT Assen, on RTL 7 until 2009. As well as live coverage of all three Grand Prix classes on SKY TV in New Zealand, viewers will also be able to enjoy MotoGP highlights on the terrestrial Prime TV network and a 52-minute highlights programme of all three races on TVNZ. Extended deals in other countries means the MotoGP World Championship will be viewed on terrestrial networks in over 30 key countries in 2007. The longest deals were announced in 2006 in Italy and Spain, where Mediaset and TVE renewed their agreements for the live coverage of all three Grand Prix classes until 2011, however in Finland, Nelonen have also secured the rights until 2009, whilst in Belgium the races will be shown on RTL Club for at least the next two years. Other renewals have taken place in Venezuela (Meridiano) and Indonesia (Trans7). Meanwhile, ongoing deals continue with continental networks in Asia (ESPN-Star TV), Latin America (ESPN Latin America), the Indian Subcontinent (Ten Sports), Africa (Super Sport), Europe (Eurosport) , the Middle East (Al Jazeera Sport Channel) and agreements with other large broadcasters such as BBC in the UK, Ten Network and Fox in Australia and NTV in Japan make MotoGP a truly global spectacle, reaching an average of 304 million television viewers worldwide per Grand Prix. The 2007 edition of the MotoGP World Championship is expected to be the most exciting and tightly contested yet, with a new generation of hi-tech 800cc machines and an extraordinarily close field of riders looking to topple current World Champion Nicky Hayden. The American snatched the crown from five-time former champion Valentino Rossi in the final round of last season and will this year face an attempt at retribution from the popular Italian, as well as the challenge of household names such as Loris Capirossi, Colin Edwards, and Marco Melandri and promising youngsters Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and John Hopkins.