V8 Supercars - Television Coverage

Television Coverage

From the 2007 season onwards the Seven Network returned as the official V8 Supercars broadcaster, after Network Ten had shown the series for almost a decade after taking the rights from Seven in 1997, ending Seven's 35 year reign as the official broadcaster of V8 Supercars. The current deal is worth roughly A$120 million. In addition to the Seven Network's live coverage, a weekly 25-minute show titled V8Xtra, a program specific to the series is broadcast on non-racing weekends. The coverage however is produced by V8 Supercar Television, a specialist production vehicle for V8 Supercars Australia. Since 2012, due to Seven's commitment to showing increased AFL coverage in the southern states, most V8 Supercar Races are instead shown on 7mate.

As of 2010 Network Ten continues to broadcast V8 Supercar once a year when they appear on the support program for the Australian Grand Prix, a Network Ten broadcast event. All support category races are tied up with the Grand Prix broadcast rights as a package. The Albert Park Race is a non-championship event.

Television One provided coverage of all rounds in New Zealand until the end of the 2007 season, at which time coverage transferred to TV3.

• Australia
  • Seven Network
  • 7mate (southern states only during the AFL season)
  • Speed Channel (subscription television)
  • Telstra Bigpond Broadband (Live Internet Coverage)

• International
  • TV3 (New Zealand)
  • Motors TV (United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and most other parts of Europe)
  • Neo Sports + India
  • Speed Channel (USA, Canada, Caribbean and Latin America): coverage is hosted by current NASCAR driver and former V8 Supercar champion Marcos Ambrose on a week delay except Surfers Paradise and Bathurst starting in 2011. In 2011, Bathurst and Surfers Paradise races were broadcast live as Saturday evening, U.S. Eastern Time. 2011 Bathurst and Gold Coast rounds had a commentary team of Leigh Diffey, Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, and Calvin Fish on site.
  • Australia Network - Asia-Pacific region (except New Zealand) and parts of the Middle East. (NB: Except for the Bathurst 1000, All Races will be screened on delay on the Australia Network.)

V8 Supercars Television records the series in 16:9 (576i), with many cars carrying 4 or more mini cameras. High-definition was used to broadcast the 2011 Bathurst 1000 and the Gold Coast 600, it was the first time that V8 Supercars races were available in HD. However, this availability was not continued in 2012. For North American audiences, the 2011 Bathurst 1000 and Gold Coast 600 races that aired on Speed live with a full Charlotte-based production crew on site were screened in 16:9 720p high definition coverage, as the network's live motorsport coverage is usually screened in high-definition format.