"More eyeballs" to watch V8s: boss

Only six V8 Supercars events will be shown live on free-to-air TV from 2015 but boss James Warburton insists the sport will be seen by “more eyeballs than ever”.

The V8 Supercars CEO said a shift to pay TV coverage under the record six-year, $241 million media deal would not stop total audience levels increasing significantly.

Warburton on Saturday provided details of the deal announced last December with Foxtel, Fox Sports and Ten Network for all media rights including digital from 2015 to 2020, consisting of $196 million cash and $45 million of advertising.

Warburton said live coverage of every practice, qualifying session and race would be shown ad-free and in high definition on pay TV.

But only Adelaide, Townsville, Sandown, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Sydney events would be shown live on Ten Network.

A one-hour highlights package of the remaining events would be screened at 8:30pm on One and 11:30pm on Ten on the Saturday and Sunday nights of the events.

And a one-hour package would be shown on Sundays at 4pm on Ten.

“Five of our races (currently) are on a mainstream platform (Seven Network),” Warburton said.

“Eighty per cent of our fans in the research we’ve done don’t (currently) know what channel the next race is on.

“This is about growing the penetration, putting the highlights packages into a prime-time slot that every fan knows where it is.

“There will be more eyeballs than ever (watching under the new deal).”

He said total hours of their TV coverage would increase to 1140 hours from 2015 – up 360 per cent.

Magazine show RPM will also return to Ten under the new deal with similar programs V8Xtra and Motorsport 360 aired on pay TV.

But Warburton would not reveal how much fans would have to pay to see the full season live on pay TV.

“It’s not our place to do so,” he said.