After many years of successful collaboration, MotoGP rights-holders Dorna Sports would like to announce that coverage of the MotoGP World Championships will no longer be available on Eurosport from the 2009 season.

Dorna would like to thank Eurosport for a partnership which has been of mutual benefit for several years, having helped take MotoGP to new levels of popularity and coverage whilst also offering the pan-European broadcaster impressive viewing figures.

The decision is part of Dorna´s new strategy of working with national network broadcasters around Europe, always focusing first and foremost on free-to-air coverage to bring MotoGP to wider audiences.

This means that in the UK, the BBC will enjoy exclusive coverage of MotoGP next year, whilst in Spain and Italy, where MotoGP enjoys long-term agreements with TVE and Mediaset respectively, negotiations are ongoing about extending coverage to more hours during the weekend.

In Germany, a deal has been signed with a privately owned free-to-air channel, giving the commercial network exclusive coverage for three years until 2011. Meanwhile, negotiations are ongoing in France and other major European territories with various mainstream networks; further details will be announced shortly.