ITV4 brings live MotoGP back to free-to-air

ITV4 will broadcast the MotoGP Shark Grand Prix de France on Sunday, bringing live coverage of the competition to free-to-air for the first time since 2013. 

The channel has become the home of free-to-air MotoGP highlights this year, and will cover the best of each race weekend on Monday evenings.

To supplement the highlights coverage, ITV will also broadcast two races live - starting with the Grand Prix de France at the Bugatti Circuit on ITV4 this weekend. All three World Championship classes, MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3, will be broadcast over the day.

Steve Day and Matt Birt will be on commentary, with Simon Crafar providing reports from the pitlane.

The other live broadcast race will be the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, on the main ITV channel, on 29 August. Every other World Championship race, qualifying session, and practice will be available through BT Sport.

The Grand Prix de France is the fifth round of this year’s championship, and comes after Jack Miller won victory in Jerez, Spain last time round. Miller’s Ducati teammate, Francecso Bagnaia, came in second - which was enough to take him top of the overal standings after the previous leader, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, suffered an arm-pump issue and came in 13th.

Free-to-air live broadcast windows have become more popular across sport recently. In rugby union, the Lions’ tour of South Africa will have some free-to-air coverage on Channel 4, and in cricket, the BBC will be showing international T20s and domestic competition The Hundred this summer.