BRASELTON, GA.: The American Le Mans Series announced a multiyear broadcast and digital agreement with ESPN and ABC. The deal involves televising the sports car series over several ABC and ESPN platforms, including ESPN2 andthe ESPN3.com broadband platform. Intersport represented the Series in the new television and digital agreement with ESPN.
ALMS President and CEO Scott Atherton called the deal “a game changer.”
The core of the new package will deliver television coverage either on ABC or ESPN2. ABC will feature race telecast coverage on March 20 after the 59th running of the “Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring,” with remaining ABC broadcasts featuring Road America in August; Baltimore in September; and the Petit Le Mans in October. ESPN2 will feature the American Le Mans Series in two-hour telecasts from Long Beach, Calif., in April; Lime Rock and Mosport in July; Mid-Ohio in August; and the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in September.
All four ABC race telecasts will receive an encore airing on ESPN2 as part of the new agreement.
In what ALMS is referring to as a “U.S. motorsports first,” all ALMS races will be carried live in their entirety and fully produced on ESPN3.com, with ESPN2 and ABC providing televised coverage on a delayed basis. ESPN3.com will deliver nearly 60 hours of live coverage, including 60-minute qualifying shows from each event along with pre- and post-race content.
The broadband network is currently available to more than 65 million U.S. households, though accessible only to subscribers to an affiliated cable company’s Internet service. ALMS also notes that “ABC has 100 percent coverage in 115.9 million U.S. households, including more than 230 local affiliates, while ESPN2 is available to 99.7 million homes.”
