Motors TV gears up for Le Mans 24 hours Moto

France: The car race may grab the main headlines, but this weekend’s 24-hour race at Le Mans for motorbikes is just as demanding and dangerous. Motors TV, based in Chaville near Paris and broadcasting across much of Europe, will be carrying the event.

“Motorcycling is one of the sports we cover in particular on Motors TV, it accounts for about 30% of our airtime,” explains Frédéric Viger, director of programming and acquisitions for the TV channel.

Up until now, Motors TV has been very involved in off-road racing with the exclusive rights to air first-runs of the Motocross World Championships as well as the US Motocross and Supercross Championships. With the Le Mans 24 hours race it returns to the world of circuit and endurance racing

“We would like to place the emphasis on live broadcasts. Of the some 1200 hours of original programs we broadcast annually, 450 are live broadcasts, that is more than a third of our programme schedule,” continues Viger.

For their first collaboration with the Le Mans 24 hours Moto race, the TV channel will cover the event extensively with a total of 9 hours of live coverage.

They will go live on the air 30 minutes before the start of the race for 2 hours of nonstop live transmission, then between 7pm and 10pm and from 10am to 11:30am on Sunday and finally between 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm for the finish and the podium ceremony.

The Spanish company Interzona has been designated by the International Motorcycling Federation to provide the international signal. It covers numerous motorcycle championship events and categories.

“12 Sony cameras and one OB van will be used to film the entire Le Mans racing circuit, while a dedicated HF unit will film the pits. In fact between 10 pm on Saturday and 8 am on Sunday, the live production will be stopped and during the night four ENG camcorders will be used to make a summary of the bests moments of the race, especially in the pits” explains Toni Campis from Interzona.

A journalist from Motors TV will be present at the Sarthe circuit to conduct the various interviews. For the English broadcast, the motor sports channel is pleased to have Terry Rymer commentating, the now-retired great champion of endurance racing who knows the sport and the Le Mans circuit perfectly well, having competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1999, the year he won the world title.