W Series Announces Sky Broadcast Deal
W Series, the international single-seater motor racing championship for women, has announced a new multi-year broadcast partnership with Sky Sports.
The upcoming W Series season, which begins 6th May, will include ten races across eight Formula 1 Grand Prix weekends in 2022, with Sky Sports broadcasting live coverage of every qualifying and race session.
The three-year partnership that will run up until the end of W Series’ fifth on-track season in 2024 represents the sports’ largest media investment to date. It will include distribution of W Series content across Sky’s channels, including linear, digital, and social.
The partnership is not limited to the UK market. W series will also secure coverage from Sky Italia, which complements its current agreement with Sky Deutschland.
The announcement highlights Sky’s continues commitment to women’s sport. W Series will sit alongside Sky’s premium sports portfolio, including elite women’s sport such as the FA Women’s Super League.
The W Series broadcast talent team for the 2022 season will be announced in due course.
Channel 4 will broadcast live and free-to-air coverage of the fourth race of the 2022 W Series season, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, UK, and show highlights of the other nine races from season three.
Chief Executive Officer, W Series, Catherine Bond Muir, said, “I’m delighted to announce our landmark broadcast partnership with Sky Sports, which is another significant step in W Series’ continued rapid expansion. Throughout our conversations with Sky, I’ve been impressed by their commitment to women’s sport and plans to amplify coverage of W Series across their vast portfolio of distribution channels, which will add real weight to our offering across broadcast, digital, and social platforms.
“This partnership enables W Series to continue to expand its viewership within the UK. Alongside Sky, Channel 4 will continue its free-to-air coverage of the entire W Series season with highlights of every race and will also broadcast live our home race at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July. With this broad broadcast offering, we have the perfect mix of coverage across our UK audience.
Jonathan Licht, Managing Director, Sky Sports, added, “In addition to Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, Sky Sports are delighted to be growing our motorsport portfolio with this recently established elite women’s series. It feels like Sky Sports is a natural home for W Series, given we have such a dedicated motorsport audience and a dedicated motorsport genre channel.
“At Sky Sports we are committed to making sport more inclusive and I can now proudly say that, with the addition of W Series, every genre channel at Sky Sports now has both men’s and women’s sports coverage.”
