MotoGP raced for the first time ever in India at the Buddh International Circuit on 24th September 2023. A race that was very well received by the fans despite some teething problems the event had after a lot of confusion created by the foreign media which ranged from Safety issues (which were later cleared by the FIM- Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme the global governing body for the Motorbike events) to Visa issues many teams and journalists faced.
The event was an overall success as MotoGP Riders praised the circuit layout and reception by the Indian fans. MotoGP in India was broadcast on Jio Cinema and Sports18 for the 2023 season.
On 22nd February 2024, It was that announced Eurosport would be the Television broadcaster 2024 season onwards. Eurosport reacquired the broadcasting rights for MotoGP from 2024 to 2026 in India and South Asia region. Eurosport India, from the house of Warner Bros. Discovery, had earlier broadcasted the sport in India from 2020 to 2022, However, in 2023 the Official broadcast partners were Sports18 (TV) and Jio Cinema (OTT) both owned by Viacom 18.
The Eurosport announcement did clear up details for the Indian fans regarding television broadcast but they were still left confused about the OTT broadcaster as unlike in the Past when Motogp was broadcasted on Eurosport, Discovery+ used to be the OTT partner, However, this time Discovery + was not the OTT partner.
Fans rely on OTT platforms very much to stream their favorite sports after the recent digital revolution in India, which made India the second highest internet population with 1.2 billion users in 2023, Off these 1.05 billion users access the Internet on their Mobile phones.
India currently has 481 Million OTT users and 102 million paid OTT subscribers as per a Delloite report.
This was even recognized by Formula 1 when they moved to their official Streaming platform F1tv for Indian customers in 2023 and then they partnered with Fancode for 2024 as their official broadcast partner in India. Not to our surprise even the Fancode announcement came very late for the Formula 1 fans just before the first F1 race weekend began on 29th February 2024.
Speculations
On 6th March, 2 days before the MotoGP action to begin at the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar on the 8th March 2024 fans still had no official confirmation about the OTT broadcaster for their favorite motorsport.
One interesting thing that we and many other fans noticed on the official broadcast information mentioned on the MotoGP website was that they mention both Eurosport and Viacom18 as their broadcasting partner
With this, we had suspected that Jio Cinema might be the OTT broadcaster which 1 day before the race weekend starts remains unconfirmed.
Confirmation
Now on 7th March 2024 (1 day before the Live action on track begins), Jio Cinema has made an Official confirmation with us that they will continue to be the OTT partner for the Moto GP Broadcast. ( As we say in Hindi देर आये दुरुस्त आये “Better late than never”)
Problems due to Advertisements in 2023
We cannot miss the fact that last year with Jio Cinema and Sports18 fans were disappointed with the long Advertisements they ran during the Live racing action ( Yamaha Call of the Blue and others ) which ruined key moments for them. There was widespread disappointment expressed by the fans online after every Race weekend but the Advertisements remained, fans requested Jio Cinema by tagging them on X (Twitter) to find alternate solutions.
American broadcasters use Pop-up ads for Indy and Nascar which display advertisements in a window while keeping the live broadcast action in a Pop-up window which enables an unhindered racing experience for the fans.
Whether Jio Cinema (Viacom18) improves this for the 2024 season, we will know only by the End of the 1st race weekend.
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The Qatar GP schedule ( In Indian Standard Time) –
