Eurosport will broadcast the British Superbike Championship (BSB) for a further two seasons after renewing its exclusive live rights deal with MotorSport Vision this week.

The digital sports channel had the exclusive live rights to the 12-round BSB championship in 2008 and used the series to develop British Eurosport 2 in the UK market.

The new two-year deal will continue to give the exciting BSB series extensive TV airtime, with a 4-hour live show produced at each of the 12 rounds, featuring both BSB races, the British Supersport Championship and additional support races. Raceday highlights will also be shown in primetime and repeated throughout the week. On Thursday nights “British Superbikes Extra” features the British 125 GP, National Superstock and KTM RC8 Championships.

Indeed no other British motorsport series enjoyed such broadcast exposure with the series generating 160 hours of UK programming, of which 50 hours were live.

In the 2008 season Eurosport invested heavily in promoting the BSB series as part of its strategy to develop Eurosport 2 and enjoyed excellent ratings as it reinforced its position as the number one channel for live motorcycle racing. The channel also took fans into the heart of raceday action with live grid walks, pre and post race interviews with leading riders and expert trackside analysis from World Superbike Champion James Toseland, former Superbike Champion James Whitham and a host of others.

The new deal will continue to see the BSB series broadcast live and exclusively across Europe on Eurosport 2 which reaches 32 million homes in 46 countries.

In addition, Eurosport Asia-Pacific will cover live the whole season across the region, reaching fans in 9 further countries, while there will be live streaming of all races on all Eurosport's websites. In the UK this will be eurosport.yahoo.com.

Dave Kerr, Director of British Eurosport said: “This season has proved what an excellent series BSB is, with great racing and spectacle for fans to enjoy. We are delighted therefore to extend our relationship with MSV and retain the British Superbike Championship on Eurosport for a further two seasons. It is great news for us and for fans and we are confident the quality of racing and our coverage will go from strength to strength.”

Jonathan Palmer, MSV Chief Executive added: ‘’Television coverage is extremely important to MSV as the promoters of BSB and Eurosport has done a super job in our first year working together. It is so important for bike racing fans to know where to find BSB on television and Eurosport is the obvious place, covering so much. I have no doubt we will have an even more exciting year of BSB in 2009 and with Eurosport we have a hugely experienced partner which is committed to making the coverage even better and even more extensive across the world.’’