It just gets better for motorcycle fans in New Zealand and much worse for Sky Sport.

Sky Sport couldn’t do it and alienated thousands of fans but MotoGP will now be shown on free-to-air television.

The New Zealand broadcast rights for the rest of the 2013 MotoGP motorcycle racing season have been secured by Sommet Sports TV.

The new Freeview outfit, whose channel is provisionally up and running but set to launch officially in about a week’s time, will offer live coverage of the 2013 MotoGP series and highlights programmes.

The development confirms a second sporting asset has been snatched from Sky Television, 16 days after the subscription giant dramatically lost the New Zealand broadcast rights for the English Premier League football to previously unknown group called Coliseum Sports Media.

Having previously dominated New Zealand’s sport broadcast market, Sky’s share price plunged 6.2 per cent off the back of the football loss.

Sky had been publicly struggling to reach a new MotoGP deal with commercial rights holder Dorna Sports for months, with fans already missing out on the first seven stages of 2013’s 18-round series.

Mark Cathie, general manager of Sommet Sports, which came second to Coliseum in the Premier League race, said his organisation had stepped in on MotoGP, confirming New Zealanders would now be able to access motorcycling’s top championship and without subscription TV.

Because almost half the season had already been completed, Cathie said Sommet Sports would also be broadcasting all previous rounds of this year’s MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3 races to give fans an opportunity to catch up.

Cathie said Sommet’s philosophy on selecting content was geared to consumer feedback and demand.

Sommet’s July 14 launch coincides with the German round of the MotoGP.

Meanwhile, here’s Hitler’s reaction after he learned Sky TV would not be showing MotoGP this year …

Classic …

Click HERE to view

Words by Simon Plumb