TOCA – organisers of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – has announced that it has signed a new five-year television contract with ITV, extending its current UK-wide free-to-air broadcasting arrangement through to the end of the 2026 season.

Having broadcast Britain’s premier motorsport series since 2002, this latest deal will take the relationship into a 25th consecutive year – making it one of the longest British sporting TV partnerships on record.

The new contract will commence from 2022 and will see ITV continue to screen the championship live and exclusive on its free-to-air ITV4 and ITV4HD channels, with at least seven hours of coverage from each race day.

Qualifying will continue to be streamed on the ITV website whilst highlights programmes and online videos will take fans even closer to the action.

Alan Gow, BTCC Chief Executive, said: “I’m immensely proud of the great and close partnership that we have with ITV. Their commitment and enthusiasm to bring the BTCC to as wide an audience as possible is absolutely unrivalled.

“It was vital to me that the BTCC maintained its vast live free-to-air coverage. Simply, we want the maximum amount of people to be able to watch our great racing – it’s the bedrock of our enormous popularity. So hiding our championship away behind a paywall would only have the exact opposite effect.

“With the new hybrid regulations and our fantastic broadcasting coverage now locked into place right through to the end of 2026, it provides the solid foundation on which all our teams and partners can base, and build, their involvement.

“I’m not sure how many major motorsport championships in the world have an unbroken (and in fact increasing) free-to-air broadcasting relationship spanning a quarter of a century with the same broadcaster, but by my reckoning it’s probably only one… the iconic British Touring Car Championship.”