British GT Championship secures free-to-air TV deal for 2017

British GT's six domestic dates, including the supporting Mini Challenge, will be shown live on the Front Runner channel.

Only the European round at Spa in July is missing from the deal that marks the first time in British GT's 25-year history that it will have widespread and regular live TV coverage.

Hayfisher will manage and produce the live broadcasts for Front Runner, which is available in 19 million homes across the country via Freeview, FreeSat, Talk Talk, YouView, BT and Sky.

The station was launched last October and is the UK's only free-to-air sports channel.

"This is fantastic news for British GT and the Mini Challenge, their drivers and teams, who together with Front Runner now have a platform capable of reaching millions of new and existing fans," British GT manager Benjamin Franassovici said.

"It's really exciting to be bucking the trend of modern motor racing, and sport in general, by offering live free-to-air coverage throughout our 25th anniversary season.

"Now anybody unable to attend our races needn't miss out on the action.

"We have received more than 30 paid entries across both GT3 and GT4, and interest in both classes remains high."

Front Runner MD Ryan Scarratt said the deal with British GT and the Mini Challenge represented the start of a new push for the channel's coverage into motorsport.

The channel is available on Freeview channel 91, FreeSat 250, YouView/TalkTalk/BT 91 and Sky 468.

"We're delighted to be broadcasting live British GT and Mini Challenge coverage," Scarratt said.

"Offering more live sports is certainly an area of focus for us this year; we screened the 24H Series Dubai live in January and British GT starts in April.

"There are exciting times ahead for sports fans across the UK."