MotoGP signs two-year ESPN media rights deal for U.S., Latin America

MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights deal that puts the series on ESPN in the United States and Latin America across the 2027 and 2028 seasons. In the title race, ESPN's Austin Lindberg reports that Marc Márquez holds a 60-point lead over Jorge Martín, the 2024 world champion. Márquez got there by overcoming a record 102-point deficit, and he is now in position to clinch a record-equaling eighth MotoGP world championship. Two rounds remain, in Portugal and Valencia, and 74 points are still available.

The new home is ESPN. Under a two-year agreement covering the 2027 and 2028 seasons, ESPN becomes MotoGP's exclusive U.S. media rights holder across its linear networks, and it keeps its long-running coverage in key Latin American markets, including streaming on Disney+ Plan Premium, Sports Video Group reported. ESPN succeeds Fox Sports as the U.S. rights holder, SportBusiness's Jonathan Rest wrote, and MotoGP said its current U.S. arrangement ends with the 2026 season.

Timing matters as much as the network. The deal was announced on Nov. 12, 2026, ahead of the 2027 season. A two-year U.S. deal gives MotoGP's broadcast and commercial partners a known U.S. home for 2027 and 2028. For a sponsor sizing U.S. exposure or a production lead booking crews and studio time, that is the difference between a plan and a guess.

A U.S. rights home that kept moving

The Race laid out how often MotoGP's American carrier has changed. The sequence, by its account:

1. beIN Sports, before 2020, with its team attending multiple races in person
2. NBC, four years after beIN
3. TNT Sports, a new deal for 2024, announced only hours before the start of the season
4. Fox, from 2025, again announced only hours before the opening session of the first weekend
5. ESPN, 2027 and 2028, announced Nov. 12, 2026

The Race also noted that under recent arrangements, coverage moved around between channels, and that during the NBC years many races did not air live. In its view the TNT deal did not prove substantially different. The Fox years followed the same pattern: this year's American Grand Prix at Austin aired live on Fox Business.

Against that record, the announcement date is the real change. The last two U.S. deals were confirmed with hours to spare. This one arrives while the 2026 season still has two rounds to run. The Race said it would finally give the series a more permanent U.S. TV home.

Early notice and channel stability are two separate things, and the announcement settles only the first. The release commits ESPN to airing Grand Prix events on "ESPN networks and platforms" either live or on same-day delay. The race-by-race channel assignments for 2027 have not been published yet.

How a 2002 Latin American deal went north

ESPN did not win the U.S. rights as a stranger. It has carried MotoGP in Latin America for more than two decades, and both parties framed the U.S. expansion as growth from that base.

Freddy Rolón, head of ESPN's Global Sports & Talent Office, described the deal in the joint announcement as an example of a relationship that starts in one region of ESPN's international business and grows across its global portfolio. Carlos Ezpeleta, MotoGP's deputy CEO, called it a milestone in the championship's growth strategy across the Americas and pointed to ESPN's reach with audiences in both the U.S. and Latin America.

The pattern suggests a lesson for rights sellers and buyers alike. A regional partner with a long track record carries a credential into adjacent territories: the production relationship, the commercial terms and the working knowledge of the property already exist. For media companies holding regional rights to a property with an unsettled U.S. home, the ESPN route indicates that performance in one region can earn a seat at the bigger table.

Pay TV, Disney+ and free-to-air in two key markets

In Latin America, ESPN networks will carry the races and Disney+ Plan Premium will stream them. In Argentina and Brazil, the agreement allows rights to select events to be sublicensed to local free-to-air broadcasters. MotoGP's release describes those two countries as among its most passionate markets.

That carve-out lets an exclusive pay and streaming deal sit alongside open-air reach for chosen races, so the series can chase casual viewers in its strongest markets without giving up the exclusive partner. The commercial terms of the sublicensing were not part of the announcement. For free-to-air broadcasters in Argentina and Brazil, though, the agreement confirms that a path to select MotoGP events exists for 2027 and 2028.

Liberty Media's two-season window

The Race described Liberty Media as the series' new owner, and both trade titles read the deal through that lens. SportBusiness framed it as ESPN getting back into business with Liberty in the U.S. The Race saw a growth platform for an owner trying to repeat its Formula 1 success in the American market.

MotoGP's own release lays out the growth case: it cites record-breaking attendance, expanding global audiences and increasing interest across the Americas. Ezpeleta called the deal "an exciting opportunity to introduce MotoGP to new audiences while continuing to serve our passionate existing fanbase." That two-track aim maps onto the deal's shape: new U.S. reach on ESPN's linear networks, and continuity for an audience ESPN has served in Latin America since 2002.

The strongest objection to reading this as lasting stability is the term itself. Two seasons is short. On the announced term, the planning certainty runs through 2028, which suggests U.S. rights will be back under discussion ahead of 2029.

Whether early announcements become a habit depends on that next cycle. A deal signed well before the season would point to a lasting pattern. One that lands hours before opening weekend, as TNT's and Fox's did, would make the timing of the 2027 and 2028 deal look like a one-off.

The final two rounds of 2026, at Portugal and Valencia, close out the current U.S. arrangement. After that, the useful signal is ESPN's 2027 broadcast schedule, which will show how many races air live and on which networks.