MotoGP in Germany from 2027 on RTL: There are plenty of unanswered questions

The MotoGP World Championship is not only entering a new era in 2027 as far as the motorbikes are concerned; its availability on free-to-air television in Germany is also set to change. Since 2024, DF1 has been broadcasting the signal from ServusTV in Austria with all the features; prior to that, MotoGP was shown for five years on ServusTV’s own linear channel. From next season, RTL, the parent company of pay-TV partner Sky Sport, will hold the rights.

From 2027, the MotoGP model in Germany will be virtually identical to that of Formula 1: whilst the pay-TV broadcaster Sky provides extensive live coverage of all events, only a few selected races will be shown on RTL.

The exact number of MotoGP events due to be shown on RTL’s free-to-air service in 2027 remains unclear – this was not mentioned in the contract announcement. Put simply, the question is: how often will RTL make room for a full MotoGP Sunday? Or will the races be moved straight to one of its own specialist channels, such as Nitro? That would have significant implications for the reach of the coverage and would not be in the interests of promoter Liberty.

Currently, DF1 in Germany broadcasts half of the 22 races live and free-to-air, featuring all three classes. In addition, there are one-hour highlights of all other race weekends, which are broadcast on the Monday following each Grand Prix.

By way of comparison: in Formula 1, where Sky also holds the German pay-TV rights, RTL showed seven out of 24 races on free-to-air TV during the 2025 season. This season didn’t get underway until June: following delays due to legal uncertainties, there are a total of five races including qualifying sessions, plus the Singapore Sprint and four further qualifying sessions.

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Another burning question for the German MotoGP community: will RTL be sending its own crew to the races? This is currently the case in Formula 1. Although Sky is also on site with a full team, RTL travels for its broadcasts with a crew comprising presenter Florian König, interviewer Kai Ebel, commentator Heiko Wasser and expert Christian Danner. All qualifying sessions and the sprints are shown on RTL’s own pay-TV platform, RTL+, where the feed is taken directly from Sky.

Sky’s MotoGP crew currently consists of