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The American Le Mans Series announced today that it has extended its international television contract with MotorsTV, ensuring that the Series maintains a premium position on Europe's leading motorsports network.

The agreement sees American Le Mans Series coverage on MotorsTV for a further two seasons.

"Our extension with MotorsTV represents continued growth of the American Le Mans Series," said Scott Atherton, President & CEO of the American Le Mans Series. "It continues to give us truly world-class television coverage throughout Europe, which is extremely important to a number of our manufacturers and marketing partners. Given the sheer number of viewers we are able to reach through our alliance with MotorsTV, the extension ensures that the Series will continue to be at the forefront of premium motorsport coverage across the Atlantic.

"The American Le Mans Series represents the best professional sports car racing in the world, and with that comes global demand," Atherton added. "Partnerships with world-class outlets like MotorsTV help us serve the rapidly growing interest in our Series."

The large majority of Series events "live" to its audience of more than 45 million viewers in 31 European countries and in four languages (English, French, German, Greek). In addition, MotorsTV is continuing a year-long, 60-minute weekly Endurance Racing magazine program that began and was a success in 2008 with American Le Mans Series coverage as the premier component .

"The 2008 season marks the fifth year of our partnership with the American Le Mans Series, and it's definitely been one of the highlights of the channel," said Frédéric Viger, Head of Programming & Acquisitions for MotorsTV. "The Series keeps growing in entries and interest, and will certainly gain even more next year with Acura entering the LMP1 class."

"We are confident the American Le Mans Series will remain must-see programming for our audience of 45 million homes in 31 countries via our Pan-European satellite service," Viger said. "While it's a bit early to give final indications, we're also working closely with the American Le Mans Series in order to improve the quality of the coverage over the next two years, and are hopeful that it will help the series to gain even more well-deserved awareness onto the Old Continent."

MotorsTV has stepped up support of its American Le Mans Series involvement by involving talent teams on site at various Series events and in terms of developing feature as well as promotional materials. The American Le Mans Series and MotorsTV are operating under the terms of a multi-year rights agreement signed in 2006