ESPN will air a drone race series starting October 23rd
The Drone Racing League's multi-year deal also includes UK coverage through Sky.
ESPN's first experiment with drone racing coverage must have been successful, as it's committing to robotic sports in a big way. The TV network has unveiled a multi-year broadcasting deal with the Drone Racing League that will have both ESPN and ESPN2 airing races in the Americas, starting with the 2016 season. The series broadcast kicks off on October 23rd at 9PM, and will spread five races over the course of 10 episodes. It all comes to a head with two DRL World Championship episodes on November 20th.
Drone racing TV is crossing the Atlantic, too. Sky has landed its own deal that will bring DRL competitions to TV this fall through the Sky Sports Mix channel, with a race coming to London in 2017. Austrian, German and Swiss fans will want to either tune into 7Sports' channels or attend the first-ever DRL event in Germany next year. All told, drone races are about to get much more exposure -- they're not truly mainstream, but they're getting much closer.