AMA Pro Motocross will step up its television coverage in the U.S. next season.

MX Sports Pro Racing and Alli Sports, a division of the NBC Sports Group, announced today that NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network will be the new broadcast home for the 2012 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship in the U.S.

The broadcast partnership will feature three live hours on NBC Sports and 21 hours of race programming on the NBC Sports Network, with 11 hours live.

The 2012 season expects to continue the upward trend the series has experienced since MX Sports Pro Racing and Alli Sports became partners in 2009.

Since that time, motocross has enjoyed unprecedented growth with fans, and has seen its television audience nearly quadruple in just three years.

This new partnership comes on the heels of a highly successful 2011 season that reached the largest overall motocross audience through television, digital and on-site viewers in the sport’s 40-year history.

In 2011 the series saw a 36 percent increase year-over-year in domestic television viewership, along with a 50 percent increase in overall website traffic.

“NBC Sports and the NBC Sports Network are the perfect broadcast partners for the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship,” said MX Sports Pro Racing president Davey Coombs.

“We look forward to engaging motocross’ strong and devoted fan-base via the various broadcast and digital platforms available through our relationship with Alli Sports.

“Our work together over the past three years has done a tremendous amount to grow the sport and we’re excited to build on it with the expanded television partnership with the NBC Sports Group.”

With the move to the NBC Sports Group, Alli Sports will have greater flexibility to offer complete packages to sponsors that include media assets and series sponsorship opportunities.

There will also be more live hours, better programming windows and the ability to cross-promote the series across various networks and platforms.

The 2012 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship will be broadcast on five continents, in 104 countries.

The series’ widely-popular online coverage will continue as well, allowing enthusiasts to log onto the official website of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship to catch all the opening-moto action at www.allisports.com/motocross.

The 2012 race schedule for the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship will be released in the coming months and will feature a 12 race season at the nation’s premier tracks.