Originally Posted by Glenn A:
“ITV were a big player in racing until World of Sport ended 30 years ago and their Saturday racing moved to Channel 4. Before Channel 4 took over racing, ITV was the home of the flat classics and big flat meetings like The Ebor at York( most national hunt racing was shown by the BBC).
However, I doubt such delights as the ITV 7 and weekday racing from Recar are likely to return as the audience won't be big enough. I think what's likely to happen is ITV, who really need a big sports contract since they've lost most of their football, will probably buy the big rating events such as The Grand National, Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot and the other racing will probably go over to subscription channels if Channel 4 decide to quit.”
“ITV were a big player in racing until World of Sport ended 30 years ago and their Saturday racing moved to Channel 4. Before Channel 4 took over racing, ITV was the home of the flat classics and big flat meetings like The Ebor at York( most national hunt racing was shown by the BBC).
However, I doubt such delights as the ITV 7 and weekday racing from Recar are likely to return as the audience won't be big enough. I think what's likely to happen is ITV, who really need a big sports contract since they've lost most of their football, will probably buy the big rating events such as The Grand National, Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot and the other racing will probably go over to subscription channels if Channel 4 decide to quit.”
ITV's issue will be that there are some periods when ITV4 has other commitments already: Glorious Goodwood and the King George VI meeting, for example will clash with the final stages of the Tour de France; the Derby with the French Open tennis; and the Gold Cup with darts.
...so they may be cherry picking meetings to fill gaps, rather than just taking the highest profile ones.



