Completely agree Darren.
Its going to be very interesting, its almost certain we will get 2 productions.
The ITV1 programme which will probably go with the "name" presenter. Whether that's the sports all rounder Inverdale/Balding or the entertainment all rounder Kyle.
And the ITV4 programme. This is the more tricky one for me. Appeal to the existing channel 4 viewers or try and re claim the Saturday afternoon casual sports viewer, if there is still such a thing?

Anyone who didn't see the news last week Leicester & Stratford racecourses are going to sign up to Racing UK next year. They have chosen to defect after RUK signed SIS to provide the pictures to the bookies and the two courses decided to move.

This will put pressure on ATR to retain the Irish horse racing next year and the other independent tracks they show.

ATR did announce this week they had a record year for revenues.

I did miss this. I won't miss Leicester, but Stratford is a cracking summer jumps track. Very odd decision really, they have a lot of saturday cards which will be lost on RUK

Appears to be solely due to SIS's new deal with RUK, but ATR is going to have to make sure it doesn't lose the other tracks Hereford's reopening is not going to cover for these two no matter how they spin it.

ATR has lost 7 tracks in 12 years RUK has lost 1, something about the management at ATR is not right.

The more courses that sign up to RUK, the less I'm interested in racing.
I like my racing, but not enough to pay £20/25 per month for.

If ATR loses Ireland it closes, and RUK will need 2 channels. How much will it cost then?

On another subject, did anyone enjoy the morning line today?

I don't watch the Morning Line.

I have to say if the people in charge don't do something about the Jockey Club's dominance in racing then we will end up with one channel, dictating every move in racing.

Horse racing is the only sport in UK i can think of that regulates it's own tv rights, the premier league have to abide by packages as do most sports so why are the Jockey Club and to an extent Arena racing allowed to sell their own courses to their own tv channels?

Until other channels start questioning why they can't have the rights to some courses nothing will change but it is time it was looked into I am sure it can't be strictly legal for the two companies to be selling the rights to themselves.

The Jockey Club no longer regulates Horse Racing in the UK.

They own the biggest courses therefore their influence is unrivalled, if they took their courses away where would that leave racing.

The Jockey Club owns Cheltenham, Newmarket, Aintree, Haydock etc you think they don't have the biggest mouth in racing when they own the biggest tracks?

The JC is a major player in horse racing as they own 15 courses which stage about 25% of all fixtures. Arena own about the same number of courses albeit less high profile tracks with most courses being independently owned including high profile courses like York, Ascot, Newbury and Goodwood. Not quite the monopoly position you imply.

If they took their courses away from Racing, where would that leave them other than still owning the courses? A split doesn't help them either.

I didn't say that they didn't have a "big mouth", in any case - my point was that as they no longer administer the sport the supposed conflict of interests doesn't exist, because they aren't the ones responsible for awarding the contracts.

Even if it did, there's nothing that I am aware of in UK law that would prevent a sporting governing body setting up a television channel and awarding the rights to televise the sport to that channel, even if there were other channels that wanted those rights. Now, whether there would need to be checks on tax avoidance, that's another thing!

Racing UK HD launches on 7 March on Sky channel 432 in time for Cheltenham.

RUK looking to renew it's deals with it's racecourses until 2024 which is a lot longer than the previous tv deals.

http://www.sportspromedia.com/quick_...being_a_winner

So good to have Alice Plunkett back. A real star.
Hope ITV recruit her

According to the Irish Field and Irish edition of the Racing Post SIS is on the verge of securing a €200m media rights deal with Irish racecourses for betting shop pictures up to 2023, this however does not include ATR yet, whose contract runs at end of this year.

Gary Smith said: “SIS has committed to HRI/AIR to explore options for the DTH distribution of Irish racing to achieve their objectives and also to consult with HRI/AIR before proceeding with any DTH arrangements. SIS enjoys a close relationship with ATR and would be happy to see Irish racing stay on ATR's channel.”

Brian Kavanagh said: “Whilst recognising that the DTH rights have now been licensed exclusively to SIS, HRI/AIR has been very happy with its current DTH arrangements with ATR and is pleased that SIS has committed to fully explore options with ATR for the future. HRI/AIR look forward to reviewing the options with SIS.”

Matthew Imi, chief executive of At The Races, commented: “ATR has a long standing and important relationship with HRI/AIR and SIS in relation to developing Irish media rights and we look forward to working together to ensure that we all continue to maximise both exposure for the sport and the value of the rights themselves.”
http://www.theirishfield.ie/irish-ra...th-sis-202449/

Thanks for that thought the website was behind a pay wall so hadn't posted a link.

She is head and shoulders above all the other females ( and males for that matter ) on that show. Excellent host, friendly, charismatic, in the know and immensely likeable

If you are eating at this point don't click this link haha

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/late...l-at-the-races

Never going to look at him in the same way again! Lovely (thank god my stomach didn't empty itself)

I wonder if ITV will try to get Willie Carson as it's flat racing pundit

The final day of the Royal Ascort will be bumped to More4 due to Formula 1 coverage as confirmed by our very own D.M.N:
http://f1broadcasting.co/2016/03/08/...-press-launch/

When the new contract kicks in does anybody know if we'll be getting all the Cheltenham Festival races (like Royal Ascot)?

I've always thought it strange that just the last two each day should be restricted to satellite.

I can only hope not.

You'd certainly hope so. Or at least prime time highlights on ITV4

Is there any interest in horse racing highlights, beyond a small niche of racing fans?

Surely if you have bet on a horse, you want to watch live to see if it wins. If you can't watch live, you check online.