A number of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom are joining forces to maximise the potential of their media rights by launching a subscription-based TV channel.
Goodwood, Doncaster, York, Chester, Ascot and Newbury racecourses, and the 13 courses owned by Racecourse Holdings Trust, plan to launch the Horse Racing Channel on satellite and digital television for subscribers at home and in betting outlets next month.
The move follows the cessation of horserace broadcasts from the UK to the UK public by attheraces, the horseracing media rights business owned by Arena Leisure, BskyB and Channel 4 oil its Sky 418 channel.
The decision came after attheraces failed to agree revised commercial terms with the 49 racecourses it had deals with via the Racecourse Association.
Rod Fabricius, the managing director of Goodwood and clerk of the course, said: 'We were hoping to renegotiate a new contract with them but when the prospect of a new deal seemed increasingly unlikely we decided to explore the possibility of setting up a racing channel which allowed TV rights to be controlled by the racecourses themselves.'
Fabricius said HRC, which has appointed Andrew Brown, previously of Granada Television, as project director, hoped to gain support from the majority of the UK's 59 racecourses.
He said the channel would initially charge 20 [pounds sterling] per month but hoped to eventually become free-to-view and that it would aim to attract 25,000 subscribers 'in a relatively short space of time.'
Attheraces' 307m [pounds sterling], ten-year media rights agreement with the 49 courses was terminated on 29 March. Since then, the Office of Fair Trading published its decision regarding the deal, which it said breached competition law. In the future, attheraces will need to agree deals with individual courses, although the OFT said collective selling may be allowed for small groups where 'essential to achieve certain economic benefits', which should be passed on to consumers.
The Horse Racing Channel said that it has ensured it would not breach any competition laws.
Attheraces is pursuing contractual rebates from the courses, which it expects to exceed 50m [pounds sterling].
Discussions are also underway regarding the future shareholder structure of the business and with courses for new deals.
The firm will continue to air and offer bets on American horseracing in the evenings and will offer the opportunity to bet on UK horseracing via digital television, its website and its telephone betting line, but will no longer broadcast the races live.
