And rightly so.
From January 1 2019, Irish daily racing will no longer be broadcast on At The Races.
In an unexpected turn of events, the deal was made when SIS – who hold and have held exclusive rights to broadcast racing from all Irish racecourses since 2016 and until 2023 – made a deal with Racing UK – a subscription channel which currently costs viewers €31 a month, whereas At The Races comes as part of the normal sky package.
For the last few years At The Races has provided a daily, in depth, committed and high quality coverage of Irish horse-racing.
Their coverage is and has been top class over the last few years. With contributions from the Voice of Ireland, and undoubtedly one of the best and most consistent tipsters in the land, Gary O’Brien, the likes of Kevin Blake amongst others, anything Irish racing fans could possibly have wanted with regard to coverage was readily supplied.
As of the beginning of next year, the coverage rights will be with Racing UK – who also will be showing the likes of Cheltenham, Aintree, Ascot and all of the other English meetings.
The deal is expected to be ratified at a board meeting next Wednesday.
Not only will this deal cause massive uncertainty for At The Races, but also for Irish racing in general.
Racing UK currently broadcast all English horse-racing and the worry is that the load of racing will be too much, with the new deal, and that their coverage of Irish racing won’t be as in depth as it has been with At The Races.
Take for example, of a Saturday, when there may be three English race meetings on and two cards in Ireland. What will happen when these races clash?
Another question is whether Irish racing fans will fork out the extra money, given that they’re not sure what type of service they’ll be getting.
The news comes on the same day that RTÉ announced that they will be increasing their racing coverage – but they will still only be broadcasting around 27 days of racing per year.
Coming on the eve of the biggest weekend of Irish horse-racing in many years, in the 2018 Dublin Racing Festival, this is an unwelcome blow to the Irish racing following and they have reacted predictably furiously.
I am shocked at the news that Irish Racing is to move from At The Races to Racing UK from Jan 1st 2019. Which Irish Racing Stakeholders were consulted on this? Time to revisit the whole issue of Media Rights and who should have ownership, benefit and have a say.
— Denis Coakley (@deniscoakley11) February 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/gerlyonsracing/status/959402068594315264
Another bad day for @AtTheRaces losing all the rights for Irish racing #joke#moremoneyforracinguk
— Owen Mccarthy (@OwenTrampus) February 2, 2018
And sadly Irish racing will lose a lot of UK viewers and enthusiasts too! Great shame 😩
— Steve Springford (@stevespringford) February 2, 2018
What a complete joke that all Irish racing will only be on Racing Uk. At The Races has supported it for years and just gets a slap in the face for their work.
— Conor Weldon (@WeldonConor) February 2, 2018
