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I found this old article while searching Google.
http://www.betfinder.co.uk/articles/article1.asp
I was interested in the last paragraph in which the former BHB Chairman said he thought the big meetings should be auctioned off to set up a free to air service on Freeview and Sky.
This idea would have been perfect but instead we have a subscription based service of Racing UK and the Jockey Club who will only sell the rights to the big meetings to their own channel & Channel 4 and want all competition eliminating.
I will say that eventually Racing UK will look to push Channel 4 out of the equation and force everyone to pay for their channel.
ATR made a big mistake not launching on Freeview before the last tv rights came up for grabs they may have kept Ascot and Irish rights and persuded some independants to think about switching.
Sorry I’m going slightly off-topic but has it been confirmed that ATR has lost the rights to the Irish racing? This would be a huge mistake and arguably question the need to keep the channel going.
Sorry I’m going slightly off-topic but has it been confirmed that ATR has lost the rights to the Irish racing? This would be a huge mistake and arguably question the need to keep the channel going.
From what I have read the Irish authorites are looking at a third possibility an Irish only channel but that is all I can find so ATR and RUK would lose out.
I cannot find the web page now to link it at the moment but as far as I know nothing has been signed yet I think it may have been a post on another forum.
Racecourses are commercial organisations and they are entirely within their rights to come to whatever arrangement they so wish in relation to their media rights.
If that preferred option happens to be the subscription route then so be it – why should racing fans assume they have a right to watch their chosen sport for free?
Jockey Club racecourses choose to use a platform in which they are shareholders and ARC racecourses chose to use a different platform in which they are major shareholders – surely that makes business sense.
If someone really wants to follow the sport enough they will be happy to pay to watch it, if they don’t want to pay it’s their choice.
Following a sport is a leisure activity, not a life sustaining requirement and it really annoys me that people have an expectation they are entitled to watch something for nothing.
Association football is, apparently, a much more popular sport that racing – goodness knows what the attraction of it is but each to their own – but only a tiny, tiny number of their matches are shown free to air.
As for the Irish racing it should be shown on a separate, Irish based, station and if people in the UK wish to subscribe to it they can.
I see no difference between Irish, American, French or even Outer Mongolian racing – it may be of occasional passing interest but I don’t see why it should impact on the showing of UK racing, which it frequently does on ATR.
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The Mongol Derby is a loose re-creation of Genghis Khan’s 13th-century communication system—a fast-horse mail relay, a precursor to our Pony Express of 600 years later.Unlike the Khan’s riders, we had no time-sensitive communiqués.
But, like them, we did get issued a new horse every 25 miles, riding from urtuu (horse station) to urtuu.We would start approximately 60 miles south of Ulan Bator, ride in a clockwise arc to the west and north and, 24 urtuus, three mountain passes, countless rivers and creeks, and one surreal dune field later, finish at the foot of a dormant volcano about 250 miles northwest of where we began.
The route would entail some 650 miles of riding; organizers figured the first rider would finish in about eight days.
Staged by the London-based company the Adventurists, whose slogan is Fighting to Make the World Less Boring, the race is a logistical behemoth, employing more than 1,000 horses and a support staff of over 300 mostly Mongolian interpreters, drivers, wranglers, cooks, and veterinarians……
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Racecourses are commercial organisations and they are entirely within their rights to come to whatever arrangement they so wish in relation to their media rights.
If that preferred option happens to be the subscription route then so be it – why should racing fans assume they have a right to watch their chosen sport for free?
Jockey Club racecourses choose to use a platform in which they are shareholders and ARC racecourses chose to use a different platform in which they are major shareholders – surely that makes business sense.
If someone really wants to follow the sport enough they will be happy to pay to watch it, if they don’t want to pay it’s their choice.
Following a sport is a leisure activity, not a life sustaining requirement and it really annoys me that people have an expectation they are entitled to watch something for nothing.
Association football is, apparently, a much more popular sport that racing – goodness knows what the attraction of it is but each to their own – but only a tiny, tiny number of their matches are shown free to air.
As for the Irish racing it should be shown on a separate, Irish based, station and if people in the UK wish to subscribe to it they can.
I see no difference between Irish, American, French or even Outer Mongolian racing – it may be of occasional passing interest but I don’t see why it should impact on the showing of UK racing, which it frequently does on ATR.
In most other sports including football the rights are sold as packages by an organisation which runs them Man U, Chelsea etc have no say over the tv rights they can’t show them on their own channels the tv rights are sold as packages why should racing be different?
Racing UK and ATR are restricting competition if I set up my own tv sport channel I couldn’t hope to ever show Cheltenham, Aintree, Lingfield etc which is I am sure is not legal they must have to be able to offer these and the company wanting the must have to have some sort of expectation of getting them.
The tv rights need looking into Racing UK cannot just buy the rights to everything and eliminate all competition all businesses must have an element of competition and if ATR folds because it loses Irish racing then Racing UK must be investigated businesses cannot just do what they want there are laws to abide by.
In most other sports including football the rights are sold as packages by an organisation which runs them Man U, Chelsea etc have no say over the tv rights they can’t show them on their own channels the tv rights are sold as packages why should racing be different?
An irrelevant argument as you are not comparing like with like – in racing the rights are owned by the racecourses in football they are owned by the respective leagues.
Of course Man Utd and Chelsea have a say in the rights – they sit on the PL board
If racing had an overarching, central structure then your method of thinking would be viable.
Racing UK and ATR are restricting competition if I set up my own tv sport channel I couldn’t hope to ever show Cheltenham, Aintree, Lingfield etc which is I am sure is not legal they must have to be able to offer these and the company wanting the must have to have some sort of expectation of getting them.
There are two channels and as far as I’m aware they are not operating a cartel so how can they be restricting competition?
There is nothing stopping you setting up a TV channel and bidding for the rights – of course you would have to make a commercially more viable bid than the existing channels and I don’t see how you could do that on a free to air model.
With channels switching between ATR and RUK how can you describe the current system as restrictive?
The tv rights need looking into Racing UK cannot just buy the rights to everything and eliminate all competition all businesses must have an element of competition and if ATR folds because it loses Irish racing then Racing UK must be investigated businesses cannot just do what they want there are laws to abide by.
You cannot legislate on what might happen. There are currently two channels therefore there is competition.
Should ATR fold who is saying the ATR courses would automatically go to RUK? A new broadcaster could step in – and fill the void.
In your idealistic world what would happen if another broadcaster was not prepared to step in and take over the ATR courses – would you rather they were not shown at all or that they all went to RUK?
If ATR did go bust I would give you an odds-on price that it would be a subscription broadcaster that stepped in – my money would on be either BT or the Racing Post
The Jockey Club would not sell me the excusive rights to their racecourses as they own Racing UK therefore they are restricting competition they will only sell to themselves you think if ATR offer them a fortune they will sell all their courses to ATR in 2018, no of course they won’t therefore it’s already a done deal and it should be investigated by the competition commission.
The Jockey Club would not sell me the excusive rights to their racecourses as they own Racing UK therefore they are restricting competition they will only sell to themselves you think if ATR offer them a fortune they will sell all their courses to ATR in 2018, no of course they won’t therefore it’s already a done deal and it should be investigated by the competition commission.
What is this obsession you have with Jockey Club courses and RUK?
Presumably you have the same objection to ATR and the ARC courses?
The Jockey Club would not sell me the excusive rights to their racecourses as they own Racing UK therefore they are restricting competition they will only sell to themselves you think if ATR offer them a fortune they will sell all their courses to ATR in 2018, no of course they won’t therefore it’s already a done deal and it should be investigated by the competition commission.
What is this obsession you have with Jockey Club courses and RUK?
Presumably you have the same objection to ATR and the ARC courses?
I said ATR as well if you read it.
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