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JamesH I did read the article. It may start off being free, but my question was how long it will take before they decide to include it as part of the Sky Sports package. Not too long is my guess.
BlackGold It will be interesting to see what happens ATR always said was they would be free to air from the beginning in 2005 and would never go behind a paywall.
As they have very limited tracks they will not go behind a paywall anytime soon as they don’t have the big races to justify it, in 2023 when the irish racing is back up for grabs and some courses have had a few years to see how Sky Sport Racing looks then maybe but their main aim now it to provide a free to air service which has quality presenters, pictures and presentation.
I just hope the new Sky Sports Racing doesn’t just keep the same old faces like Bob Cooper it needs to be different and a channel for the 2020’s a channel that can bring the bigger courses over to them in the future years, ideally not getting York to move is probably a big blow to them.
Sky need to sign up Ascot and if they do they will have more leverage (Royal Meeting, King George & Champions Day) to justify moving Sky Racing into the sports package and charge customers more.
As it is Racecourse Media Group chief executive Richard FitzGerald stated that based on this year’s fixture list, RUK would have 95 per cent of all Group and Graded races in Britain and Ireland.
On that basis Ascot becomes even more vitally important to them – perhaps they will even try to do a deal for French Racing as they need something important/exclusive to sell to old and new potential customers.
Is sky racing still going to be free to air ? well like it is now?
Irish racing must be crying right now the future of Irish racing is the wrong end of the Split screen its going to be awful yes its doable in summer but in the winter months clash when there is no way they could change the times or delay due to sunlight pffffffftt .. to top it all off sky is going HD and production is going to be near or if not better than Racinguk.
Racinguk will be forced to have Ruk2 no question about it maybe it could play Skyracing at there own game and make a ATR style free to air channel with ADs ? it wouldn’t be a bad idea for some of there smaller courses and Irish racing ? with an average of £2-3k an advert and some bookmaker sponsorship it would make lot of £££££ sense .
i can really see something like this happening
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Sky start charging for the racing as they charge for every other sport they show, such as motor racing which in my view is also a minority sport. I wouldn’t pay to watch Bangor or Chester.
By the way has it been confirmed that all Irish racing will be shown on Racing UK from next year? As other contributors have said I’m not looking to there being more split screens, such as on Boxing Day when there’s already a full British program but from next year they will have to add Leopardstown, Limerick and Down Royal. It was bad enough last year when the start of the King George Chase at Kempton had to share a screen with a delayed lowly bumper at Huntingdon.
@Phil walker Irish racing was sold in one package by the HRI to SIS, when the previous Irish deal was done Punchestown proclaimed their unhappiness at being kept on ATR but they have no say in their tv rights, this time around Punchestown has already been actively using promos on RUK since the annoucnement.
(I would have liked to have seen the UK sell the courses in packages not let them sell their own rights to allow more fairness).SIS bought the rights to all media coverage of irish racing and was effectively told by the HRI they could sell to who they wanted until 2023, SIS had signed a deal with RUK a year or so ago to produce their pictures which is why minority shareholders of SIS Leicester & Stratford jumped ship to RUK and to a lesser extent Chelmsford.
My view is Sky needed to get York & Ascot if they had got both it would have been a coup for Sky Sports Racing as they could have proclaimed they had the big Chester meeting in May, Royal Ascot in June, The Ebor in August & The St Leger in September.
They didn’t get York and from reading something yesterday RUK have signed York up to a very long contract to ensure they stay.
Sky Sports Racing must get Ascot back and I think the probably will as Ascot left ATR reluctantly in the last tv rights deal persuaded by the QIPCO competition which seems to never have really took off.
Sky should have done this a year ago and rebranded this April when SIS took over RUK they probably would have kept the irish and probably Chelmsford, where they go from here though with all the courses tv rights now settled is anyone’s guess.
Would doubt we will see specific charges for racing on sky. you might see an increase in the sports package in general but what’s new.
Twitter: Jackh1092
Hindsight is 20/20 so make the most of it!Gutted, between a top notch HD Racing UK stream in Dubai, and ATR via my Virgin TV service, I currently get all of the racing for free. Sky coming to the table only means one thing… It’s all going up over the next few years!
Racing UK go on about Sky channel blah blah all day long… When Sky rob Ascot from them, and are competing for the terrestrial TV rights (which is all likely)… Racing UK can’t have a massive future on the Sky platform surely? I mean if they full on went for it, they are not going to have another channel on their platform, showing the same races on a Saturday are they?
Basically, it will be a pimped up ATR, but you’ll have to pay for it if you don’t have Sky. And then in the end you’ll probably have to end up paying for it, even if you have Sky.
So will Racing UK jump into bed with Virgin? May end up seeing the HD RUK gone from Sky, but appear on Virgin instead.
If Sky get Ascot I think it will only be a matter of time until RUK are forced to do a deal with Virgin Media for the HD channel, as you could well imagine Sky playing serious hardball with RUK on contract negotiations to keep using their platform.
Don’t see RUK going to a second channel simply because as a paid member online you get access to RUK Extra which gives you the option of watching uninterrupted coverage from each of the other race meetings they are covering.
@LD73 why? ATR had Ascot for 10 years and RUK did not need a deal with Virgin, RUK is gaining all the irish, Ascot is hardly going to be a big deal for them when it’s on itv anyway.
RMG have now said that the price of RUK won’t be increasing when the Irish courses come on board but it will be rebranding.
There was no mention of an RUK2 just that they are in discussions with HRI re fixture scheduling.
@patriot1 they said they would change the name to take into account the irish so both racing channels will not exist in their current format from 2019.
People are saying ATR is currently “free to air” …… maybe I’m being picky but to watch ATR do you not have to have some type of Sky package or subscribe to a Virgin media package ……. that doesn’t, in my book, make it free to air.
Maybe it’s semantics but I consider “free to air” to be channels available on either Freeview or Freesat.
I refuse to subscribe to Sky because I will not, on principle, give a single penny to the odious Murdoch or his company …… maybe if the Comcast bid for Sky goes ahead and Murdoch’s grubby mitts are taken away then I may consider Sky.
I assume this afternoon’s split screen with Auteil taking priority over Naas is ATR saying Ireland is now second to them over international horse racing?
Before Irish announced they were going to RUK the Irish would have always been full screen and international shown as a recording.
Sky Sport Racing secures Ascot from next year starting from March 2019 but surprisingly the contract appears to only be for 2 years.
Also confirmation the channel will officially start broadcasting on 1 Jan 2019The rights deal does not include QIPCO Champions Day which has yet to be given to any brodcaster as it is separate to the Ascot deal.
itv have described the decision as “bizarre”.
Ascot have said they have seen the potential viewers Sky Sports could bring them and have done what they feel is best for their course.
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