THE Cheltenham New Year's Day fixture is the first of 50 prestigious British racemeetings that will be broadcast by TV3 in 2017. The meeting will be shown on the 3e channel.

TV3 and 3e will be carrying the ITV Racing pictures having signed a four-year partnership with Racecourse Media Group (RMG) which gives a lifeline to many Irish racing fans who do not have the ITV service.

ITV takes over the terrestrial broadcasting of UK racing from Channel 4 in 2017. Around 40 fixtures will be shown on the main ITV channel and 60 on ITV4. In Ireland Sky viewers can watch ITV and ITV4 though it involves a complicated process of channel selection.

Virgin Media customers don't have ITV but can watch ITV4, while Saorview does not show ITV or ITV4.

The TV3/3e schedule includes the Cheltenham Festival, the Aintree Grand National Festival, the Epsom Derby and Oaks, and Royal Ascot. The deal means that RTE will no longer be able to show Cheltenham or Aintree live.

The full TV3 racing schedule can be seen on www.theirishfield.ie