LIVE Irish racing will disappear from At The Races [ATR] at the end of this year and move to subscription channel Racing UK.

As news of the switch broke yesterday neither Horse Racing Ireland [HRI] nor the Association of Irish Racecourses [AIR] would comment. The deal is expected to be confirmed on Tuesday at an AIR meeting.

While details remain unconfirmed, The Irish Field understands that Irish racing will no longer be free-to-view to those with basic satellite television packages and a subscription will have to be paid. Racing UK already covers 36 British tracks and the normal subscription fee is approximately €30 per month.

Unless a second service is added, Irish racing seems likely to get less coverage if simply added to the existing channel.

Michael Grassick, chief executive of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, said: “Without knowing the full details, you would have to be concerned that Irish racing will get less exposure to the general public under this arrangement. It is up to HRI and AIR to clarify the situation for us.”

Denis Coakley, secretary for the Restricted Trainers Association, added: “We are extremely concerned that such a momentous change could happen without any discussion of its effect on Irish racing. At The Races has served Irish racing well and lends itself to a wide audience. It is free to watch on a number of platforms. Irish racing’s long-term benefit is best served by getting as wide an audience as possible.”

RIGHTS

The company at the centre of the switch is Satellite Information Services [SIS], which currently holds the rights to Irish racing pictures for betting shops and home viewing. SIS pays Irish racing approximately €5,500 for the rights to show each race and sells on the pictures to bookmakers and ATR.

While SIS retains the Irish racing rights until 2023, its ‘at home’ deal with ATR expires at the end of 2018 and it has decided to switch to Racecourse Media Group, the parent company of Racing UK.

AIR has the right to veto the deal on Tuesday but is unlikely to do so as SIS is realistically the only serious bidder for Irish racing pictures.

Last March At The Races announced that Sky had bought into the company and that the channel would be rebranded as Sky Sports Racing at a future date. Now set to lose its main content, it remains to be seen if ATR will add racing from other jurisdictions or even greyhound racing to its product mix.

On social media yesterday there was widespread anger amongst racing fans at the news that live Irish racing wil no longer be free-to-view.