ALL three Irish racemeetings on St Stephen’s Day will be shown free-of-charge on Sky channel 435 (FreeSports).

The once-off arrangement was put in place by Racing TV to ensure that Irish racing was not compromised on a day when the main channel is due to show eight National Hunt meetings. Earlier this month Racing TV came in for criticism over split-screen coverage of big races when juggling four meetings on one afternoon.

The dedicated Irish racing channel, which will run from 11.30am to 4pm, will be fronted by Gary O’Brien. RTÉ, Virgin Media One and ITV will also be showing live racing on St Stephen’s Day. In addition, Racing TV subscribers can use their online account to watch uninterrupted coverage of any one of the eight meetings.

Seb Vance, director of communications with Racing TV, said: “St Stephen’s Day’s eight-fixture session is a one-off on the racing calendar. Despite our best efforts, race times have proved very difficult to move given that terrestrial broadcasters’ transmission times are fixed, which means there are multiple races due to go off at the same time.

“To mitigate against these clashes, we are producing a fully-dedicated Irish channel – one of 10 channels available on Racing TV Extra, while FreeSports will offer that additional distribution on St Stephen’s Day. This is a unique scenario and we are grateful to [FreeSport owner] Mickey O’Rourke for enabling us to broadcast the afternoon’s action from Ireland on FreeSports, which should ensure the best possible viewing experience.

Looking ahead to the rest of the festive period, Vance added: “Close collaboration between the various parties have ensured race times for most of the festive period are looking manageable and we are grateful for everyone’s co-operation on this. There are six meetings on New Year’s Day, and like last year, we will provide a dedicated Irish feed to encompass Tramore and Fairyhouse, which will be available on RTV Extra.”