Racing Channel nears starting line
Full coverage of all Irish race meetings has been missing since January 1, when agreement between Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) and the old Racing Channel failed to be reached.
That was essentially because the Racing Channel, which had been showing Irish racing for free for a number of months, failed to make HRI any sort of worthwhile offer.
That Racing Channel, of course, was closed down shortly afterwards and left Attheraces as the only game in town.
Attheraces, however, wanted to cherry-pick the Irish meetings and that wasn’t acceptable to HRI.
It is understood, however, that representatives from SIS and the Media Rights Committee of HRI met last week and the outcome was very positive.
SIS is interested in setting up a dedicated Irish Racing Channel and HRI are expecting they will come back to them in the near future.
HRI has always said the door was open. The fear for racecourses has always been that live pictures into homes affects attendances.
It appears, however, that if SIS produces a serious, realistic proposal, then HRI will play ball.
