Irish racing media right dispute resolved
26 January 2023; A broadcast television camera at Gowran Park in Kilkenny. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
The row over media rights that threatened to spilt Irish racing has been resolved.
Five Irish racetracks were in revolt over a €47 million per year media rights struck by Horse Racing Ireland with two media partners.
Twenty-one of the Irish tracks signed up to the deal but Thurles, Kilbeggan, Sligo, Roscommon and Limerick objected due to their dissatisfaction with how smaller tracks are treated and and what they termed a disproportionate share of revenue.
United Irish Racecourses was formed in January to represent the five tracks. And the split was discussed by the Dáil’s Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) and the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture.
However, on Friday night it was announced that the UIR tracks have now accepted the deal.
UIR’s spokesman Pierce Molony told the Irish Times: “Having satisfied our principal objectives, UIR has agreed to sign up to the current media rights deal negotiated between HRI and RMG/SIS.
“In particular, the membership of UIR is pleased by HRI’s willingness to implement a proposed memorandum of understanding for racecourses during future media deal negotiations, and a review of media rights, as referenced by the chairperson of the Public Accounts committee, on 1st June last.”
HRI’s media rights committee chairman Conor O’Neill added: “I would like to commend and compliment the executive of AIR and HRI who have supported the Media Rights Committee to ensure that the very best deal in the marketplace has been obtained for Irish racecourses and indeed the wider industry.
“I can confirm that Kilbeggan, Roscommon, Sligo, Limerick and Thurles have decided to join the other 21 racecourses today and sign that deal. Furthermore, I look forward to working with SIS and RMG now and seeing it come to fruition.”
