£307m TV deal is finally agreed

13 April 2012

Racing today celebrated clinching a significantly enhanced media-rights deal with the Go Racing consortium, worth a guaranteed £307 million over 10 years.

After high-level talks at Ascot between the industry and the media consortium of Channel 4, BSkyB and Arena lasting into the small hours of this morning, the British Horseracing Board approved the latest version of the revised contract.

The new terms must still be ratified by the 49 of Britain's 59 racecourses signed to Go Racing, but that is expected to be a formality.

Keith Brown, chairman of the Racecourse Association, has set a deadline of 2pm on Monday for their signatures and is confident of their agreement.

The process has been a triumph of brinkmanship for BHB chairman, Peter Savill, and a number of leading industry figures paid tribute to his powers of negotiation. The Go Racing deal looked dead in the water only four days ago, but the consortium have since moved towards the BHB view on a number of key issues.

Significant changes made to the deal this week include the granting of a two-year licence covering "new technologies" - markedly shorter than than the consortium had originally demanded.

A 50-50 joint venture between Go Racing and the BHB has also been established for the development of visual data and the as yet undefined concept of a worldwide 'superbet'. A five-year licence for data on all existing platforms, agreed just before the deal broke down last Sunday, has also been granted - half the original duration.

However, no commitment has yet been made by Channel 4 on future terrestrial coverage.

"We are extremely relieved and delighted to announce this historic agreement," said Savill.

"We are now sure that there is nothing in the Go Racing deal that complicates or obstructs the commercial replacement of the levy, which was our over-riding consideration throughout. This deal provides for a much better partnership between racing and Go Racing."

Go Racing now hope to launch their new dedicated racing channel in May 2002 and a daily lunchtime terrestrial programme for that autumn.

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£307m TV deal is finally agreed

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