Horse Racing Ireland select SIS and RMG as preferred bidders for new media rights deal

Direct to home coverage of Irish racing is set to remain on the pay-per-view Racing TV channel until 2028.

Horse Racing Ireland’s media rights committee announced on Tuesday that exclusive talks on the sale of media rights for the period 2024-2028 will begin soon with Sports Information Services (SIS) and Racecourse Media Group (RMG.)

Both firms currently hold the rights and any new deal between the parties is expected to be concluded before the end of this year.

Sky Sports Racing, which used to provide free coverage of Irish racing to Sky customers on the formerly titled ‘Attheraces’ channel, had also been engaged with HRI.

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There was sustained criticism of HRI’s previous deal with SIS/RMG which included putting pictures of Irish racing behind a paywall. That deal, believed to be worth in the region of €40 million a year, was signed in 2017 and runs to the end of 2023.

HRI’s media rights committee, which includes the semi-State body’s chairman Nick Hartery, represents the country’s 26 racecourses who will ultimately have the final say on whether any new deal is accepted.

Some disquiet was expressed by smaller racecourses earlier this year about the distribution of revenue, with HRI accused at an Oireachtas Agriculture Committee hearing of “abusing its position” in relation to how much media rights money it takes for itself.

About 85 per cent of the sale of those rights goes to the tracks with the remainder going to HRI.

A HRI statement on Tuesday said that following a tender process it has selected SIS as preferred bidders to broadcast betting office pictures, streaming and digital, as well as international fixed odds coverage. RMG has been selected for direct to home, free to air in the UK and international Tote.

“[We] will now enter into a period of exclusivity during which the media rights committee and the preferred bidders will commence negotiations in order to finalise the proposed agreement which, following approval by the racecourses and HRI, shall be entered into between the preferred bidders and the rightsholders.

“There will be no further comment during this period of exclusive negotiations,” the statement outlined.

Although direct to home pictures are a relatively minor part of any financial package, continuing to have Racing TV broadcast daily pictures of the sport is likely to prove contentious among race fans in Ireland.

There was sustained criticism of the move to put pictures behind a paywall on the run-up to the current deal being finalised. Concerns have regularly been expressed since then about Irish racing’s place in RTV’s pecking order on busy race days, with fears about a loss of profile for the sport here.