Sky Sports is to launch a dedicated racing channel, replacing At The Races.
Sky Sports Racing will be available to every Sky TV customer in the UK and Ireland at no extra cost and will be available in HD for the first time.
The channel will bring live racing from 650 UK fixtures, as well as international meetings.
Ahead of the launch, a 10-year deal with Chester Race Company has been signed for the channel to show live racing from Chester and Bangor from March 2019, with the two tracks moving from Racing UK.
At The Races suffered a major blow earlier this year after it was announced Racing UK had won the rights to show all Irish racing from next year.
Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, said: “We’ve seen a great reaction from our customers to launching dedicated sports channels and this takes us to another level.
“Horse racing is a massive sport that Sky has been involved in for two decades, now we will have a channel to give our customers more of what they love every day.
“Adding Chester and Bangor-on-Dee is fantastic news and we look forward to making Sky Sports Racing a new home for racing fans.”
At The Races will rebrand as Sky Sports Racing on or before January 1st, 2019.
Matthew Imi, chief executive of At The Races, said: “There is no better home for our new channel production facility than Sky Sports’ studios which are the best in the business and we believe Sky Sports Racing is set to be a game changer for racing.
“Later this year we look forward to presenting our plans in more detail to the major constituents in our sport and racing fans more generally.”
