Proposed media rights offer to generate a basic €40 million a year for Irish racing

The value of Irish racing’s media rights has been set in the region of a guaranteed €40 million a year under a proposed new deal to be voted on by the country’s 26 racecourses.

Having given “preferred bidder” status to Satellite Information Services (SIS) and Racecourse Media Group (RMG) which operates the pay-per-view channel Racing TV, Horse Racing Ireland’s media rights committee outlined what’s on the table in a meeting with racecourses earlier this week.

Although there has been general agreement not to talk publicly on the deal, with another meeting scheduled for early next month, details have privately emerged of an approximately basic €40 million per year being offered by SIS and RMG in any new five-year deal starting in 2024.

That is roughly equivalent to what it is believed pictures generate for Irish racing under the current deal with SIS/RMG.

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It is also close to what is understood a Racing Partnership group, which has Arena Racing Company (ARC) as a key player, were prepared to offer as a basic package before the HRI committee’s decision to give preferred bidder status.

Those with knowledge of this week’s presentation by the committee to racecourse officials say there was broad satisfaction with the total financial aspect of what is being offered.

With the rapidly increasing value of streaming rights on top of the basic payment, and any deal underpinned by potential add-ons from generated betting revenue, even an ordinary midweek race meeting could be worth at least €60,000 to a track.

However, it is the division of revenue, and in particular the percentage taken by HRI, that continues to provoke significant disquiet among some racecourses.

At least five of the smaller tracks are querying how transparent the industry’s semistate body is when it comes negotiations and rights distribution. Currently HRI gets 16 per cent of media rights revenue.

HRI owns four racecourses itself – Leopardstown, Navan, Fairyhouse, and Tipperary – where an €18 million project to install a new all-weather circuit is in the pipeline.

Unease privately expressed by that handful of tracks could extend to other courses although it is unclear how realistic the possibility of individual racecourses negotiating their own media rights might ultimately be under current horse racing legislation.

Nevertheless, some racecourse officials contacted by The Irish Times say it is far from a done deal that the new five-year offer will be accepted.

It was also suggested that such uncertainty, plus reluctance by tracks to sign up to any new deal without having their own “wish lists” secured beforehand, could result in any agreement being forced out well into 2023.